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RoyalJnstitution of Great Britain,.Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, W.
December, 1866.
Probable Arrangements for the Friday Evening Meet
before Easter, 1867, to which Members and their Friends
only are admitted.
ings
Friday, Jan. 18th. Professor Tyndall, F.R.S. M.R.I.—
On Sounding and Sensitive Flames.
Friday, Jan. 25th. Professor Odling, F.R.S.—On Mr.
Graham’s Recent Discoveries on the Diffusion
of Gases.
Friday, Feb. 1st. J. Scott Russell, Esq. F.R.S.—On the
Crystal Palace Fire. ' •
\
Friday Feb. 8th, Rev. F. W. Farrar, M.A. F.R.S.—
On Public School Education.
Friday, Feb.
15th. C. F. Varley, Esq., M.R.I,—On the
Atlantic Telegraph.
Friday, Feb. 22nd.
M.
England.
D.
Conway,
Esq. —On
New
" -
gFriday, March 1st. Captain V. D]|Majendie, R.A.—On
Breech-loading small Arms.
[Friday, March 8th. Rev. W. Greenwell, M.A.—On EM
Yorkshire Wold Tumuli.
Friday, March 15th. E. B. Tylor, Esq.— On traces of the
Early Mental Condition of Man.
,
e
Friday, March 22nd. Dr. James Bell Pettigrew.—On the
various modes of Flight in relation to Aeronautics.
�Friday, March 29th. ’ Professor Frankland, F.R.S.—
Friday, April 5th. William Pengelly, Esq., F.R.S.—On
the Insulation of St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall.
Friday, April 12th. Balfour Stewart, Esq. F.R.S.—On
the Sun as a variable star.
On April 19/A and 26th (the Fridays in Passion and
Easter Weeks) there will be no Meetings.
After Easter the Friday Evening Meetings will be
resumed on Friday, May 3rrZ, and continued till June 7M,
without intermission.
Among the Friday Evenings after Easter there will
probably be Discourses by Professor Blackie, Professor
A. Bain, Sir James Lacaita, and Alexander Herschel, Esq.
The Friday Arrangements depend in great measure on
the free kindness of eminent men, whose time is subject to the
sudden claims of public or professional duty. They are, there
fore, liable to change.
H. BENCE JONES,
Hen Sec.
The Doors are open at Eight o’clock; the Discourse begins
at Nine o’clock.
•r • ■ ' ' '
' - ■' '■
'■ '*
'*
' •'< «r'-. I’
It is ordered by the Committee of Managers
That five or more front rows of seats be reserved for
Members, and for Visitors invited by the Committee of
Managers, on Friday Evenings, till Ten Minutes before Nine
by the Theatre Clock.
It is requested, That Coachmen may be ordered to set
down with their Horses’ heads towards Piccadilly, and to take
up towards Grafton-street.
saxAi,
Ju'SS,
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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[Friday evening lecture syllabus, 1867]
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Royal Institution of Great Britain
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 2 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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1866
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G5710
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Lectures
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work ([Friday evening lecture syllabus, 1867]), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Conway Tracts
Lectures
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LITTELL’S LIVING AGE.-NO. 1134.-24 FEBRUARY, 1866.
From the Fortnightly Review.
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
concerned would be in certain expectation
of it, were it not for the general belief that
M. Taine speaks of certain conditions there are in America paramount domestic
under which society becomes nothing more reasons against the adoption of such a polithan tm commerce d’affronts. Whilst .there cy. Such a course would increase the
is reason to hope that the relations be financial burdens, already very heavy, un
tween man and man, or class and class, in der which the country is now struggling;
any society of the, present day, cannot be Msvould indefinitely postpone that return to
properly characterised as an interchange of a settled and normal condition of things
insults, it is to be feared that the phrase is, which trade always craves, and especially
to a sad degree, expressive of the relations after the losses consequent upon war; it
subsisting between nations; Here the skies would call again from their homes the sol
seem always angry, and the volleys of can diers who, after the wear and tear of four
non alternate only with the hurtling of years of hardship and danger, are desirous
recriminations. The historian who shall of rest; it would cost more than any prob
live when there is a community of nations, able result of a foreign war could repay;
will probably, in reading the Blue Books of it would involve the possibility of defeat,
these years, think of Saurian growings which would imply a humiliating downfall
and gnashings in primaeval swamps. It is from the position and prestige which the
therefore with a natural anxiety that one of United States has gained by the thorough
the leading nations is seen holding a brand, suppression of the gigantic rebellion that
and hesitating whether, and whither, to threatened its existence. Nevertheless, con
throw it. It is undeniable that the United vinced as the writer himself is, by these and
States stands in this attitude at the pres higher considerations, that it would be
ent moment, and that the world has reason wrong for the United States to enter upon
to await with profound solicitude the deci a war with any foreign power, he is equally
sions of the present Congress as to the foreign' convinced that there are other considera
policy to be adopted by that nation. I tions calculated to tempt the present Gov
cannot conceive, of a, legislative assembly ernment at Washington to an opposite
gathered under more solemn circumstances course, some of which may be briefly stated
than those which surround this Congress, or here.
of one holding in itself more important
It is an old idea with rulers that, in cer
issues.
tain conditions, a foreign war is conducive
Formation, material expansion, centrali to the health of a nation, — an idea which
sation, and an ambition to lead in the, old countries have outgrown, but one that
affairs of the world, may be traced in his is sure to have powerful advocates in a
tory as the successive embryonic phases young_one. A civil war, says Lord Bacon,
through which nations pass. Unfortunately is like the heat of a fever; a foreign one,, is
history attests also many “ arrests ” on this like the heat of exercise. It need be no
line of development. America, however, longer a secret that, in the few months suc
has thus far advanced well, and has now ceeding the bombardment of Fort Sumter,
reached the last form that precedes a set and preceding the actual determination,
tled nationality. Her foreign policy, hith to coerce the South into the Union by
erto relatively of the least, now becomes of military power, there was a powerful influ
the first importance; for while it seems inev ence at Washington seeking to superinduce
itable that she should now be tempted to a war with England, with the object of
aspire to a leading position in the world, uniting the discordant parties and sections
the temptation is reinforced by some pro by a direct appeal to the patriotism of both.
vocations from without, and by certain This concession to the anti-English senti
strong inducements from within. The con ment— which, for reasons, to be hereafter
ditions for a war policy are so obvious that stated, was hitherto confined to the South
I have little doubt the nations immediately and its ally, the Northern Democratic party
THIRD 3ERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXXL
1475.
�546 ,
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
— seemed a fine card to play at that junc
ture ; and if the Trent affair could have
occurred sooner than it did, that card might
have been played. That it was not, at any
rate, is due to the moral character of Mr.
Lincoln, and to the strong friendship for
England of the Chairman of the Senatorial
Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Hon.
Charles Sumner. It was plain, too, that
New England, the centre of friendship for
England at that time, would permit no war
to be undertaken on such immoral grounds,
and at the same time that she was deter
mined to make the crisis that had come an
occasion for settling the slavery question
for ever. Thus the foreign war project for
evading the national emergency was smoth
ered. It was essentially a pro-slavery plan
— though it might have encountered a pow
erful opposition from those Confederates of
Virginia and the Carolinas who cared more
for separation than for slavery — and had
it succeeded in uniting the North and
South, slavery would to-day be entering
upon a new lease of existence instead of
being abolished.
Just now the same temptation recurs.
The status of the negro in the South is a
.-subject for agitations and divisions nearly
as .fierce as those which preceded and re
sulted in the civil war. The South and its
old ally, the Democratic party in the North,
are demanding the return of the Southern
States with their governments still commit
ted exclusively to the whites : the Northern
Republicans bitterly oppose this, maintain
ing that.the humiliated slaveholders cannot
be trusted to legislate justly for the blacks,
without whose aid (in the declared opinion
of President Lincoln) the rebellion could
not have been suppressed. The issue is
most important; for, once restored to the
position of equal States, - the Southern
legislatures . could — providing only that
they did not contravene technically the
law against chattel slavery — enact a sys
tem of serfdom, and retain the “ Black
Codes,” which prohibit the education and
Srevent the elevation;of the negroes, the
forth being powerless to interfere unless
another war should arise to arm it with the
abnormal right, which it. now has, to con
trol the section it has ;just conquered.
The security proposed by the Northern Re
publicans is to give the negroes votes, which
the . Southerners and the. Democrats furi
ously oppose. It will ,be seen at once that
.this political situation necessitates the con
tinuance of a bitter sectional strife. The
. arguments of the Southern party about the
constitutional rights of States to regulate
their own suffrage naturally provoke taunts
concerning their four years’ effort to over
throw the constitution; their talk about the
inferiority of the negro leads their antago
nists to place the barbarities of Anderson
ville prison by the side of the long patience
of the negro ; the alleged “ unfitness of the
negro to vote ” is replied to with the tu
quoque based on the disloyalty of the
whites; and so long as this issue is before
the country, the Northern press naturally
parades every current instance of inhuman
ity to the negro, and every expression of
hatred to the Yankees, of which its corre
spondents easily find enough in the South.
All this of course wakes an angry and de
fiant spirit there ; and thus the country is
relegated to the dissension and agitation
about the negro which had prevailed with
out intermission for more than a generation
before the war.
There is no doubt that the late President
Lincoln foresaw this issue, and he has left
on record, in a letter recently published,
his determination to have ended the negro
agitation for ever by demanding equal
rights in the seceded States for the ne
gro. But President Johnson is a very
different man. For more than thirty years
a Southern slave-holder, a Democratic poli
tician, and a steady voter in the Congress
against all New England ideas, he never
theless— simply from a pride in the old
flag — opposed his own section. He vigor
ously resisted the rebellion, though it can
scarcely be said that he clung to the North.
The North rewarded his constancy by elect
ing him to the Vice-Presidency. But,now
that the convulsion is over, he and the
country are discovering that sudden chan
ges are rarely 'thorough. So, in the present
controversy on negro-suffrage, President
Johnson takes the side that might be expect
ed of a Tennessean Democrat, and opposes
the party which elected him. Of course
his cabinet are with him. Nevertheless
President Johnson and his cabinet see that
either by conceding the last hope of slave
ry — “a white man’s government ” — or by
some other means, this controversy must ter
minate, at least for the present, in order
that reconstruction, clamorously demanded
by the national exchequer and by trade,
may take place.
If it has been determined that negro-suf
frage shall not be conceded, what “ other
means ” remain ? Suppose some great and
overpowering national emergency were to
occur— one involving the national pride or
interest — would it not at once divert at
tention from the sectional issue ? If the
�JjjaHfrffii' jwiiuiriiiwij
»
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
I
547
Northern and the Southern man should fight mise of the negro questibn; and if their Gov
side by side for a common cause, against a ernment should attempt to bring on a for
common foe, for some years—the longer eign war for the purpose of suppressing the
the better — would not old differences be agitation of that question, there would not
healed ? And if to carry on such a war be wanting clear-headed men to repeat
Southern States as well as Northern must throughout the country the story of how
furnish quotas of men and money, and raise the original colonies compromised on the
crops for food, then Southern States must be negro question in ord er that they might form
at once reconstituted; and to effect this at a Union “for the common defence,” — that
once, must not the country be persuaded to ■ is, present an unbroken front to George III.
compromise on the negro-suffrage question ? should he seek to subjugate them,—and
The influence at Washington—I need how that compromise has proved to have
not mention names — which four years ago been pregnant with wrongs and agonies
*
urged these considerations to prevent utter which make the tea-tax of our fathers ridic
rupture between North and South, survives ulous. To keep off King George they
to suggest them as furnishing a possible es bowed to King Slavery: their posterity, still
cape from the dilemma of the administra groaning under the terrible results of that
tion which is hardly strong enough to en “policy,” will be very unlikely to extempor
counter the present Congress—the most ise a King George for the purpose of re
radical one that has ever assembled • in peating the blunder. When, however, the
America. And to this influence is now add restoration of the Southern people and lead
ed another, urging a new classof considera ers, and the re-pledging them to the Union,
tions in favour of a foreign war .; chiefly are added to the first consideration, the
this: there are a number of able leading men North-West, to whose prosperity the loyalty
in the South, each influential in his com of the Mississippi river and of both its banks
munity, who are now in disgrace, and who, to the Gulf is esseMQl may not prove to be
if the country settles down to peace, have (^inflexible virtue.
A third reason why a foreign war might
nothing left but to live on in obscurity, una
ble to hold office, and without anything to not be unwelcQme to the Washington Gov
mitigate the deep sense of humiliation or the ernment is, that it has now a large army al
wounds of pride. The flag at which Lee, ready collected and to a certain extent
Beauregard, Johnstone, Mosby, and many drilled, which it is deemed inexpedient, for
others struck, can float only to bring a shad reasous connected with the internal condi
ow upon them. The greatest of them has tion of the country, to dissolve at once, and
already hidden himself in a fourth-class col which is likely to be demoralized if it has
lege. Already the North asks, Which shall nothing to do. Nor would the people of
we prefer, the negro who defended, or the America be willing to support a large army
white who trampled upon, our flag ? A and navy in idleness. And in this connec
foreign war would be the rehabilitation of tion it may be said that whilst the rank and
these Southern men. Indeed, emigration file of the Americm military force would be
seems to be almost the only alternative glad to remain, for a loDg time certainly, in
which would enable them to emerge from their homes, a war would be more welcome to
their disgrace with the American people, the vast number of officers whom the late con
recover position, and claim rights as defend flict raised from obscurity, and for the most
ers of the nation. Moreover, it is not at all part created, and to the large majority of
certain but that they mi"ht— particularly- whom peace is sure to bring the obscurity
in the case of a war with England — be able which it brought them six years ago. The
, ■ to cast a part of the cloud under which they prominent generals of the United States
now sit upon the people and leaders of New were before the war railroad-presidents, sur
' England, who have never applauded the veyors, lawyers, &c.; hardly one of them,
motto, “ Our country, right or wrong,” and excepting Fremont, had a national reputa
• who assuredly could not be brought to fight tion. It need not be a matter of wonder
with anything like the earnestness lately dis-1 that so many among them, General Grant
played in their war with slavery, in an un- ; being of the number, are already widely
necessary or a doubtful war — not at all in ; and justly quoted as favourable to a foreign I
one whose political objects would be precise war policy.
As crowning all these considerations it
ly those which are most repulsive to the
strong moral sense of that section.
must not be forgotten that the old undying
My belief is that New England and the dream of continental occupation, of which
North-West may be relied upon to oppose the “ Monroe doctrine ” is the familiar but
any undisguised postponement by compro- , inexact label, is at present producing more
�548
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
exasperations and is under fewer restraints
than ever before. The Romulus of the
United States, whoever he may have been,
did not surround the country with any fur
row, and the Remuses had not in the first
years even to leap, so long as their filibus
tering expeditions respected those bounda
ries which the average American regards as
the natural ones of his country —i.e. the
Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic on
the east, the Isthmus of Panama on the south,
and the North Pole on the north. Since the
Mexican war, and in recoil from the mean
ness and criminality which led to and at
tended the seizure of Texas, there has been
in the United States a moral sentiment able
to hold in check the disposition to encroach
upon its neighbours, as those representa
tives of a Democratic administration who
met at Ostend a few years ago and pro
posed to obtain Cuba by fair means or foul,
discovered to their cost. But the moral sen
timent which would have continued to shel
ter Mexico would not find a single American to plead its applicability to Maximilian,
unless in the reverse of the obvious sense.
And since it is understood, that the exci
sion of Maximilian by the power of the Unit
ed States means the grateful self-annexation
of Mexico (in some way) to the Union, it
will be at once seen that the passion for ex
pansion and the moral sentiment of the
country jump together in a way that they
never did before. On the other hand,
whilst the desire for Canada is much feebler
than that for Mexico, the restraint of inter
national morality which would have protect
ed it has been removed by the general sense
of wrongs received at the hands of England,
and the representatives of England in Cana
da, and by a current belief that annexation
to the Union is desired by nearly all of the
French Canadians and the Irish.
Whilst these considerations are being
urged at Washington, those who are most
strongly opposed to a foreign war, and were
among the most trusted advisers of Presi
dent Lincoln — as, for example, the Chair
man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
before alluded to — are now without the ear
of the President, and range in hostility.to
his plan of reconstruction. Of all the rea
sons that have been mentioned, the consid
eration which will weigh most strongly with
the President and his Cabinet will be the
hope of starving off the negro-agitation, and
of securing the ret urn of the Southern States
without negro-suffrage. If negro-equality
were to be placed beyond question by the
present Congress, every cloud of war would
clear away tor the present, and the Mexican
Empire would be the only thing concerning
which one could anticipate, even at a distant
period, any collision between the United
States and any nation of the Old World.
Hence the friends of peace in America are
as anxiously hoping for the settlement of the
negro question on the only basis which can
be final, and that will not remit the country
to the bitter animosities and agitations of
the past, as the friends of war are indiffer
ent to or anxious to' evade such settlement.
The particular danger is that the Congress
will decide to keep out the Southern States
without imposing negro-suffrage as a condi
tion of their return, in which case the Presi
dent might be induced to try and alter the
conditions under which the question would
come before another Congress, by seeking,
as above indicated, to weld the two sections,
and purge the South of the stain upon its
loyalty, with the fires of a foreign war. I
confess that the probabilities affecting the
question of war or peace between Ameri
ca and France or England seem to me
slightly inclining to the side of war; and I
am sure that the internal considerations
enumerated, much more than the claim
against England, or the Monroe doctrine —
whose importance in the case I am far from
undervaluing — will be the mainspring of
the war policy, if it be adopted.
The next question of interest is whether
a hostile movement, if determined upon, will
be directed against France or against Eng
land.
~
There is in America a traditional friend
liness towards France. At a celebration of
the national American Thanksgiving-day,
by Americans in Paris, December 7, the
heartiest applause was awarded to a toast
proposed by General Schofield in these
words: — “The old friendship between
France and the United States; may it be
strengthened and perpetuated ! ” At the
same festival the Hon. John Jay, the chair
man, alluded to some of the associations
which are stirred in every American’s mind
when France is mentioned. “ Our patriotic
assemblage,” he said, “ in this beautiful Capi
tol, amid the splendours of French art and
the triumphs of French science, recalls the
infancy of our country, and the various
threads of association that are so frequently
intertwined in the historic memories of
America and France. The French element
was early and widely blended with our
transatlantic blood, and it is a fact that two
of the five commissioners wdio in this city
signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783 —that
treaty by which England closed the war and
recognised the American Republic — were
�<
AMERICA, FRANCj
AND ENGLAND.
\
549
of Huguenot descent. In the war now ever, his perception of a growing feeling for
closed, as in that of our Revolution, French territorial expansion among the Americans.
and American officers fought side by side, But an element of .even paramount import
and side by side in our House of Representa ance in this feeling was a dread that the
tives hang — and will continue to hang, as a American Republic might have to struggle
perpetual memento of the early friendship with powerful and hostile forms of govern
between the countries — the portraits of ment. The Monroe doctrine was really
Washington and Lafayette. The territory that for which few Europeans would give it
. of Orleans, including that vast and fertile credit — a conservative policy. Explicitly
valley extending from the gulf to the limits respecting powers already planted on that
of Missouri, was ceded to us by the First continent, it affirmed the limits of the right
Napoleon almost for a song, and there are of intervention for itself, as well as for lorstill perpetuated in its names, habits, and eign powers. It was meant to be, and was,
traditions, pleasant memories of France.” an especial check upon the westward ag
Mr. Jay did not, in Catholic France, hint gressions of American filibusters, by imwhy the Huguenots happened to be in plying that only their unjust encroachments
America; he did not bring to any rude test from aBtid could justify interference with
■of historic criticism the part played, literal- other nations. It recommended <tself to
. ly, by the Marquis de Lafayette in the first, the most thoughtful men of the last genera
or by the young French chevaliers, who en tion in the United SffieB as the means of
joyed their cigars and champagne with keeping for ever out of the Western hemi
McClellan whilst the soldiers of the Union sphere that grim political idol to which the
were being massacred before Richmond, in peace of the old world had been so often
the second revolution; neither did he in sacrificed — the “ balance of power.” It as
quire whether at that time the Emperor of sumed, indeed, the Predominance of the
the French was making proposals to Eng United States on that continent, but then
land to join him in an inte wention favoura the United States open® its arms, its lands,
ble to the South, nor remenfter the Jiisses its honours to the people of all nations.
and cries in the French Assembly which The Monroe doctrine was, then, conserva
drowned M. Pelletan’s voice when he an tive, in that it put a defiq^M check upon the
nounced the downfall of Richmond (which idea of absorbing surrounding countries, and
M. Pelletan declared — mistakenly, it would limited the United States wtheidea of pre
appear — were so loud, tha®they would be dominance. Even this may seem arrogant,
heard across the Atlantic). But, in ignor but it is difficult to see by what other means
ing such questions and crowning his address the New World could have been saved from
with tue toast “ The Empgror of the becoming the mere duplicate of the Old.
French,” Mr. Jay undoubtedly represented To permit the occupation of countries,
the general determination of his country ■ which the United States has restrained her
men to put the best construction possible self from occupying, by foreign governupon everything that France does, and their, nlents of formstessentially hostile, necessi
instinctive disposition to wink at her plain tates an injurious modification of her own.
est offences. This disposition must be con Any such Power, once admitted and estab
sidered prominently in our calculations of lished, must be Watpied; and to watch it
the probable action of the United States implies Expensive fortifications of long fron
upon the Mexican Empire. There can be tiers, standing armies, and young men sup
no doubt that if any other nation than plying them — things utterly opposed to
France had established that Empire, the end the spirit in which the American Republic
of the rebellion in -America would have been was founded. A few ships might prevent
swiftly followed by the march of Federal the landing on those shores of a Power
troops across the Rio Grande.
which, once fixed there, would require that
The Monroe doctrine was of gradual and the Union should become a centralized and
natural development. The earliest ex military nation. Thus there is no principle
pression of the sentiment out of which it that would protect California, or Texas, or
grew was given by the First Napoleon, Louisiana from French encroachment, that
when he assigned as a chief reason for dis would not haye equally have protected
posing of the territory of Orleans — the Mexico. The south-western states have
greater part of the Mississippi Valley — on only to be weak to become food for the fur
the easy terms in which President Jefferson ther growth of “the Latin race/’and the
obtained it, that it was the manifest destiny glory of its new Cmsar. Hence garrisons,
of that territory to become a portion of the .under General Weitzel, and others, are al- ■
United States. . He did but express, how- ready on the south-western border, where
�550
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
x they must stay so long as the representative
of French power stays. The best men in
America, are persuaded that it would be
more favourable to the peace of the world
if such garrisons should cease to exist,
through the removal of the occasion for
them.
‘
.
The traditional friendship of the United
States with France has undoubtedly, been
strained to the utmost by this invasion of
Mexico, and by the circumstances under
which it occurred. The subversion of the
Mexican Republic was consummated in the
face of three unequivocal declarations to
the American Minister at Paris, that the
Government then existing in Mexico should
not be altered by the invasion; it was. ac
complished at a time when, the United
States was prevented from having any voice
in the matter by the gigantic war which
tied her hands; it was for the avowed pur
pose of building up a rival power on the
North American continent; and it selected
as the representative of that flagrant de
fiance of the principle which in America
has a sanctity corresponding to that of .the
“ balance of power ” in Europe, a prince
belonging to a House more unpopular
among Americans, and more associated with
the oppression of weaker peoples, than any
that has reigned on the continent of Eu
rope.
'
If it should ultimately appear that only
by war can the empire thus attempted be
expelled, war will surely come. But there
are reasons why the United States will
strain every nerve to secure that object by
negotiation before resorting to armed force.
The friendly feeling towards France already
adverted to, the equally strong feeling
among the Irish and the Roman Catholics
generally, and the especial affection and
gratitude to France of the Southerners —
whom the foreign war, if undertaken, is ex
pected to rehabilitate —• would all make
the conflict one for which the American
people tiould have little heart. It would
require repeated refusals of any other set
tlement on the part of Louis Napoleon to
generate the amount of popular exaspera
tion requisite for the war. At the same
time I doubt not but that General Scho
field and others will sufficiently convince
the Emperor of the French that the Ameri
can Government and people will never con
sent to the permanent existence of a for
eign monarchy in Mexico. The willingness
to postpone positive action in the matter is
enhanced by the consideration that non-re
cognition and hesitation on the part of the
United States, encouraging as they do the
Juarists to continue their resistance, in
juriously affecting the Mexican loan, and
accumulating the expenditure of France,
constitute in themselves almost a forcible
attack upon Maximilian. There is also
something like a superstitious belief among
the people that no government will stand
long in Mexico until it is consigned by des
tiny to the United States; and I venture to
predict that in that direction the United
States will pursue the Micawber policy of
waiting for something to turn up, and that
this policy will be presently justified by the
evacuation of Mexico by French troops,
with Maximilian close upon their heels.
Much as I regret to say it, I cannot deny
to myself that a war with England — were
there any pretext for it, or anything to be
gained by it — would unite all sections and
classes in America more effectually than one
with any other Power. The reasons for a
war, so far as they are external, weigh
against France; the feeling., against Eng
land. The traditional feeling in America
toward England has been the reverse of
what it has been toward .France. The ori
gin of this anti-English feeling is not won
derful. NextMo those portraits of Wash
ington and Lafayette, mentioned by Mr.
Jay as hanging side by side in the Hall of
Representatives at Washington, may be
found several pictures of the American gen
erals and English generals standing in less
gentle relations to each other. But the
resuscitation and increase of the ill-feeling
toward England are due to causes which it
may be well to explain, for there have been
strong commercial and other reasons why
all animosities between the countries should
Jong ago have passed away. The jealousies
which existed after the separation of 1782,
were such as are often witnessed between
parties just near enough to each other to
make differences irritating—as the right
and left wings, or old and new schools of
Churches — but these tend to subside as the
parties become more and more set and se
cure in their respective’positions. As a
matter of fact these jealousies had almost
disappeared, and but few traces of them can
be found in the generation that preceded this.
The cause of the animosity between the
Northern and Southern States was the cause
also of the revival of an anti-English feeling
in America—Slavery. English Quakers
were among the first agitators for emancipa
tion in the Union. The first abolitionist in
America — Benjamin Lundy — had. by his
side Fanny Wright, who established in Ten. nessee a colony of liberated negroes with
the intent of proving that they were fit for
�AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
551
freedom. The Anti-Slavery Society, which to his immediate withdrawal from that city,
sprang up in the North, was materially as and a determination to proceed no farther
sisted by the English societies ; its watch into the Slave States. But meanwhile this
words were taken from the great anti-slave feeling had a strong reinforcement. The
ry leaders of England, and the utterances Irish were thronging to America by thou
of Sharpe, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and oth sands, and the Irish vote had become the
ers, were hurled with tremendous effect deciding power in every general election.
against the Southern institution. The It is a dreary fact that the Irish elected
*
Methodists were made to remember that every America^ President from 1844 to
Wesley had pronounced slavery to be “the 1860. To win that Irish vote a political
sum of all villanies ; ” and everywhere it party had simply to take the ground of
was held up as a token of the superiority violent antagonism to England: that sure
of England that her air was “ too pure for card the Democratic party had always been
a slave to breathe.” When the “ pro willing to play, and the Irish, almost with
slavery re-action,” as it is termed, set in — out exception, voted for it and its protege,
that is, when the invention of the cotton- Slavery. The denouncers oft England in
gin (about the first part of this century) the North were notoriously the leading
had gradually quadrupled the value of Democrats, who, for party purposes, fanned
slaves, and the Southern politicians began the hatred of this country which every Irish
to reverse the verdict of Washington, Jeff man was sure to bring with him to the Unit
erson, and Henry against slavery per se — ed States. I have no idea that these dema
mutterings against “ English Abolitionists” gogues really felt any sympathy with the
began to be heard. The anti-slavery ggsits, Irish, or that they knew anything whatever
in later times, of William Forster, Joseph about Ireland or its relations to England^
Sturge, George Thompson, and other distin whilst pouring out their invectives against
guished abolitionists, led to a fierce outcry “British Tyranny.” The Fenians have,
in the South that her rights and institutions perhaps, by this time learned (if a Fenian
were threatened by “ British abolitionists,” can learn anything) how much reality there
“ British emissaries,” and “ British gold.” was in this profuse Democratic sympathy
The writer can remember when every po for Ireland ; but when it is considered that
litical gathering in Virginia, his native there are five million Irish haters of Eng
State, was lashed into fury by the use of land in America, and that to obtain this
these phrases. President Jackson, in a great electoral power the Democratic party
Message to Congress, denounced the inter has committed itself to every anti-English
ference of “foreign emissaries” with the policy, it will be seen how vast an. addition
institution of slavery. Boston, because of to the hatred of the enraged pro slavery
its anti-slavery character, was scornfully men has thus been made in these later years.
called “ that English city.” The pro-slave-S In all this time the only section of Ameri
ry re-action gained a complete sway of the ca that could be called friendly to England
Union about twenty years ago ; since which was New England, such friendliness having
time, until 1860, slavery elected every Presi been frequently made the occasion for
dent, and was represented by large though denouncing thatByoup of States. The
gradually diminishing majorities in Con leading men of New England — Emerson,
gress. ,The commercial classes of the North Channing, Phillips, Sumner, Garrison, Low
were its violent adherents on account of ell — had been guests in the best English
the immense value of the Southern trade; homes, and had entertained English gen
and if any merchant became tarnished by a tlemen. The youth of the colleges and
suspici on of his pro-slavery soundness, the universities of New England were kindling
New York Herald published his name—a with enthusiasm for Carlyle, Tennyson,
proceeding which withdrew all dealings Mill, and the Brownings. Along with her
from him, and threatened him with ruin. anti-slavery influence there, went forth also
Thus a vast majority, North and South, from. New England editions of English
came to nourish a deep hostility toward books and English modes of thought; and as
England, for her policy of emancipation in the country at large was, in the years im
her own colonies, and for her alleged inter mediately preceding the war, gradually won
ference with slavery in America. How to an anti-slavery positions^ England be
furious the South was toward England was came, if not generally liked, at least the
shown in those disgraceful scenes — not to most respected of foreign nations. The
be reported here — which are said to have virtues of Queen Victoria were especially
attended the attempt of the Prince of a subject of frequent eulogium throughout
Wales to visit Richmond, Virginia, and led the North; and everything bade fair tO’
�552
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
bring about a reaction in the feeling to
wards the people over whom she ruled.
Indeed the welcome given to the Prince of
Wales at the time of which I now write,
bore witness to the existence of a friendlier
spirit regarding “ the mother country ” than
any one would have ventured to predict
a few years before. The gradual repres' sion of the anti-English prejudice cost the
' Republicans of the North a long period of
political weakness (for they too might have
bid for the Irish vote) ; it was the result of
the laborious diffusion of English literature,
and I know that it was esteemed by the
reflecting Americans to be a victory for
mankind.
The reasons why this friendliness has
been of late replaced by indignation and an
ger, in New England as well as elsewhere,
are too well known to require much elucida
tion here. I am quite sure that if England
had known as much about the United States
five years ago as she knows now, the pres
ent unhappy relations between the two coun
tries could not be subsisting. England
sneered at those who had been her friends,
who were fighting the last battles of a con
flict begun by herself, and gave her sympa
thies to those who had denounced her for
her love of freedom. Not going far enough
to do more than repress for a moment the
traditional animosity of the South, she
went far enough to fill the North with in
dignant surprise, and has left in both sec
tions a sentiment which might easily find
vent in war, if any sufficient object to be
gained thereby should present itself. If it
were England that had occupied Mexico,
war would have been declared against her
ere now; hitherto, as I have intimated,
whilst the war-interest has pointed to
France, the war feeling in America has
been toward England. The feeling of an
ger towards this country is so universal in
the United States that I believe it would
be impossible to find amongst its public
men, or even its literary men, a single ex
ception from it, — unless it be among a few
who, having constant personal intercourse
with England, know how little any quick
generalisations concerning this country, its
character, or its feeling, are likely to be
correct. A few protests against the very
general denunciation of England may have
been uttered there, or sent there by Ameri
cans resident here; but they have been lost
like chips in the rapids of Niagara. I
write these things with profound regret;
but I think the facts should be known.
There have been many instances in his
tory where such a condition of popular
feeling has required the merest pretext to
initiate war. In the present case there is
something which is already regarded in
America as a sufficient occasion for war
(were war desirable), and may be presently
regarded as an adequate cause for it. The
United States has, although so young as a
nation, presented more than a score of
“ claims ” against other nations; and in
every case, I believe, these claims have
been ultmately adjusted to its satisfaction,
though now and then refused at first. The
late claim upon the English Government
for damages committed by the Alabama —■
for those alone would probably have been
insisted upon-—meant much more than
a pecuniary matter to the Americans. As
*
foi the merchants who had suffered losses
by Confederate cruisers they were gener
ally men who a few years ago were so pa
tient and resigned when slavery was scut
tling human hearts and homes, that many
of us smiled with a grim satisfaction at their '
pathetic emotions when some defenceless
sloop with its innocent family of bags and
barrels was sent to the bottom. But withal
the Alabama was regarded as the palpable
symbol of that anti-American sentiment
which had appeared at the outbreak of the
war — a symbol which not the Kearsage,
but England alone, could sink; and the
claim for the losses by hei’ ' signified also a
reclamation for wounds rankling in every
American heart.
I have no intention of discussing here
the case of the A liibama; but the legal case
as it stands in the correspondence between
Earl Russel and Mr. Adams is so different
from the moral case which is at this moment
powerfully agitating the American mind,
that it seems to me important to mention
a few points recently laid by Mr. George
Bemis, the eminent jurist of Boston, before
his countrymen, which are more likely to
poison the future relations between the two
countries than any question raised in the
diplomatic discussion referred to. This
hitherto unwritten, or rather uncollected,
chapter in the history of the Alabama is
derived from the English Blue Boole, and
refers to the last two days’ stay of that
cruiser in British waters, after the Govern
ment had decided upon her detention, and
after the alleged telegraphic order for her
seizure had been sent to the officials of
Liverpool.
.
The Alabama left Laird’s dock in Liver
pool in July, 1862, under pretence of tak
ing out a pleasure party, and went to sea
without ever returning to that port again.
The American Minister having called upon
�I
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
553
Earl Russell for an explanation of this, be well to remind the reader here that, so
wrote home the following as the statement early as July 4th, the British Government
he received at that interview : —
"had promised Mr. Adams that the Custom
House officials at Liverpool should keep a
“ His lordship first took up the case of the strict watch on the movements of the ex
‘290’ [the name by which the Alabama was pected Alabama, and report any further in
first known], and remarked that a delay in de formation that could be collected concern
termining upon it had most unexpectedly ing her.) The Hercules proceeds to fulfil
been caused by the sudden development of her errand, but has not completed her ship
a malady of the Queen’s Advocate, Sir John
D? Harding, totally incapacitating him for the ping of men and warlike equipment until
transaction of business. This made it neces sometime during the morning of the 30th.
sary to call in other parties, whose opinion had During the forenoon, some hours before the
been at last given for the detention of the gunboat, Hercules starts, the AmcMn Consul has
but before the order got down to Liverpool the vessel placed the following note under the eye of
was gone.” *
the head of the Custom House : —
In the debate on the escape of the Ala
“U. S. Consulate, Liverpool,
bama, which occurred in the House of
July 30, 1862.
Lords, Aprd 29, 1864, Earl Russell gave f“Sir,—Referring to myaPMions communi
cation to you on the subject of the gunboat
.' this further explanation : —
■‘No. 290fl|fitted out by Mr. LaiM at Birken
“ The United States Government had no head, I beg now to inform you that she left
reason to complain of us in that respect [in the Birkenhead dock on Monday night [the
ves^mHmorningMrthe 29th] left
regard to the escape of the Alabama], because 28thl
we took all the precaution we could. We col M^M^^^ycomi^wed by the steilm-tug Hercu
les. The Hercules returned last evening, and
lected evidence, but it was not till it was com
was cruising off
plete that we felt ourselves justified in giving the her master stated
orders for the seizure of the vessel. These orders, Port Iypias, that she had six guns on board
however, were evaded. I can tell your lord ship concealed below, and was taking powder from
from a trustworthy source how theyiwere evaded!?’ another vessel.
The Hercules is now alongside the Wood_[Eaii Russell then proceeded to quote a pass
age from Fullam’s ‘ Cruise in the Confederate side landing-stage, taking on board men (forty
States War Steamer Alabama ’ (p. 5), of which or fifty), beams, evidently for guiMcarriages,
and other things, to convey down to the gunthe last paragraph ran as iollows] : —
“Our unceremonious departure [from Liver bo® A quantity of cutlasses was taken on
pool] was owing to the fact of news being receiv board on Friday last.
These circumstances all go to confirm the
ed to the effect that the customs authorities had
orders to board and detain us that morning.” representations heretofore made to you about
this vessel, in the face of which I cannot but
[Upon which Earl Russell adds] : —
“ That was the fact. However the owner regret she lias been permitted to leave the port,
,and I report them to youH^M you may take
came to be informed of it, it is impossible for
me to say. There certainly seems to have been such steps as you may deem necessary to pre
treachery on the part of some one furnishing the vent this flagrant violation of neutrality.
Respectfully, I am your obedient servant,
information.”
“ Thomas H. Dudley, Consul.
On the morning of July 29th, 1862, the “ The Collector of Customs, Liwrpool.”
Alabama put out from the Liverpool docks,
In response to this urgent appeal, Mr. E.
having on board several ladies,and gentle
men of the family of Mr. John Laird, M. P., Morgan, Surveyor of the Port, seems to
and enough of other invited guests to make have been sent to visit the Hercules. The
a show of a pleasure party, and was towed following is the record of his labours: —
by a steam-tug, the Hercules, to a point
Copy of a Letter from Mr. E. Morgan, Sur
fourteen miles from Liverpool. There the
party was transferred to the Hercules, and veyor, to the Collector, Liverpool.
“ Surveyor’s Office, 30 July, 1862.
the Commander of the Alabama made an
“Sir, — Referring to the steamer built by
appointment with the Hercules to return to
the
Liverpool and bring a large portion of hjs boat Messrs. Laird, which is suspected to be a gun
intendedfor some foreign government, —
crew to Beaumaris Bayljabout forty miles ■ “ I beg to state that since the date of my
distant from ’ the town.
The Hercules last report concerning her she has been lying
reached Liverpool on the evening of the in the Birkenhead docks fitting for sea, and
29th, and anchored for the night. (It may receiving on board coals and provisions for her
*The itaZzes here and elsewhere, in paragraphs crew.
“ She left the dock on the evening of the
quoted from the Blue Book,.are, of course, not in
the originals.
28th instant, anchored for the night in the
i
�554 .
AMERICA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
Mersey, abreast the Canning Dock, and pro
ceeded out of the river on the following morn
ing, ostensibly on a trial trip, from which she
has not returned.
X “ I visited the tug Hercules this morning, as
she lay at the landing-stage at Woodside, and
strictly examined her holds, and other parts of
the vessel. She had nothing of a suspicious
character onboard —no guns, no ammunition,
or anything appertaining thereto. A consider
able number of persons, male and female, were
on deck, some of whom admitted to me
THAT THEY WERE A PORTION OF THE CREW,
AND WERE GOING TO JOIN THE ‘GUNBOAT.’
“ I have oniy to add that your directions to
keep a strict watch on the said vessel have been
carried out, and I write in the fullest confidence
that she left this port without any part of her
armament on board; she had not as much as a
single gun or musket.
“ It is said that she cruised off Point Lyna,9
1st night, which, as you are aware, is some fifty
miles from this port.
“Very respectfully,
(Signed)
“ E. Morgan, Surveyor.
The Foreign Enlistment Act says very
plainly, that every ship “ having on board,
conveying, carrying, or transporting ” any
person or persons “ enlisted, or who have
agreed or been procured to enlist, or who
shall be departing from his Majesty’s domin
ions for the purpose or with the intent of
enlisting,” “ shall and may be seized by
the Collector,” &c., (Stat. 59 George III. c.
69, s. 6). Mr. Morgan says some of the men
on the Hercules admitted to him “ that they
were a portion of the crew, and were going
to join the gunboat;” he knows that it is
a gunboat, and that it has gone off “ osten
sibly on a trial trip
and yet we find the
following letter sent to the Commissioners
of Customs in London: —
“ Custom House, Liverpool,
30th July, 1862.
“Honourable Sirs,—Immmediately on re
ceipt of the aforegoing communication [not
given, or perhaps Consul Dudley’s, qu. ?], Mr.
Morgan, Surveyor, proceeded on board the
Hercules, and I beg to enclose his report, ob
serving that he perceived no beams, such as are
alluded to by the American Consul, nor any
thing on bourd that would justify further action on
my part.
“ Respectfully,
. (Signed)
“ S. Price Edwards.”
The following • telegram was laid before
The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty’s
Treasury on the morning of July 29 : —
“Liverpool, 29th July, 1862.
“ ‘ No. 290.’
“Sir, — We telegraphed you this morning
that the above vessel was leaving Liverpool.
She came out of dock last night, and steamed
down the river between 10 and 11 a. m.
“ We have reason to believe she has gone to
Queenstown.
“ Yours obediently,
“Duncan, Squarey, & Blackmore.”
Lastly, here is the record of how, when
the horse was stolen, the stable-door was
locked: —
I
“ Thirty-first July, 1862, at about |
half-past seven, p. m.
“ Telegrams were sent to the Collectors at Liver
pool and CorL [at above date] pursuant to
Treasury Order, dated 31st July, to seize the gun
boat (290) should she be within either of those ports. • ,
-- “ Similar telegrams to the officers at Beaumaris
and Holyhead were sent on the morning of the 1stAugust. They were not sent on the 3ist July,
the telegraph offices to those districts being
closed. '
“ And on the 2d August a letter was also
sent to the Collector at Cork, to detain the ves
sel should she arrive at Queenstown.”
It is noticeable that only on the evening
of the 31st of July was any word sent to
Queenstown, where, according to the tele
gram of the 29th, the American agents in
Liverpool “ have reason to believe she (the
Alabama) has gone ! ” And why was no
telegram sent to Point Lynas on the night
of the 30th ? Three days were lost when
all depended upon hours. Nay, there have
been cases when England, feeling herself
aggrieved by such ships, has — as those who
remember the cases of the Terceira and the
Heligoland know — pursued and destroyed
them even in foreign waters. The feeling
was of another kind in this case: the Ala
bama .was followed through English and
other waters, but with plaudits.
Now all this is far lrom pleasant read
ing to an American. Earl Russell him
self, as quoted above, has said that there
seems to have been “ treachery ” in the
proceeding. Nay, in “ Hansard ” for Feb
ruary 16, 1864, he will be found to have
classified it as a “ belligerent operation,”
and as “ a scandal and in some degree a re
proach to British law.” Is it wonderful
then that the United States should prefer a
claim, accompanied by a suggestion of ar
bitration, for the losses by this cruiser,
which for a time swept American ships from
the seas ? Is it wonderful that it should in
terpret the refusal to admit the claim or the
suggestion as a moral confession of judg
ment ? Is it wonderful that, irrespective of
the legal points of the case, Americans
should perceive in the above facts the ex
�janet’s
555
questions.
pression of a hostile animus toward her, as
yet unlaid, so far as any official act is con
cerned, and that they, should, with their
deep sense of wrong, be eager to seize an oc
casion for retaliation ?
The liberation of John Mitchell, at the
request of the Fenians, by President John
son, after he (Mitchell) had rendered himself
so especially odious to the people of the
United States by his treason, was attended
with no popular outcry. ' It could never
have been done had there not been a gen
eral feeling of resentment toward England.
It is a straw only, but it shows the wind to
be setting from a tempestuous quarter.
It may be supposedEhat the very causes
which have operated to alienate the
Northern States from England would im
ply a friendship for her in the South; but
besides the old animosity of the South
toward England, on account of her influence
against slavery, she feels bitterly the sym
pathy of the English masses for the North,
the cold shoulder given to her agents at the
English Court, the repeated refusals of the
British Government to join France in an in
tervention, and its refusal of any aid to
prevent the South being crushed. Thus
every class and section in America has a
grievance against England.
There are, indeed, men in that country
whose thoughts reach beyond the vexations
and passions of the moment, who may be
counted on to do what they can to prevent
such a dire calamity as a war between the
two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon
race would be.
But the fact may not
be concealed that by the refusal to submit
the case of the Alabama to arbitration, in
the present state of American feeling, the
wildest Irishman who would fire a hemi
sphere to boil his potatoes is made stronger
than the most thoughtful statesman. To a
point of ministerial dignity — for the dignity
of a nation cannot depend upon shielding
the blunders of a Cabinet or the “ treachery”
of its subordinates — it must be ascribed,
that the entrance into Parliament of such
friends of the United States as Mill, Hughes,
and Fawcett, and of Forster into the Gov
ernment does not mark the meginning of
an era of good-will between the two na
tions; that the sunken AZaframa leaves
a brood of her kind to be hatched out by
the heat of the next English war, and to
resuscitate a semi-baiMSrs mode of war
fare which had seemed about to pass away;
and that even this ugly programme is the
least disastrous alternative to which the
friends of peace can look forward.
Moncuke D. Conway.
/
!
X
JANET’S QUESTIONS.
Janet ! my little Janet!
You think me wise I know;
And that when you sit and question,
With your eager face aglow,
I can tell you all you ask me :
My child, it is not so.
I can tell my little Janet
Some things she well may prize;
I could tell her some whose wisdom
Would be foolish in her eyes;
There are things I would not tell, her,
They are too sadly wise.
I can tell her of noble treasures
Of wisdom stored of old;
To the chests where they are holden
I can give her keys of gold ;
And as much as she can carry
She may take away untold.
But till her heart is opened,
Like the book upon her knee,
What is written in its pages
She cannot read nor see :
Nor tell till the rose has blossomed
If red or white Twill be.
And till life’s book is opened,
And read through every age,
Come questions, without answers, ■
Alike from child and sage :
Yet God himself is teaching
His children page by page.
I still am asking questions
With each new leaf I see ;
To your new eyes, my Janet,
Yet more revealed may be.
You must ask of God the questions
I fail to answer thee.
— Good Words.
�556
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
From the Quarterly Review.
A History of Caricature and Grotesque in
Literature and Art. By Thomas Wright,
Esq.; with Illustrations from various sour-,
ces, drawn and engraved by E. W. Fair
holt, Esq.
Among the many contributions which
Mr. Thomas Wright has made towards Eng
lish antiquarian research, and, in particular,
towards the familiar delineation of the man
ners and customs of our ancestors, none is,
perhaps, so popular or so well known as his
two volumes entitled ‘ England under the
House of Hanover, illustrated from the Car
icatures and Satires of the day.’ The very
spirited woodcuts with which this book is
adorned by Mr. Fairholt might alone have
sufficed to make its fortune. Published
only in 1848, it is already difficult to pro
cure a copy. Encouraged by his success in
this line, Mr. Wright has now attempted
the wider enterprise announced in this title
page. Wd fear that in'doing so he has been
somewhat over ambitious. A history of the
‘ caricature and grotesque in literature and
art,’ extending over all countries and all
time, comprising not only pictorial represen
tations, but poetry, satire, the drama, and
buffoonery of all descriptions, is a subject
which, if it be attempted at all in a single
octavo volume, could only be so in the form
of a compact and well-reasoned essay, to
which Mr. Wright’s entertaining fragmen
tary sketches bear little resemblance. The
‘immeasurable laughter’ of nations, ancient
and modern, cannot be reduced within so
small a compass. We must therefore con
tent ourselves with thanking Mr. Wright
for his desultory but agreeable attempts for
our enlightenment. And we propose, on
the present occasion, to confine ourselves
entirely to the artistic portion of them: en
livened, as it is, by a new series of Mr. Fair
holt’s excellent illustrations. Our inability
to transfer these to our own pages places
us, as we feel, at a great disadvantage:
many words are required to explain to the
reader the contents of a picture, which
a few outlines by an able hand impress
at once visibly on the recollection. De
prived of this advantage, we must confine
ourselves as well as we can to the points on
which caricature touches the history of
social and political life, rather than those by
which it borders on the great domain of
Art, properly so called.
GROTESQUE
course, an Italian word, derived from the verb
caricare, to charge or load; and therefore it
means a picture which is charged or exaggerat
ed. [“Kitratto ridicolo,” says Baretti s Dic
tionary, “in cui fiensi grandemente accresciuti
i difetti.” The old French dictionaries say.
“ c’est la meme chose que charge en peinture.”]
The word appears not to have come into use in
Italy until the latter half of the seventeenth cen
tury, and the earliest instance I know of its em
ployment by an English writer is that quoted
by Johnson from the ‘ Christian Morals ’ of Sir
Thomas Brown, who died in 1682, but it was
one of his latest writings, and was not printed
till long after his death: “ Expose not thyself
by fourfooted manners unto monstrous draughts
(i. e. drawings) and caricatura representations.”
This very quaint writer, who had passed some
time in Italy, evidently uses it as an exotic
word. We find it next employed by the writer
of the Essay, No. 537, of the ‘ Spectator,’ who,
speaking of the way in which different people
are led by feelings of jealousy and prejudice to
detract from the characters of others, goes on to
say “From all these hands we have such
draughts of mankind as are represented in those
burlesque pictures which the Italians call cari
catures, where the art consists in preserving
amidst distorted proportions" and aggravated
features, some distinguishing likeness of the
person, but in such a manner as to transform
the most agreeable beauty into the most odious
•monster.” The word was not fully established
in oqr language in its English form of carica
ture until late in the last century.’ — p. 415.
This, no doubt, is a serviceable, artistic
definition of the word; but • its popular
meaning is, perhaps, a little more limited.
It would be difficult accurately to distin
guish ‘caricature ’in composition, accord
ing to the above description, from what we
simply term ‘ grotesque ; ’ exaggeration,
that is, of natural effects for the mere
purpose of the ludicrous. In using the word
caricature, we generally add to this notion
that of satire; and the best definition for
our purpose, as well as to suit ordinary ap
prehension, though not at all originating in
the primary meaning of the word, will
be, that ‘ caricature ’ implies the use of the
grotesque for the purpose of satire : satire,
of course, of many kinds, individual, moral,
political, as the case may be.
Looking at our subject from this point of
view, we must never eliminate from it all
those amusing details respecting classical
‘ caricature,’ to which Mr. Wright has de
voted the first part of his work, and which
a clever French writer, M. Champfleury,
hasjust illustrated inalittle book, superficial,
‘ The word caricature is not found in the dic entertaining, and ‘ cock-sure of everything,’
tionaries, I believe, until the appearance of that as the manner of his nation- is, entitled
of Dr. Johnson, in 1755. Caricature is, of ‘ Histoire de la Caricature Antique.’ The
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
557
ancients were passionately fond of the gro erical creatures.’ In others, the desired
tesque : the Greeks intermingled it strange effect is produced, not by these mere fabri
ly, but gracefully, with their inimitable cre cations, but by grouping men and animals
ations of beauty: the Romans, after their together in fanciful or ridiculous conjunc
nature, made it coarse and sensual, where tions. And these — conceived and execut
not merely imitative of the Hellenic.
ed with a prodigality of imagination
_ ‘ The discourses of Socrates resemble the amounting in many instances to genius —
pictures of the painter Pauson.’ Some one constitute, perhaps, the favourite, though
had ordered of Pauson the picture of a by no means the only, style of comic art
horse rolling on the ground. Pauson paint familiar to the classical ancients; one of
ed him running. The customer complained which the known examples have of late
that the condition of his order had not been years greatly multiplied, owing to the disfulfilled. ‘ Turn the picture upside down,’ cowries of ancient paintings at Pompeii and
said the artist, ‘ and the horse will seem to elsewhere. There is a pretty description
roll on the ground.’ From this moderately of a picture of this sort in» the ‘ leones ’ of
facetious anecdote of Lucian Mlom a pas Philostratus. It represents a ‘number of
sage of Aristotle, in which it is said that BQpids riding races on swans: one is tight
‘ Polygnotus painted men better thanBjley ening his golden rein, another loosening"it;
are; Pauson;. worse than they are; PionHSisI one dexterously wheeling round the goal:
such as they are ; ’ and, lastly, from a few you might fancy that you could hell them
lines of Aristophanes, in which some Pau encouraging their birds, and threatening
son or other is jeered at for his poverty, as and qtSffilling with one another, as their
sumed to be the lot of Bohemian artists in very faces represent: one is trying to throw
general; M. Champfleury has arrived at the down his neighbour j another has just thrown
rapid conclusion, that Pauson was the doyen down his; another is slipping off his steed,
of all caricaturists. And he vindicates him, in order to bathe himself in the basin of the
eloquently, from the aspersions of the Sta- hippodrome.’ *
gyrite. ‘ Aristotle,’ says he, ‘ preoccupied
But, to revert to our original distinction,
with the idea of absolute beauty, has not ancient art. though rich in the grotesque,
expounded the scope of caricature, and its does not produce on us the effect of carica
importance in society. This thinker, plun ture ; either it has no definite satirical aim,
ged in philosophical abstractions, despised orDM® has such, the satire is lost .upon our
as futile an act which nevertheless consoles ignorance. The attempts of antiquaries to
the people in its sorrows, avenges it on explain its productions byraWig them a
its tyrants, and reproduces, with a satirical supposed libellous meaning are among the
pencil, the thoughts of the multitude.’
most comical efforts of modern pedantry.
Pliny the elder, after mentioning the seri A laughable scene on an Etruscan vase, repous compositions of the painter Antiphilus, resenting a lover. climbing |l ladder to his
informs us that ‘ idem (Antiphilus) jocoso. mistress’s casement,' figures, we are told,
nomine Gryllum deridiculi habitus pinxit. Jupiter and Alcmena. The capital travesUndb hoc genus picturse Gryll^voeabantur. tie of fEneas and Anchises as monkeys
The meaning of this obscure passage — (PQm») is meant tolMBfee the imitative
whether Grylluswas a ridiculous personage style of Virgil! The well-known and amus
who had the misfortune to descend to posteri ing seejSeifn a paMs studio (tW.) is ‘ an
ty in some too faithful portrait byAntiphibus,' allusion to the deMkiM of art.’ A pigmy
or whether Grvllus was a serious person a.jgl and a fox (GreoorBn Museum) are a phi
perhaps the son of Xenophon and hero of losopher and flatterer. An owl cutting off
Mantinea, whose portrait was placed by the the head of a cock is Clytemnestra mur
Athenians in the Ceramicus, whom Anti dering AgameAon;
a^shopper
philus had the audacity to caricature — driving a parrot in a car (Herculaneum) is
has exercised. the wits of plenty of anti
quaries, and will no doubt give occupation
The ‘ leones. of Flavius Philostratus, a
to many more. However, it seems to be of*the age of the’ Flavian Emperors, contain writer
a rhe
from this anecdote of Pliny that grotesque torical description of a series of pictures which he
figures engraved on ancient gems have re saw, or feigns himself to have seen, in, a ‘ stoa,’ or
colonnaded
four or
ceived the name of ‘ Grylli ’ among the ated ‘in a building® ofthe city live stories,’situ
suburb of
Neapolis.’ The
curious in modern times. This title has subjects described are partly mythological, partly
landscape. Someof them are identical with those
been particularlyKapplied to those which of frescoes of Pompeii, overwhelmed at the same
represent figures ‘ composed of the heads period; and the general description of the style of
and bodies of different animals capriciously treatment such as to remind the reader closely of
united, so as to form monstrous and chim- | those beautiful and singular Specimens of the art
of a world gone by.
�558
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE
Seneca conducting Nero! Such are a few I tians, they still found pagan emblems and figamong the solemn interpretations which I ures in their models, and still went on imitat
modern sagacity has put on these ‘ capricci, ing them, sometimes merely copying, and
rather than caricatures,’ as M: Champfleury at others turning them to caricat ure or burlesque.
long that, a
truly calls them, with which the spirit of And this tendency continued sostill existedatre
much later date, where there
Greek antiquity, as playful as it was daring, mains of Roman buildings, the mediaeval archi
loved to decorate the chamber and engrave tects adopted them as models, and did not hesi
the gem.
tate to copy the sculpture, although it might
It is painful, and in some degree humiliat be evidently pagan in character. The accom
ing, to note the transition from the light and panying cut represents a bracket in the church
comparatively graceful character of ancient of Mont Majour, near Nismes, built in the tenth
art, even in its comic forms, to the excessive century. The subject is a monstrous head eat
grossness, meanness, and profanity, which ing a child, and we can hardly doubt that it
characterised the corresponding branch of it was really intended for a caricature on Saturn
in the middle ages in Western Europe. No devouring one of his children.’ — pp. 40-49.
doubt this change was partly a continuation
For our own parts, we should doubt
of that which took place when the brief im
portation of Grecian models into the West greatly whether the sculptor in question had
had ceased, and the coarser Roman style Saturn in his mind at all, any more than
Dante had when he imagined Satan devour
succeeded it.
ing a sinner with each of his three mouths:
‘ The transition from antiquity to what we the illustrations of which passage, in early
usually understand by the name of the middle illuminations and woodcuts, are exactly
ages,’ says Mr. Wright, ‘ was long and slow : like the copy in Mr. Wright’s work of this
it was a period during which much of the tex Mont Majour sculpture. And generally, we
ture of the old society was destroyed, while, at doubt whether Mr. Wright does not attri
the same time, a new life was gradually given bute to classical recollections .too large a
to that which remained. We know very little share in the production of that monstrous
of the comic literature of this period of transi style of art which furnishes our next re
tion ; its literary remains consist chiefly of a markable chapter in the history of carica
miss of heavy theology or of lives of Saints.
. . . The period between antiquity and the ture — the Ecclesiastical Grotesque, such
middle ages was one of such great and general as it exhibited itself especially in France,
destruction, that the gulf between ancient and England, and Germany. It has to our
mediaeval art seem to us greater and more ab minds very distinctive marks of a rougher
rupt than it really was. The want of monu Northern original. However this may be,
ments, no doubt, prevents our seeing the gradu there is something humiliating, as we have
al change of the ooe into the other; but enough, said, in the degradation of skill and esthet
nevertheless, of facts remain to convince us ic perception which is evinced by these rel
that it was not a sudden change. It is now, ics of generations to which we so often as
indeed, generally understood that the knowledge cribe a peculiarly reverential character.
and practice of the arts and manufactures of
the Romans were handed onward from master No doubt its elements, so to speak, may be
to pupil after the empire had fallen ; and this traced in part to some very ordinary pro
took place especially in the towns, so that the pensities of the human mind. It has been
workmanship, which had been declining in said, probably with some truth, that when
character during the later periods of the em the most prevailing of all common motives
pire, only continued in the course of degrada was an intense fear of hell and of evil
tion afterwards. Thus, in the first Christian spirits, the most natural mode of relief, by
edifices, the builders who were employed, or at reaction, was that of turning them into
least many of them, must have been pagans; ridicule. And however impossible it may
and they would fodow their old models of or
namentation, introducing the same grotesque be, to intellects cultivated after the modern
figures, the same masks and monstrous faces, fashion, to reconcile these propensities with
and even sometimes the same subjects from the a strong sense of the majestic and the beau
old mythology, to which they had been accus tiful, yet we cannot doubt the fact that they
tomed. It is to be observed, a so, that this kind were so reconciled. As. Dante could inter
of iconographical ornamentation had been en mingle his unique conceptions of supernatu
croaching more and more upon the old archi ral grandeur with minute descriptions of
tectural purity during the latter ages of the the farcical proceedings of the vulgarest
Empire, and that it was employed more pfo- possible fiends with their pitchforks, so the
•fusely in the later works, fro n which this task same artists who produced, or at least orna
was transferred to the ecclesiasical and to the
domestic architecture of the middle ages. Af mented, our cathedrals, with those glorious
ter the architects themselves had become Chris- | expressions of thought sublimed at once by
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
559
the love of beauty and the love of heaven, I pride, envy; in fact, all the deadly sins comcould furnish them out with the strangest, I bined in one diabolical whole? — p. 74.
meanest, often filthiest images which a de
The goat-like countenance of the arch
based imagination might suggest. Fortu
nately, age has done so much to veil these fiend is a common mediaeval, as well as mod
debauches of skill with sober indistinctness, ern German, type; but whoever wishes to
that they seldom strike the eye of a casual tracq backward the conception of Retsch’s
observer, in a sacred edifice, very offen Mepnistopheles, should look in particular at
sively. But they lurk everywhere, and in an ivory carving, in the Maskell collection
' disgusting multitudes; in the elaborate at the British Museum, of exquisite work
stonework of ceilings, windows, and' col manship, styled the Temptation of Christ, by
umns ; in battlements, bosses, and corbeils ; Christoph Angermair, 1616.
One more instance, and a very striking
in the wood-carving of stalls, misereres,
and often on the lower surface of folding one, may be mentioned by way of exception
subsellia; while they are equally to be found, to the ordinary meanness and vulgarity
strangest of all, where the Donna Inez of which characterise the mediaeval representa
Lord Byron’s ‘ Don Juan ’ found them, in tions of the supernatural. It is noticed and
the illuminated pages of missals, destined for engraved by Malcolm, in his ‘ History of
purposes of daily devotion. So long as Caricature? The missal of King Richard
these were confined to mere burlesque, no II., preserved in the BrMRi Museum, is full
great harm was done, and certainly non,e of grotesque illustrSions ofEhe ordinary
cast, though beautifully executed.
But
intended.
among them is one of a higher and stranger
turn of invention, the exact meaning of
‘ The number and variety of such grotesque which is unknown. It Represents the choir
faces/ says Mr. Wright, ‘which we find scat of a solemn Gothic chapel. A white monk
tered over the architectural decoration of our old is celebrating mass at the altar; another lies
ecclesiastical buildings, are so great that I will prostrate before it; ten of
order, seated
not attempt to give any more particular classifi in iSir stalls, sing the service. Above these
cation of them. All this church decoration was
intended especially to produce its effect upon the appearEeated in a higher range of stalls,
middle and lower classes, and mediaeval art was, five figures dimly drawn, which on examina
perhaps more than anything else, suited to nga tion appear to be robed skeletons — two
diaeval society, for it belonged to the mass and with the Papal tiara, two with coronets, one
not to the individual. The man who could enjoy with a cardinal’s hat. The effect of the
a match at grinning through horse collars, must whole is very terrific, after the fashion of
have been charmed by the grotesque works of the the ghostliest conceptions of Jean Paul
meidteval stone-sculptor and wood-carver; and, Richter, and otheiEGerman masters of the
we may add, that these display, though often spectral and calling back to
mind, at
rather rude, a very high degree of skill in art, a the same: time,(the coincidence the the lines
of
great power of producing striking imagery? —
which Shakspeare has put into the mouth of
p. 1.48.
‘ In all the delineations of demons we have the same monarch —
yet seen,’ he says elsewhere, ‘ the ludicrous is
the spirit which chiefly predominates; and in no ‘For within the hollow crown
one instance have we had a figure which is real That wreathes the mortal temples of a King,
ly demoniacal. The devils are droll, but not Keeps Deith his court: and there the antic sits,
frightful; they provoke laughter, or at least ex Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp?
cite a smile, but they create no horror. Indeed,
But when the prevailing and violent quar
they torment their victims so good-humouredly
that we hardly feel for them. There is, howev rels between different classes of religious
er, one well-known instance in which the me persons in the Church perverted the same
diaeval artist has shown himself thoroughly suc tendency into a taste for licentious ribaldry
cessful in representing the features of the spirit — when it was no longer the Devil who was
of evil. On the parapet of the external gallery piously laughed at in these compositions,
of the cathedral church of Notre Dame in Par but monks, nuns, hermits, and so forth, who
is, there is a figure in stone, of the ordinary were introduced as symbols of everything
stature of a man, representing the demon, ap
parently looking wi;h satisfaction upon the in degrading — when grotesque, assuming the
habitants of the city as they were everywhere in attitude of satire, turned, according to our
dulging in sin and wickedness. The unmixed suggested distinction, into caricature prop
evil — horrible in its expression in this coun erly so called — then the practice in ques
tenance — is marvellously portrayed. It is an tion assumed a much darker complexion.
absolute Mephistopheles, carrying in his features The foulest of these representations, and
a strange mixture of hateful qualities — malice, they are only too numerous, can be barely
�560
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
alluded to in a work like Mr. Wright’s. Au
older publication, already noticed, Mal
colm’s very imperfect ‘ History of Carica
ture,’ goes into more details respecting them.
We will only say that those who enter on
the subject had better not carry into the in
quiry exaggerated notions respecting the
decorum or the piety of the so-called ‘Ages
of Faith,’ lest they should be too abruptly
dispelled.
Gradually, and with the progress of en
lightenment, a somewhat more serious,
though still familiar, mode of dealing with
subjects of this description became general;
but the change was not so early as has been
sometimes supposed, since the stalls of Hen
ry VII.’s chapel at Westminster exhibit
some of the very worst of this class of offen
ces against taste and religious feeling. But
in the fifteenth century, under the hands of
its artists, the supernatural, though still
tainted with the grotesque, germinated into
the awful. The union of the two may still
be traced in that marvellous but perishing
series of representations, ranging over all
the known and conjectured regions of life
and eternity, which decorates the Campo
Santo of Pisa—that ‘‘Antechamber of
Death,’ as the Italians call it. From the
same sources of thought arose the profuse
crop of ‘ Danses Macabres,’ dances of death,
coarsely painted on thousands of cemetery
walls, and drawn and engraved by number
less artists, with more or less of spirit; phan
tasmagorias, in which the love of the horri
ble was repulsively mixed with that of the
ludicrous, but still far less ignoble in taste
and character than those early grotesques of
ecclesiastical sculpture, to which our atten
tion has been hitherto drawn.
It is refreshing, however, to turn from this
disagreeable class of subjects to the few
specimens of a freer and healthier turn for
the ludicrous, unmixed with profanity, which
mediaaval art has left us. Probably one of
the earliest specimens of English caricature
drawing, as distinguished from mere gro
tesque, is that described by Mr. Wright, as
follows: — ‘It belongs to the Treasury of
the Exchequer, and consists of two volumes
of vellum, called Liber A and Liber B, form
ing a register of treaties, marriages, and sim-,
ilar documents of the reign of Edward I.
The clerk who was employed in writing it
seems to have been, like many of these of
ficial clerks, somewhat of a wag, and he has
amused himself by drawing in the margin
figures of the inhabitants of the provinces
of Edward’s crown, to which the documents
referred. Some of these are plainly designed for caricature.’ Two of themare evi
GROTESQUE
dently Irishmen, their costume and weapon,
the broad axe, exactly answering to the de
scription given of them by Giraldus Cambrensis. Two are Welchmen — ludicrous
figures enough, whose dress is equally in ac
cordance with contemporary description,
except in one curious particular, which
writers have not noticed. The right legs
are naked, like those of the German hackbutteers in the ‘ Lay of the Last Minstrel ’:—
‘ Each better knee was bared, tr aid
The warrior in the escalade.’
‘ When the official clerk who wrote this tran
script came to documents relating to Gascony,
his thoughts wandered naturally enough to its
rich vineyards and the wine they supplied so
plentifully, and to which, according to old re
ports, clerks seldom showed any dislike; and
accordingly, in the next sketch, we have a Gas
con occupied diligently in pruning his vine
tree.’
From the sculptured and illuminated re
ligious-grotesque of the Middle Ages to the
German and Dutch woodcut-literature of
the period of the Reformation, the transition
is not a very wide one. The style is pretty
similar, the profanity much the same, only
a fiercer element has been added by contro
versial bitterness. Perhaps this class of
works may be justly cited, in chronological
series, as affording the real commencement
of the art of modern political caricature,
properly so called. On both sides of the
question this method of ridiculing antago
nists was most profusely resorted to. The
jovial, popular figure of Martin Luther, in
particular, formed, as it well might, a very
favourite piece de resistance for pictorial sa
tirists in the old interest to work upon. One
cut, preserved by Mr. Wright, ‘ taken from
a contemporary engraving in wood, presents
a rather fantastic figure of the demon play
ing on the bagpipes. The instrument is
formed of Luther’s head, the pipe through
which the devil blows entering his ear, and
that through which the music is produced
forming an elongation of the reformer’s
nose. It was a broad intimation that Lu
ther was a mere tool of the evil one, created
for the purpose of bringing mischief into
the world.’ — p. 251. But, continues Mr.
Wright, the reformers were more than a
match for their opponents in this sort of
warfare. Doctor Martin had been identi
fied, for various cogent reasons, with Anti
christ : —
.
•
‘ But the reformers had resolved, on what ap
peared to be much more conclusive evidence,
�/!
.
561
IN LITERATURE AND ART.-
that Antichrist was only emblematical of the [ he chose, to rank among the most original
papacy : that under this form he had been long | as well as powerful of modern artists — the
dominant on earth, and that the end of his reign I famous Jacques Callot, born at the end of
was then approaching. A remarkable pamph I the century, in 1592 — a man, as Mr.
let, designed to bring this idea pictorially before i Wright truly observes, who was destined
the world, was produced from the pencil of
Luther’s friend, the celebrated painter Lucas j not only to give a new character to the
Cranach, and appeared in the year 1521, under ! then recent art of engraving on copper,
the title of “ The Passionale of Christ and An | but also to bring in a new style of ludic
tichrist.” It is a small quarto, each page of rous and fanciful composition. Inimita
which is nearly filled by a woodcut, having a ble, however, as Callot’s works are, they
few lines of explanation in German below. The belong rathesl to the class of ‘ caprices,’
cut to the left represents some incident in the or ‘ ex-travaganzas,’ than of caricature in
life of Christ, while that facing it to the right the sense in which we have used it; for his
gives a contrasting fact in the history of Papal genius had not the satirical turn, properly
tyranny. Thus, the first cut on the left repre speaking: and the same may be said of his
sents Jesus in His humility, refusing earthly
dignities and power, while on the adjoining page most successful copyisfflDella Bella, a clever )
we see the Pope, with his cardinals and bishops, artist, but who never succeeded in equalling
. supported by his hosts of warriors, his cannon his origin IM The works of Romain de
and fortifications, in his temporal dominion over Hooghe, who, brought up in the merely exsecular princes. On another we have Christ travagant school of Callot, was extensively
washing the feet of his disciples, and in con employed in producing ^satirical and em
trast the Pope compelling the Emperor to kiss blematic representations of English political
his toe. And so on, through a number of illus events after the Restoration, perhaps serve
trations, until at last we come to Christ’s ascen
sion into heaven, in contrast with which a troop as the connecting link between the old
of demons, of the most varied and singular ‘ caprice ’ and the modern political carica
forms, have seized upon the Papal Antichrist, ture.
The need for pictorial representations to
and are casting him down into the flames of
hell, where some of his own monks wait to re stimulate the political feelings of the public,
in times when literature was comparatively
ceive him.’— p. 254.
scanty, had been of course as keenly felt in
This style of pictorial satire, as the ad England as in c®Br errantries $ but it was
*
vancing art of wood-engraving began more kept in check, through the public contests >
and more to multiply specimens, attained, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
as we have said, much popularity in the six by the great inferioritjalof our artists, and
teenth century in Germany, and extended particularly our engravers, to those of the
itself from religious to political and purely Continent. Here and there we meet with
social subjects. Its latest employment in ’striking exceptions. The vwodcuts to the
those regions on a large and popular scale first edition of ‘Fox’s Martyrs’ contain,
was perhaps during the Thirty Years’ War ; among the fearful scenes which they gener
but the extremity to which that country was ally representkjcaricature likenesses of Gar
reduced by that dreary contest seems to diner, Bonner, and other well-known per
have extinguished its very life. The works sonages of the time, and are singularly pow
of this class, disseminated through broad erful in execution. But the like of these
sides, printed sheets, large illustrated folios are very few. One odd illustration, per
and popular duodecimos, are frequently ex haps, of the need felt for these pictorial rep
ecuted with considerable spirit as well as resentations, and the defectiveness of the
humour. But often, and especially towards ordinary means for supplying it, is to be
the latter portion of the period, they exhibit found in the peculiar taste of that age for
a strong tendency to become pedantic and employing elaborate devices on banners
allegorical. When the art of caricature, borne in procession or carried in the field,
becoming over-learned, addresses itself to in order to stimulate the ardour of partisans.
particular classes only, and requires a spe It will be remembered how the Scottish
cial education in order to make its products Protestant lords took the field against
understood, it may be-safely pronounced in Queen Mary with (among others) a great
a declining condition.
standard, on which the catastrophe of the
Perhaps the most successful result of the Kirk of Field was represented, with the fig
early wood cut-grotesque was, that it led the ure of Darnley lying on the ground, and.
way for greater achievements in art; and the words ‘ Judge and revenge my cause, O
its influence may be especially traced in the Lord.’ In the Great Rebellion such stand
designs of one who deserves, notwithstand ards were abundantly used, chiefly on the
ing the inferiority of the department which Royalist side, with devices both serious and
THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXXII.
1476.
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t
�562
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
GROTE.SQUE
of the caricature order. Here is an ex
English specimens of art, at first few and
ample of the latter, taken by the Round far between, began to make their way into
heads at Marston Moor, described by Rush favour among these foreign importations;
worth : —
and it is just at this period (the reign of
George I.) that we find them first exhibiting
‘ A yellow coronet: in its middle a lion couch the well-known advertisements,4 Printed for
ant, and behind him a mastiff seeming to Carington Bowles, next the Chapter House
snatch at him, and in a label from his mouth
written, Kimboltoq: at his feet little beagles, in St. Paul’s Church Yard, London,’—a
and before their mouths written, Pym, Pym, house famous in the same line for full a cen
Pym : and out of the lion’s mouth these words tury afterwards.
4 It was a defect of the earlier publica
proceeding, Quousque tandem abutere patientions of this class,’ says Mr. Wright in his
tia nostra ? ’
earlier work, 4 that they partook more of
Another curious vehicle of political cari an emblematical character than of what we
cature in England, in the seventeenth cen now understand by the term 44 caricature.”
tury, generally of very inferior order, was Even Hogarth, when he turned his hand to
that of playing-cards. 4 The earliest of politics, could not shake off his old preju
these packs of cards known,’ says Mr. dice on this subject; and it would be diffi
Wright, is one which appears to have been cult to point out worse examples than the
published at the very moment of the restora two celebrated publications which drew
tion of Charles II., and which was perhaps upon him so much popular odium,44 The
engraved in Holland. It contains a series Times.” ’ The reader will easily under
of caricatures on the principal acts of the stand the distinction, though^it cannot of
commonwealth, and on the parliamentary course be traced out with absolute accuracy
leaders.’ The ace of diamonds, for instance, in comparing different pieces. A design,
: represents 4 The High Court of Justice, or for example, in which political characters
Oliver’s Slaughterhouse.’ Among other are represented under the guise of various
packs of a" similar character which have animals, is generally emblematic or sym
been preserved, one relates to the Popish bolical in character. This is a simple in
Plot, another to the Ryehouse Conspiracy stance ; but the symbolism is often compli
(published in Holland), another to the cated, and not easy of • comprehension.
South Sea Bubble.
Hence a necessity for long letterpress ex
Romain de Hooghe, already mentioned planations in the form of labels issuing
as a follower of Callot, became, together from the mouths of the characters, or other
with others of his countrymen, as we have wise — a device showing inferiority of skill.
seen, the great exponent of English political The most effective caricature explains it
satires during the events of the last Stuart self, and exhibits point instead of allegory.
. reigns. Their productions must have been The favourite plates of the first part of the
widely circulated in England ; and, in fact, Georgian era, which appeared periodically,
, superseded in public estimation the very about 1740, styled 4 The Series of Euro
. inferior articles of domestic manufacture. pean State Jockies,’ and so forth, were
This period of Dutch supremacy among us compositions of many figures, as hiero
may be said to have continued down to the glyphical as the frontispiece to a prophetical
• date of the South Sea Bubble aforesaid ■— almanac. The gradual way in which Eng
‘ the time,’ says Mr. Wright, 4 in which lish comic art became emancipated from
■ caricatures began to be common in Eng this somewhat pedantic mould may be illus
land ; lor they had been before published at trated by a later instance, out of Gillray’s
rare intervals, and "partook so much of the works. Charles Fox was represented by
character of emblems that they are not the caricaturists of his youth with a fox’s
easily understood.’ The earliest of these, head, as his father, Lord Holland, had al
and the best, were of Dutch manufacture, most invariably been before him. And so
yet these were negligently executed. 4 So he is in one or two of Gillray’s first prints.
little point is there often in these carica But Gillray almost immediately abandoned
tures, and so great appears to have been the the old usage, and gave the patriot his own
call for them in Holland, that people seem burly physiognomy. The gradual passage
to have looked up old engravings destined from the emblematic to the simply satirical
■ originally for a totally different purpose, completes the establishment of the modern
. and, adding new inscriptions and new ex- English school of caricature.
The nature of the change cannot be bet
j planations, they were published as carical tures on the Bubble.’ *
ter exemplified than by reference to a piece
which had prodigious vogue in its day, and
* House of Hanover, i, 71.
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
/
x
,
■
• i
■
<
■
563
is repeatedly mentioned with interest by described in the .verses accompanying the
Horace Walpole and other contemporaries. print, which are wittier than the print
Copies of it are still common in collections : itself. Its great success, however, was
we have seen it even jconverted into the evinced by the numerous rival works of art
mounting of a lady’s fan. This is headed of both political colours which it called,
‘ The Motion, 1741/ and commemorates the forth, ‘ the Reason, ‘ the Motive/ ‘ the
failure of a famous attempt to upset Sir Grounds,’ &c. It may perhaps be said with
Robert Walpole’s government. The back truth to be the prototype of that whole
ground represents Whitehall, the Treasury, class of pictorial satires, great favourites
and the adjoining buildings as they then | with Englishmen, in which the small revo
stood. (The spectator is looking down lutions of ministries and oppositions are
Whitehall from a point nearly opposite travestied as scenes of popular life.
the modern Admiralty : to his left is a dead
We need not delay over the other innu
wall along the east side of the street, be- merable caricatures of the same reign; •
hind it private buildings, Scotland Yard, they are generally very ignoble ones; but
&c., extending as far as the Banqueting ghe comparative novelty of the fashion in
House; in front, the gateway over the en England rendered them extremely popular,
trance of what is now Parliament Street, and there was a kind of frank jollity pre
with the inscription ‘ Treasury.’)
dominant in the English body corporate
*>
just at that epoch — the epoch, as Hallam
‘Lord Carteret, in the coach, is driven to satisfied himself, of the maximum of physi
ward the Treasury by the Duke of Argyll as cal well-being to be traced in our history
coachman, with the Earl of Chesterfield as among the mass of the people — which
postilion, who, in their haste, are overturning peculiarly suited this development of broad
the vehicle; and Lord Carteret cries “ Let me
get out!” The Duke brandishes a wavy national humour. One or two specimens
sword, instead of a whip; and between his may detain for a moment the eyes of those
legs the heartless changeling, Bubb Dodington, who turn them over, rare as they have now
sits in the form of a spaniel. . i. . ' Lord generally become, in the collection at the
Cobham holds firmly by the straps behind, as British Museum, or in that far more valua
footman; while Lord Lyttelton follows on ble one amassed in many a year of busy
horseback, characterised equally by his own collectorship by Mr. Hawkins, formerly of
lean form, and that of the animal on which that establishment. There is a wild force
he strides. ... In front, Pulteney, drawl in the very rough execution of the print on
ing his partisans by the noses, and wheeling a
barrow laden with the writings of the Opposi the original broadside of Glover’s famous
tion, the Champion, the Craftsman, Common ballad, ‘ Hosier’s Ghost,’ in which the spirits
Sense, &c., exclaims, “ Zounds, they’re of ‘ English captains brave,areally form a
ours ! ’” *
very spectral crew. Another may be noted
for the quiet savageness of its insult to
This once famous squib affords, as we Lord George Sackville: it is entitled, ‘ A
have said, a good exemplification of the Design for a Monument to General Wolfe
passage from the old and formal to the (1760), or, a Living Dog better than a Dead
modern style of political caricature. It Lion.’ The dead lion reclines below a bust
bears strongly the type of Dutch origin, of this hero : the living dog at his side is a
but without the carefulness of Dutch ex greyhound, and on his collar is the word
ecution. The idea is clever and suggestive, ‘ Minden.’ And, lastly, one more, for the
but the workmanship at once artificial and very oddity of the conception : ‘ Our late
feeble.
The likenesses were no doubt Prime Minister,’ 1743. It is simply the jolly
sufficiently good to amuse the public of that face of Sir Robert Walpole, without any
day; Horace Walpole calls them 1 admira accessories whatever, thrown back as against
ble ; ’ but they are inexpressive. The wavy a pillow, and the jaws relaxed into a most
sword, a relic of the emblematic school, is contagious yawn, with the words, ‘ Lo,
a clumsy piece of allegory, spoiling the what are all your schemes come to ? ’ and
realism of the piece; and so is the figure the lines from the Dunciad : —
of Pulteney, leading the Tory squires by
cords passed through their noses. The ‘ Ev’n Palinurus nodded at the helm
only fun in the composition is to be found The vapour mild o’er each Committee crept,
in the figures of Bubb Dodington as a Unfinished treaties in each office slept,
spaniel, and Lord Lyttelton on horseback And chiefless armies dozed out the campaign,
— ‘ so long, so lean, so lank, so bony,’ as And navies yawned for orders on the main.’
* House of Hanover, i. 179.
i
We cannot, however, pass over the period
�564
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
of George II. without noticing that it seems
to us to be the first in which that much
enduring animal, the British lion, figures
extensively as a popular character. As
yet, people’s eyes were not open to his
ludicrous side, and artists accordingly made
free with him in every variety of emblema
tic action. We have him roaring with in
dignation at the misdeeds of various Minis
ters ; ‘ hocussed ’ apparently, and with the
Spaniard paring his claws, in allusion to
the matter of Jenkins’s ears: frightening
the Gallic cock, defending the Austrian
eagle, led passive in a leash by the Duke of
Newcastle; and, lastly, ‘ embracing George
II.’ (1745), to the discomfiture of the Pope
and Pretender, who exclaim: ‘ We shall
never be a match for George while that
lion stands by him I ’
Some of the names of the hack carica
turists of this epoch are preserved by Mr.
Wright; most of them of as little notoriety
as merit. Among them< however, are some
amateurs of social position ; and one dame
of quality—a Countess of Burlington.
‘ She was the lady of the Earl who built
Burlington House in Piccadilly; was the
leader of one of the factions in the Opera
disputes at the close of the reign of George
I.; and is understood to have designed the
well-known caricature upon Cuzzoni, Fari
nelli, and Heidegger, which was etched by
Guppy, whom she patronised.’
Such were the very undistinguished
characteristics and history of English art
in the grotesque and comic line, when the
appearance of Hogarth on the stage marked
an entirely new epoch in its history. It
would be superfluous here to recapitulate
the details of the life or achievements of
our great domestic painter; the more so,
as his powers in the line of caricature, pro
perly so called, though very great, were
subordinate to his far higher merits as a
painter of ‘ genre,’ as the French phrase it,1
a delineator of popular scenes and incidents
into which the humorous only entered as an
ingredient, although a very important one.
As a political caricaturist poor Hogarth
made a fatal mistake: he took the wrong
side:—
..
4|<
tjUlW
‘It appears evident,’ says Mr. Wright, ‘that
before this time (October, 1760) Hogarth had
gained the favour of Lord Bute, who, by his
interest with the Princess of Wales, was all
powerful in the household of the young Prince.
The painter had hitherto kept tolerably clear
of politics in his prints, but now, unluckily
for himself, he suddenly rushed into the arena
of political caricature. It was generally said
that Hogarth’s object was, by displaying his;
GROTESQUE
1,4
zeal in the cause of his patron, to obtain an in
crease of his pension; and he acknowledges
himself that his object was gain. “ This,” he
says, “being a period when war abroad and
contention at home engrossed everyone’s mind,
prints were thrown in the background; and the
stagnation rendered it necessary that I should
do some timed thing to recover my lost time,
and stop a gap in my income.” Accordingly
he determined to attack the great minister
Pitt, who had recently been compelled to re
sign his office, and had gone over to the oppo
sition. It is said that John Wilkes, who had
previously been Hogarth’s friend, having been
privately informed of his design, went to the
painter, expostulated with him, and, as he con
tinued obstinate, threatened retaliation.’
‘ The Times, No. 1,’ was the first fruit of
Hogarth’s unlucky fit of loyalty ; a labour
ed emblematic print, after the. older fash
ion, to the glory of Lord Bute and discredit
of Pitt. Wilkes attacked the artist in the
‘ North Briton; ’ Hogarth retorted — only
too successfully—in this admirable print
of Wilkes with the cap of liberty: ‘ eventu
que impalluit ipse secundo,’ for Wilkes,
with all his apparent firn and bonhomie,
was a deadly enemy. The nettled patriot
brought his friend Churchill, and a host
more of libellers in letterpress and in cop
perplate, on the back of his unfortunate as
sailant : —
‘ Parodies on his own works, sneers at his
personal appearance and manners, reflections
upon his character, were all embodied in prints
which bore such names as Hogg-ass, Hoggart,
O’Garth, &c. . . . The article by Wilkes
in the “ North Briton,” and Churchill’s metri
cal epistle, irritated Hogarth more than the
hostile caricatures, and were generally believed
to have broken his heart. He died on the 26 th
of October, 1764, little more than a year after
the appearance of the attack by Wilkes, and
with the taunts of his political as well as his
professional enemies still ringing in his ears.’
— pp. 446-449.
Hogarth left no school of followers; his
genius was of too independent and peculiar
an order to admit of this. Perhaps the
nearest to him was Paul Sandby; described
by Mr. Wright as ‘ one of those rising artists
who were offended by the sneering terms in
which Hogarth spoke of all artists but him
self, and foremost among those who turned
their satire against him.’ Sanby was one
of the original members of the Royal Ac ardemy, and is best known as a topographical
draughtsman; but Mr. Wright terms him
the father of water-colour art in England.
As a caricaturist he led the attack against
Lord Bute and the Princess Dowager, as
�I' * >
IN LITERATURE AND ART.
well as against Hogarth ; his sketch of the
two Scotchmen travelling to London on a
witch’s broomstick, with the inscription,
‘ the land before them is as the Garden of
Eden, and behind them a desolate wilder
ness,’ is one of the best of the witticisms
provoked by the miso-Caledonian movement
of that day.
We cannot quite dgree with Mr. Wright
when he says that, ‘ with the overthrow of
Bute’s Ministry (1763) we may consider the
English school of caricaturists as completely
formed and fully established.’ On the con
trary, it seems to us, from such collections as
we have examined, that the political branch
of the art was at a particularly low standard
for nearly twenty years after that event. The
American war produced very little amuse
ment of this kind; it was an affair into
which the nation entered with a dogged and
reluctant seriousness: and Washington and
Franklin, Silas Deane and John Adams,
afforded but drab-eoloured subjects for the
facetious limner. Social topics were just then
much more in vogue ; the extravagances in
dress of the Macaronies and high-flying la
dies'of the day (the acme of absurdity, in
modern costume, was certainly reached in
the years 1770-1780), the humours of Vauxhall,.and Mrs. Cornely’s masquerades, di
verted men’s minds from the bitter disap
pointment of a contest in which nothing
was to be gained either by persevering or
giving way.
*
Perhaps the best specimen
of the pictorial humour of that time was to
be found, not in the shop window prints!
but in the pages of the numerous magazines;
some of these never appeared without an
illustration or two of the jocose order, like
the comic newspapers of our time. But
when the incubus of the American war was
removed, and domestic faction reappeared
on the stage in all its pristine vivacity, the
simultaneous appearance of the ‘ Rolliad ’
and its fellow satires in literature, and of
Gillray and his fellow-workmen in art,
heralded the advent of a new era.
We must hasten to him whom Mr. Wright
terms, with perfect justice in our opinion,
1 the greatest of English caricaturists, and
perhaps of all caricaturists of modern times
whose works are known — James Gillray.’
His father was an out-pensioner of Chel* In one of the caricatures of this period (repro
duced by Mr. Wright in his former work) Lord
Sandwich is represented with a bat in his hand, in
allusion, we are told, to his fondness for cricket;
but it is a curved piece of wood, much more resem
bling that with which golf is played. And the same
peculiarly shaped instrument is put into the hand
of a cricket-loving lady in a.print of 1778 (Miss
Wicket and Miss Trigger).' What is the date of the
bat now used ?
.
‘ 565
sea Hospital, and sexton of the Moravian
burial-ground at Chelsea, where the carica
turist was born in 1757. Belonging by his
origin, and still more by his loose and Bohe
mian habits, to a very ordinary sphere of
life, it is certainly singular that he should
have acquired such a close observation and
intimate knowledge of events as they oc
curred, not only in the political, but in the
fashionable world. His great sources of
information were, no doubt, the newspa
pers ; but occasionally he seems even to have
anticipated the newspapers; more than one
court scandal and state intrigue seems to
have been blazoned first to public notice
in the well-known shop windows of Hum
phreys or of Fores, always crowded with
loiterers as soon as one of Gillray’s novel
ties appeared. It is no doubt true, and af
fords a curious subject of speculation to any
one who may think the inquiry worth pur
suing, that, when Gillray’s fame was estab
lished, many an amateur of the higher cir
cles seems to have assisted him, not merely
in furnishing hints, but also sketches, which
Gillray etched and sold for his own profit.
Some of his best caricatures, if we are not
mistaken J are from outlines supplied by
Bunbury, others were composed by Brown '
low North. But these are exceptions only,
and do-not invalidate the general proposi
tion as to the singularity of the circum
stance that this drunken son of a sexton was
for many years the pictorial Aristophanes
of his day, and aided, at least, by those who
were behind the sceMs. of much which
took place in the inner recesses of high
life.
His fame as a political caricaturist was
first established by his burlesque prints on
Rodney’s victory (1782). The rueful figure
of the unlucky French admiral De Grasse,
in one of them, is among the most charac
teristic of his performances. As we have
said, it was some time before he thoroughly
emancipated himself from the allegorical
style ; and another peculiarity of inferior ar
tists haunted him a long' time, the fashion,
namely, of overloading his compositions
with quantities of letter-press, oratorical or
jocose, proceeding from the mouths of his
characters, as if his pencil had not been fully
powerful enough to speak for itself. He
rushed with an energy all his own into the
war of squibs which succeeded the Fox and
North coalition, and then conceived those
ideals of the leading patriot, and of his
friend Burke, which he afterwards rendered
popular in every corner of the kingdom by
a thousand repetitions. A very admirable
series of sketches, however, of these two
�566
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE
and Lord North, as ‘War, Peace, and
Neither War nor Peace,’ portraits scarcely
touched with grotesque, though in skilfully
exaggerated attitudes, commonly inserted
in the bound volumes of Gillray’s works, is,
we are satisfied, not his; it bears much
more the appearance of Sayer’s workman
ship. Fox and his personal following were
peculiarly the objects of Gillray’s aversion ;
and, not many years later than this, the
unhappy circumstances of the Prince of
Wales’s matrimonial career provoked him
into a series of the most popular, daring,
and spirited of all his works; some of which,
however, it is not easy in our decent age to
indicate even by reference, though they
seem to have been exposed without scandal
in the most frequented thoroughfares of Lon
don. Gillray, however, was ‘ not a hired
libeller,’says Mr. Wright,‘like Sayer and
some other of the lower caricaturists of that
time: he evidently chose his subjects in
some degree independently, as those which
offered him the best mark for ridicule; and
he had so little respect for the ministers or
the court, that they all felt his satire in
turn.’ After exhausting his power of picto
rial invention against the heir apparent,
he found a still more congenial subject of
1 satire in the peculiarities of his Majesty
George III. himself. Here, however, per
sonal spite is said to have given the induce
ment.
‘ According to a story which seems to be
authentic, Gillray’s dislike of the King was em
bittered bv an incident somewhat similar to
that by which George II. had provoked the
anger of Hogarth. Gillray had visited France,
Flanders, >and Holland, and he had made
sketches, a few of which he had engraved. He
accompanied the painter Loutherbourg, who
had left his native city of Strasburg to settle
in England, and became the King’s favourite
artist, to assist him in making groups for his
great painting of the ‘ Siege of Valenciennes,’
Gillray sketching groups of figures while
.Loutherbourg drew the landscapes and build
ings. After their return, the King expressed a
desire to see these sketches, and they were
placed before him. Louthesbourg’s landscapes
and buildings were plain drawings, and easy to
understand, and the King expressed himself
greatly pleased with them. But the King’s
mind was already predjudiced against Gillray
for his satirical prints : and when he saw his
hasty and rough, though spirited sketches of
the French soldjers, he threw them aside con
temptuously with the remark, “ I don’t under
stand these caricature fellows.” Perhaps the
„ very word he used was intended as a sneer
upon Gillray, who, we are told, felt the affront
deeply, and he proceeded to retort by a carica
ture which struck at once at one of the
King’s vanities, and at his political predjudices.
George III. imagined himself a great connois
seur in the Fine Arts, and the caricature was
entitled “ a connoisseur examining a Cooper’.”'
It represented the King looking at the celebrat
ed miniature of Oliver Cromwell, by the Eng
lish painter, Samuel Cooper. When Gillray
had completed this print, he is said to have ex
claimed, “I wonder if the Royal connoisseur
will understand this!” It was published on
the 18th of June, 1792, and cannot have failed
to produce sensation at that period of revolu
tions. The King is made to exhibit a strange
mixture of alarm with astonishment hi contem
plating the features of this great overthrower
of kingly power, at a moment when all kingly
power was threatened. It will he remarked,
too, that the satirist has not overlooked the
royal character for domestic economy; the
King is looking at the picture by the light of a
candle end stuck on a save-all.’
If there is any truth in the story, certainly
never was artist’s revenge more completeThe homely features of the poor old king
— his prominent eyes, light eyebrows, pro
truding lips, his shambling walk, his gaze of
eager yet vacant curiosity — are even now
better known to us through Gillray’s carica
tures than through anything which theMuses of painting and sculpture, in their
serious moods, could effect for him or
against him. Gillray’s etchings, and Peter
Pindar’s verses, were for years among the
minor plagues of royalty. Not, indeed, in
the estimation of the stout-hearted monarch
himself, as impervious to ridicule as to
argument whenever he thought himself in
the right; no man in his dominions laughed
more regularly at each hew caricature of
Gillray than he ; and a whole set, inscribed
‘ for the king,’ forwarded to him as they
came out, is said to be preserved at Wind
sor. But they were more keenly felt by
his little knot of attached courtiers, and
also by sober-minded people in general,
seriously apprehensive, in those inflammable
times, of anything which might throw ridi
cule on the Crown. One of the coarsest
and most powerful, and which is said to
have given especial offence at head-quarters,
is that which represents Queen Charlotte as
Milton’s Sin, between Pitt as Death and
Thurlow as the Devil. Others, of less
virulence, such as ‘ Affability,’ or the King
and the Ploughman ; the ‘ Lesson in Apple
Dumplings ; ’ the conjugal breakfast scene,
where George is toasting muffins, and Char
lotte frying sprats; the ‘ Anti-Saccharites,’
where the Royal pair are endeavouring to
coax the reluctant princesses (charming
figures) to take their tea without sugar, —
these, and numbers more, held up the Royal
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
567
peculiarities, especially the alleged stingi wild and extravagant now grew on him.
ness of the Court, in a manner in which the Doubtless it was sharpened by the effect on
usual coarseness of the execution rather his brain of constant potations, which grad
tended to heighten the exceeding force and ually brought on delirium tremens. His
latest art-debauches — if such we may term
humour of the satire.
But when this country became seriously them — have often a touch of phantasma
involved in hostilities with France, repub goric-pictorial nightmare, like those of Callot,
lican, and afterwards imperial, a change Teniers, and Hollenbreughel. His last draw
came over the spirit of Gillray’s satire. ing is preserved in the British Museum, exe
Thenceforth he gradually ceased his at cuted when he was quite out of his mind — a
tacks, not only on the Royal family, but on madman’s attempt at a portrait, said to be
domestic objects of raillery in general, and that of Mr. Humphreys, the printseller. He
applied himself almost exclusively to sharp died in 1815 ; and the inscription 4 Here lies
ening the national spirit of hostility against James Gillray, the caricaturist,’ marks, or
the foreign enemy. His caricatures against lately marked, the spot of his interment in
the French are those by which he is best the Broadway, Westminster. His works,
known, especially abroad, and occupy the once so popular, had fallen so much in
greatest space in his works. This was, no fashion a few years ago that the plates were
doubt, the popular line to take, and Gillray about to be sold for old copper, when they
worked for money; but it would be doing were rescued by Mr. J. H. Bohn, the pub
great injustice to the poor caricaturist’s lisher, who gave to the public those now
memory to suppose that money was his well-known re-impressions which have pro
main object. The son of the old pensioner cured for the artist a new' lease of fame.
Gillray was the Rubens of caricature, and
was full of the popular instincts of his class.
It was not the French revolution or con the comparison is really one which does no
quests that he opposed; it was the French injustice to the inspired Fleming. The life
themselves, whom he hated with all the ve like realism of the Englishman’s boldlyhemence of a Nelson or a Windham. rounded, muscular figures, and the strong
These later compositions of his are, indeed, expression communicated to them by a few
marvellous performances. But they are so strokes of the pencil, are such as Antwerp
rather from the intensity of imaginative fu in all her pride might not disdain. Any
ry with which they are animated, than from one who has studied some of Rubens’s
crowds of nude figures which approach
the ordinary qualities of the caricaturist.
They are comparatively destitute of his nearest to the order of caricature — his
old humour and fun. Not that he had out sketches of the4 Last Judgment,’for instance,
grown these. His few domestic caricatures in the Munich Gallery —■ will appreciate the
are still full of them; such are those on justice of the parallel. Gillray was undoubt
4 All the Talents ’ (1806), one of which, the edly coarse to excess, both in conception
4 Funeral of Baron Broadbottom,’ is among and execution ; so much so, as to render his
the most comic of all his productions. The last works mere objects of disgust to many ed
survivor of its procession of mourners, the ucated in the gentler modern school. But
late Marquis of Lansdowne, has now been there are also numbers of a taste more re
dead for some years ; the features of the re fined than catholic, who disclaim all admira
mainder are quite unfamiliar to this genera tion for Rubens on the very same grounds.
tion ; and yet it is scarcely possible to look And one quality Gillray possessed which
at it even now without a smile, such as we was apparently discordant from his ordinary
bestow on the efforts of our cotemporaries character. Many of his delineations of female
Leech or Doyle. But when Gillray tried beauty ■ are singularly successful, and he
his vein on a French subject, he passed at seems to have dwelt on them with special
once from the humourous to the grotesque, pleasure, for the sake of the contrast with
and thence to the hideous and terrible. his usual disfigurements of humanity. His
One of his eccentric powers, amounting heroines are certainly not sylphs, but they
certainly to genius, comes out strongly in often are, like the celestials of Rubens, un
these later caricatures ; that of bringing to commonly fine women. Let us refer to a
gether an enormous number of faces, dis few well-known instances only ; such as his
torted into every variety of grimace, and representations of Mrs. Fitzherbert at her
yet preserving a wonderfully human ex best time, notwithstanding the. prominence
pression. We would signalise particularly of the aquiline feature, which it was his
two, one almost tragical, thh 4 Apotheosis of business to enhance ; of George III.’s daugh
Hoche;’ one farcical, the ‘Westminster ters in the 4 Anti-Saccharites,’ and other
Election’ (1804). The tendency to the prints; the Duchess of Richmond as the
�..
568
1
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE
‘ Height of Fashion; ’ the charming seated
figure entitled ‘ Modern Elegance,’ 1795
(said to be Lady Charlotte Campbell, but
is it not an older person ?), in which, though
the costume is playfully exaggerated, the
features are finely drawn; the beauty (evi
dently a portrait also) who is reading Monk
Lewis’s ‘Tales of Wonder’ to a' bevy of
I very homely gossips (1802); and even the
I common ball-room figures, in ‘ A Broad
1
1'Hint of not meaning to Dance’ (1804), in
which, however, the design is Brownlow
North’s.
Still, we fear that Gillray must be gener
ally comprehended in the somewhat auda
cious assertion of M. Champfleury, that
‘satirists, from Moliere down to Prudhon,
only recognise two conditions for women —
those of courtezan and housewife.’ It will
be seen that several of our instances are
taken from what may be termed social,
in contradistinction to political, caricatures,
many of which are quite equally worthy of
the master, although not those on which his
popularity mainly rests. They are often of
a libellous boldness, inconceivable now-adays, and equally so in earlier times; for
the generation to which Gillray belonged
stood out in bad pre-eminence among all
others in English domestic history in respect
of this particular kind of coarseness — a
generation which could see exposed in the
shop-windows such shameless pictorial sa
tires as those directed against Lady Arch
er, and other dames of gambling celebrity;
or the representation of the dashing daugh,
ters of a countess as the ‘ Three Graces in
a High Wind; ’ or of a titled beauty nurs
ing her infant in a ball-dress, as the ‘ Fash
ionable Mamma; ’ or of Lady Cecilia John
ston, an inoffensive lady, of unobtrusive
style as well as character, against whom it
is said the artist had conceived some grudge,
which induced him spitefully to represent
her in all manner of ludicrous situations.
Others of this class, it may be added, related
to darker scandals behind the scenes, and
may not now be met with in the ordinary
collections of Gillray’s works, though they
excited little comment, and no disgust, in
his day. To pass again, for one moment
only, from Gillray’s merit as an artist,
to his specialty as a caricaturist; his strong
i power of seizing likenesses, and giving them
! a ludicrous expression, was, no doubt, the
1 chief element of his popularity. In this he
surpassed all his predecessors, though he has
been equalled by one or two of his succes
sors. But in one bye-quality we are in
clined to think him unrivalled: the faculty
of giving by a few touches a kind of double
expression to a countenance; cowardice
underlying bravado; impudence, affected,
modesty. See, as a specimen, the exceedingly comic representation of Addington
and Napoleon, sword in hand, daring each
other to cross the Channel which flows
between them. A single figure of Burke
as an ‘Uniform Whig’ (1791), admirably
drawn in other respects, conveys much
of this mingled meaning, though not quite
so easily decipherable. The sage is lean
ing against a statue of George III.; he
holds in one hand Burke’s ‘ Thoughts on
the Revolution,’ in the other a cap of liber
ty ; the motto, ‘ I preserve my consistency,
by varying my means to secure the unity of
my end.’ The caricaturist’s experience
had attained for once to ‘something like
prophetic strain.’ His facility of execution
was wonderful. It must, no doubt, be
added, as a natural qualification of such
praise, that his drawing is often incorrect
and careless in the extreme, even after
all allowance for what we have never seen
fully explained, the vast difference, in point
of excellence, between various copies of
what is apparently the same print. He
is said ‘to have .etched his ideas at once
upon £he copper, without making a previ
ous drawing, his only guides being sketches
of the distinguished characters he intended
to produce, made on small pieces of card,
which he always carried about with him.’
Of Rowlandson (born 1756, died 1827),
Mr. Wright speaks in high terms of praise,
saying that he ‘ doubtlessly stands second to ■
Gillray, and may, in some respects, be con
sidered as his equal.
. He was distin
guished by a remarkable versatility of tal
ent, by a great fecundity of imagination,
and by a skill in grouping quite equal to
that of Gillray, and with a singular ease in
forming his groups of a great variety of
figures. It has been remarked, too, that no
artist ever possessed the power of Rowland
son of expressing so much with so little ef
fort.’ We are sorry that we cannot, for our
own parts, subscribe to these eulogies. As
a political caricaturist — to which line he
resorted as a matter of trade, espousing the
Whig side as others did the Tory — he
seems to us dujl enough. In general sub
jects he succeeded better, yet appears to us
endowed with all Gillray’s coarseness, but
with little of his satirical power and none of
his artistic genius.
James Sayer, cotemporary with these
two as an artist, deserves mention as pos
sessed of a certain amount of original tai-'
ent, though not of a very high order. He
was ‘ a bad draughtsman,’ says Mr. Wright
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
—- surely too sweeping a criticism — ‘ and
his pictures are produced more by labour
than by skill in drawing, but they possess a
considerable amount of humour.’ His like
nesses, generally produced by a small num
ber of hard and carefully-executed lines,
seem to us of great merit as such, though
wanting in life and energy. He was almost exclusively a political caricaturist,
and, unlike the reckless ^but independent
Gillray, he turned his talents to good ac. count, devoting himself to the cause of Pitt,
who bestowed on him in return the ‘ not
, unlucrative offices of Marshal of the Court
of Exchequer, Receiver of the Sixpenny
Dues, and Cursitor.’ His most famous
production was the well-known ‘ Carlo
' Khan’s Triumphal Entry into Leadenhallstreet’ (on the occasion of Fox’s India Bill,
1783), still common in collections. Butthis
succeeded chiefly because it fell in with the
humour of the time; though the idea is
good, the execution is cold, and it is encum
bered with symbolical accessories, after the
older fashion which we have described.
Among his minor works, an unfinished proof
of Boswell, Mrs. Piozzi, and others of the
Johnsonian clique, with the ghost of the
Doctor himself scowling at them from
above, exhibits a good deal of his peculiar
laborious talent.
Our catalogue of cotemporaries would
hardly be complete without including in it
the clever and goodhumoured amateur
Henry Bunbury, though no dabbler in
State affairs, like jGillray and Sayer. Bunbury had (as Mr. Wright says) ‘ little taste
for political caricature, and seldom meddled
with it. He preferred scenes of social life
and humourous incidents of cotemporary
manners, fashionable or popular.’ It may
be added that he does not seem to have
often inserted portraits in his .pieces. He
was rather the forerunner of the modern
French ' school of grotesque artists ‘ de
genre,’ of whom we shall have a word to
say presently. His drawing, says Mr.
Wright, ‘ was often bold and good, but he
had little skill in etching.’ After some
early essays in that line, “ his designs were
engraved by various persons, and his own
style was sometimes modified in this pro
cess.’ We have ourselyes seen original
drawings by his hand, very superior both in
force and refinement to the coarse style of
the ordinary plates which bear his name.
z Perhaps the best known and most ludicrous
t of his compositions are his illustrations of
‘ Geoffry Gambado’s Art of Horsemanship.’
Bunbury was brother to the baronet who
married Lady Sarah Lennox, and himself
569
husband of one of Goldsmith’s’ favourite
Miss Hornecks. He died in 1811, the date
of his last work, ‘ A Barber’s Shop in Assize
Time,’ engraved by Gillray.
Passing over Isaac Cruikshank — a very
prolific artist of the same period with Gill
ray, of whom he was a pretty close imitator
— we arrive at his illustrious son George,
who still survives to connect our era with
the last. He is now almost forgotten as a
political caricaturist, in which line he em
barked, fifty years ago, under the auspices
of his father, but soon abandoned it to
achieve his peculiar andaunique celebrity as
an etcher of small figures, chiefly in the
way of illustrations to letterpress, in which
humour and the most exquisite appreciation
of the ludicrous alternate with beauty and
pathos of no common order. ‘ The ambi
tion of George Cruikshank,’ says Mr.
Wright, ‘ was to draw what Hogarth called
moral comedies, pictures of society through
a series of acts and scenes, always pointed
with some great moral; and it must be con
fessed that he has, through a long career,
succeeded admirably.’ Every one is aware
of the zeal with which the amiable artist
has devoted himself to promote the public
good by this employment of his brain, of
which an amusing illustration is furnished
by the current story — for the truth of
which, however, we will by no means vouch
— that he insisted on formally presenting
his ‘Drunkard’s Progress’ to her Majesty!
And yet, to our taste, George Cruikshank’s
most ambitious attempts in this line are
scarcely equal to the trifling productions
which he has now and then thrown off in
mere exuberance of genius and animal
spirits. The first edition of a little book,
entitled ‘ German Popular Stories,’ which
appeared in 1834 (the letterpress was by
the late Mr. Jardine), contains, on the mi
nutest possible scale, some of the most per-1feet gems, both of humour and gracefulness,
which are anywhere to be found. The
reader need only cast his eye on ‘ Cherry,
or the Frog-Bride ; ’ the ‘ Tailor and the
Bear-; ’ ‘ Rumpelstiltskin,’ and the inimi
table procession of country folks jumping
into the lake after the supposed flocks of
sheep in ‘ Pee-wit,’ to learn how much of fun,
and grotesque, and elegance of figures also,
and beauty of landscape, may be conveyed
in how few lines.
The history of English caricature of the
Georgian era would be incomplete without
a notice of the various printsellers who
supplied the material to the public, and
whose shop-windows furnished, not so many
years ago, favourite stages or stations, as it
�570
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
were, for the wandering Cockney, on his
peregrinations between East and West; and
with this Mr. Wright has accordingly fur
nished us. Perhaps the most celebrated
were Humphreys, of New Bond-street and
Piccadilly (whom, however, Mr. Wright
does not mention), and Fores.
‘ S. W. Fores dwelt first at No 3, Piccadilly,
but afterwards establishe i himself at No. 50, the
corner of Sackville Street, where the name still
remains. Fores seems to have been most fertile
in ingenious expedients for the extension of his
business. He formed a sort of library of cari
catures, and other prints, and charged for ad
mission to look at them; and he afterwards adopt
ed a system of lending them out in portfolios for
evening parties, at which these portfolios of car
icatures became a very fashionable amusement
in the latter part of the last century. At times
some remarkable curiosity was employed to add
to the attractions of his shop. Thus, on carica
tures published in 1790, we find the statement
that “ In Fores Caricature Museum is the completest collection in the kingdom. Also the
Head and Hand of Count Struenzee. Admit
tance, one shilling.” Caricatures against the
French revolutionists, published in 1793, bear
imprints stating that they were “ published by
S. W. Fores, No. 3 ,Piccadilly, where may be
seen a Complete Model of the Guillotine. Ad
mittance, one shilling.” In some this model is
said to be six feet high.’
Mr. Wright closes his list with George
Cruikshank, as the last representative of
the great school of caricaturists formed in
the reign of George HI. But there is anoth
er, still living among us, whose experience
as an artist goes very nearly back to that
reign, and who may be in the most literal
sense called the last of the political caricatu
rists as he is considered by many the best —
Mr. Doyle, the world-famous H.B. of the
past generation. Those who belonged to it
can well remember the height of popularity
which his lithographed sketches achieved,
the little blockades before the shop-windows
in St. James’s-street and the Flaymarket
whenever a new one appeared, and the con
venient topic of conversation which it was
sure to afford to men of the clubs, when meet
ing each other on the pavement. For it was
to critics of this class that H.B. particularly
addressed himself. His productions wanted
the popular vigour of those of Gillray and his
school. But it is to Mr. Doyle’s high honour
that they were also entirely free from the
scandalous coarseness of his predecessors, and
that he showed the English public how the
purposes of political satire could be fully se
cured without departing a hand’s breadth
from the dignity of the artist or the charac
GROTESQUE
ter of the gentleman. As a delineator of
figures, we cannot esteem him very success
ful. They run too much into the long and
lanky; portions of the outline, the extremities
in particular, are often almost effeminate in
their refinement: when he attempts a really
broad, bluff personage, he is apt to produce
the effect of a fine gentleman masquerading
as a Falstaff. But it was in the likeness of
his portraits, and their expression, that his
chief and singular merit consisted. And in
these, again, his success was extremely va
rious. His fortune, in a professional sense,
may be said to have been made by three
faces — those of the Duke of Wellington,
King William IV., and Lord Brougham.
The provoking, sly no-meaning, establishing
itself on the iron mask of the first; the goodhumoured, embarrassed expression of the
second; the infinite variety of grotesque
fancies conveyed in the contorted features
of the third ; these were reproduced, week
after week, for years, with a variety and
fertility perfectly astonishing. In other
cases he never could succeed in hitting off
even a tolerable likeness : of his hundred or
so representations of the late Sir Robert
Peel, we do not recollect one which conveys
to us any real remembrance of the original.
The Peel of caricaturists in general, not
only of H.B.,was a conventional person
age ; .as is, though in a less marked degree,
the Gladstone of our present popular artists.
Still more remarkable was the failure of
H.B., in common with his predecessors, in
catching the likeness of Gtsorge IV. In all
the countless burlesque representations of
that personage, from the handsome youth of
1780 to the puffy veteran of 1827, there are
scarcely any which present a tolerable re
semblance.
The courtly Lawrence suc
ceed in portraying him well enough ; the
caricaturists, usually so happy, never. H.
B.’s published sketches amount to some nine
hundred, and afford a capital key to the
cabinet and parliamentary history of Eng
land, from the Ministry of Wellington to
the end of Lord Melbourne’s. While num
bers of them *o credit to the artist’s politi
d
cal sagacity as well as his skill, we cannot
forbear to notice one which, to our present
notions, illustrates the ‘ nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurse ’ — produced
when the Tories, to whom H.B. appertain
ed with all his heart, anticipated the tri
umphs of French over English diplomacy
under the conduct of our then Foreign Sec
retary : it is No. 171 in the series, ‘The
Lame leading the Blind: ’ Lord Palmers
ton, guided into a ditch by Talleyrand.
With the renowned H. B. the line of regu-
�IN LITERATURE AND ART.
lar British caricaturists closes. The taste of
the nation has sought another direction. But
do not let us be misunderstood. The spir
it of the' art survives, and will do so as long
as England is a free country and Englishmen
retain a sense of the ludicrous ; but its form
is so completely changed, by the substitu
tion of the cheap illustrated newspaper for
the comparatively expensive broad-sheet of
the last century, that a more convenient
moment could not be found, for closing the
old chapter in artistic history and beginning
a new one, than that in. which Doyle ceas
ed his labours and the ‘ Punch ’ school of
satirists began theirs. The very distinct
mode of treatment which the small size of
the modern comic newspaper, compared
with the old sheet, necessarily requires,
combines with other causes of difference to
render this new school something quite apart
from the old one. Its success must needs be
obtained more through skill in the delinea
tion of individual faces, and compactness of
wit in the 1 motive ’ of the composition, than
through breadth of treatment, or (generally
speaking) through talent for grouping. In
the delineation of faces, however, and es
pecially in portrait, which is the specialty
of political caricature, the designers with
whom we are now dealing have an immense
advantage over those of former times, in
being able to use the results of the art of
photography. Photographs of faces and fig
ures, always at hand, are a very superior
class of auxiliaries to those hasty ‘ drawings
on bits of card ’ with which Gillray was wont
to content himself. The popularity which
our present favourites have earned is prob
ably more real, certainly much more exten
sive, than that gained by their most success
ful predecessors, from Hogarth to Cruik-1
shank : with whose names that of Leech, so
lately lost to us, and of his living associates
and rivals, of whom we need only name
Doyle the younger and John Tenniel as
specimens, will assuredly find their places
in the future annals of art. But, arrived at
this turning point, we must take farewell of
our subject, devoting only a few pages more
to the cotemporary history of modern
French caricature, on which Mr. Wright
(to our regret) does not enter. We had
hoped to derive considerable assistance
for this purpose from a new publication
of our friend M. Champfleury, entitled
‘ Histoire de la Caricature Moderne,’ which
has just fallen into our hands ; but although
the title is thus comprehensive, the contents
reduce themselves to a few lively pages of
panegyric on two or three recent artists,
which seem to be diotated’in great measure
by personal feelings.
I
571
The general subject can be nowhere so
well studied in a summary way as in the two
volumes of M. Jaime (‘ Musee de la Carica
ture’), with very fairly executed illustra
tions, to which we can only apply the an
cient reproach, ‘ tantamne rem tarn negligenter; ’ for M. Jaime has but treated' the
matter in a perfunctory way, as if afraid
of dwelling too much on it. It has not,
however, the interest which attaches either
to the coarser but bolder style of art inaug
urated by the Germans in the sixteenth cen
tury, or to that which prevailed in the great
English age of political caricature. Callot
was indeed aJFrenchman, by race at least,
though born in Lorraine, then independ
ent ; but his associations were more with
the school of the Netherlands than that of
France. Nor had he any followers of note
in the latter country. The jealous wake
fulness of French government, and the cold
and measured style which French art de
rived from a close addiction to supposed
classical models, were both alike unfavoura
ble to the development of the artistic empire
of ‘ Laughter, holding both his sides.’
French artists of the eighteenth century for
the most part touched ludicrous subjects in
a decorous and timid way, as if ashamed of
them. As the literature of theEeountry is
said to abound in wit, while it is poor in hu
mour, so its pictorial talent found vent rath
er in the neat and effective K tableau de
genrejlthan in the irregularity of the gro
tesque ; or, to employ another simile, French
cbmic art was to English as the genteel
comedy to the screaming farce. And the
same was the case (to treat the subject
briefly) with that of other nations over
which France exercised predominant influ
ence. Chodowiecki was the popular Ger
man engraver of domesti(?fecenes in the last
century, and his copper-plates have great
delicacy of execution and considerable pow
er of expression. He was in high vogue
for the purpose of illustrating with cuts the
novels and the poetry of the great age of
German literature, and his productions are
extraordinarily numerous. But he habitu
ally shrank from the grotesque. His ad
mirers styled him the German Hogarth — a
comparison which he, we are told, rejected
with some indignation, and which Hogarth,
could he have known it, would certainly
have rejected likewise; for Chodowiecki,
with all his other merits, very seldom ap
proaches the ludicrous, and never soars to
the height or descends to the depth of cari
cature.
The unbounded licence of the first French
Revolution, and the strange mixture of the
burlesque with the terrible which attended
�572
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND
its progress, gave of course for some years
the most favourable opportunities possible
for the exercise of pictorial wit, so far as the
nation possessed it. There can be no great
er treat to one who loves to tread the by
ways of history, often the shortest cuts to
truth, than to turn over the series of those
magnificent volumes in the Imperial Libra
ry of Paris, in which the whole pictorial an
nals of the last century or so in France are
preserved; everything arranged as nearly
as may be in order of date, and not of sub
jects : portraits, festal shows and triumphs,
processions, battles, riots, great events, rep
resented under every form down to the
rough newspaper woodcut and street carica
ture, unrolling in one vast phantasmagoria
before the eye. We have much that is val
uable and useful in our Museum, but noth
ing, in the matter of historical art, compara
ble to this collection. An inadequate idea
of it only can be formed from the miscella
neous contents of the well-known three fo
lio volumes of prints, entitled ‘ Tableaux de
la Revolution Francaise.’ The earlier part
of the caricatures of that age are the most
humourous and also the best executed. As
the tragedy deepened, fun became more
and more out of place; and the satirists who
had seen its outbreak having most of them
lost their heads or fled the country, the
business fell into the hands of more vulgar
workmen. One of the first (1788) may be
mentioned, not so much for its execution,
which is tame enough, as because it is (as
far as we know) the real original of a piece
of wit which has since made its fortune in
every language, and been falsely attributed
to many facetious celebrities. Calonne, as a
monkey, has assembled his 1 notables,’ a flock.
of barn-door fowl. ‘ Mes chers administres,
je vous ai rassembles pour savoir a quelle
sauce vous voulez etre manges.’ ‘Maisnous
ne voulons pas etre manges du tout.’ ‘ Vous
vous ecartez de la question.’
But French art, as we have seen, refined
and softened into effeminacy under the class
civilization of the ancien regime, and ren
dered prudish also by its adherence to classi
cal models, had its decorum soon shocked by
too coarse intermixture of the grotesque. In
deed, the reason often given by Frenchmen
of the last generation for the acknowledged
inferiority of their caricatures to ours, was the
superiority of French taste, which could not
accommodate itselfto ‘ignoble’ exaggeration.
On the whole, therefore, those of the revo-<
lutionary series of which we have been
speaking are more interesting, historically,
and also from the keen wit of ten developed
in them, than from their execution. There
GROTESQUE
is no French Gillray or Rowlandson. Here
and there, however, among a multitude of
inferior performances, the eye is struck by
one really remarkable as a work of a higher
order than our English cotemporary series
could furnish. Such is the famous ‘ Arresta-'
tion du Roi d Varennes,’ 1791. The wellknown features of the Royal party, seated
at supper with lights, are brought out with
a force worthy of Rembrandt, and with
slight but marked caricature; while the
fierce, excited patriotic figures, closing in on
them from every side, have a vigour which
is really terrific. Another, in a different
style, is the ‘ Interieur d’un Comite Revolutionnaire,’ 1793. It is said, indeed, to have
been designed by a first-rate artist, Fragonai’S, one who doubtless wrought with a will,
for he had prostituted his very considerable
talents to please the luxurious profligacy of
the last days of the ancient regime, and the
stern Revolution had stopped his trade, an
nihilated his effeminate customers, and re
duced him to poverty. Fragonard’s powers
as a caricaturist are characterised by a wellknown anecdote. He was employed in
painting Mademoiselle Guimard, the famous
dancer, as Terpsichore; but the lady quar
relled with him, and engaged another to
complete the work. The irritated painter got
access to the picture, and with three or four
strokes of his brush turned the face of Terp
sichore into that of a fury. The print now
in question is a copper-plate, executed with
exceeding delicacy of touch. A dozen fig
ures of men of the people, in revolutionary
costume, are assembled round a long table in
a dilapidated hall of some public building.
A young ‘ ci-devant,’ his wife and child, are
introduced through an open door by an ush
er armed with a pike. If the artist’s inten
tion was to produce effect by the contrast of
these three graceful figures with the vulgar
types of the rest of the party, he has suc
ceeded admirably. They are humbly pre
senting their papers for examination ; but it
is pretty clear that the estimable commit
teeman, to whom the noble is handing his
passport, cannot read it. The cunning,
quiet, lawyer-like secretary of the commit
tee, pen in hand, is evidently doing all its
work. At the opposite end of the table an
excited member is addressing to the walls
what must be an harangue of high elo
quence ; but no one is listening to him, and
the two personages immediately behind him
are evidently determined to hear no noise
but their.own. But our favourite figure —
and one well worthy of Hogarth — is that of
the sentinel off duty: he is seated beside a
bottle, pike in hand, enjoying his long pipe,
�iwinM i^i i
IN LITERATURE AND ART.
573
and evidently, from the expression of his tember. It had a brief and feverish revi
face, far advanced from the excited into the val under the Republic of 1848 ; some of
meditative stage of convivial patriotism. A its productions in that period are worth a
placard on the door announces, somewhat moment’s notice, both from their execution
contradictorily as well as ungrammatically, and good humour: we remember two
‘ Ici on se tutoyent: fermez la porte s’il vous of the class of general interest; the 1 Ap
plait! ’ Altogether there is much more of parition du Serpent de Mer,’ a boat full of
the comic than the ferocious about the pa kings, startled by the appearance of the new
triots ; and one may hope that the trembling Republic as the problematical monster of
family, for whom it is impossible not to feel the deep ; and the ‘ Ecole de Natation,’ in
an interest, will this time be ‘ quittespourla which the various Kings and Emperors.of
peur.’
Europe are floundering in a ludicrous, variThe popular governments — Revolutiona ety of attitudes among the billows of revo
ry and of the First Empire — easily tamed lution, while the female rulers of Britain,
the spirit of caricature, as they did that of Spain, and Portugal are kept afloat by their
more dangerous enemies, and it only revived crinolines. But under the decorous rule of
when France was replaced under the. tyran the Empire, no such violation of the re
ny of legitimacy. There is a great deal of spect due to constituted authorities at home
merit in those on the Bonapartist side, of is any longer tolerate^, while ridicule,
1814 and 1815 ; many of them appear to be even of foreign potentates, is permitted
executed by some one clever artist, to us un only under polite restrictions. Debarred
known. We will only notice one of them,' from this mode of expressing itself, French
the ‘Voeu d’un Royaliste, ou la seconde en gaiety finds one of its principal outlets, in
tree triomphante.’ Louis XVIII. is mounted the more innocent shape of social carica
behind a Cossack — the horse and man are ture, which was never so popular, or culti
admirably drawn—while the poor King’s vated by artists of so much eminence, as
expression, between terror and a sense’ of within the last thirty years. And here we
the ludicrous of his position, is worthy of the must notice a singular change in French
best efforts of Gillray or Doyle.
workmanship, which appears to us to have
Caricature continued to be a keen party been occasioned chiefly or wholly by the
weapon in France through the period of introduction of lithography. We have al
the Restoration, and in the early years of ready observed how much difficulty its art
Louis Philippe. The latter monarch’s head ists found in departing from the rules of
especially, under the resemblance of a pear, classical outline and correct drawing, so
which Nature had rendered appropriate, long as the old-fashioned line engraving
was popularised in a thousand ludicrous or prevailed, and the consequent inferiority of
ignominious representations; his Gillray French to English caricature in breadth,
was Honore Daumier, a special friend and its superiority in congjlmess. The intro
favourite of M. Champfleury, but in whom duction and great popularity of lithography
we are unable ourselves to recognize more in'France seems to have altogether changed
than secondary merit. ‘ Entre tous, Dau the popular taste. Artists now dash off,
mier fut celui qui accommoda la poire aux rather than embody, their humorous con
sauces les plus diverses. Le roi avait une ceptions in the sketchiesLof all possible
honnete physionomie, large et etouffee. styles, and that which affords the greatest
La caricature, par l’exageration des lignes licence for grotesque distortions of figure \
du masque, par les differents sentimens and face. Boilly, a clever and fertile lithog
qu’elle preta a l’homme au toupet, le ren- rapher, was perhaps the first to bring
dit typique, et laissa un ineffa?able relief. this style of composition into vogue. But
Les adversaires sont utiles. En politique, to such an extent has the revolution now
un ennemi v.aut souvent mieux qu’un ami.’ gone, while we, on the other hand, have
The genius of Daumier had some analogy been pruning the luxuriance of the old
with that of the sculptor-caricaturist Dan- genius of caricature, that the positions of
tan.
the two countries seem to have become re
But, the liberty of art, like that of the versed, and England to be now the country
Tribune, degenerated into licence, and of classic, France of grotesque art; in the
France has never been able in her long age comic line of which any reader may judge
of State tempests to maintain the line be for himself, by comparing the style of the
tween the two. Political caricature was cuts in ‘ Punch,’, for instance, with those in
once more extinguished in the Orleans the ‘ Charivari.’ We cannot say that we
reign, with the applause of decent people find the change on the other side of the
in general, by the so-called laws of Sep- Channel an improvement, or that we have
�I
574
/
A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE.
been enabled to acquire a taste for the
hasty lithographed caricatures of popular
figures and scenes which encumber French
print-shops. The works of Bunbury, among
English artists of this kind of renown, per
haps most nearly approach them ; but these,
rough though they are, have, at all events,
a body and substance, and consequently a
vigour, which their Gallic successors appear
to us to lack, and which they endeavour too
often to supply by loose exaggeration.
However, it is idle to set up our own canons
of taste in opposition to that of a nation,
and a foreign nation into the bargain ; and
we may do our readers more service by
giving them a few short notices of the
leading artists who have risen to popular
ity in modern France by this style of com
position.
Nicolas Toussaint Charlet had an educa, tion and parentage somewhat like those of
our Gillray; born in 1792, the son of an
old dragoon of Sambre-et-Meuse, he began
his career in a not very noble occupation,
being employed in the office where military
recruits were registered and measured: and
it was in that function, possibly, that he
picked up and stored in his memory those
thousand types of grotesque young con
scripts and old grognards, ‘ enfants de
troupe,’ ‘ tourlourous,’ and ‘ gamins,’ with
which he filled the shop-windows while
amusing the multitude with their darling
‘ scenes populaires.’ He was not exactly a
caricaturist in the peculiar sense which we
have given to the word, but an artist‘de
genre; ’ in his own peculiar line few have
surpassed him. It must be noticed that his
sturdy Bonapartism evinced itself in some
ambitious attempts at more serious compo•sitions ; one of which, ‘ La Garde meurt et
ne se rend pas,’ established his fame in 1816,
while an ‘ Episode de la Campagne de
Russie ’ (1836) is ranked at the head of his
works by some of his admirers. But for
our part, we greatly prefer the exquisite
naivete, though without much of the Eng
lish vigour, which characterises some of his
popular scenes; such — to quote one among
a thousand — as that in which a peasant,
looking down with the utmost gravity on a
comrade who is lying in the road, helplessly
drunk, exclaims, ‘ Voilh pourtant comme je
serai dimanche ! ’ Charlet, who died in
1845, left some two thousand lithographed
designs, besides numerous water-colours and
etchings.
Paul Chevalier Gavarni, born in 1801,
ranks at the head of the living caricaturists
of France, unless the Vicomte Amedee de
Noe (under his nom de plume, or rather de
crayon, of ‘ Cham,’ Ham the son of Noah) be
supposed to contest with him that eminence.
The journal ‘ Les Gens du Monde ’ (1835),
and subsequently the ‘Charivari,’ owed to
him the greater part of tlaeir celebrity. If not
equal to Charlet in the ‘ naif’ and simply
popular style, Gavarni excels him in satiri
cal force and in variety. Twenty-five
years hence (says Theophile Gautier) ‘ it is
through Gavarni that the workhwill know
of the existence of Duchesses of the Rue
du Helder, of Lorettes, students, and so
forth.’ Gavarni visited England in 1849,
where, according to his biographer M. de
Lacaze (in the ‘ Nouvelle Biographie Ge
nerale ’), he took so profound a dislike to our
English aristocratic social system (it was
the year, be it remembered, in which the
doctrine ‘la propriete c’est- le vol,’ took
some short hold on Parisian spirits), that
he fell into a fit of‘le spleen,’ became
misanthrophic, and produced nothing fora
long time but sketches of ‘ gin-shop frequent
ers, thieves, street-sweepers, Irishmen, and
the beggars of St. Giles’s and Whitechapel;’
but we are happy to learn, from the same
authority, that he soon recovered his gaiety
in the less oppresive atmosphere of Paris.
His ‘ CEuvres Choisies’ were published as
long ago as 1845, in four volumes. ‘ Deja,’
says Champfleury, ‘ son oeuvre est curieuse
h consulter comme l’expression d’un peintre
de moeurs epris d’ideal elegant dans une
epoque bourgeoise.’
Completing these brief notices of modern
French caricaturists with the mere mention,
of the great artist Gustave Dore, who has
lately condescended to some clever extrava
gances allied to caricature, and of that ec
centric novelty Griset,.we must now con
*
clude our hasty retrospect of the art in
general. The institution of the ‘ comic
illustrated newspaper ’ has now made the
tour of the world ; the United States fur
nish abundant specimens; Germany and
Italy toil manfully in the wake of France and
England; we have even seen political carica
tures from Rio de Janeiro nearly as good as
the ordinary productions of either. But it
is impossible to follow a subject so greatly
widening in its dimensions; and as cheap
ness of execution, while it extends the
popularity of this class of compositions,
diminishes the labour expended on them,
we have not to expect for the future either
productions of so much interest, or artists
of such celebrity, as some of those dealt
with in this article.
�575
REST FOR THE WEARY.
I
,arest for the weary.
“ TRere remaineth therefore a rest to the people of
God/’— Heb. iv. 9.
Dear the storm-won calm of autumn
Brooding o’er the quiet lea;
Sweet the distant harp-like murmur
Trembling from the charmed sea.
Nestling breezes clog the branches;
Leaves lie swooning on the air;
Nature’s myriad hands are folding
O’er her gentle heart, for prayer.
Make the lean grave sleek with treasn
Whilst they, weary, take their rest.
Dead they are not; only sleeping,
Dull although their senses be,
Yet they for the summons listen,
Calling to eternity.
Brothers, sleeping in the Saviour,
Sound their dreamless sleep and ble
But we trust, when this is broken,
There remaineth still a rest !
New-born on the lap of silence,
Cradled on a hoary tomb,
Lo 1 babe evening craves a blessing
As the day forsakes the gloom;
As one lingering sunbeam flushes
The grey spire to golden red,
And the motto “ peace ” is blazoned
Glorious o’er the resting dead.
Peace be to the shapeless ashes,
Perfect once in valour’s mould;
Once on fire for truth and duty,
Now without a spark, and cold..
Smiting was the hero smitten,
Swordless hands now cross his breast;
Share we his mute supplication ;
Weary, may the soldier rest!
Peace to him who braved the tempest,
Polar ice, and tropic wave;
Long the homeless sea who traversed,
Then came home to find a grave !
In this calmest roadstead anchored,
May no more the sailor rove,
Till he lose himself for ever
“ In the ocean of God’s love! ”
Peace to him, the tried and saintly;
Wise to counsel, apt to cheer;
With a sober smile for gladness,
With a hope for every tear.
Earth lies lightly on his bosom,
Faith bedecks his priestly tomb
With the sacred flowers that symbol
Life, and light, and deathless bloom.
Peace to him who bears no legend
Carved above his lowly bed,
Save that he was found, unsheltered
From the storm and winter, dead.
Peace to him, that unknown brother,
Quit of want, and woe, and shame;
Trust we that the nameless stranger
Bears in heaven a filial name 1
From the four winds assembled,
Kindred in the fate to die ;
Eld and infant, alien, homebred,
Neighbours now, how calm they lie!
Valour, beauty, learning, goodness,
With the weight of life opprest,
THE BITTER AND THE SWEET.
Come, darling Effie,
Come, take the cup:
Effie must drink it all —
Drink it all up.x
/
Darling, I know it is
Bitter and bad;
But ’twill make Effie dear .
Rosy and glad.
Mother would take it all
For her wee elf— ,
But who would suffer then?
Effie herself.
If Effie drinks it,
Then, I can tell,
She will go out to play
Merry and well.
' Drink, and then, darling,
You shall have this, —
Sweet after bitter:
Now, first, a kiss.
Ah, darling Effie,
God also knows,
When cups of bitterness
His hand bestows,
1
How His poor children need
Urging to take
Merciful draughts of pain,
Mixed for their sake.
He, too, gives tenderly
Joy after pain,
Sweet after bitterness,
After loss gain.
— Sunday Magazine.
I,
�WERE WOLVES.
From the Spectator.
WERE *
WOLVES.
. A i >; i
In this remarkable little book, remarkable
for a power its external aspect does not
promise and an interest its name will not
create, Mr. Baring-Gould, an author known
hitherto chiefly by his researches in North
ern literature, investigates a belief, once
general in Europe, and even now enter
tained by the majority of the uneducated
class. In widely separated places, and
among races the most distinct, a belief has
been traced in the existence of beings who
combine the human and the animal char
acter, who are in fact men changed either
in form or in spirit into beasts of prey. The
belief, though strong still, was strongest in
the Middle Ages, when men were more un
restrained both in their acts and their cre
dulities. In the extreme North it was so
powerful that Norwegians and Icelanders
had a separate name for the transformation,
calling men gifted with the power or afflicted
with the curse men “ not of one skin.” Mr.
Baring-Gould pushes his theory far when
he connects the story of the Berserkir with
the theory of were wolves, the Berserkir be
ing extant to this day in Asia, calling them
selves Ghazis, and keeping up their fury as
the Berserkir probably did, with drugs ; but
all Scandinavia undoubtedly believed that
men had upon occasion changed into ani
mals, and exhibited animal bloodthirstiness
and power. So did the Livonians. So
down to the very end of the sixteenth cen
tury did all Southern Europe, where the
Holy Office made cases of metempsychosis
subject of inquiry and of punishment. The
very victims often believed in their own
guilt. One man in 1598, Jacques Roulet,
of Angers, stated in his confession that
though he did not take a wolf’s form he was
a wolf, and as a wolf committed murders,
chiefly of children. Even now the peasants
in Norway believe as firmly in persons who
can change themselves into wolves as the
peasants in Italy do in the evil eye, the
Danes think persons with joined eye brows
liable to the curse, the people of SchleswigHolstein keep a charm to cure it, the Slo
vaks, Greeks, and Russians have popular
words for the were wolf, and Mr. BaringGould was himself asked at Vienne to as
sist in hunting a loup garou, or wolf who
ought to have been a human being. In In
dia the belief is immovable, more particu
larly in Oude, where the mass of evidence
collected is so extraordinary that it shook
-for a moment the faith of a man so calm as
the Resident, Colonel Sleeman, and induced
him to give currency to a theory that
wolves might suckle and rear the children
of human beings, who thenceforward would
be wolves. Ultimately, we believe, he
abandoned that notion, but not before he
had puzzled all India with his collection of
exceptional facts, and riveted the supersti
tion of the people of Oude.
A belief so universal and so lasting sug
gests some Cause more real than a supersti
tious idea, and Mr. Baring-Gould believes
he has discovered one. He hold^that in
every human being there is some faint
trace of the wild-beast nature, the love of
destruction and of witnessing the endurance
of suffering. Else why do children display
cruelty so constantly, string flies on knitting
pins, and delight in the writhings of any
animal ? In the majority this disposition is
eradicated either by circumstances, by
training, or by the awakening of the great
influence we call sympathy. In a minority
the desire remains intact but latent, liable
to be called out only by extraordinary inci
dents or some upset of the ordinary balance
of their minds. In a few it becomes a pas
sion, a sovereign desire, or even a mania
entitled to be ranked as a form, and an ex
treme form, of mental disease. It was the
latter exhibition which gave rise to the be
lief in the were-wolves, who were, in Mr.
Baring-Gould’s opinion, simply raving mani
acs, whose wildness took the form either of
a desire to murder or of a belief in their own
power of becoming beasts of prey. So late
as 1848 an officer, of the garrison in Paris
was brought to trial on a charge of rifling
graves of their bodies and tearing them to
pieces, and the charge having been proved
on conclusive evidence, his own confession
included, was sentenced to one year’s im
prisonment. He was mad, but had he lived
before madness was understood he would
have been pronounced either a vampire or
a loup garou. Madness miscomprehended
was the cause of the facts which supported
, the monstrous belief, a theory almost de
monstrated by the history of the case of
Jacques Roulet. The extract is long, but
the story is complete:
“ In 1598, a year memorable in the annals of
lycanthropy, a trial took place in Angers, the
details of which are very terrible. In a wild
and unfrequented spot near Caude, some coun
trymen came one day upon the corpse of a boy
of fifteen, horridly mutilated and bespattered
with blood. As the men approached, two
* Were Wolves. By Sabine Baring-Gould. Lon wolves, which had been rending the body,
bounded away into the thicket. The men gave
don : Smith, Elder, and Co.
�7
\
WERE WOLVES.
577
chase immediately, following their bloody tracks
Jacques Roulet would have been found in
till they lost them; when suddenly crouching sane by any modern jury, and there is scarcely
among the bushes, his teeth chattering with in mediaaval literature a case of lycanthropy
fear, they found a man half naked, with long which cannot be explained upon this sim
/
hair and beard, and with his hands dyed in
blood. His nails were long as claws, and ple theory, — the one at last adopted, and
were clotted with fresh gore and shreds of hu in our judgment proved, by Colonel Sleeman flesh. This is one of the most puzzling man in Oude, but a more difficult question
and peculiar cases which come under our no remains behind. Is it quite certain that all
tice. The wretched man, whose name was cases of long-continued and outrageous cruel
Roulet, of his own accord stated that he had ty presuppose madness ? Is cruelty in fact
fallen upon the lad and had killed him by a natural quality, which can be cultivated,
smothering him, and that he had been prevent or an abnormal desire, the result of extreme
ed from devouring the body completely by the and gradual depravation of the passions
arrival of men on the spot. Roulet proved and the reason ? Take the well known case
on investigation to be a beggar from house to of Gilles de Uetz in 1440. If evidence
house, in the most abject state of poverty. His
companions in mendicity were his brother John can prove anything it is certain that this
and his cousin Julien. He had been given man, head of the mighty House of Laval,
lodging out of charity in a neighbouring vil lord of entire counties and of prodigious
lage, but before his apprehension he had been wealth, did throw up a great position in the
absent for eight days. Before the judges, public service to wander from town to
Roulet acknowledged that he was able to trans town and seat to seat kidnapping children,
form himself into a wolf by means of a salve whom he put slowly te death to delight
which his parents had given him. When ques himself with their agonies. He confessed
tioned about the two wolves which had been himself to eight hundred such murders, and
seen leaving the corpse, he said that he knew
perfectly well who they were, for they were his his evidence was confirmed by the relics
companions, Jean and Julien, who possessed found. He was betrayed by his own agents,
the same secret as himself. He was shown the and in the worst age of a cruel cycle his
clothes he had worn on the day of his seizure, crimes excited a burst of horror so profound
and he recognized them immediately; he de that he, a noble of the class which was be
scribed the boy whom he had murdered, gave yond the law, so powerful that he never at
the date correctly, indicated the precise spot tempted to escape, «vas burnt alive. Was he
where the deed had been done, and recognized mad, or only bad beyond all human ex
the father of the boy as the man who had first perience ? Mr. Baring-Gould inclines evi
run up when the screams of the lad had been dently to the former theory, and it is at all
heard. In prison, Roulet behaved like an idiot. events a pleasing one, but it is difficult for I
When seized, his belly was distended and hard;
in prison he drank one evening a whole pailful thinking men to forget that power has in oth
of water, and from that moment refused to eat er instances produced this capacity of cruelty,
or drink. His parents, on inquiry, proved to to refuse credence to all stories of the cruelty
be respectable and pious people, and they proved of Caesars, and Shahs, and West Indian slave
that his brother John and his cousin Julien holders. It is possible, and we hope true,
had been engaged at a distance on the day of that the genuine enjoyment of pain is rare
Roulet’s apprehension. ‘ What is your name, among the sane, though the Roman popu
and what your estate ? ’ asked the judge, Pierre
Herault. — ‘My name is Jacques Roulet, my lace felt something like it, and though we
age thirty-five; I am poor, and a mendicant/ are ever and anon startled by cases of wil
— ‘ What are you accused of having done ? ’ — ful cruelty to animals, but genuine indiffer
‘Of being a thief—of having offended God. ence to it is frequent, and granted the in
My parents gave me an ointment; I do not difference, any motive may give it an ac
know its composition.’—‘When rubbed with tive form. The thirst for domination is the
this ointment, do you become a wolf? ’ — ‘ No • most common impulse, but in well known
but for all that, I killed and ate the child Cor instances jealousy, fear, hatred, religious
nier : I was a wolf.’ — ‘ Were you dressed as a bigotry, and even vanity, have been equal
wolf?’ — ‘I was dressed as I am now. I had
events the passion
my hands and my face bloody, because I had ly efficacious. At all that it is restraina
been eating the flesh of the said child.’ — ‘ Do differs from madness in
your hands and feet become paws of a wolf ? ’_ ble. Hardly one genuine case on a great
‘ Yes, they do.’ — ‘ Does your head become like scale has been recorded in a civilized coun
that of a wolf — your mouth become larger ? ’ — try for many years, and it seems certain
‘ I do not know how my head was at the time; I that the restraints of order prevent it from
used my teeth; my head was as it is to-day. I acquiring its full sway, and that therefore it
have wounded and eaten many other little is rather the depravation of nature than na
children; I have also been to the sabbath.’ ”
ture itself which is its origin. Gilles de
THIRD SERIES. DIVING AGE. VOL. XXXII.
1477.
V
�578
SCIENCE AND MIRACLE.
,Retz is possible, if he were sane, only in a
class which can indulge every impulse with
impunity, and at a time when law is no
longer to be feared. It may be true that he
belonged to the were-wolf genus, the men
afflicted with homicidal mania, but he may
also have belonged to a class now almost as
exceptional, the men in whom unrestricted
power has developed that thirst for testing
it in its highest, its most frequent, and its
most visible form, the infliction of slow
death-agonies upon powerless human beings.
It was, we fear, the madness of a Ceesar
rather than of a were wolf which influenced
Gilles de Betz, and Mr. Baring-Gould
would, we think, have exemplified his theo
ry more perfectly had he excluded stories
which testify not so much to the instability
of human reason as to the depths of evil
lurking in the human heart. He argues in
deed that Gilles de Betz is the link between
the citizen and the were wolf, but then in so
doing he assumes one tremendous datum,
that madness always shows itself in the ex
treme development of the latent heart, and
not in its radical perversion. One of its
■ commonest forms nevertheless is intense
hatred of those whom the patient has most
genuinely and fondly loved, and the bal
ance of probability is that insanity as often
perverts as intensifies the secret instincts of
its victim. Mr. Baring-Gould has, we
■ think, demonstrated that madness misap
prehended was the root of the were-wolf
delusion, but not that homicidal mania is
the ultimate expression of an inherent ten• dency in universal human nature.
From the Spectator.
SCIENCE AND MIRACLE.
Professor huxley, in the remarkable
lecture on “ improving natural knowledge ”
delivered to the working classes at St. Mar
tin’s Hall, and since published in the Fort
nightly Review, states with a candour and
moderation worthy of all praise, certain
notions destructive of all worship, — ex
cept that very impossible kind of worship
recommended by Professor Huxley, worship
■ of the Unknown and Unknowable, — which
have been gaining more and more hold of
■ merely scientific men for many generations,
and which, we need not say, are absolutely
inconsistent with admitting the activity of
: any supernatural will in the Universe, and
.•.still more the actual occurrence of miracle.
Now it is a matter worth a little considera
tion how far men of pure science are trust
worthy on matters of this kind, how far
their evidence is what we should call on
other subjects the evidence of experts, or
not. On a medical subject, we should never.think of adopting absolutely any theory
rejected by a very large and, perhaps in
creasing, number of the most eminent men
in the medical profession. On a historical
subject, we should think it absurd to take
up with a view against which every fresh
historian of learning and eminence began
with clearer and clearer conviction to pro
test. How far, then, even if it be true, as
it possibly may be, that the tendency of
the highest and calmest scientific thought is
increasingly anti-supernatural, can we con
sider this the tendency of a class entitled
to special intellectual deference, or the re
verse ? Mr. Brooke Foss Westcott, in a
very thoughtful volume which he has just
published on the Gospel of the Resurrec
tion” * freely admits that “ a belief in
miracles decreases with the increase of
civilization,” but maintains, amidst other
weaker and less defensible positions, that
the accuracy of comprehensive views of
nature as a whole, is not only not secured,
but may be even specially endangered, by
too special and constant a study of given
parts of nature. “ The requirements,” he
says, “ of exact science bind' the attention
of each student to some one small field,
and this little fragment almost necessarily
becomes, for him the measure of the whole,
if indeed he has ever leisure to lift his eyes
to the whole at all.” And undoubtedly the
man who has been studying, say, for the
sake of a definite example, the chemical
effects of light all his life, and who knows
that every different substance when burnt
yields a different spectrum, so that you may
know by the number and situation of the
dark lines exactly what substance it is that
is burning, might be inclined to look at the
possibility of miracle, and at faith in the
supernatural will, from a narrow point of
view. He will say to himself, ‘If one of
these spectra were suddenly to change its
appearance, if such a dark line vanished,
and such others appeared, should I not
know with a certainty to me infallible, — a
certainty on the absoluteness of which I
should never hesitate to risk my own life
or that of my family, — that some other
element had been introduced into the burn
ing substance ? Could anything persuade
me that the change was due to divine
volition apart from the presence of a new
* Macmillan.
�SCIENCE AND MIRACLE.
'
'
j
■
579
element or new elements in the burning be equivalent to the positive alteration in
substance ? Must not the Almighty him the essence of a mighty whole, as really
self, if He chose to make the change, make astounding in itself as the change which
it by providing the characteristic element could made oxygen burn (that is, oxidize)
for the purpose,—just as if He chose to or two and two equal to five.
alter the moral traits of a human character,
Now this is, we take it, something less
He could only do it by a process that would than conjecture, — indeed demonstrable
alter the character itself, and not by mak scientific error, if science be taken to in
ing a stupid and ignorant man give out all clude anything more than the laws of physi
the characteristic signs of wisdom and cal phenomena. It is probably true indeed
learning, or a malignant and cruel man put that in some sense the physical forces of the
forth all the moral symptoms of warm be- Universe are an invariable quantity, which
nevolence and charity.’ Sb the scientific only alter their forms, and not their sum
man would argue, and we are disposed to total. If I move my arm, the motion, says
think would argue rightly. For, admitting the physiologist, is only the exact equiva
that the physical qualities of things are lent of a certain amount of heat which has
realities at all, we should say that to make disappeared and taken the form of that
the physical qualities of one thing inter motion. If I do not move it, the heat re
change with the physical qualities of an mains for use in some other way. In either
other, without interchanging the things, is, case the stock of force is unchanged. This
if it be logically and morally possible, as is the conviction of almost all scientific
the Transubstantiationists believe and most men, and is probably true. But whether
other men disbelieve, a piece of divine the stock of physical force is constant or
magic or conjuring, and not a miracle. But not, the certainty that human will can
then, do not many great scientific men like change its direction and application — can
Professor Huxley really infer from such transfer it from one channel to another —
trains of reasoning far more than they will is just the same. And what that really
warrant ? All that such reasonings do tend means, if Will be ever free and uncaused,
to show, is, that if you truly conceive the though of course not unconditioned,—
natural constitutions of things, there are which is, we take it, as ultimate arid scienti
changes which you cannot make without fic a certainty as any in the Universe, — is
destroying those very things altogether, no less than this, — that a strictly super
and substituting new ones. As a miracle natural power alters the order and constitu
which should make two and two five is tion of nature, — takes a stock of physical
intrinsically impossible (Mr. Mill and the force lying in a reservoir here and transfers
Saturday Review in anywise notwithstand it to a stream of effort there, — in short,
ing), so also (though less certainly) a mira that the supernatural can change the order
cle which should make oxygen a combusti and constitution of the natural, — in its
ble gas instead of a supporter of combus essence pure miracle, though miracle of hu
tion, and quite certainly a miracle which man, and not of divine origin. For ex
should make it right to do what is known ample, almost every physiologist will admit
to be wrong, or wrong to do what is known the enormous power that pure Will has
to be right, is intrinsically impossible. But over the nervous system, — that it can pro
the modern scientific inference goes much long consciousness and even life itself for
further than this, and immediately extends certain short spaces, by the mere exertion
the conception of these inherent constitu of vehement purpose. Physicians tell you
tions of certain things and qualities to the constantly that such and such a patient
whole Universe, — assuming, for instance, may no doubt, if it be sufficiently impor
that it is just as impossible, just as much tant, by a great effort command his mind
a breach in the inherent constitution of sufficiently to settle his affairs, but that it
some one or more things, for one who has will be at the expense of his animal force,
been dead to live again, for the phenomena — in short, that it will be a free transfer of
of decomposition to be arrested, the heart force from the digestive and so to say vege
once silent to begin to beat, as for oxygen tating part of his system, to that part of
itself to burn without ceasing to be oxygen. his physical constitution, his nervous system,
The way in which this view would *e de which lies closest, as it were, to the will.
b
fended would be that all matter and all its Nay, we have heard physicians say that
qualities are now almost proved to be modes patients, by a great effort of pure will,
of force, and all force indestructible, so have, as they believe, prolonged their own
that any kind of supernatural change in life for a short space, that is, have imparted,
the phenomena of matter would appear to we suppose, through the excitement pro
�580
SCIENCE AND MIRACLE.
duced by the will on the nervous system
and so downwards, a certain slight increase
of capacity to assimilate food to the failing
organic powers of the body. In other
words, we conclude, just as the organism is
failing to draw supplies of physical force
from the outward world, its power of doing
so may be slightly prolonged,—the out
ward world drained of a small amount of
force it would otherwise, have kept in stock,
and the organism compelled to absorb it —
by a pure volition. Can there be a clearer
case of action of the supernatural on the
natural, — even granting that the sum
total of physical force is not altered, but
only its application changed ?
What more do we want to conceive
clearly the room for Christian miracle, than
the application of precisely the same con
ception to God and Christ ? The students
of the Universe appear to us to be in pre
cisely the same condition with regard to
the Universe, as a scientific observing mind
secreted in some part of a human body
(not the mind moving that body, but some
other) would be in with relation to the
structural, chemical, mechanical laws of
that body. Suppose an atom of your
blood able to retain its identity constantly
in a human body, and to travel about it on
a tour of scientific observation. It would
very soon arrive at the conclusion that
there were great laws of circulation of the
blood and the fluids which supply it,—
such as we see in nature in the astronomi
cal laws, — great laws of force by which
the legs and arms are moved, like the forces
of tides or falling waters in the Universe,
— great structural laws, by which different
tissues, like the hair, the skin, nails, the
nervous and muscular tissues, grow up out
of the nourishment supplied them, just as
we notice the growth of trees and flowers
out of the earth, —and great though some
what uncertain laws of alternation between
activity and repose, — like the laws of night
and day; — and such a scientific particle
as we have supposed would undoubtedly
soon begin to say that the more deeply it
studied these things, the more the reign of
pure law seemed to be extended in the
universe of the body, so that all those un
certain and irregular phenomena (which
we, however, really know to be due to the
changes effected by our own free self-gov
erning power), must be ascribed, it would
say^ not to any supernatural influence, but
to its own imperfect knowledge of the
more complex phenomena at work. And
such a scientific particle would be perfectly
justified in its inferences; for we have sup
posed it only an intellectual observing ma
chine, not a free will with knowledge of its
own that there is a power which is not
caused, and which can effect real modificacations in the relation even of physical
forces which never vary in amount. But
nevertheless it would be wrong, and could
never know the truth, namely, that the
ordering of the succession in these physical
forces, — the interchanges between one and
the other, — the physical influences over
the body exerted by the command of the
appetites and passions, were all of them
really traceable in great part to super
natural power, though to supernatural pow
er which does not either add to or subtract
from the sum total of physical force present
in the Universe. And we maintain that
the men of pure science, as they are called,
—the men who study everything- but Will,
— fall into precisely the same blunder as
such a rationalizing particle of a human
body, and for the same reason. They are
quite right in their inferences from their
premises, but their premises are radically
defective.
In truth the room for miracle remains as
wide as ever. Admit all the discoveries
of science, and still they only prove a cer
tain constancy in the amount of physical
force, and a certain invisible law of suc
cession between the same phenomena. But
just as a man who puts forth a great effort
to retain his consciousness and reason or
even life for a short time longer than he
would otherwise do, may succeed, — suc
ceed, that is, in pumping up the failing
supply of physical force from the Universe
to his system for a few minutes or hours,
when without such an effort it would have
fled from his body and passed away ipto
other channels, — so miracle only assumes
that a supernatural power infinitely greater
than man’s will might, on sufficient reason,
— which every Christian believes to be far
more than sufficient, — do the same thing
infinitely more effectually, and for a far
longer time. Miracle is in essence only the
directing supernatural influence of free
mind over natural forces and substances,
whatever these may be. In man we do 'not
call this miracle, only because we are ac
customed to it, — and in nature scientific
men refuse to believe that any such direct
ing power exists at all. But nevertheless,
every accurate thinker will see at once,
that free will, Providence, and Miracle do
not differ in principle at all, but are only
less or more startling results of the same
fact, — which true reason shows to be fact,
— that above nature exist .free wills, pro-
�THE DURATION
OF OUR SUPPLY OF COAL.
shall readily understand that the vital ques
tions for the wealth, progress, and greatness
of our country are these : — “Is our supply1
of coal inexhaustible ? and if not, how
long will it last?” — Mr. Jevons enables
us to answer both these 'questions. It is
very far from being inexhaustible ; it is in
process of exhaustion ; and, if we go on
augmenting our consumption from year to
year at our present rate of increase, it will
not last a hundred years. Our geological
knowledge is now so great and certain, and
what we may term the underground survey
of our islands has been so complete that we
know with tolerable accuracy both the ex
tent, the thickness, and the accessibility
of our coal fields, and the quantity of coal
annually brought to the surface and used
up. The entire amount of coal remaining
in Great Britain, down to a depth of 4,000
feet, is estimated to be 80,000 millions of
tons. Our annual consumption was in 1860
about 80 millions. At that rate the avail
able coal would last for 1,000 years. But
our consumption is now steadily increasing
at the rate of
per cent, per annum, and
will in 1880 be, not 80 millions, but 160
millions ; and, if it continues thus to increase,
will have worked out the whole 80,000 mil
lions before the year 1960. Nay it would
reach this climax probably some time earlier ; for our calculation includes all the coal
down to 4,000 feet; and no coal mine has
yet been worked at a greater depth than
2,500 feet; and we do not believe that mines
can be worked profitably, and we have lit
tle reason to think they can be worked at
all, at such a depth as 4,000 feet.
Of course we know that, practically, our
coal-fields will not be worked out within this
period. Of course we are aware that our
present rate of annual augmentation cannot.
be maintained. Every year we have to go
deeper for our supply; and going deeper
means incurring greater and greater ex
pense for labour, for machinery, for ventila
tion, for pumping out the water, for acci
dents, &c. Going deeper, therefore, implies
an enhanced price for the coal raised, and
that enhancement of price will check con
sumption. But it is precisely this imminent '
enhancement of price, and not ultimate ex
haustion, that we have to dread; for it is this
enhancement which will limit our rate of
progress and deprive us of our special ad
vantages and our manufacturing supremacy.
Let us see a little in detail the modus ope
rands The difficulty of working and raid
ing coal increases rapidly as the mine grows
deeper, or as inferior mines have to be
worked ; the heat grows more insupporta
bably of all orders of power, which do not,
indeed, ever break the order of nature, but
’ can and do transform, — as regards man by
very small driblets,— but as regards higher
than human wills in degrees the extent of»,
which we cannot measure, — natural forces
from one phase of activity into another, so
as greatly to change the moral order and
significance of the Universe in which we
live.
?
k
THF DURATION
k’
From the Economist, 6 Jan.
OF OUR SUPPLY OF
COAL.
U$der the title of “ The Coal Question/
Mr. Jevons * has furnished the public with
a number of well-arranged and for the
most part indisputable facts, and with a
series of suggestive reflections, which every
one interested in the future progress and
greatness of his country will do well to pon
der seriously. Few of us need to be re
minded how completely cheap coal is at the
foundation of our prosperity and our com
mercial and manufacturing supremacy.
Coal and iron make England what she is ;
and her iron depends upon her coal. Other
countries have as much iron ore as we have,
and some have better ore ; but no country
(except America, which is yet unde
veloped) has abundant coal and ironstone
in the needed proximity." Except in
our supply of coal and iron we have no
natural suitabilities for the attainment
of industrial greatness; nearly all the
raw materials of our manufactures come to
us from afar ; we import much of our wool,
most of our flax, all our cotton and all our
silk. Our railroads and our steamboats are
made of iron and are worked by coal. So
are our great factories. So now is much of
our war navy. Iron is one of our chief arti
cles of export; all our machinery is made
of iron; it is especially in our machinery
that we surpass other nations ; it is our ma
chinery that produces our successful textile
fabrics; and the iron which constructs this
machinery is extracted, smelted, cast, ham
mered, wrought into tools, by coal and the
steam which coal generates. It is believed
that at least half the coal raised in Great
Britain is consumed by the various branches
of the iron trade.
With these facts present to our mind we
I
* The Coal Question. By W. Stanley Jevons, M.
A. Macmillan, 1865.
581
�582
THE DURATION OF OUR SUPPLY OF COAL.
ble, the shafts and passages longer, the dan
Nor does there seem any escape from
ger greater, the ventilation more costly, the these conclusions theoretically, nor any way
quantity of water to be kept out or got out of.modifying them practically. We may,
more unmanageable. A very short period it is said, economise in the use of coal.
may raise engine coal and smelting coal But, in the first place, the great economies
from 5s to 10s per ton. Now a cotton mill that can be reasonably looked for have been
of ordinary size will often use for its steam- already introduced. In smelting iron ore
power 80 tons of coal per week. This at 5sis we use two-thirds less coal than formerly,
l,000Z a year; at 10s per ton, it is 2,000/. and in working our steam engines one-half
But the cotton mill is full of machinery; less;. and, in the second place, it is only a
and one great element in the cost of this rise in the price of coal that will goad us
machinery is the coal used in smelting and into a more sparing use of it; and this
working the iron of which the machinery is very rise of price is the proof and the meas
made. The railroads which bring the cot ure of our danger. “ Export no more
ton to the mill and take the calico and yarn coal,” it is suggested, and so husband your
back to the place of exportation are made stores. But we could not adopt this expe
of iron and worked by coal: so are the dient, even if it were wise to do so, or con
steamboats which bring the cotton to our sistent with our commercial policy, without
shores and export the yarn to Germany; — throwing half our shipping trade into ton
the cost of carriage, therefore, which is a fusion by depriving them of their ballast
very large item in the contingent expenses trade; and even then the evil would be
of our factories, will be greatly increased scarcely more than mitigated ? “ Why,”
both directly and indirectly by a rise in the ask others, “ should we not, when our own
price of coal. An advance in that price stores of coal are exhausted, import coal
from 5s to 10s per ton, maybe estimated to from other countries which will still be rich
be equivalent to 2,000/ a year on the work in mineral fuel, and thus supply our need ?”
ing cost of a good-sized cotton mill. That Simply because of all articles of trade and
is,, as compared with the present state of industry coal is the most bulky in propor
things, and as compared with foreign coun tion to its value; and that it is the fact of
tries, every manufacturer wouid have a having it at hand, of having it in abundance,
burden of 2,000/ a year laid upon him, and of having it cheap, of having it without the
would have to raise the cost of his goods to cost of carriage, that has given us our manu
that extent. .How long could he continue facturing superiority. With coal brought
to compete with his rivals under this disad from America, with coal costing what coal
vantage, or (it would be more correct to then would cost, we could neither smelt our
say) with his present advantage taken away iron, work our engines, drive our locomo
from him ? And how long would coal con tives, sail our ships, spin our yarn, nor
tinue to be supplied even at 10s a ton ?
weave our broad cloths. Long before we
And, be it observed, the check to the had to import our fuel the game would be
consumption of coal— the retardation i. e. up.
in our progress towards ultimate and abso
Of 136 millions of tons now annually
lute exhaustion — can only come from in raised throughout the world, Great Britain
crease of price, and the moment that it does produces 80 millions and the United States
come, the decline of our relative manufac only 20. But this is only because we have
turing pre-eminence has begun. We shall had the first start, and because our popula
avoid the extinction of our coal in the short tion is far denser, and because our iron and
period of a century ; but we shall do so only our coal lie conveniently for each other and
by using less now; — and using less now conveniently for carriage. As soon as
means producing less iron, exporting less America is densely peopled, to America
calico and woollens, employing less ship must both our iron and our coal supremacy
ping, supporting a scantier population, — and all involved therein — be trans
ceasing our progress, receding from our rela ferred ; for the United States are in these
tive position. We may, it is true, make our respects immeasurably richer than even
coal last a thousand years instead of a hun- Great Britain. Their coal-fields are esti
dred, and reduce the inevitable increase in mated at 196,000 square miles in extent,
its price to a very inconsiderable rate; while ours are only 5,400. But this is not
but we can do so only by becoming stationary ; all: their coal is often better in quality and
and to become stationary implies letting incomparably more accessible than ours, es
other nations pass us in the race, exporting pecially in the Ohio valley. In some places
our whole annual increase of population, the cost at the pit’s mouth even now is 2sjper
growing relatively, if not positively, poorer ton in America, against 6s in England.
'
and feebler.
�HAIR-DRESSING IN EXCELSIS.
From the Spectator.
'583
a man’s hair is naturally as long as a woman’s
strikes them with a sense of surprise, and
have almost ceased to dress it. They use
It is not easy to understand the differen pomade still, or at least hairdressers say
ces in the popular appreciation of the mi so, and a few of them, unaware that a
nor trades. Why is a tailor considered rath mixture of cocoa-nut oil and thin spirit is
er contemptible, when no idea of ridicule in all ways the absolutely best unguent,
attaches to a bootmaker ?
Both make waste cash upon costly coloured oils, but
clothes, and in trade estimation the tailor, hairdressing for men is out of fashion. The
who must always be something of a capital average hairdresser contemptuously turns
ist, is the higher man of the two, but the over the male head to some beginner, who
popular verdict is against him. Nobody snips away till hair and tournure are got
calls a hosier the eighteenth part of a man, rid of with equal speed. Up to 1860, too,
yet strictly speaking his business is only a women wore their hair, even on occasions
minor branch of tailoring. No ridicule at demanding a grand toilette, after a very
taches to a hatter, notwithstanding the lu simple fashion, one which the majority of
natic proverb about his permanent mental them could manage very well for them
condition, but everybody laughs internally selves, and which required only careful
as he speaks of a -hairdresser. Is it because brushing. This fashion was not perhaps
.hairdressers were once popularly supposed altogether in perfect taste. Simplicity has
to be all Frenchmen, and therefore share charms, but still a custom which compelled
the contempt with which dancing-masters women with Greek profiles and complex
are regarded by people who, while they ex lions of one shade only and girls with cherry
press it, would not for the world fail to profit cheeks and turned-up noses equally to wear
by their instructions ? A singing-master is their hair like Madonnas, was open to some
allowed to be an artist, often one of the slight attack on artistic grounds. Madonnas
first class, but a dancing-master is consider should not have laughing blue eyes, or pout
ed a cross between an artist and a monkey. ing lips, or flaxen hair, or that look of esOr are hairdressers despised, like men mil pieglerie which accompanies a properly turn
liners, because their occupation, especially ed-up nose, — not a snub, that is abomina
in modern Europe, where men have aban ble, but just the nez retrousse which artists
doned wigs, long locks, and the careful ar detest and other men marry. The Second
rangement of the hair, is essentially femi Empire, however, does not approve simpli
nine ? That may be the explanation, for city, and gradually the art of dressing hail'
nobody despises the lady’s-maid more or has come again into use. The fashion of
less because if she is “ very superior ” she wearing hair a I’Imperatrice was the first
- can dress hair as well as any hairdresser. blow to the Madonna mania, and young
Or is the sufficient cause to be sought in women with no foreheads, and with pointed
their pretensions, in their constant but un foreheads, and with hair-covered foreheads,
successful claim to be considered artists, all pulled their unruly locks straight back
something a little lower than professionals, because an Empress with a magnificent
but a great deal higher than mere trades forehead chose to make the best of it. Any
men, a claim which induces them to indulge thing uglier than this fashion in all women
in highflown advertisements and the inven with unsuitable foreheads and all women
tion of preposterous names, usually .Greek, whatever with black hair it would be hard
but not unfrequently Persian, for totally to conceive, and the mania did not as a
useless unguents ? The claim is allowed in mania last very long. Then came the day
France, but in England, like the similar of invention, the use of false hair, the in
one of the cook and the confectioners, sertion of frisettes, the introduction of gold
it has always been rejected, a rejection en dyes, the re-entry of the vast combs prized
which excites the profession every now and by our great grandmothers, the admiration
then to somewhat violent and therefore ri of pins stolen from the Ionian and Pompe
diculous self-assertion. They perceive an ian head-gear, and a general attention to
opportunity just at present. For a good the head-dress which we can best describe
many years past the business of the coiffeur by quoting from the Manners and Customs
has been comparatively a very simple affair, of Ancient Greece a paragraph on the hair
rising scarcely to the dignity of a trade and dressing of Athenian women : — “ On noth
entirely outside the province of art.x Men ing was there so much care bestowed as.
all over Europe have adopted the fashion upon the hair. Auburn, the colour of Aph
of the much ridiculed Roundheads, cut their rodite’s tresses in Homer, being consider
hair habitually close, till the assertion that ed most beautiful, drugs were invented in
HAIRDRESSING IN EXCELSIS.
�584
HAIR-DRESSING IN EXCELSIS.
which the hair being dipped, and exposed incident in the annals of modern folly. Some
to the noon day sun, it acquired the covet thirty women had their hair dressed in pub
ed hue, and fell in golden curls over their lic by the, same number of men — not, we
shoulders. Others, contented with their,. are sorry to say, to the accompaniment of
own black hair, exhausted their ingenuity slow music,— an improvement we recom
in augmenting its rich gloss, steeping it in mend to Mr. Carter’s attention — and some
oils and essences, till all the fragrance of two hundred men and women looked on and
Arabia seemed to breathe around them. applauded the result. There was in the
Those waving ringlets which we admire in middle of the room a long table covered
their sculpture were often the creation of with a white cloth, as it were for some sort
art, being produced by curling-irons heated of experiment, but upon the table could be
in ashes ; after which, by the aid of jewel seen nothing but hand-mirrors, which look
led fillets and golden pins, they were ed indigestible. So long were other visitors
brought forward over the smooth white incoming that one visitor, who was con
forehead, which they sometimes shaded to scious of wan ting the scissors and of a total
the eyebrows, leaving a small ivory space absence of bear’s grease, was afraid that one
in the centre, while behind they floated in of the many gentlemen who in winning cos
shining profusion down the back. When tume, and faultless “ ’eads of air,” and un
decked in this manner, and dressed for the mistakable hairdressing propensities, hover
gunascitis in their light flowered sandals ed near the door, would insist upon his
and semi-transparent robes, they were having his hair cut and dressed forthwith,
scarcely farther removed from the state of merely to wile away the time. But fortu
nature than the Spartan maids themselves.” nately, just as a gentleman with a “ ’ead of
The grand triumph of the Ionic barbers, air” which would have done credit to any
the invention of a mode of plaiting which wax figure in any shop window, was ap
occupied many hours, and could therefore proaching with sinister looks, visitors, mas
be repeated only once a week, and requir culine and feminine began to pour in. Then
ed those who wore it to sleep on their backs there was diffused around the room an
with their necks resting on wooden trestles, odour of bear’s grease, and probably cost
hollowed out lest the bed should derange lier unguents, and from the look of the
the hair, has not indeed been repeated, ladies’ hair the writer was under the im
though under the fostering care of Mr. Car pression that he beheld the victims who
ter even that perfection may one
be had been immolated •upon the shrine of
attained. Still we have the auburn dyes, hairdressing, and who were to exhibit the
and the pins, and all the Athenian devices, effects of the sacrifice. But not so. Awhile,
and it is not quite certain that the “ chig and then there came in, each leaning upon
non,” the nasty mass of horsehair and hu the arm of the cavalier who was to “ dress
man hair which women have learnt to stick her,” about thirty-two ladies, from an age to
on the back of their heads, and which is ac which it would be ungallant to allude down
tually sold in Regent Street attached to to (one can hardly say “ bashful ”) fifteen.
bonnets, is not an additional triumph over Their hair was in some instances apparently
nature. We have a picture somewhere of just out of curl-papers, but for the most part
a chignon more than three thousand years hanging unconfined except at the back, where
old, but if we are not mistaken there are it was fastened close to the crown, and then
feathers on it as well as hair, the very idea hung down like a horse’s tail. Among the
which the President of the Hairdressers’ thirty were one or two magnificent cheveAcademy on Tuesday reinvented, and for lures, but we did not see one that quite
which he was so heartily applauded. Of realized the painter’s ideal, one which the
course, with the new rage for artificial ar wearer could have wrapped round her as
rangement, false hair, dyes, chignons, hair Titian’s model must have done, or one on
crepe, hair frise, and we know not what, the which the owner could have stood, as on a
hairdresser’s art is looking up, and the sen mat, as Hindoo women have been known to
sible tradesmen who practise it, sensible in do. Their comic appearance, and the clap
in all but their grandiloquence — which is, ping of hands which arose thereat, showed
we take it, half-comic, half a genuine effort one at once that they were the victims or
at self-assertion — are making the most of (if you please) the heroines. They sat at the
their opportunity.
white-cloth-covered table, and the cavaliers
The soire'e, or “ swarry,” as the doorkeep drew from black bags combs, arid puffs, and
er persisted in calling it, of the Hairdress hair-pins, and what looked like small roll
ers’ Academy, held in the Hanover Square ing-pins, and tapeworms, and bell-ropes,
Rooms on Tuesday, was really a noteworthy and cord off window-curtains, and muslin
�mmM-
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FRENCH AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS.
>
585
and tissue-paper, and flowers and fruits of sheAvould entice oui’ “ golden youth ” (or
the earth imitated in green and gold. Then our golden age, for the matter of that) ?
the “ dressing ” began, and the spectator What manner of woman, then, would set
saw with awe and amazement what art can the fashion in hairdressing ?
And we
do for hair, then one repented of ever hav know what has been the consequence in
ing doubted the truth of ladies who at balls France (if we are not nearly as bad here)
say, with a significant glance at head-dresses, of following in small matters the lead of the
“ Why, how do you do, dear ? I really did demi-monde. On the other hand, two con
not know you.” Some people may think victions at all events we acquired from the
that hair, however plenteous or however spectacle. One is that modern hairdressing
scanty, looks better in its natural state than in its highest form is a branch of jewelling,
when it is made into a flower garden ; and the real art being shown not in the arrange
others may hold that no kind of hair is im ment of the hair, but in the addition of
proved by being interwoven with tape things which are not hair — combs, rib
worms or bell-ropes, or even the cord off bons, flowers, dewdrops, and gilt insects —
window-curtains. But it is certain that by the last a taste essentially inartistic and de
the use of muslin and other materials already praved. The other was that it is not safe
spoken of a result may be obtained which for any man to make a proposal in the
would justify a man in cutting his mother evening.
So utterly were some of the
(on the score of non-recognition, if on no “ subjects” changed by the act of the ope
other), and which would lead one to believe rators, that the possibility of not knowing
that so long as a lady has a couple of hand in the morning the betrothed of the even
fuls of hair left she may, with the help of ing seemed very real indeed, and the mis
art, hold her own against Berenice. When take would be an awkward one for both
all the ladies were “ dressed ” one of the parties.
“ dressers ” made an unexceptionable little
speech in unexceptionable English (for
which our experience of hairdressing had
not prepared us), concluding by saying
that the ladies in their “ dressed ” state
would walk round the table each leaning
From the Economist, 27 January.
on the arm of her “ dresser,” so that the
spectators might all have a full view. As THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE FRENCH
he said, so did they; nay, they went fur
AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS.
ther, and walked round twice, amidst the
applause of (he assembled witnesses. We
The Emperor of the French has said
were disappointed that no prize beyond many remarkable things, but few more
applause was given; we had thought that remarkable than the short sentence in
at least a small-tooths comb, after the fash which he hints that there is some analogy
ion of those said by Miss Emmeline Lott to between the Constitution of France and
be used in the Turkish harems, would have that of the United States. The statement
been bestowed. But perhaps it would have has been received in England with an
been dangerous to have given so decided a impatience which is. a little unjust, and
preference to the hair of one lady over that is caused by too exclusive an attention
of another, for after all it must be with some to surface differences. Those differences
difficulty that the subjects of the exhibition are of course patent to every one ; but the ■
are collected. After the b< swarry ” came a analogy is not the less real and striking.
ball, at which whosoever danced with the The key-note of the American Constitution
ladies who had their heads powdered was, is the existence of an Executive which dur
if he disliked dust, to be pitied. The com ing its term of office is irresponsible to the
pany seemed to be, for the most part, or at people, which acts by its own volition,
any rate to a considerable extent, connect which can pursue if necessary a policy dia
ed with the hairdressing interest, and that metrically opposed to the wishes of those
they should do all they could to bring their who elected it. That also is the key-note
craft to perfection is not only pardonable, of the system established by the Second
but commendable. Would it, however, be Empire. The President does as he pleases
well if society in general should patronize in all matters within his province just as
such exhibitions ? Opinions happily differ, the Emperor does, and like him is irrespon
but we cannot help thinking evil would come sible to the Legislature — need not, indeed,
of it. What manner of woman, is it that explain to the representatives of the people
must study such matters as hairdressing, if | his own official acts. His ministers are his
�586
FRENCH AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS.
ministers or clerks, bound to obey his or
ders; not bound to pay any heed, and fre
quently not paying any heed, to votes
passed by the popular body. Of course,
in America as in France this absolute
disunion between the Executive and the
body which controls the purse is very
inconvenient, and it has in each country
been met in the same way. In France the
Minister without a portfolio explains to
the Corps Legislatif the plans of depart
ments which he does not control, and in
America a friend or connection or political
ally of the President performs the same
function, Mr. Raymond for example occupy
ing as nearly as possible that position in
Congress, which M. Rouher occupies in
the French Chamber. It is true the French
spokesman is a recognised official, and the
American spokesman is not, but the recog
nition does not diminish “ responsibility ” in
the English parliamentary sense, but rather
increases it. It is true Mr. Johnson cannot
effect through Congress what the Emperor
can effect through his Legislature, but that
is because he has not a majority and the
Emperor has. In theory the French Cham
ber has as much right to reject a bill pro
posed by the Imperial Government as Con
gress has, and were the Emperor less dread
ed it would frequently do so. At the pres
ent moment Mr. Johnson is trying to
“ make a majority ” to support his policy b^
means quite as strong as those used in
French elections. He has ordered that
no radical recommendation for office shall
be listened to, and has it is said threatened
that unless his opponents give way he will
dismiss every official throughout the Union
who owes his election to the recommenda
tion of an opponent, a measure which has
daunted his stoutest adversaries as fatal
to their re-election. They will be in fact,
as in France, struck out of the Government
list. Indeed the prerogative of the Presi
dent is in many ways greater than that
of the Emperor. Each is commander-inchief, but the President can deprive any
officer of his commission by decree, and
the Emperor cannot. A French officer’s
grade is his “property,” and though the
law has once or twice been violated, it
/could not be broken through except for
a State necessity. Emperor and President
are alike masters of the Civil Service, but
the President can and does dismiss at will,
and the bureaucracy of France is perma
nent. An order, such as Mr. Johnson is
said to have threatened to give, would in
France have aroused an unconquerable re
sistance. No doubt the Emperor of the
French can do things infinitely more highhanded than the President could attempt,
but that is not by virtue of the idea of
the French Constitution, but by reason
of his control over a system essentially and
radically despotic, which he did not make,
and which his predecessors also used, the
French police. Mr. Johnson has no such
organisation at his disposal, but when it ex
isted during the first two years of the war it
was used without much regard to anything
but the safety of the Federation. Without
the police aud the immense army, and with
a hostile majority in the Chamber, the Em
peror would be almost precisely in the po
sition of the President.
But the latter is subject to removal at
the expiration of his term ? No doubt Mr.
Johnson is, and has therefore a great temp
tation to make his policy accord with the
policy approved by the electors, and so has
the Emperor Napoleon, who follows opinion
quite as anxiously; but. that deference is no
part of the Constitution, which provides for
change in the individual, but not for change
in the absolute independence of the office.
In changing our Premier, we ensure a
Change of policy, because if the new man
disobeys, he also can be dismissed next day;
but in changing the President, America
merely places one independent and irre
movable official in place of another. The
theories of the Imperial and Republican sys
tems are identical, except in the illogical
peculiarity of the French Constitution, that
it introduces the hereditary element into the
Executive, whereas the right of election
logically includes a right of dismissal at
periods fixed by mutual agreement. But
the freedom of the Press, of speech, of asso
ciation ? Well, these things exist in Amer
ica and do not exist in France; but it is
not in consequence of the Constitution, but
of the popular will. Nothing prevents an
American President, with Congress at his
back, from subverting the freedom of the
Press, by means, for example, of remissible
taxes, if they think that policy sound. The
Emperor and his first Chamber did think it
sound, and so freedom in France ended, a
fact greatly no doubt to be regretted, but
in, no way proving that the principles of the
American and French Constitutions are not
analogous. One very remarkable power
indeed is possessed by the American Legis
lature which is not possessed by the French,
and that is the right of passing a law by a
two-third vote, in defiance of the President.
But the French Chamber is theoretically
just as strong, for it could insist on a certain
law being passed, under penalty of a rejec
�/
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xico.
s
587
tion of the Budget, and the Emperor must by which alone a constitutional monarch
. either yield, or appeal to a plebiscitum, that can acquire great individual power. At all
is, strike a coup d’etat upsetting the Consti events, should circumstances ever compel
tution, which gives the Chamber such a the Emperor to relax the overstrictness
right of control. That the two sets of insti of his regime, it is to the American rather
tutions are worked in a different way, and than to the British form of freedom that
with a different spirit, is too obvious for re he appears likely to feel his way.
mark ; but that does not destroy the theo
retic analogy to which the Emperor points.
The truth is that apart from the operation
..of the State system, which with many faults
' still organises popular resistance, the Presi
dent of the United States is, during his
From the Saturday Review, Jan. 27.
term of office, an excessively powerful mon
MEXICO.
arch, and the fact, revealed only by the
war, has evidently struck forcibly on the
The position which the Government of
imagination of the Emperor of the French. the United States is prepared to take up
As he acknowleges in his speech he still dis with regard to Mexico is at last clearly and
likes Parliamentary Government, for which finally established, and it is one that is cal
he is himself singularly unfitted, and he culated to excite some apprehension for the
glances at the Union with a passing thought future peace of the world. During the au
that if he ever grants “ liberty,” it will be in tumn months of last year, Mr. Seward was
the American and not in the English form. continually urging on the Federal Govern
Should the thought ever become active, it ment the expediency of the speedy with
is astonishing how little he will have to do drawal of the French troops; and, with
to restore “liberty” after the American many sincere protestations of the most frienimodel as it would appear were the Union ly feeling towards France, he gave the Em
a republic one and indivisible. He would peror to understand that, if his troops were
have to introduce laws establishing the free to stay much longer where they were, a
dom of the press, and the right of associa rupture between the two countries was inev
tion, and the liability of all officials to pros itable. The Emperor would be only too
ecution for illegal acts done in their official glad to get his troops away if he could do so
capacities; and the exemption of all citizens without compromising his own honour, and
from arrest except on criminal charges, and that of France ; and it seemed to him that
the constitutional change would be theoret the best way of arranging the matter would
ically alinost complete. The remaining bethat the French troops. should go, and
changes which would be necessary — such that the United States should recognise the
as abstinence from interference in the elec Emperor Maximilian. • The Mexican Em
tions, recognition of the right of debate, pire, being thus placed on a friendly footing
and restoration of the legislative initiative with the only Power it has to dread, might
to individual members — are scarcely con hope to establish itself and prosper, if pros
stitutional. These changes once accom perity in Mexico is possible for it. France
plished, France would be in possession of a would have succeeded, or, at least, would
great amount of practical liberty, of the not have openly and conspicuously failed;
control of her own Legislature, and of an and all jealousy between Washington and
Executive terribly strong indeed, but not Paris would have been at an end. But Mr.
stronger than that of the American Union; Seward has distinctly and decisively re
rather less strong, because hampered by the jected this proposal. The United States
legal rights of the army, and the customary will not recognise the Emperor Maximil
rights of the civil bureaucracy. That is not ian, nor treat him on any but a hostile foot
a form of Government we admire, because ing. lathe eyes of the Americans, he is
it lacks the one strength of the Parliamen an intruder, and an enemy of an injured and
tary system, the absolute identity of the friendly Republic, and they can never be
Legislature and the Executive power; but content until his enterprise has wholly failed.
it is one which might suit France for a time, Congress, as Mr. Seward remarks, must
and would have the immense advantage of exercise its legitimate influence on the Gov
permitting free thought and its expression, ernment of the President ; and the Pres
and some activity of Parliamentary life ident has not only to announce his own de
without the previous dismissal of the Napo cision, but that of the American people and
leonic dynasty, which will never, we fear, its representatives; and the opinion of the
consent to that incessant intellectual conflict American people is violently against the
�588
MEXICO.
Mexican Empire. Of this there can be no withdrawn; but if this is not done, the time
doubt; for even if the accusations continu must come when they will insist on having
ally brought up in Congress against the Em their wishes fulfilled.
peror Maximilian were true, instead of
This uncompromising language of the
being, as for the most part they are, gross American Government has placed the Em
misrepresentations, still the vehemence and peror of the'French in a very difficult po
pertinacity with which they are urged show sition. He cannot seem to yield to threats;
clearly enough how deep is the animosity but still he knows that, if any way of with
that prompts them. If the whole question drawing his troops with honour can be found,
were simply one of the continuance of the he must use it. He has, therefore, set ear
Mexican Empire, it might be worth while nestly to work to disprove the view which
to discuss these accusations, and to show how the American Government has adopted.
very slight is the basis on which they have He denies altogether that he ever wished to
been reared ; but all matters of detail are set up a Monarchy in Mexico, or to crush a
swallowed up in the gravity of the declara Republic. But the Republican Govern
tion which the United States have now is ment had insulted and offended him, plun
sued. The view of the Government of the dered and murdered his subjects, gave no
United States is, that the French have vio compensation, and perhaps was too weak,
lated the Monroe doctrine in its proper poor, and anarchical to give any. He inter
and original sense. There was a Republic fered merely to get redress, but he did not
established in Mexico, holding its territory see how it was possible to hope for redress
unopposed, in harmony with the country, from, such a Government as then existed in
dear to the inhabitants, and in the most Mexico. Several leading Mexicans pro
friendly relations with the United States. posed to establish a Monarchy, and he con
The French came to pull down this Repub curred in the idea because he thought a Mon
lic, and to set up a Monarchy, and they per archy, which had long been a favourite no
sist in remaining in Mexico to force this tion of many Mexicans, offered the best
alien Empire on an unwilling Republican chance of getting a Government strong, du
people. This is the mode in which the rable, and enlightened enough to pay him
United States have determined, after full what he was owed. This is all. He no
deliberation, to regard the recent history of more wishes to put down a Republic in Mexi
Mexico; and they will not allow any com co than he does to put down a Republic at
promise by which their adherence to this Washington; he merely wished, and wishes,
view might seem to be weakened. So long to have an instrument ready to provide him
as France stays in Mexico, forcing an Em with the redress he asked. The Emperor
pire on the Republicans of a contiguous Maximilian and his Court, and his Orders
State, America will treat France exactly as of the Eagle and Gaudalupe, are only pret
she would expect France to treat her if ty bits of machinery for the recovery of
she sent a fleet, and landed troops, to set up money owing to Frenchmen; and it must
a Republic in Belgium. Much, it is ac be owned that, if this is all, they are about
knowledged, is to be borne from France, as expensive a pi^ce of machinery, in com
which would not be borne from any other parison with the object to be effected, as
country. It will be only in the last resort was ever invented. But then, as the Em
that the language of America would be peror said in his speech, this machinery
come hostile to a country endeared to her has answered, or very nearly answered.
by so many traditions, and bound to her by There is now in Mexico an enlightened
so many ties. The tone of Mr. Seward’s Government triumphant overall opposition,
letter is very conciliatory, and the Govern with a French commerce trebled in an in
ment of President Johnson has been reso credibly short space of time, plentifully sup
lute in preventing any indirect breaches of plied with troops, and quite ready to pay off
amity. The export of arms from California all that is due to France. A few more ar
has been prevented, and still more recently rangements have still to be made with the
a considerable portion of the troops in Tex Emperor Maximilian, so that the stipulat
as has been disbanded. France has nothing ed payments may be fully secured, and then
to complain of in small things; there is only the French troops will be finally and hon
the one great point of difference between her ourably withdrawn. The ecstatic visions of
and the United States, that she has violated M. Chevalier, and the ardent proclama
a doctrine to which the United States at tions of Marshal Forey, are forgotten, or
tach the greatest importance, and which utterly neglected. We hear no more of the
they are resolved to uphold. They now spread of French influence over the West
merely ask that the French troops shall be ern hemisphere, of the necessity of enabling
�MEXICO.
tv
*
589
the Latin race to confront the Anglo-Saxon his own resources. If the Emperor Maxi
race in the New World. The Americans milian would but announce that he was
are told that all that has been done in Mexi- now quite, sure of his throne, and that
. Co has been done simply to redress the French aid was no longer necessary to him,
wrongs and support the claims of French the French might undoubtedly retire with
men; the French’themselves are told that out dishonour. They could not retire at
this most desirable end has been accom once, but it may be presumed that the
plished, and that the troops who have ren Americans would be quite satisfied if a Con
dered its accomplishment possible may soon vention like the September Convention
be expected home. But it is scarcely neces with Italy were agreed on, and if it were
sary to say that neither the Americans nor arranged that all French troops should have
the French will be satisfied. The Ameri quitted Mexico by the end of the present
cans think, and think with perfect truth, year. If the French went, the Austrians
that the experiment of recovering French and Belgians must go too— not necessarily
debts by shooting Republicans until the at the very same time, but before very long;
Austrian Archduke was made Emperor as it is obvious that, if the French have been
would never have been tried unless it had guilty of coming to American soil to tram
been supposed that it could be tried with ple down a Republic and set up a Monarchy,
out the United States being able to inter so have they. The Emperor Maximilian
fere with it. The French know that at least would therefore have to decide whether he
twenty millions of French money have been could possibly hold his own with native
sunk in the experiment, and that if their troops against his domesticV’enemies; and
troops were withdrawn it would be a great secondly, whether, if he thought it possible
deal more difficult to"recover the new debt to succeed, he would also think it worth
than it was to recover the old one. The while to try. It may be assumed, perhaps, that
Emperor, by adopting the view that he is the Emperor of the French would be able
merely trying to get his just dues from Mexi to provide that Mexico should be left alone,
co, has done something to conciliate the and that, if he did not go there, neither
Americans; yet he has made it even harder would the Americans. But if all foreign
than before to justify to France the with troops were withdrawn, the Emperor
drawal of the troops. To throw away twen would have to fight Mexicans with Mexi
ty millions in the attempt to get back a cans. His Mexicans would feel no enthusi
tenth of that sum is as deplorable an invest asm for him, would regard him as a foreign
ment, and as conspicuous a failure, as he er, and would with difficulty be induced to
could well make. The last Mexican loan of believe that his cause was the winning one.
about six millions sterling was almost entire His adversaries would be ardent, stimulated
ly subscribed by the French poor, on the by the encouragement of the Americans,
direct solicitation of the local officials of the panting for revenge, and able to take ad
Government, and it would most seriously vantage of that general disposition to go
impair the confidence of the lower classes in against the existing Government, whatever
the Emperor’s policy if it ended in a loss it may be, which pervades all nations of
to them of money which they only sub Spanish descent. But even if the Emper
scribed because he seemed to ask for it him- or thought that, after a very long and pro
self.
tracted fight, he might possibly hold his own,
The Emperor must, therefore, risk some and retain a precarious possession of some
thing. He might risk either a war with of the richer parts of the Mexican territory,
America, or a blow to his prestige in France. he might very probably hesitate before he
His speech was very judiciously worded, and embarked on so dangerous an adventure,
he seemed to be preserving a firm attitude, and might begin to examine whetherit could
and consulting the dignity of his country, possibly answer to him to take the risk. If
while he prepared a mode of escape from his he stayed as long as the French stayed, and
Embarrassment by asserting that his work found that the pressure of the Americans
was done in Mexico, and that the Emperor was depriving him even of his Austrians 1
Maximilian was firmly established there. and Belgians, he would incur no- disgrace
It will now naturally be his first object to by resigning a position that he might fairly
get the Emperor Maximilian to share this consider untenable. But the French could
opinion ; and the story may be true that he .scarcely withdraw altogether if he went.
has sent over a special envoy to represent They could not acknowledge that their at
to the Emperor of Mexico that he must tempt to obtain redress had been entirely in
consent to the withdrawal of the French vain, and all their money wasted ; and they
troops, and tTy his chance of empire from would naturally seek to make some arrange-
�THE EMPERORS SPEECH.
From the Spectator, 27th January.
ment with the United States by which, if a
Government favoured by the United States
THE EMPEROR’S SPEECH.
was set up, a return to mere anarchy should
be prevented, and the right of the French
The Emperor of the French has opened
to enjoy some sort of guarantee for the settle the Session of his Chambers for the thir
ment of their claims should be recognized. teenth time, and for the thirteenth time his '
speech is the political fact in the European
history of the week. Its interest turns
mainly upon three paragraphs, those relating
[From another article in the same paper, we to Mexico, to Italy, and to his pledge of one
copy the French Emperor’s address.]
day “crowning the edifice” by conceding
liberty. Of course he says other things,
The French Emperor’s address to his but they are so vague or so formal that they
Legislature is generally an interesting study. add nothing to our knowledge either of his
It is feebler and less clever this year than purposes or his position. He will “ remain
usual, but still it is interesting/ The au a stranger” to the internal disputes of Ger
gust author of these compositions has the art many, “ provided French interests are not
of touching all great questions of European directly engaged,” but as he is the sole
concern in a tone of frankness and gener judge whether they are so or not, this
osity, and noble sentiments in a Royal or amounts only to a pledge that France will
Imperial speech are always pleasant and re not interfere with Prussia until her Em
freshing. What, for example, can be more peror chooses, an assertion which makes a
considerate or delicate than the manner in very small draft upon our political faith.
which he handles the Americans? They He promises to restore the right of associa
are reminded of a century of friendship, and tion for industrial purposes, but the liberty
it is politely suggested that Imperialism is thus regained is to be “ outside politics,”
only the Constitution of the United States and to be limited “ by the guarantees which
in a French Court dress. The Mexican ex public order requires ” i. e., by any guaran
pedition is explained in a manner that tee the Emperor thinks expedient. He an
ought to disarm the most suspicious Yankee, nounces a reduction of the Army, but it has
and it seems as if all had been a mistake been effected without a reduction of num
about the Latin race, as it was about the bers, and declares that a financial equili
proposed recognition of the South. Some brium has been secured by the surplus of
body did say something about the Latin revenue, for which surplus his Minister of
race, which has evidently been misconstrued Finance only just ventures to hope on con
a good deal; but the “ American people” dition that everything goes right for two
will now comprehend that “ the expedition, more years. He suggests that France is
in which we invited them to join, was not governed very much like the United States,
opposed to their interests.” France “prays” but does not attempt to explain wherein he
sincerely for the prosperity of the great Re finds the analogy between a Constitution
public, and, just as a French Emperor is only which changes its Executive every four
an American President in disguise, so Im years, and leaves the entire legislative power
perialism in Mexico has been founded “ on to the representatives of the people, and a
the will of the people.” Mr. Seward very Constitution which was intended to make
Hkely never swears. His talent lies chiefly the executive power hereditary, and which
in the line of making other people swear. intrusts the initiative of legislation entirely
But it is possible that some less courteous to the man who is to carry that legislation
Anglo-Saxons in Washington and in New out. On all these subjects, Germany, fi
York, who are anxious about the Monroe nance, co-operation, and the Constitution,
doctrine, after reading all these high-mind the Emperor’s utterance is suggestive, with
ed expressions, and especially the one about out clearly instructing either his subjects or
the French praying for them, will feel in the world. No one, for example, could tell
clined, in the language used in the School without knowing facts which the Emperor
for Scandal by the friends of Joseph Sur does not reveal whether his paragraph on
face, to observe, “ Damn your sentiments.” Germany is a hint to Count von Bismark to
However this may be, and whatever may be go on in his course and prosper, or a.men
the turn the Mexican difficulty is taking, ace that France would not bear a Union, of
one thing is clear, that the French Emper Northern Germany against which its in
terests are directly engaged.
or puts his sentiments neatly and well.
�THE EMPEROR ’S SPEECH.
591
Even on the three points we have excepted die course, and the object of this part of
the Emperor, as his wont is, gives the world his speech is simply to soothe Americans
a riddle to read. What, for instance, is the into waiting until he can retreat with hon
meaning of the sentence which says that our. He who three years ago spoke only of
France “ has reason to rely on the scrupulous strengthening a branch of the Latin race to
execution of the Treaty with Italy of the 15 th resist Anglo-Saxon aggression, now anxious
September, and on the indispensable main ly repudiates any idea of hostility to the
tenance of the power of the Holy Father ? ” Union. He recalls to the Americans “ a
Does it mean that Napoleon regards the noble page in the history of France,” her
temporal power as indispensable, or only assistance to the Republic in its great rebel
the spiritual; that he will put down internal lion, reminds them that he requested them to
revolt in Rome, or suffer Italy to garrison take a part in reclaiming Mexican debts,
the city, provided only the Pope is left spir and almost implores thein to recollect that
itually independent ? Is his dictum a threat “ two nations equally jealous of their inde
to the Revolution or a threat to the priests | pendence ought to avoid any step which
Reading it by the light of the Emperor’s would implicate their dignity and their
character, we should believe the sentence honour.” Is that an assurance or a menintended only to ward off opposition until 1 afte ? For a French Sovereign to speak
the evacuation of Rome was complete, but of possible contingencies as “ implicating
read by the facts in progress, blithe re French dignity and honour ” is a very
cruiting for Rome going on in France, and ^serious thing, but then why these unusual
the pressure employed in Florence to make professions of regard for the Union ? It is
Italy accept the Papal debt, we should be true in a preceding paragraph Napoleon
lieve it implied that while Napoleon will re has affirmed that he is arranging with the
tire, the Pope must remain independent Emperor Maximilian for the recall of his
King of Rome. The maintenance of the army, bumhen their return must be effect-'
Pope’s power is declared indispensable, but ed when it “will not compromise the in
nothing is said of the invisible means by terests which France went out to that dis
which it is to be maintained.
tant land to defend.” When is that ? Do
So with the Mexican declaration. The the interests to be defended include the re
Emperor, we admit, is upon this point placed invigoration of the Latin race ? Nothing is
in a most difficult position. He made the clear from the speech, and according to
singular blunder made by the Times and by the Yellow Book, which is always supposed
the majority of English politicians, but not to explain the speech, the French Army is
made by the people he rules. Careless of only to return from Mexico when the Presi
principle and forgetting precedent, reject dent of the Union has recognized the Mexi
ing the idea that freedom must conquer can Empire, an act which he has refused to
slavery, and overlooking his uncle’s adage do, and which Congress has specifically for
that twenty-five millions must beat fifteen if bidden him to perform. There is nothing in
they can once get at them, he convinced the speech inconsiste^; with that interpreta
himself that the South must break up the tion, and if it is correct the Americans will
Union. Consequently he invaded Mexico, simply contrast the compliments offered
and placed his nominee on its throne. As them in words with the impossible proposal
his subjects, with the strange instinct which submitted in fact, and be less content than
supplies to great populations the place of ever. All they obtain is a promise 'that at
wisdom, had from the first foreseen, he some time not specified, when a result they
erred in his first essential datum. The dislike has been accomplished, the Emperor
South did not break up the Union, but the will, if consistent with his honour, withdraw
Union broke up the South, and Napoleon the troops through whom he has been able
finds himself compelled either to withdraw to accomplish it — not a very definite or
from a great undertaking visibly baffled and very satisfactory pledge.
repulsed, or to accept a war with the oldest
It is on the “ crowning of the edifice ’
ally of France — a war in which, if defeat alone that the Emperor is partially explicit.
ed, he risks his throne, and if successful, can He will not grant a responsible Ministry.
gain nothing except financial embarrass That system of government, always abhor
ment. Neither alternatiye seems to him en rent to him, has not become more pleasant
durable — the former as fatal to the reputa of late years, and he declares for the tenth
tion for success which is essential to his per time that “ with one Chamber holding with
sonal power, the latter as bringing him into di in itself the fate of Ministers the Executive
rect conflict with the wishes of all his peo is without authority and without spirit,” the
ple. He strives therefore to find some mid- “ one ” being inserted either to avoid a di-
�592
BEAU-MONDE AND THE DEMI-MONDE IN PARIS.
ers by an anouncement for which, after
all, both should have been prepared. No
one who is at all conversant with the ordina
ry course of Parisian life — we do not say
familiar with its inner mysteries — ought to
have been astonished at hearing that cer
tain grandes dames of French society had
sought for invitations to a masqued ball
which was to be given by a distinguished
leader of the demi-monde. We have had, in
our own country, certain faint and partial
indications of the same curiosity, revealed
in an awkward and half-hesitating sort of
way. English great ladies once made an
off-night for themselves at Cremorne, in
order to catch a flying and furtive glance,
not of the normal idols of those gay gar
dens, but of the mere scenic accessories to
their attractions and triumphs. But as yet
we have never heard that the matrons of
English society have sought an introduction
to the Lais of Brompton or the Phryne of
May-fair, even under the decorous con
cealment of mask and domino. Nor has it
yet been formally advertised here that the
motive of so unusal a request was a desire
to learn the arts and tactics by which the
gilded youth — and, it might be added, the
gilded age — of the country is subjected to
the thrall of venal and meretricious beauty.
That such a rumour should be circulated
and believed in France is — to use the cur
rent slang — “highly suggestive.” It sug
gests a contrast of the strongest, though it is
far from a pleasing, kind between the
society of to-day and the society of other
days. It was long the special boast of the
French that with them women enjoyed an
influence which in no other part of the
world was accorded to their sex, and that
this influence was at least as much due to
their mental as to their physical charms.
The women of other nations may have been
more beautiful. To the Frenchwomen was
specially given the power of fascination ;
and it was the peculiar characteristic of her
fascination that its exercise involved no dis
credit to the sense or' the sensibility of the
men who yielded to it. A power which
showed itself as much in the brilliance of
bons mots and repartee as ip smiles and
glances, a grace of language and expression
which enhanced every grace of feature
and of attitude, a logic which played in
the form of epigram, and a self-respect
From the Saturday Review.
which was set off rather than concealed by
THE 1 BEAU-MONDE AND THE
DEMI the maintenance of the most uniform cour
tesy to others — such were the arts and
MONDE IN PARIS.
insignia of the empire which the most cele
The Paris journals lately surprised their brated Frenchwomen, from the days of
French, and startled their foreign, read Maintenon and De Sevigne to those of
rect sarcasm upon the English Constitution,
or from a sudden recollection of the part
played by the Prussian Chamber of Peers.
He believes that his system has worked well,
that France, tranquil at home, is respected
abroad, and, as he adds with singular au
dacity, is without political captives within or
exiles beyond her frontiers. Are, then, the
Due d’Aumale, M. Louis iBlanc, and the
author of Labienus at liberty to return
to France ? Consequently nothing will be
changed, but the Emperor, resolving to “ im
prove the conditions of labour,” will await
the time when all France, being educated,
shall abandon seductive theories, and all
who live by their daily toil, receiving in
creasing profits, “ shall be firm supporters
of a society which secures their well-being
and their dignity.” No one can complain
of any obscurity in that apology for the
Empire. Its central ideas are all expressed,
and all expressed with truthful lucidity.
The Emperor is to rule “ with authority and
spirit.” There is to be no political freedom,
no discussion even of “ theories of govern
ment, which France for eighty years has
sufficiently discussed.” Intelligence and cap
ital are still to remain disfranchised, but in
return the labourer’s condition is to be im
proved. “ Bread to the cottage, justice to
the palace,” was the promise of the Venetian
Ten, and Napoleon, if he changes the
second, adheres to the first condition. His
offer is also bread to the cottage, provided
only that there is silence in the palace. It
is for France to decide whether she accepts
an offer which is not a small one, which if
honestly made is capable of fulfillment, and
which would pledge her Government to the
best ad interim occupation it could possibly
pursue. Only we would just remind her
that education in the Emperor’s mouth has
hitherto meant only education through
priests, and improvement in the condition
of the labourer only a vast expenditure out
of taxes which the labourer pays, that the first
result of these works has been the reckless
over-crowding of all towns, and that of these
promises there is not one which liberty
could not also secure.
�BEAU-MONDE ANDTPHE DEMI-MONDE IN PARIS.
593
Madame Deffand and Madame Roland or of the roturier ; the conflicts of science and
those of Madame Recamier, exercised over theology — all these furnished materials for
the warriors, sages, and statesmen of France. the tongues of the clever women, materials
The homage paid by the men to the brilliant of which the clever women fully availed
women who charmed the society which they themselves. The final result was not, in
had helped to create may not always have deed, wholly satisfactory. How many a
been perfectly disinterested. The friend short sharp sarcasm, shot from the tongue
ship of the women for their illustrious ad of brilliant causeuses,‘rebounded on the gil
mirers may not always have been perfectly ded rooms wherein it first hurtled! How
Platonic. There may have been some im many a satire, sugared with compliment, at
propriety—or, as our more Puritan friends which rival beaux chuckled in delight,
would say, some sin — in the intercourse of came back with its uncovered venom to the
some of the most celebrated Frenchmen hearts of those whose admiration had first
and Frenchwomen. Yet even this could provoked it! How many a gibe of reckless
not have been predicated of all. Madame truth, aimed at courts and nobles, distilled
de Sevigne’s reputation comes out. clear through laquais and waiting-maids into the
and spotless even from the foulest assault of streets of Paris, to whet the after-wrath
wounded vanity and slighted love. We do of that fierce canaille! Many of those
not forget the comprehensive loves and the clever women had better been silent; many
deliberate inconstancy of Ninon. But Ni of those pungent epigrams had better been
non, corrupt, as she may have been, was unsaid. Still, while the spirited talk went
not venal. She did not ruin her lovers by her on, life was illumined by no common bril
covetousness, and then receive their wives liance ; and vice not only decked itself, but
and sisters in her salons. She was courted forgot _ itself, in the guise of intelligence
by elegant and virtuous women, because she and wit.
was the single and solitary instance as yet
But what a change is it now! There are
known of a woman possessing every grace drawing-rooms in Paris which are more
and every charm save the grace and charm brilliant and gorgeous than any that De
of virtue. Whatever may have been the Sevigne or Recamier ever satin
*
But their
relations between the sexes in those days, brilliance and splendour are not of such
it was at least free from grossness. The airy impalpabilities as genius or wit. They
charms which attracted men to the Maison are solid, substantial, tangible. They are
Rambouillet were not those of sense alone, the brilliance and the splendour, not of able
or in a special degree. They were those of men and clever women, but of the uphol
conversation at once spirited, graceful, sterer, the mechanician, and the decorator.
elegant, and vivacious. To an accom There is gold, there is marble, there is lapis
plished man there is perhaps no greater lazuli; there are pictures, statues, ormolu
social treat than to hear good French clocks; there are rich velvets and cloud
spoken by an educated and clever French like lace, and a blaze of amethysts, rubies,
woman. In her hands a language of which and diamonds. There are trains of Impe
both the excellences and the defects eminent rial dimensions and tiaras of Ijnperial bright
ly qualify it for the purposes of conversational ness. And in whose honour is all this grand
combat becomes a weapon of dazzling fence. display ? To whom is the court paid by
Those delicate turns of phrase which imply this mob of sombre-clad and neatly-gloved
so much more than they express fly like men of every age, from twenty to sixty ?
Parthian shafts, and the little commonplaces Who have taken the place of the great
which may mean nothing do what the female leaders of society whose names have
pawns do when manipulated by a clever added lustre to France ? Strange as it
chess-player — everything. And in the age may seem, their successors are secondwhen the empire of Frenchwomen rested rate or third-rate actresses, opera-dancers,
upon their grace and power in conversa and singers at public rooms and public gar
tion, there was ample matter to task their dens. We do not intend to undertake the
remarkable talents. It was an age of new superfluous task of penning a moral dia
ideas. Government, religion, and philoso tribe, or inveighing against the immorality
phy: the administration of the kingdom of the age. Sermons there are, and will
and the administration of the universe ; the be, in abundance on so prolific and provok
rights of kings to be obeyed by their people ing a theme. In every age actresses and
and the right of the Creator to the adora ballet-girls have had their admirers. In
tion of his creatures; the claims of privi every age, probably, they will continue to
lege and the claims of prerogative; the have admirers. But what is worthy of note
pretensions of rank and the pretensions is this. Formerly this admiration was of
THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXXI [.
1478.
�594
BEAU-MONDE AND THE DEMIMONDE IN PARIS.
an esoteric kind. The worshippers adored
their divinities in secret. The temples of
the goddesses were, at any rate, not obtrud
ed on the public eye, nor in possession of
the most open, public, and splendid streets.
The cult, too, was confined to a narrower
circle. But now all this is changed; the
fanes of the divinities ‘are splendid and in
the most splendid streets ; the cult is open,
avowed, public. The worshippers are of
every age, and are all equally indifferent to
secrecy. There is no restriction and no ex
clusion, save on two grounds — those of
poverty and intelligence. There is a kind
of intellect admitted into this gorgeous cote
rie, but it is intellect in livery. The dra
matic author and the dramatic critic are
now as much appendages to the dramatic
courtezan as her coachman and her femme de
chambre. Where professional reputation
depends on scenic effect, and scenic effect
depends upon the equivoque put into the
.actress’s mouth, and the applause with
Tvhich their delivery is received, the man
who concocts the equivoque and the man
•who criticises their delivery become equally
•objects of attention to the actress who is
looking ou^ for a clientele. Saving these
necessary exceptions, these assemblies are
• comprised of rich old men anxious to dissi;pate the money which they have made, and
•rich young men as anxious to dissipate the
•wealth which they have inherited. And
;now we hear that the wives and sisters of
these men seek admission to these Paphian
jhalls.
Jt is, indeed, not an unnatural, though it
iis far from a decent, curiosity which prompts
ladies entitled to the reputation of virtue
do examine something of the life and dounestic economy of those ladies whose very
• existence presupposes an entire repudiation
< of virtue. The married women naturally
•■desire to know something of the manners
and mein and language of the-rivals whose
■arts have diverted their own husbands’
■treasures into alien and obnoxious channels.
'When a wife hears that her husband has,
at one magnificent stroke on the Bourse,
(Carried off one or two millions of francs,
; she is curious to ascertain the process by
which no inconsiderable proportion of these
-winnings has been “ affected ” to the payiment of Madlle. Theodorine’s debts or to the
■purchase of Madlle. Valentine’s brougham.
.And the anxious mother, who has long
■dreamed of the ceremony which might
unite the fortunes of her dear Alcide with
"the dot of her opulent neighbour’s daughter,
Is tortured between the misery of frustrated
Slopes and curiosity to understand the mo
tives which impel Alcide to become the
daily visitor of Mdlle. Gabrielle in the Rue
d’Arcade, and her daily companion when
riding in the Bois de Boulogne. Certainly
the subject is a very curious one. But does
the solution of the problem quite justify
the means taken to solve it? Might not
enough be inferred from the antecedent
history of those who are the subjects of it
to dispense with the necessity of a nearer
examination? Take a number of women
of the lower classes from the different
provinces of France — with no refinement,
with a mere shred of education, and with
but small claim to what an English eye
would regard as beauty — but compensating
for lack of knowledge, education, and re
finement by a vivacity and a coquetry pe
culiarly French. Take these women up to
Paris, tutor them as stage supernumeraries,
and parade before them the example of the
arts of the more successful Eorettes. The
rest may be imagined. From these general
premises it is not difficult to conjecture the
product obtained; to conceive that manner
on which jeunes gens dote, a manner made
up of impudence and grimace ; that repar
tee which mainly consists of ,a new slang
hardly known two miles beyond the Made
line ; those doubles entendres of which per
haps memory is less the parent than instinct,
and that flattery which is always coarse and
always venal. It would be erroneous to say
that we have here given a complete picture
of the class which certain leaders of Paris
fashion wish to study. There are, in the
original, traits and features which we could
not describe, and which it is unnecessary
for us to attempt to describe, as they are por
trayed in the pages of the satirist who has im
mortalized the vices of the most corrupt city
at its most corrupt era. Juvenal will supply
what is wanting to our imperfect delinea
tion. English ladies may read him in the
vigorous paraphrases of Dryden and Gif
ford ; ’ while their French contemporaries
may arrive at a livelier conception of what
we dare not express, if only they stay till
the supper crowns the festal scene of the
masqued ball. If they outstay this, they
will have learned a lesson the value of
which we leave it for themselves to com
pute.
.
. .
It is idle to say that curiosity of this kind
is harmless because it is confined to a few.
Only a few, indeed, may have contemplated
the extreme step of being present at the
Saturnalia of the demi-monde. But how
many others have thought of them and
talked of them ? To how many leaders of
society are the doings of these women the
�THE COVERT.
subjects of daily curiosity and daily con
versation ? How many patrician. -— or, at
all events, noble — dames regular attend
ants at mass, arbiters of fashion, and orna
ments of the Church, honour with their in
quisitiveness, women of whose existence,
twenty years ago, no decent Frenchwoman
was presumed to have any knowledge ?
And do these noble ladies suppose that this
curiosity is disregarded by the adventur
esses from Arles or Strasburg, Bordeaux or
Rouen, whom successful prostitution has
dowered with lace, diamonds, carriages,
and opera-boxes ? Do they suppose that
the professed admiration of the young
Sardanapali for the ex-couturieres and bal
let-girls of Paris has not a more potent ef
fect when combined with the ill-concealed
interest of their mothers and sisters ? And
what that effect is on the men in one class,
and on the women in another, a very slight
knowledge of human nature is sufficient to
suggest. That girls of moderately good looks
will contentedly continue to ply the shuttle
at Lyons, or to drudge as household servants
in Brittany, or to trudge home to a supperless
chamber in Paris with the bare earnings of
a supernumerary or a coryphee at a small
theatre, when a mere sacrifice of chastity
may enable them not only to ruin young
dukes and counts, but to become the theme
and admiration of duchesses and countesses,
is a supposition which involves too high a
U 1 •-■! .
belief in human virtue; and the conditions
we have named are found to be fatal to the
virtue of the poorer Frenchwomen. And
as for the men, what must be the effect on
them ? Debarred from the stirring conflict
of politics; exiled, so to speak, from the
natural arena of patriotic ambition ; know
ing no literature save that of novels in
which courtezans are the heroines, and
caring for no society but that of which
courtezans are the leaders; diversifying the
excitement of the hazard-table and the
betting-room with the excitement of the
coulisses; learning from their habitual asso
ciations to lose that reverence for women
and that courteous attention to them which
are popularly supposed to have at one time
characterized the gentlemen of France —
they partially redeem the degradation which
they court by showing that even a mixture
of vapid frivolity, sensual indulgence, and
senseless extravagance is insufficient to cor
rupt a nation, unless also the female leaders
of society conspire to select for their notice
and admiration those creatures for whom
the law of the land would better have pro
vided the supervision of the police and
the certificate of professional prostitution.
When virtuous women of birth and position
rub shoulders with strumpets, protests are
useless and prophecies are superfluous; for
the taint which goes before destruction is
already poisoning the heart of the nation.
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THE COVERT.
The eagle beats his way
Strong-winged through the burning blue:
All through the heat of the day
In the covert the wood-doves coo.
Take the wings of the dove, my soul!
Take the wings of the dove!
For the sun is not thy goal,
But the secret place of love. <
Close to the earth and near,
And hidden among the flowers,
By the brink of the brooklet clear,
The dove in her covert cowers.
>‘ni Wq XT
. .ih
Take the wings of the dove, my soul I
Take the wings of the dove!
For the sun is not thy goal,
But the secret place of love.
<•
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Flee not afar, my soul
Flee not afar for rest 1
.
The tumult may round thee roll,
q
Yet the dove be in thy breast.
Take the wings of the dove, my soul!
Take the wings of the dove!
--X
For the sun is not thy goal,
But the resting place of love.
"ir Mw
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Good Words'
�596
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE in her inmost nature, she disenthralled re
MARTYR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED ligion from bondage to temporal power,
STATES.
that her worship might be worship only in
Oration of the Hon. George Bancroft,
at the request of both Houses of Congress,
in the Hall of the House of Representa*v lives of the United States, on Monday,
Feb. 12, 1866. !
Senators, Representatives, ofAmerica: —
GOD IN HISTORY.
That God rules in the affairs of men is
as certain as any truth of physical science.
On the great moving power which is from
the beginning hangs the world of the senses
and the world of thought and action. Eternal
wisdom marshals the great procession of the
nations, working in patient continuity
through the ages, never halting, and never
abrupt, encompassing all events in its over
sight, and ever affecting its will, though
mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose
with madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown
down, nations come and go, republics flour
ish and wither, dynasties pass away like a
tale that is told; but nothing is by chance,
though men in their ignorance of causes may
think so. The deeds of time are governed
as well as judged, by the decrees of eterni
ty. The caprice of fleeting existences bends
to the immovable omnipotence which plants
its foot on all the centuries, and has neither
change of purposes nor repose. Sometimes
like a messenger through the thick darkness
of night, it steps along mysterious ways ; but
when the hour strikes for a people, or for
mankind, to pass into a new form of being,
unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates
of futurity; an all-subduing influence pre
pares the mind of men for the coming revo
lution ; those who plan resistance find them
selves in conflict with the will of Provi
dence, rather than with human devices;
and all hearts and all understandings, most
of all the opinions and influences of the
unwilling, are wonderfully attracted and
compelled to bear forward the change which
becomes more an obedience to the law of
universal nature than submission to the ar
bitrament of man.
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
In the fulness of time a republic rose up
in the wilderness of America. Thousands
of years had passed away before this child
of the ages could be born. From whatever
there was of good in the systems of former
centuries she drew her nourishment: the
wrecks of the past were her warnings.
With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed
spirit and in truth. The wisdom which had
passed from India through Greece, with
what Greece had added of her own; the
jurisprudence of Rome; the mediaaval mu
nicipalities ; the Teutonic method of repre
sentation ; the political experience of Eng
land ; the benignant wisdom of the exposi
tors of the law of nature and of nations in
France and Holland, all shed on her their
selectest influence. She washed the gold
of political wisdom from the sands whereever it was found; she cleft it from the
rocks; she gleaned it among ruins. Out of
all the discoveries of statesmen and sages,
out of all the experience of past human life,
she compiled a perennial political philoso
phy, the primordinal principles of national
ethics. The wise men of Europe sought the
best government in a mixture of monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy; and America
went behind t^ese names to extract from
them the vital elements of social forms, and
blend them harmoniously in the free Com
monwealth, which comes nearest to the illus
tration of the natural equality of all men.
She intrusted the guardianship of establish
ed rights to law; the movements of reform
to the Spirit of the people, and drew her
force from the happy reconciliation of both.
TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF THE REPULIC.
Republics had heretofore been limited to
small cantons or cities and their dependen
cies ; America, doing that of which the like
had not before been known upon the earth,
or believed by kings and statesmen to be
possible, extended her republic across a
continent. Under her auspices the vine of
liberty took deep root and filled the land;
the hills were covered with its shadow ; its
boughs were like the goodly cedars, and
reached unto both oceans. The fame of
this only daughter of freedom went out
into all the lands of the earth; from her
the human race drew hope.
PROPHECIES ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF
SLAVERY.
Neither hereditary monarchy nor heredi
tary aristocracy planted itself on our soil;
the only hereditary condition that fastened
itself upon us was servitude. Nature works
in sincerity, and is ever true to its law.
The bee hives honey, the. viper distils pois
on ; the vine stores its juices, and so do the
poppy and the upas. In like manner, every
thought and every action ripens its seed,
each in its kind. In the individual man,
�ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
. 597
and still more in a nation, a just idea gives position of Virginia and the South that the
life, and progress, and glory; a false j®pn- clause of Jefferson was restored, and the
ception portends disaster, shame, and death. whole Northwestern Territory — all the
A hundred and twenty years ago, a West' territory that then belonged to the nation
Jersey Quaker wrote : “ this trade of im — was reserved for the labor of freemen.
porting slaves is dark gloominess hanging
over the land; the consequences will be DESPAIR OK THE MEN OF THE REVO’‘£l
" lution.
grievous to posterity.”. At the North the
growth of slavery was arrested by natural
The hope prevailed in Virginia that the
causes; in the region nearest the tropics it abolition of the slave trade would bring
throve rankly, and worked itself into the with it the gradual abolition of slavery ; but
organism of the rising States. Virginia the expectation was doomed to disappoint
stood between the two; with soil, and cli ment. In supporting incipient measures
mate, resources demanding free labour, for emancipation, Jefferson encountered
and yet capable of the profitable employ difficulties greater than he could overcome;
ment of the slave. She was the land of and after vain wrestlings, the words that
great statesmen ; and they saw the danger broke from him, “ I tremble for my coun
of her being whelmed under the rising flood try, when I reflect that God is just, that his
in time to struggle against the delusions of justice cannot sleep forever,” were words
avarice and pride. Ninety-four years ago, of despair. It was the desire of Washing
the Legislature of Virginia addressed the ton’s heart that Virginia should remove
British king, saying that the trade in slaves slavery by a public act; and as the pros
was “ of great inhumanity,” was opposed to pect of a general emancipation grew more
the “ security and happiness ” of their con and more dim he, in utter hopelessness of
stituents, “ would in time have the most the action of the State, did all that he could
destructive influence,” and “ endanger their by bequeathing freedom to his own slaves.
very existence.” And the king answered Good and true men had, from the days of
them, that “ upon pain of-his highest dis 1776, thought of colonizing the negro in
pleasure, the importation of slaves should the home of his ancestors. But the idea of
not be in any respect obstructed. “ Phar colonization was thought to increase the dif
isaical Britain,” wrote Franklin in behalf of ficulty of emancipation; and in spite of
Virginia, “to pride thyself in setting free a strong support, while it accomplished much
single slave that happened to land on thy good for Africa, it. proved impracticable as
coasts, while thy laws continue a traffic a remedy at home. Madison, who in early
whereby so many hundreds of thousands are life disliked slavery so much that he wished
dragged into a slavery that is entailed on “ to depend as little as possible on the labor
their posterity.” “A serious view of this of slaves ; ” Madison, who held that where
subject,” said Patrick Henry in 1773, “ gives slavery exists “ the republican theory be
a gloomy prospect to future times.” In the comes fallaciotis; ” Madison, who in the
same year George Mason wrote to the Leg last years of his life would not consent to
islature of Virginia: “ The laws of impar the annexation of Texas, lest his country
tial Providence may avenge our injustice men should fill it with slaves ; Madison, who
upon our posterity.” In Virginia, and in said, “ slavery is the greatest evil under
the Continental Congress, Jefferson, with which the nation labors, a portentous evil,
the approval of Edmund Pendleton, brand an evil — moral, political and economical —ed the slave trade as piracy; and he fixed a sad blot on our free country,” went mourn
in the Declaration of Independence as the fully into old age with the cheerless words:
corner stone of America: “ All men are “ No satisfactory plan has yet been devised
created equal, with an unalienable right to for taking out the stain.”
liberty.” On the first organization of tem
NEW VIEWS OF SLAVERY.
porary governments for the continental do
main Jefferson, but for the default of New
The men of the Revolution passed away.
Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated A new generation sprang up, impatient that
every part of that territory to freedom. In an institution to which they clung should be
the formation of the National Constitution condemned as inhuman, unwise and unjust;
Virginia, opposed by a part of New Eng in the throes of discontent at the self-re
land vainly struggled to abolish the slave proach of their fathers, and blinded by the
trade at once and forever; and when the lustre of wealth to be acquired by the cul
ordinance of 1787 was introduced by Na ture of a new staple, they devised the theo
than Dane, without the clause prohibiting ry that slavery, which they would not abol
slavery, it was through the favourable dis ish, was not evil, but good. They turned
�598
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
on the friends of colonization, and confi
dently demanded, “ Why take black men
from a civilized and Christian country, where
their labor is a source of immense gain and
a power to control the markets of the
world, and send them to a land of ignorance,
idolatry, and indolence, which was the home
of their forefathers, but not theirs ? Slav
ery is a blessing. Were they not in their
ancestral land naked, scarcely lifted above
brutes, ignorant of the course of the sun,
controlled by nature ? And in their new
abode, have they not been taught to know
the difference of the seasons, to plough, to
plant and reap, to drive oxen, to tame the
horse, to exchange their scanty dialect for
the richest of all the languages among men,
and the stupid adoration of follies for the
purest religion ? And since slavery is good
for the blacks, it is good for their masters,
bringing opulence and the opportunity of
educating a race. The slavery of the black
is good in itself; he shall serve the white
man forever.” And nature, which better
understood the quality of fleeting interest
and passion, laughed, as it caught the
echo: “ man ” and “ forever 1 ”
SLAVERY AT HOME.
A regular development of pretensions fol
lowed the new declaration with logical con
sistency. Under the old declaration every
one of the States had retained, each for itself,
the right of manumitting all slaves by an
ordinary act of legislation ; now, the power
of the people over servitude through their
legislatures was curtailed, and the privil
eged class was swift in imposing legal and
constitutional obstruction, on the people
themselves. The power of emancipation
was narrowed or taken away. The slave
might not be disquieted by education. There
remained an unconfessed consciousness that
the system of bondage was wrong, and a
restless memory that it was at variance
with the true American tradition, its safety
was therefore to be secured by political or
ganization. The generation that made the
Constitution took care for the predomi
nance of freedom in Congress, by the ordi
nance of Jefferson ; the new school aspired
to secure for slavery an equality of votes in
the Senate; and while it hinted at an or
ganic act that should concede to the collec
tive South a veto power on national legisla
tion, it assumed that each State separately
had the right to revise and nullify laws of
the United States, according to the discre
tion of its judgment.
SLAVERY AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
The new theory hung as a bias on the for
eign relations of the country; there could be
no recognition of Hayti, nor even the Amer
ican colony of Liberia; and the world was
given to understand that the establishment
of free labor in Cuba would be a reason for
wresting that island from Spain. Territo
ries were annexed; Louisiana, Florida, Tex
as, half of Mexico; slavery must have its
share in them all, and it accepted for a time
a dividing line between the unquestioned
domain of free labor and that in which in
voluntary labor was to be tolerated. A few
years passed away, and the new school,
strong and arrogant, demanded and recived an apology for applying the Jefferson
proviso to Oregon.
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY.
The application of that proviso was inter
rupted for three administrations; but justice
moved steadily onward. In the news that the
men of California had chosen freedom, Cal
houn heard the knell of parting slavery7; and
on his deathbed he counselled secession.
Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison,
had died despairing of the abolition of slav
ery ; Calhoun died in despair at the growth
of freedom., His system rushed irresistibly
to its natural development. The death
struggle for California was followed by a
short truce; but the new school of politicians
who said that slavery was not evil, but good,
soon sought to recover the ground they had
lost, and confident of securing Texas, they
demanded that the established line in the
territories between freedom and slavery
should be blotted out. The country, believ
ing in the strength and enterprise and ex
pansive energy of freedom, made answer,
though reluctantly: “ Be it so ; let there be
no strife between brethren ; let freedom and
slavery compete for the territories on equal
terms, in a fair field under an impartial ad
ministration ; ” and on this theory, if on any,
the contest might have been left to the de
cision of time.
DEED SCOTT DECISION.
The South started back in appallment
from its victory; for it knew that a fair
competition foreboded its defeat. But where
could it now find an ally to save it from its
own mistake ? What I have next to say is
spoken with no emotion but regret. Our
meeting to-day is, as it were, at the grave,
in the presence of Eternity, and the truth
must be uttered in soberness and sincerity.
�ORATION OF THE. HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
In a great republic, as was observed more
than two thousand years ago, any attempt
to overturn the state owes its strength to aid
from some branch of the government. The
Chief Justice of the United States, without
any necessity or occasion, volunteered to
come to the rescue of the theory of slavery.
And from his court there lay no appeal but
to the bar of humanity and history. Against
the Constitution, against the memory of the
nation, against a previous decision, against
a series of enactments, he decided that the
slave is property, that slave property is en
titled to no less protection than any other
property, that the Constitution upholds it in
every territory against any act of a local
Legislature, and even against Congress it
self ; or, as the President tersely promulgat
ed the saying : “ Kansas is as much a slave
. State as South Carolina or Georgia ; slav
ery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in
every territory.” The municipal character
of slavery being thus taken away, and slave
property decreed to be “ sacred,” the au
thority of the courts was invoked to intro
duce it by the comity of law into States
where slavery had been abolished; and in
one of the courts of the United States a
judge pronounced the African slave trade
legitimate, and numerous and powerful ad
vocates demanded its restoration.
TANEY AND SLAVE RACES.
Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elabo
rate opinion, announced what had never
been heard from any magistrate of Greece
or Rome — what was unknown to civil law,
and canon law, and feudal law, and comm on
law, and constitutional law; unknown to
Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth and Marshall
— that there are “ slave races.” The spirit
of evil is intensely logical. Having the au
thority of this decision, five States swiftly
followed the earlier example of a sixth, and
opened the way for reducing the free negro
to bondage; the migrating free negro be
came a slave if he but touched the soil of a
seventh ; and an eighth, from its extent and
soil and mineral resources, destined to in
calculable greatness, closed its eyes on its
coming prosperity, and enacted — as by Ta
ney’s decision it had the right to do — that
every free black man who would live within
its limits must accept the condition of slav
ery for himself‘and his posterity.
SECESSION RESOLVED ON.
Only one step more remained to be taken.
Jefferson and the leading statesmen of his
day held fast to the idea that the enslave
ment of the African was socially, morally
599
and politically wrong. The new school was
founded exactly upon the opposite idea;
and they resolved first to distract the demo
cratic party for which the Supreme Court
had now furnished the means, and then to
establish a new government, with negro
slavery for its corner stone, as socially, mor
ally and politically right.
THE ELECTION.
As the presidential election drew on, one
of the old traditional parties did not make
its appearance; the other reeled as it sought
to preserve its old position; and the candi
date who most nearly represented its best
opinion, driven by patriotic zeal, roamed
the country from end to end to speak for
union, eager at least to confront its enemies,
yet not having hope that it would find its
deliverance through him. The storm rose
to a whirlwind ; who should allay its wrath ?
The most experienced statesmen of the
country had failed ; there was no hope from
those who were great after the flesh; could
relief come from one whose wisdom was like
the wisdom of little children ?
EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The choice of America fell on a man born
west of the Alleghanies, in the cabin of poor
people of Hardin county, Kentucky — Abra
ham Lincoln.
His mother could read, but not write ; his
father could do neither ; but his parents sent
him, with an old spelling-book, to school,
and he learned in his childhood to do both.
When eight years old he floated down the
Ohio with his father on a raft which bore
the family and all their possessions to the
shore of Indiana; and, child as he was, he
gave help as they toiled through dense for
ests to the interior of Spencer county.
There in the land of free labor he grew up
in a log cabin, with the solemn solitude for
his teacher in his meditative hours.
Of
Asiatic literature he knew only the Bible;
of Greek, Latin, and medieval, no more
than the translation of 2Esop’s Fables; of
English, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
The traditions of Georgfe Fox and William
Penn passed to him dimly along the lines .of'
two centuries through his ancestors, who
were Quakers.
HIS EDUCATION.
Otherwise his education was altogether
American. The Declaration of Independ
ence was his compendium of political wis
dom, the life of Washington his constant
study, and something of Jefferson and Madi
son reached him through Henry Clay, whom
�600
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
he honoured from boyhood. For the re^t,
from day to day, he lived the life of the
American people; walked in its light; rea
soned with its reason, thought with its pow
er of thought; felt the beatings of its mighty
heart; and so was in every way a child of
nature—a child of the West—a child of
America.
HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE.
At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition
to get on in the world, he engaged himself
to go down the Mississippi in a flat boat,
receiving ten dollars a month for his wages,
and afterwards he made the trip once more.
At twenty-one he drove his father’s cattle
as the family migrated to Illinois, and split
rails to fence in the new homestead in the
wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of
volunteers in the Black Hawk war. He
kept a shop ; he learned something of sur
veying ; but of English literature he added
to Bunyan nothing but Shakespeare’s plays.
At twenty-five he was elected to the Legis
lature of Illinois, where he served eight
years. At twenty-seven he was admitted
to the bar. In 1837 he chose his home at
Springfield, the beautiful centre of the
richest land in the State. In 1847 he was
a member of the national Congress, where
he voted about forty times in favour of the
principle of the Jefferson proviso. In 1854
he gave his influence to elect 'from Illinois
to the American Senate a democrat who
would certainly do justice to Kansas. In
1858, as the rival of Douglas, he went be
fore the people of the mighty Prairie State,
saying: “ This Union cannot permanently
endure, half slave and half free ; the Union
will not be dissolved, but the house will
cease to be divided.” And now, in 1861,
with no experience whatever as an exec
utive officer, while States were madly fly
ing from their orbit, and wise men knew
not where to find counsel, this descendant
of Quakers, this pupil of Bunyan, this
child of the great West was elected Presi
dent of America.
He measured the difficulty of the duty
that devolved on him, and was resolved to
fulfil it.
HE GOES TO WASHINGTON.
As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he
left Springfield, which for a quarter of a
century had been his happy home, to the
crowd of his friends and neighbours whom
he was never more to meet, he spoke a
solemn farewell: “ I know not how soon I
shall see you again. A duty has devolved
upon me, greater than that which has de
volved upon any other man since Washing
ton. He never would have succeeded, ex
cept for the aid of Divine Providence, upon
which he at all times relied. On the same
Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray
that I may receive that Divine assistance,
without which I cannot succeed, but with
which success is certain.” To the men of
Indiana he said : > “ I am but an accidental,
temporary instrument; it is your business
to rise up and preserve the Union and lib
erty.” At the capital of Ohio he said:
“ Without a name, without a reason why I
should have a name, there has fallen upon
me a task such as did not rest even upon
the Father of his country.” At various
places in New York, especially at Albany
before the Legislature, which tendered him
the united support of the great Empire
State, he said: “ While I hold myself the
humblest of all the individuals who have
ever been elevated to the Presidency, I
have a more difficult task to perform than
any of them. I bring a true heart to the
work. I must rely upon the' people of the
whole country for support; and with their
sustaining aid even I, humble as I am, can
not fail to carry the ship of State safely
through the storm.” To the Assembly of
New Jersey, at Trenton, he explained: “ I
shall take the ground I deem .most just to
the North, the East, the West, the South,
and the whole country, in good temper,
certainly with no malice to any section. I
am devoted to peace, but it may. be neces
sary to put the foot down firmly.” In the
old Independence Hall of Philadelphia he
said: “ I have never had a feeling politi
cally that did not spring from the senti
ments embodied in the Declaration of In
dependence, which gave liberty, not alone
to the people of this country, but to the
world in all future time. If the country
cannot be- saved without giving up that
principle, I would rather be assassinated on
the spot than surrender it. I have said
nothing but what I am willing to live and
die by.
IN WHAT STATE HE FOUND THE
.COUNTRY.
Travelling in the dead of night to escape
assassination, Lincoln arrived at Washing
ton nine days before his inauguration. The
outgoing President, at the opening of the
session of Congress had still kept as the
majority of his advisers men engaged in
treason : had declared that in case of even
an “ imaginary ” apprehension of danger
from notions of freedom among the slaves,
“ disunion would become inevitable.” Lin-
�ORATION OF THE HOI . GEORGE BANCROFT.
601
coin and others had questioned the opinion of of th© South, or any decision of the Su
Taney; such impugning he ascribed to the preme Court; and, nevertheless, the seced
“ factious temper of the times.” The fa ing States formed at Montgomery a provi
vorite doctrine of the majority of the sional government, and pursued their re
democratic party on the power of a terri lentless purpose with such success that the
torial legislature over slavery he condemned Lieutenant-General feared the city of
as an attack on “ the sacred rights of pro Washington might find itself “ included in
perty.” The State Legislatures, he insist a foreign country,” and proposed, among
ed, must repeal what he called “their un the options for the consideration of Lincoln,
constitutional and obnoxious enactments,” to bid the seceded States “ depart in peace.”
and which, if such, were “ null and void,” The great republic seemed to have its em
or “ it would be impossible for any human blem in the vast unfinished capitol, at that
power to save the Union ! ” Nay 1 if these moment surrounded by masses of stone and
unimportant acts were not repealed, “ the prostrate columns never yet lifted into
injured States would be justified in revolu their places: seemingly the monument of
tionary resistance to the government of the high but delusive aspirations, the confused
Union.” He maintained that no State wreck of inchoate magnificence, sadder
might secede at its sovereign will and than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or
pleasure; that the Union was meant for Athens.
perpetuity; and that Congress might at
tempt to preserve, but only by conciliation;
HIS INAUGURATION.
that “the sword was not placed in their
The fourth of March came. With inhands to preserve it by force; ” that “ the stincftve wisdom the new President, speak
last desperate remedy of a despairing peo ing to the people on taking the oath of
ple ” would be “ an explanatory amend office, put aside every question that divided
ment recognizing the decision of the Su the country, and gained a right to univer
preme Court of the United States.” The sal support, by planting himself on the
American Union he called “ a confederacy ” single idea of Union. That Union he de
of States, and he thought it a duty to make clared to be unbroken and perpetual; and
the appeal for amendment “ before any of he announced his determination to fulfil
these States should separate themselves “the simple duty of taking care that the
from the Union.” The views off the Lieu laws be faithfully executed in all the
tenant-General, containing some patriotic States.” Seven days later, the convention
advice, “ conceded the right of secession,” of confederate States unanimously adopted
pronounced a quadruple rupture of the a constitution of their own; and the new
Union “ a smaller evil than the reuniting of government was authoritatively announ
the fragments by the sword,” and “ eschew ced to be founded on the idea that slave
ed the idea of invading a seceded State. ry is the natural and normal condition
After changes in the Cabinet, the Presi of the negro race. The issue was made up
dent informed Congress that “ matters were whether the great republic was to main
still worse; ” that “ the South suffered se tain its providential place in the history of
rious grievances,” which should be redress mankind, or a rebellion founded on negro
ed “ in peace.” The day after this message slavery gain a recognition of its principle'
the flag of the Union was fired upon from throughout the civilized world. To the
Fort Moultrie, and the insult was not disaffected Lincoln had said: “ You have
revenged or noticed. Senators in Congress no conflict without being yourselves the ag
telegraphed to their constituents to seize gressors.” To fire the passions of the South
the national forts, and they were not ar ern portion of the people the confederate
rested. The finances of the country were government chose to become aggressors;
grievously embarrassed. Its little army and on the morning of the 12th of April
was not within reach — the part of it in began the bombardment of Fort Sumter,
Texas,' with all its stores, were made over and compelled its evacuation.
by its commander to the seceding insur
UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE
gents. One State after another voted in
convention to go out of the Union. A
It is the glory of the late President that
peace Congress, so-called, met at the re he had perfect faith in the perpetuity of
quest of Virginia, to concert the terms of the Union. Supported in advance by
capitulation for the continuance of the Douglas, who spoke as with the voice of a
Union. Congress in both branches sought million, he instantly called a meeting of
to devise conciliatory expedients ; the ter Congress, and summoned the people to
ritories of the country were organized in a come up and repossess the forts, places and
manner not to conflict with any pretensions property which had been seized from the
�602
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
Union. The men of the North were trained
in schools; industrious and frugal; many
of them delicately bred, their minds teem
ing with ideas and fertile in plans of enter
prise ; given to the culture of the arts;
eager in the pursuit of wealth, yet employ
ing wealth less for ostentation than for de
veloping the resources of their country;
seeking happiness in the calm of domestic
life; and such lovers of peace that for gen
erations they have been reputed unwarlike.
Now, at the cry of their country in its dis
tress, they rose up with unappeasable patri
otism : not hirelings'— the purest and of the
best blood in the land; sons of a pious
ancestry, with a clear perception of duty,
unclouded faith and fixed resojve to succeed,
they thronged round the President to sup
port the wronged, the beautiful flag of the
nation. The halls of theological semi
naries sent forth their young men, whose
lips were touched with eloquence, whose
hearts kindled with devotion to serve in the
ranks, and make their way to command
only as they learned the art of war. Strip
lings in the colleges, as well as the most
gentle and the most studious; those of
sweetest temper and loveliest character and
brightest genius passed from their classes to
the camp. The lumbermen sprang forward
from the forest, the mechanics from their
benches, where they had been trained by
the exercise of political rights to share
the Hfe and hope of the Republic, to feel
their responsibility to their forefathers,
their posterity and mankind, went forth re
solved that their dignity as a constituent
part of this republic should not be impaired.
Farmers and sons of farmers left the land
but half ploughed, the grain but half plant
ed, and, taking up the musket, learned to
face without fear the presence of peril- and
the coming of death in the shocks of war,
while their hearts were still attracted to the
charms of their rural life, and all the tender
affections of home. Whatever there was of
truth and faith and public love in the com
mon heart broke out with one expression.
The mighty winds blew from every quarter
to fan the flame of the sacred and unquench
able fire.
in an eminent degree attained to freedom
of industry and the security of person and
property. Its middle class rose to greatness.
Out of that class sprung the noblest poets
and philosophers, whose words built up the
intellect of its people; skilful navigators,
to find out the many paths of the ocean;
discoverers in natural science, whose inven
tions guided its industry to wealth, till it
equalled any nation of the world in letters,
and excelled all in trade and commerce.
But its government was become a govern
ment of land, and not of men; every blade
of grass was represented, but only a small
minority of the people. In the transition
from the feudal forms, the heads of the so
cial organization freed themselves from the
military services which were the conditions
of their tenure, and throwing the burden on
the industrial classes, kept all the soil to
themselves. Vast estates that had been
managed by monasteries as endowments for
religion and charity were impropriated to
swell the wealth of courtiers and favorites;
and the commons, where the poor man once
had his right of pasture, were taken away,
and, under forms of law, enclosed distributively within their own domains. Although
no law forbade any inhabitant from pur
chasing land, the costliness of the transfer
constituted a prohibition; so that it was the
rule of that country that the plough should
not be in the hands of its owner. The
church was rested on a contradiction,
claiming to be an embodiment of absolute
truth, and yet was a creature of the statute
book.
HER SENTIMENTS.
The progress of time increased the terri
ble contrast between wealth and poverty;
in their years of strength, the laboring peo
ple, cut off from all share in governing the
State, derived a scanty support from the
severest toil, and had no hope for old age
but in public charity or death. A grasping
ambition had dotted the world with military
posts, kept watch over our borders on the
northeast, at the Bermudas, in the West
Indies, held the gates of the Pacific, of the
Southern and of the Indian Ocean, hover
ed on our northwest at Vancouver, held the
THE WAR A WORLD-WIDE WAR.
whole of the newest continent, and the en
For a time the war was thought to be trances to the old Mediterranean and Red
confined to our own domestic affairs; but Sea ; and garrisoned forts all the way from
it was soon seen that it involved the desti Madras to China.
That aristocracy had
nies of mankind, and its principles and gazed with terror on the growth of a com
causes shook the politics of Europe to the monwealth where freeholds existed by the
centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin, divided million, and religion was not in bondage to
the governments of the world.
the state ; and now they could not repress
GREAT BRITAIN.
their joy at its perils. They had not one
There was a kingdom whose people had I word of sympathy for the kind-hearted
�ORATION OF THE HON
poor man’s son whom America had chosen
for her chief; they jeered at his large hands,
and long feet, and ungainly stature; and
the British' secretary of state for foreign af
fairs made haste to send word through the
palaces of Europe that the great republic
was in its agony,, that the republic was no
more, that a head stone was all that remain
ed due by the law of nations to “ the late
Union.” But it is written: “ Let the dead
bury their dead ; ” they may not bury the
living. Let the dead bury their dead; let
a bill of reform remove the worn-out gov
ernment of a class, and infuse new life into
the British constitution by confiding right
fill power to the people.
HER POLICY.
GEORGE BANCROFT.
603
land. Thrice only in all its history has that
yearning been fairly met; in the days of
Hampden and Cromwell, again in the first
ministry of the elder Pitt, and once again in
the ministry of Shelburne. Not that there
have not at all times been just men among
the peers of Britain — like Halifax in the
days of James the Second, or a Granville, an
Argyll, or a Hdughton in ours ; and we can
not be indifferent to a country that produces
statesmen like Cobden and' Bright; but the
best bower anchor of peace was the working
class of England, who suffered most from
our civil war, but who, while they broke
their diminished bread in sorrow, always en
couraged us to persevere.
FRANCE AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE. ■
*
The act of recognizing the rebel belliger
But while the vitality of America is inde
structible, the British government hurried ents wagLconcerted with France ; France, so
to do what never before had been done by beloved in America, on which she had con
Christian powers, what was in direct con ferred th® greatest benefits that one people
flict with its own exposition of public law in ever conferred on another^ France, which
the time of our struggle for. independence. stands foremost on the continent of Europe
Though the insurgent States had not a ship for the solidity of her culture, as well as for
in an open harbor, it invested them with the bravery and ■ generous impulses of her
all the rights of a belligerent, even on the sons ; France, which for centuries had been
ocean; and this, too, when the rebellion moving steadily in its own way towards in
was not only directed against the gentlest tellectual and policial freewom. The poli
and most beneficent government on earth, cy regarding further^ponization of Ameri
without a shadow of justifiable cause, but ca by European power®!, known commonly
when the rebellion was directed against Ma as the doctrine of Mowoe, had its origin in
man nature itself for the perpetual enslave France; and if it takes any man’s name,
ment of a race. And the effect of this re should bear the name of Turgot. It was
cognition was that acts in themselves pirati adopted by Louis the Sixteenth, in the cabi
cal found shelter in British courts of law. net of which Vergennes was the most imThe resources of British capitalist^ their portant member. It is emphatically the poliworkshops, their armories, their private ar cy of France^ to which, with transient de
senals, their shipyards, were in league with viations, the Bourbons, the First Napoleon,
the insurgents, and every British harbor in the House of Orleans have ever adhered.
the wide world became a safe port for British
ships, manned by British sailors, and arrngfl THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON AND MEXICO.
The late President was perpetually har
with British guns, to prey on our peaceful
commerce ; even on our ships coming from assed by rumors that the Emperor Napoleon
British ports, freighted with British pro the Third desired formally to recognize the
ducts, or that had carried gifts of grain to States in rebellion as an independent power,
the English poor. The prime minister in and that England held him back by her re
the House of Commons, sustained by cheers, luctance, or France by her traditions of
scoffed at the thought that their laws could freedom, or he himself by his own better
be amended at our request, so as to pre judgment and clear perception of events.
serve real neutrality; and to remonstrances But the republic of Mexico, on our borders,
now owned to have been just, their secreta was, like ourselves, distracted by a rebellion,
ry answered that they could not change and from a similar cause. The monarchy
of England . had fastened upon us slavery
their laws ad-infinitum.
which did not disappear with independence;
RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND.
in like manner, the ecclesiastical policy es
The people of America then wished, as tablished by the Spanish council of the In
they always have wished, as they still wish, dies, in the days of Charles the Fifth and
friendly relations with England; and no Philip the Second, retained its vigor in the
man in Europe or America can desire it Mexican Republic. The fifty years of civil
' more strongly than I. This country has al war under which she had languished was
ways yearned for good relations with Eng- I due to the bigoted system which was the
�604
ORATION OF THE HOnJ GEORGE BANCROFT. '
legacy of monarchy, just as here the inheri
tance of slavery kept alive political strife,
and culminated in civil war. As with us
there could be no quiet but through the end
of slavery, so in Mexico there could be no
prosperity until the crushing tyranny of in
tolerance should cease. The party of slav
ery in the United States sent their emissa
ries to Europe to solicit aid; and so did the
party of the church in Mexico, as organized
by the old Spanish council of the Indies,
but with a different result. Just as the re
publican party had made an end of the re
bellion, and was establishing the best gov
ernment ever known in that region, and giv
ing promise to the nation of order, peace,
and prosperity, word was brought us, in the
moment of our deepest affliction, that the
*
French emperor, moved by a desire to erect
in North America a buttress for Imperial
ism, would transform the republic of Mexico
into a secundo-geniture for the house of
Hapsburgh. America might complain ; she
>could not then interpose, and delay seemed
justifiable. It was seen that Mexico could
not, with all its wealth of land, compete in
cereal products with' our northwest, nor, in
tropical products, with Cuba; nor could it,
under a disputed dynasty, attract capital, or
create public works, or develop mines, or
borrow money; so that the imperial system
of Mexico, which was forced at once to rec
ognize the wisdom of the policy of the repub
lic by adopting it, could prove only an un
remunerating drain on the French treasury
for the support of an Austrian adventurer.
THE PERPETUITY OF REPUBLICAN INSTI
TUTIONS.
Meantime, a new series of momentous
questions grows up, and forces themselves
on the consideration of the thoughtful. Re
publicanism has learned how to introduce
into its constitution every element of order,
as well as every element of freedom; but
thus far the continuity of its government has
seemed to depend on the continuity of elec
tions. It is now tobe considered how per
petuity is to be secured against foreign oc
cupation. The successor of Charles the
First of England dated his reign from the
death of his father; the Bourbons, coming
back after a long series of revolutions,
claimed that the Louis who became king was
the eighteenth of that name. The present
emperor of the French, disdaining a title
from election alone, is called the third of his
name. Shall a republic have less power of
continuance when invading armies prevent
a peaceful resort to the ballot box ? What
force shall it attach to intervening legisla
tion ? What validity to debts contracted
for its overthrow ? These momentous
questions are by the invasion of Mexico
thrown up for solution. A free State once
truly constituted should be as undying as its
people; the republic of Mexico must rise
again.
THE POPE OF ROME AND THE REBELLION.
It was the condition of affairs in Mexico
that involved the Pope of Rome in our dif
ficulties so far that he alone among temporal
sovereigns recognized the chief of the Con
federate States as a president, and his sup
porters as a people; and in letters to two
great prelates of the Catholic Church in the
United States gave counsels for peace at a
time when peace meant the victory of se
cession. Yet events move as they are or
dered. The blessing of the Pope at Rome
on the head of Duke Maximilian could not
revive in the nineteenth century the eccle
siastical policy of the sixteenth; and the re
sult is only a new proof that there can be no
prosperity in the State without religious
freedom.
THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA.
When it came home to the consciousness
of the Americans that the war which they
were waging was a war for the liberty of all
the nations of the world, for freedom itself,
they thanked God for the severity of the
trial to which he put their sincerity, and
nerved themselves for their duty with an
inexorable will. The President was led
along by the greatness of their self-sacrifi
cing example; and as a child, in a dark
night on a rugged way, catches hold of the
hand of its father for guidance and support,
he clung fast to the hand of the people, and
moved Calmly through the gloom. While
the statesmanship of Europe was scoffing
at the hopeless vanity of their efforts, they
put forth such miracles of energy as the
history of the world had never known.
The navy of the United States drawing into
the public service the willing militia of the
seas, doubled its tonnage in eight months,
and established an actual blockade from
Cape Hatteras to the Rio Grande. In the
course of the war it was increased five fold
in men and in tonnage, while the inventive
genius of the country devised more effec
tive kinds of ordnance, and new forms of
naval architecture in wood and iron. There
went into the field, for various terms of
service, about two million men; and in
March last the men in service exceeded a
million; that is to say, one of every two
able-bodied men took some part in the war;
and at one time every fourth able-bodied
I man was in the field. In one single month.
�ORATION OF THE HO-N.
GEORGE BANCROFT.1
605
one hundred and sixty-five thousand were Mississippi, which would not be divided,
recruited into service. Once, within four and the range of mountains which car
weeks, Ohio organized and placed in the ried the stronghold of the free through
field, forty-two regiments of infantry — Western Virginia and Kentucky and Ten
nearly thirty-six thouand men; and Ohio nessee to the highlands of Alabama. But
was like other States in the east and in the it invoked the still higher power of immor
west. The well-mounted cavalry numbered tal justice. In ancient Greece, where ser
eighty-four thousand ; of horses there were vitude was the universal custom, it was
bought, first and last, two thirds of a mil held that if a child were to strike its parent,
lion. In the movements of troops science the slave should defend the parent, and by
came in aid of patriotism ; so that, to choose that act recover his freedom. After vain
a single instance out of many, an army resistance, Lincoln, who had tried to solve
twenty-three thousand strong, with its ar the question by gradual emancipation, by
tillery, trains, baggage and animals, were colonization, and by compensation, at last
moved by rail from the Potomac to the Ten saw that slavery must be abolished, or the
nessee, twelve hundred miles in seven days. Republic must die; and on the 1st day of
In the long marches, wonders of military January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the ban
construction bridged the rivers; and where- ners of the armies. When this proclamaever an army halted, ample supplies await tion, which struck the fetters from three
ed them at their ever changing base. The millions of slaves reached Europe, Lord
vile thought that life is the greatest of Russell, a countryman of Milton and Wil
blessings did not rise up. In six hundred berforce, eagerly put himself forward to
and twenty-five battles, and severe skir speak of it in
name of mankind, saying:
mishes blood flowed like water. It streamed “ It is of a very strange nature ; ” “a meas
over the grassy plains ; it stained the rocks; ure of war of a very questionable kind; ”
the undergrowth of the forest was red an “ act of vengeance on the slave owner,”
with it; and the armies marched on with that does no more thanEErofess to emanci
majestic courage from one conflict to anoth pate slaves where the United States authorer, knowing that they were fighting for God ities cannot make emancipation a reality.”
and liberty. The organization of the medi Now there was no pa™ of the country emcal department met its infinitely multiplied braced in the proclamation where the United
duties with exactness and despatch. At the States could not and did hot make emanci. news of a battle, the best surgeons of our jfflffipn a reality. Those who saw Lincoln
cities hastened to the field, to offer the most frequently had nev^fibefore heard
zealous aid of the greatest experience and him speak with bitterness of any human
skill. The gentlest and most refined of being ; but he did not conceal how keenly
women left homes of luxury and, ease to he felt that he had been wronged by Lord
build hospital tents near the armies, and Russell. And he wrote, in reply to another
serve as nurses to the sick and dying. Be caviller: “ The emancipation policy, and
sides the large supply of religious teachers the use of colored troops/gvere the greatest
by the public, the congregations spared to blows yet dealt to the rebellion. The job was
their brothers in the field the ablest minis a great national one ; and let none be slight
ters.
The Christian Commission, which ed who bore an honorable part in it. I hope
expended five and a half millions, sent four peace will come soon, and come to stay;
thousand clergymen chosen out of the best, then there will be some black men who can
to keep un soiled the religious character of remember that they have helped mankind
the men, and made gifts of clothes and food to this great consummation.”
and medicine. The organization of private
RUSSIA AND CHINA.
charity assumed unheard of dimensions.
■The Sanitary Commission, which had seven
The proclamation accomplished its end,
thousand societies, distributed, under the for, during the war, our armies came into
direction of an unpaid board, spontaneous military possession of every State in rebel
contributions to the amount of fifteen mil lion. Then, too, was called forth the
lions, in supplies or money — a million and new power that comes from the simultane
a half in money from California alone — ous diffusion of thought and feeling among
and dotted the scene of war from Paducah the nations of mankind. The mysterious
to Port Royal, from Belle Plain, Virginia, sympathy of the millions throughout the •
to Browsnville, Texas, with homes and world was given spontaneously. The best
lodges.
writers of Europe waked the conscience
of the thoughtful, till the intelligent moral
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
sentiment of the Old World was drawn
pi The country had for its allies "the River to the side of the unlettered statesman
�606
ORATION OF THE HONF GEORGE BANCROFT.
of the West. Russia, whose emperor had
just accomplished one of the grandest acts
in the course of time by raising twenty mil
lions of bondmen into' freeholders, and thus
assuring the growth and culture of a Rus
sian people, remained our unwavering
friend. From the oldest abode of civiliza
tion, which gave the first example of an im
perial government with equality among the
people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state
for foreign affairs, remembered the saying
of Confucius, that we should not do to
others what we would not that others should
do to us, and in the name of the Emperor
of China closed its ports against the war
ships and privateers of “ the seditious.”
CONTINUANCE OF THE WAR.
The war continued, with all the peoples
of the world for anxious spectators. Its
cares weighed heavily on Lincoln, and his
face was ploughed with the furrows of
thought and sadness. With malice towards
none, free from the spirit of revenge, victo
ry made him importunate for peace; and
his enemies never doubted his word, or
despaired of his abounding clemency. He
longed to utter pardon as the word for all,
but not unless the freedom of the negro
should be assured. The grand battles of
Mill Spring which gave us Nashville, of
Fort Donelson, Malvern Hill, Antietam,
Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia,
Winchester, Nashville, the capture of New
Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher,
the march from Atlanta and the capture of
Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the
issue. Still more, the self-regeneration of
Missouri, the heart of the continent; of Ma
ryland, whose sons never heard the mid
night bell chime so. sweetly as when they
rang out to earth and heaven that, by the
voice of her own people, she took her place
among the free ; of Tennessee, which passed
through fire and blood, through sorrows and
the shadow of death, to work out her own
deliverance, and by the faithfulness of her
own sons to renew her youth like the eagle
— proved that victory was deserved and
would be worth all that it cost. If words
of mercy uttered as they were by Lincoln
on the waters of Virginia, were defiantly
repelled, the armies of the country, moving
with one will, went as the arrow to its
mark, and without a. feeling of revenge
struck a deathblow at rebellion.
ing him to a second term of service. The
raging war that had divided the country
had lulled; and private grief was hushed
by the grandeur of its results. The nation
had its new birth of freedom, soon to be
secured forever by an amendment of the
Constitution. His persistent gentleness had
conquered for him a kindlier feeling on the
part of the South. His scoffers among the
grandees of Europe began to do him honor.
The laboring classes every where saw in his
advancement their own. All peoples sent
him their benedictions. And at the mo
ment of the height of his fame, to which his
humility and modesty added charms, he fell
by the hand of the assassin; and the only
triumph awarded him was tb,e march to the
grave.
THE GREATNESS OF MAN.
This is no time to say that human glory
is but dust and ashes, that we mortals are
no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows.
How mean a thing were man, if there were
not that within him which is higher than
himself—if he could not master the illu
sions of sense, and discern the connections
of events by a superior light which comes
from God. He so shares the divine impul
ses that he has power to subject interested
passions to love of country, and personal
ambition to the ennoblement of man. Not
in vain has Lincoln lived, for he has helped
to make this Republic an exatnple of jus
tice, with no caste but the caste of humani
ty. The heroes who led our armies and
ships into battle — Lyon, McPherson, Rey
nolds, Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Foote, Ward,
with their compeers — and fell in the ser
vice, did not die in vain ; they and the my
riads of nameless martyrs, and he, the chief
martyr, died willingly “ that government of
the people, by the people, and for the peo
ple, shall not perish from the earth.”
THE JUST DIED FOR THE UNJUST.
The assassination of Lincoln, who was so
free from malice, has from some mysterious
influence struck the country with solemn
awe, and hushed, instead of exciting, the
passion for revenge. It seemed as if the
just had died for the unjust. When I think
of the friends I have lost in this war — and
every one who hears me has, like myself,
lost those whom he most loved — there is
no consolation to be derivedftom victims on
the scaffold, or from any thing but the es
tablished union of the regenerated nation.
Lincoln’s assassination.
„ CHARACTER OF LINCOLN.
I
Where, in the history of nations, had a
Chief Magistrate possessed more sources of
In his character Lincoln was through and
consolation and joy, than Lincoln? His through an American. He is the first nacountrymen had shown their love by choos I tive of the region west of the Alleghanies to
�ORATION OF THE HON . GEORGE BANCROFT.
i
607
attain to the highest station; and how hap
Lincoln was one of the most unassuming
py it is- that the man who was brought for of men. In time of success, he gave credit
ward as the natural outgrowth and first for it to those whom he employed, to the
fruits of that region should have been of un people, and to the providence of God. He
blemished purity in private life, a good son, did not know what ostentation is; when he
a kind husband, a most affectionate father, became President he was rather saddened
and, as a man, so gentle to all. As to in than elated, and his conduct and manners
tegrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him, “ Lin showed more than ever his belief that all
coln is the honestest man I ever knew.”
men are born equal. He was no respecter
The habits of his mind were those of of persons ; and neither rank, nor reputa
meditation and inward thought, rather than tion, nor services overawed him. In judg
of action. He excelled in logical statement, ing of character he failed in discrimination,
more than in executive ability. He rea and his appointments were sometimes bad;
soned clearly, his reflective judgment was but he readily deferred to public opinion,
good, and his purposes were, fixed; but and in appointing tne head of the armies he
like the Hamlet of his only poet,, his will followed the manifest preference of Conwas tardy in action, and for this reason, and gressBu
A good President will secure unity to his
not from humility or tenderness of feeling,
he sometimes deplored that the duty which administration by his own supervision of
devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of the various departments. Lincoln, who acnever governed
another. He was skilful in analysis, dis cepted advice ^adily
cerned with precision the central idea, on by any member of his Caftnet, and could
which a question turned, and knew how to not be moved from a purpose deliberately
disengage it and present it by itself in a few formed; but his supervision of affairs was
homely, strong old English words that would unsteady and incomplete |Jand sometimes,
be intelligible to all. He delighted to ex by a sudden interference transcoding the
press his opinions by apothegm, illustrate usual forms, he rather confused than adthem by a parable, or drive them home by a vanced the public business. If he ever
story.
failed in the scrupulous regard due to the
Lincoln gained a name by discussing relative rights of Congress, it was so evi
questions which, of all others, most easily dently without design that no conflict
led to fanaticism; but he was never carried could ensue, or evil precefent be estabaway by enthusiastic zeal, never indulged lished. Truth he would receive from any
in extravagant language, never hurried to one ; but, when impressed by others, he did
support extreme measures, never allowed not use their opinions till by reflection he
himself to be controlled by sudden impulses. had made them thoroughly his own.
During the progress of the election at which
It was the nature of Lincoln to forgive.
he was chosen President, he expressed no When hostilities ceased w he who had al
opinion that, went beyond the Jefferson ways sent forth the flag with every one of its
proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafa stars in the field, was eager to receive back
yette, he had faith in the intuitions of the his returning count^men, and meditated
people, and read those intuitions with rare some new announcement to the South.”
sagacity. He knew how to bide his time, The amendment of the Constitution abolish
and was less apt to be in advance of public ing slavery had his most earnest and un
opinion than to lag behind. He never wearied support. During the rage of war
sought to electrify the public by taking we get a glimpse into his soul from his
an advanced position with a banner of privately suggesting to Louisiana that “ in
opinion; but rather studied to move for defining the franchise some of the colored
ward compactly, exposing no detachment people might be let in,” saying: “ They
in front or rear; so that the course of his would probably help, in some trying time
administration might have been explained to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the
as the calculating policy of a shrewd and family of freedom.” In 1857 he avowed
watchful politician, had there not been seen himself “ not in favor of ” what he improp
behind it a fixedness of principle which erly called .“ negro citizenship: ” for the
from the first determined his purpose and Constitution discriminates between citizens
grew more intense with every year, consum and electors. Three days before his death
ing his life by,its energy. Yet his sensibili- he declared his preference that “ the elect
ties were not acute, he had no vividness of ive franchise were now conferred on the
imagination to picture to his mind the hor very intelligent of the colored men and on
rors of the battle-field or the sufferings in those of them who served our cause as
hospitals ; his conscience was more tender soldiers;” but he wished it done by the
than his feelings.
States themselves, and he never harbored
�608
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.
the thought of ^exacting it from a new government as a condition of its recognition.
The last day of his life beamed with sun
shine, as he sent by the - speaker of this
House his friendly greetings to the men
of the Rocky Mountains and the Pa
cific slope; as he contemplated the return
of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruit
ful industry; as he welcomed in advance
hundreds of thousands of emigrants from
Europe; as his eye kindled with enthusi
asm at the coming wealth of the nation.
And'so, with these thoughts for his country,
he was removed from the toils and temp
tations of this life and was at peace.
PALMERSTON AND LINCOLN.
Hardly had the late President been con
signed to the grave, when the Prime Minis
ter of England died, full of years and hon
ours. Palmerston traced his lineage to the
time of the conqueror: Lincoln went back
only to his grandfather. Palmerston re
ceived his education from the best scholars
of Harrow, Edinburgh, and Cambridge;
Lincoln’s early teachers were the silent
forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars.
Palmerston was in public life for sixty
years ; Lincoln for but a tenth of that time.
Palmerston was a skilful guide of an estab
lished aristocracy; Lincoln a leader or rather
a companion of the people. Palmerston
was exclusively an Englishman, and made
his boast in the House of Commons that the
interest of England was his Shibboleth;
Lincoln thought always of mankind as well
as his own country, and served human na
ture itself. Palmerston from his narrowness
as an Englishman did not endear his coun
try to any one court or to any one people,
but rather caused uneasiness and dislike;
Lincoln left America more beloved than
ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palm
erston was self-possessed and adroit in
reconciling the conflicting claims of the fac
tions of the aristocracy; Lincoln, frank and
ingenuous, knew how to poise himself on the
conflicting opinions of the people. Palm
erston was capable of insolence towards the
weak, quick to the sense of honour, not
heedful of right; Lincoln rejected counsel
given only as a matter of policy, and was
not capable of being wilfully unjust. Palm
erston, essentially superficial, delighted in
banter, and knew how to divert grave op
position, by playful levity. Lincoln was a
man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest
earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a
fair representative of the aristocratic lib
erality of the day, choosing for his tribunal,
not the conscience of humanity, but the
House of Commons ; Lincoln took to heart
I the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them
as the commands of Providence, and accept
*
ed the human race as the judge of his fidel
ity. Palmerston did nothing that will en
dure ; his great achievement, the separation
of Belgium, placed that little kingdom
where it must gravitate to France; Lincoln
finished a work which all time cannot over
throw. Palmerston is a shining example of
the ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; Lin
coln shows the genuine fruits of institutions
where the laboring man shares and assists to
form the great ideas and designs of his
country. Palmerston was buried in West
minster Abbey by the order of his Queen,
and was followed by the British aristocracy
to his grave, which after a few years will
hardly be noticed by the side of the graves
of Fox and Chatham; Lincoln was followed
by the sorrow of his country across the con
tinent to his resting-place in the heart of
the Mississippi valley, to be remembered
through all time by his countrymen, and by
all the peoples of the world.
CONCLUSION.
As the sum of all, the hand of Lincoln
raised the flag; the American people was
the hero of the war; and therefore the re
sult is a new era of republicanism. The dis
turbances in the country grew not out of any
thing republican, but out of slavery, which is
a part of the system of hereditary wrong,
and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly
opens to the renovated nation a career of
unthought of dignity and glory. Hence
forth our country has a moral unity as the
land of free labour. The party for slavery
and the party against slavery are no more,
and are merged in the party of Union and
freedom. The States which would have Ieff“*
us are not brought back as conquered States,
for then we should hold them only so long
as that conquest could be maintained ; they
come to their rightful place under the Consti
tution as original, necessary and inseparable
members of the State. We build monu
ments to the dead, but no monuments of
victory. We respect the example of the
Romans, who never, even in conquered
lands, raised emblems of triumph. And
our generals are not to be classed in the
herd of vulgar conquerors, but are of the
school of Timoleon and William of Orange'
and Washington. They have used the
sword only to give peace to their country
and restore her to her place in the great
assembly of the nations. Our meeting
closes in hope, now that a people begins to
live according to the laws of reason., and re
publicanism is intrenched in a continent.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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America, France and England
Creator
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Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907 [1832-1907]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Boston, Mass.]
Collation: [545]-608 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From Littell's Living Age, vol. XXX11, third series, no. 1134, (24 February 1866): re-published from Fortnightly Review 3: 442-459 (January 1 1866). From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed in double columns. Includes comment and letters on the Alabama debate in the House of Commons.
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[T.H. Carter & Co.]
Date
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1866
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G5438
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International relations
France
England
USA
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (America, France and England), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Foreign Relations
France
Great Britain
United States-Foreign Relations
United States-Politics and Government
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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An address to the people of Cambridge from the School Committee concerning a recent case of corporal punishment in the Allston Grammar School
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Cambridge (Mass) School Committee
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Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass.
Collation: 24 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Mr Henry W. Muzzey presented the report. Published by order of the Board. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Press of John Wilson and Son
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1866
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G5182
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Education
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (An address to the people of Cambridge from the School Committee concerning a recent case of corporal punishment in the Allston Grammar School), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Corporal Punishment
Education
School Discipline
-
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CLASSICAL INSTRUCTION:
WHY ?—WHEN ?—FOR WHOM?
PAPER
BEAD AT
THE MEETING, IN SEPT. 1865, OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION AT
SHEFFIELD 5 AND AT THE MONTHLY MEETING, IN MAY, 1866,
OF THE COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.
BY
W. B. HODGSON, LL.D., F.C.P.,
ONE OF THE EXAMINEES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
• Scholarship has hitherto been a term reserved for the adept in ancient literature, whatever may be
the mediocrity of his intellect; but the honourable distinction must be extended to all great writers
on modern literature, if we would not confound the sense and propriety of things.”—Isaac D’Israbli.
“ Un savant est un homme qui sait de la chose dont il s’occupe tout ce qu’on peut en savoir au
moment present, qui est celui oh les connaissances humaines sont le plus avancees. Un erudit sait ce
qu’on en savait quand elles etaient au berceau.”—J. B. Say, "Petit Volume." 3me Ed. 1839. p. 149.
" Die hochste Aufgabe der Bildung ist aber die Erziehung zur Pflicht, zur^Erfiillung des Gesetzes
das wir in der Erkenntniss finden.”—B. Auerbach. Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten.—“Ivo, der
Hairle,” g7, p. 235. Mannheim; 1845. Th. I.
11 It is easy to say that in scholarship there is nothing that is not important. It may be so, but one
thing is most important, and that is, never to lose sight of the true object of all scholarship, the diffusion
of useful knowledge.”—Saturday Review, 284A July, 1866.
“ * Stemus swper antiquas vias:' which may be rendered—1 Better stand still on turnpikes than move
on rails.’ ’’—Charles Reade, “Hard Cash]' vol. i. p. 225,1.8. 1863.
Reprinted from the Educational Times for June, 1866.
LONDON:
Printed by
0. F. HODGSON & SON, GOUGH SQUARE,
FLEET STREET.
�“ The learned languages are still considered by many, them to be marked by a separating name, and called
emphatically, Education. To teach them, and to teach Naturalists. Why are we ashamed of a failure in what
little else, was a portion of the wisdom of our ancestors; comes to us through booksand the costly instrumentality
but though wisdom in them, it does not follow it is such of masters and teachers—why do we blush at any flagrant
in us. with them it was knowledge, not for ornament, slip in history, or science, or language,—and keep cool
but use. It was the instrument of action, as well as and easy under any extravagance of error in what nature,
thought. Law, Diplomacy, Medicine, and Religion, all through our own observation, might teach us?”—“Satur
was Latin: a man who was no ‘Latiner was a mere day Review,” ISth July, 1863, p. 80.
*
‘villain’in education; he was deemed unfit in civil life
“
were the smallest attempt made to
for any situation destined for the ‘ ingenuous’ and free. oui’ If there from establishments in which we areconvert
schools
But to insist on it at present, but above all, as the only to know with exactness what other people thoughttaught
a long
thing necessary, and to the sacrifice of many other time ago, to establishments to enable us to think with
things really so, is a folly of which our ancestors could exactness about that which we are to do at present,
not have been guilty.”—“ Educational Reform,” by which persons of modern and bigoted notions think
Th. Wyse, Esq., M.P., 1836, p. 163.
desirable, there would be a chance of obtaining some
“ The Greeks had no models before them; why then thing like scientific education.”—Professor Huxley;
have they been enabled to create models for us ? Because at Meeting of British Association at Nottingham, 2Ath
they listened at the threshold of Nature, and creatively August, 1866.
showed forth her inspiration. They strove to represent
“ As
the idea within them, and in their continual endeavour gether Lord Houghton has pointed out, science is alto
unrepresented
to express the conception in the substance, the master the Public Schools]. [on the Commission for reforming
The most zealous believers
piece was at length achieved.”—Ludwig vox Muhlen- classical training will allow that this is a mistake. It in
is
FELS, LL.D., introduction to a Course of German conceded by all that classical education must go on for
Literature., 1830, p. 85.
the present, whether right or wrong, since the Report
“The present neglect of Natural Philosophy and of the year before last strongly approved of it; and
Natural History will furnish a curious story for after whatever change is ever made must come down to the
times. It will be on record, that among the first com Schools from the Universities. But while, on the other
mercial people in the world, who depended for their hand, it is not contended that science should at once
political existence on trade and manufactures, there was be made the basis of Public School teaching, on the
not, generally speaking, in the education of their youth, other hand no one urges that classics will last for ever.
one atom of information on the products of the earth, The chief object of introducing science now is, that a
whether animal, vegetable, or mineral; nor any account footing may be laid for a future extension, if ever it
of the principles, whether of mechanics or of chemistry, should be thought desirable to give more weight and
which, when applied to these products, constituted the prominence to it. The system must be made a little
distinction of their country. And this, when the studies, more elastic, or whenever the nation has outgrown the
so abandoned, were allowed by all to be worthy of pur classics—supposing it ever does outgrow them—it will
suit, simply as an exercise of the reason, and without break, instead of yielding. The addition of some scien
any reference to their application. This story will one tific name to the Board would not do much in itself to
day excite some wonder, which will be removed when it modify the instruction at the Public Schools, but it
is added, that the tone of school-education was given by would at least indicate the direction in which the
certain endowed establishments, which, resting their national opinion requires that the Schools themselves
existence upon the fame acquired when Latin and Greek should take some slight step of progress.”—“ Saturday
were reputed the only useful branches of instruction, Review,” June 2,1866, p. 651.
used their influence to exclude all others, long after the
“ I entirely agree
you that the present system of
rational part of mankind had pronounced that more was classical education, with general method of training all
a
necessary. Thus much we can assert, without laying English gentlemen, as (in your words) ‘ a superstition, a
is
claim to the title of prophets; but it may be—and we blunder, and a failure.’ If we would imitate the Ro
would put it to those who direct the public schools,
in the
whether it is not worth taking into consideration—that mans, who taught their boys Latin and Greek, all our
we ought
teach
their historian shall have to finish by saying, that while spirit and not in the letter, for French to to us, and was
youth English and French;
is
previously-acquired reputation was supporting them in still more to Prussia, what Greek was to the Romans.
their quiescent obstruction of all improvement, a gradual I The Romans learned two living languages; we pretend
change took place in the public mind, on the subject of to learn two dead ones. I would demand with you a
education, which they, occupied as they were in con general basis of true British and Modern and Human
structing elegant Greek and Latin verses, were among education till the age of
then Classics
the last to perceive; that when, at a late period, they taken up by the select few 14;whom they nowshould be
to
naturally
became willing to alter their system for the better, the belong. The omission of natural science, drawing, and
time had passed, and the recollections of former obsti music, from the school education of England, is the plain
nacy rendered their demonstrations of improvement of sign that they are out of nature. It is like feeding
no effect; that they sank in estimation from that time, children with beefsteaks, and throwing the good milk
and finally became an object of interest to the antiquary the mother to the dogs. But do not growl too fiercely of
at
only, for the remains of Gothic architecture which they
world.
left behind.”—Professor De Morgan, On the Study the stupidity of dunces, Dons, and D.D.s in this —J. S.
A certain number of stupid people must exist.”
of Natural Philosophy.
Blackie, Professor of Greek in University of Edinburgh,
“ Why are the people who notice what comes before “Letter to the Author.”
�CLASSICAL INSTRUCTION
WHY?—WHEN?—
FOR WHOM?
"Linguis quoque discendis operam dent, iis praecipue quarum apud finitimos aut domesticos usus.”—Caspaei
Baelaci, “Methodus Studiorwm” Ludg. Bat. 1792. p. 170.
“ Quis facile se contineat, si omnium artium et disciplinarum salutem linguae Latinae castitate contineri, hac
spreta illas jacere, hac ftorente illas stare, toties inculcantem magistrum intelligat ?”—Mosheim, “ Dissert, de
Ling. Lot. Culturd. et Necessitate," p. 273. 1751. {et seg.)
Our shores are visited from time to time
by intelligent foreigners, eager to study our
political institutions, our social customs, our
processes of agriculture or of manufactures.
Let us suppose that such a one, understand
ing our language, but only slightly acquainted
with our history and social condition, had
arrived in this country, anxious to extend his
knowledge, and to turn his observations to
practical account. I may well be excused
from attempting to sketch, in even the vaguest
outline, the elaborate and complex civilisa
tion, with its bright lights and dark shadows,
which would attract and bewilder and almost
overwhelm his attention. Let us suppose
that, after a time, he gained some general
insight into our mode of government, our
manners, our religion, our laws, our mecha
nical industry, our commerce, our manifold
and ever-multiplying relations with all other
nations of the globe, our rich and various lite
rature, our national character. Such a man
might reflect thus ; Children are in this coun
try, as in every other, born weak, helpless,
ignorant, yielding easily, with a few marked
individual exceptions, to the plastic hands of
those who would mould them in this or that
form, to this or that belief; capable of healthy
growth and development from within, under
the application of outward stimulus; but,
also, of being crushed, or stunted, or per
verted—of becoming, in short, either lovely
flowers and useful fruit, or useless, it may be
even noxious, weeds. Such a reflection as this
would naturally suggest the question, What
is done, in the way of teaching and training,
to qualify and dispose the embryo citizens of
this great nation to take a useful and honour
able place in the social system in which they
are destined to live, to promote their own
good and that of their fellows, and, not least,
to ensure that the next generation shall be
wiser, better, happier, than that which is
swiftly moving off the stage of life ? To such
a man as I have supposed it might perhaps
occur,—In this country there are rich people
and poor people ; all have not equal means or
opportunities; from all equal results are not
to be expected ; but surely, in the case of even
the moderately rich, all will be done that the
most enlightened intelligence can suggest to
form and store and guide the youthful mind;
and in the case of those less favoured by for
tune, this same object will also be aimed at,
and proportionately realized. Probably, then,
the children of parents of the higher class are
carefully instructed in the nature of their own
constitution, bodily and mental; the conditions
on which its soundness and happy working
inevitably depend ; its relations towards the
diversified existences, animate and inanimate,
which surround it; the terms on which future
well-being must be, if at all, attained ; in the
structure and use of their own language, so
rich and flexible and strong; in the art of
tracing the relation of cause and effect, so as
to avoid not only mental error and confusion,
but unwise and injurious conduct also; in
the elements of the arts and sciences, on the
knowledge and application of which hangs the
prosperity of the world, and especially of this
nation; in their own country’s literaturef,
abounding as it does in noble monuments of
every kind of mental activity, and with equal
power to instruct, to rouse, to purify, to direct,
to charm, to polish, to strengthen, to refine,
to make strongthe delicate, to make delicate the
strong; lastly, in the language and literature of
other nations, whose social characteristics are
more or less different, but with all of whom
the advantage, and even the necessity, of free
intercourse are daily on the increase, and from
all of whom much is to be learned, without
the sacrifice, nay to the enhancing, of national
and individual originality and independence.
Our supposed foreign visitor might not, and
probably would not, work out in any great
detail the programme of a system of instruc
tion (i.e., building up), such as ha might expect
to find ; but it is not at all improbable that,
looking at the facts of the case, and estimating
future obligations and necessities, he would
reckon most confidently on finding a fore
most place assigned to such studies as I have
roughly indicated. Well, what would be his
astonishment if he were told that in the school
training, not of the poor only, but of the rich
also, the very rich, every one of these subjects
is more or less neglected; that what seemed
to him the most important and indispensable
things of all are left to future chance, or, at
the most, to a later provision; that, in the
�case of all above the poor, during the whole
course of the school-life, extending over ten,
twelve, or more years, the mind is applied
almost exclusively, in the best cases mainly,
to the languages and literatures of two ancient
nations who ceased to exist centuries ago, who
lived before even the infancy of our modern arts
and sciences ; whose religion and morals were
widely at variance, if not wholly inconsistent,
with the religion and morals which here pre
vail, and which are held as a revelation from
heaven itself; nations whose people, whose
great men even, were stained with gross vices,
whose military glories (in the case of one of
these at least) have so dazzled the eye and cor
rupted the moral sense of subsequent genera
tions as greatly to retard the peaceful progress
of commerce and civilization I Even if he
found, as doubtless he would find, on further
inquiry, that these literatures contain much,
very much, that is beautiful and good, and
that examples of heroism and virtue worthy of
all praise are scattered over the blood-stained
records of their history, I do not think that
his astonishment would be greatly diminished ;
while it would be vastly increased, and would
approach amazement, and even incredulity,
were he to learn that, on the authority of able
men, themselves the subjects of this system
and favourable to its continuance—this system,
as pursued in its most richly-endowed, and in
all ways most favoured, institutions, is declared
a failure as regards its own ends; “a failure”
— and here I quote the Times’ summary of
the Report of the recent Commissioners —
“ a failure, even if tested by those better spe
cimens, not exceeding one-third of the whole,
who go up to the Universities. Though
a very large number of these have literally
nothing to show for the results of their schoolhours from childhood to manhood, but a know
ledge of Latin and Greek, with a little English
and arithmetic, we have here the strongest
testimony that their knowledge of the former
is most inaccurate, and their knowledge of the
latter contemptible. A great deal is taught
under these two heads, but very little is learned
under either. A small proportion become bril
liant composers and finished scholars, if they
do not manage to pick up a good deal of infor
mation for themselves; but the great multi
tude cannot construe an easy author at sight,
or write Latin prose without glaring mistakes,
or answer simple questions in grammar, or get
through a pronlem in the first two books of
Euclid, or apply the higher rules of arith
metic. A great many, amounting to about a
third at Christ Church, and a fifth at Exeter
College, fail to pass the common Matriculation
Examination. Not less than a fourth are
plucked for their Little-go, a most elementary
examination in the very subjects which we
have just mentioned ; and of the rest many
are only enabled to pass by the desperate exer
tions of College tutors and ‘coaches.’ We
need not follow this class of public school men
through the remainder of their University
career, since the duty of teaching has then
devolved upon others ; but for their short
comings at entrance the schools are mainly
responsible. Most of them, says an Oxford
tutor of great experience and judgment, ‘ are
persons who were allowed as boys to carry
their idleness with them from form to form,
to work below their powers, and merely to
move with the crowd ; they are men of whom
something might have been made, but now it
is too late ; they are grossly ignorant, and
have contracted slovenly habits of mind.’”*
On recovering from his very natural amaze
ment, our foreign friend might possibly be
curious to know how a state of things so ano
malous and perplexing had come about. Gra
dually he would learn that it had its remote
origin in a period of European history between
the decay of the old and the growth of the new
civilisation, when it may be briefly and com
prehensively asserted that, Latin and its litera
ture apart (for Greek was of later date as a
branch of general school teaching), there were,
(1) No subjects to be learned; (2) No pupils to
be taught; (3) No language in which teaching
could be carried on. A few minutes may well be
spent in considering this very curious position.
There were, (1) No subjects to be learned. The
natural sciences,as we now understand and pur
sue them, scarcely existed; they wereconfounded
with the ancient literature, in which scientific
observations and theories were recorded; there
were no modern languages or literatures to
claim and repay study. Latin, or its practical
synonym grammar, was accordingly co-extensive, identical with instruction. (2.) There were
no pupils to be taught. The mere idea of
educating a whole people, of opening their
mental eyes, forming their judgment, training
their character, by means of knowledge, had
not been even conceived. Not even the higher
or highest classes of the laity were believed to
need instruction. Ecclesiastics only needed
and received instruction, and in their case it
was naturally directed to the language in
which the church offices were performed, in
which the church history and traditions were
enshrined. (3.) There was no language but
Latin in which teaching could be conducted.
Neither English, nor French, nor Italian, nor
Germau, nor Spanish, nor any other modern
language, in anything like its present state,
existed. You know as well as 1 how and
when they came into being. Petrarch more
than half regretted his having ever written in
Italian the sonnets which are the title-deeds
of his fame, and fancied that posterity would
delight to read his Latin poem on Africa,
which is quite forgotten. Through what me
dium, then, except Latin, could any one be
taught ?—Latin, in which the learned of all
countries wrote and corresponded with each
other to much later times—Petrarch, and Eras
* See Appendix, p. 8.
�5
mus, and Milton, and even Locke. The influence
of this threefold state of things was prolonged
in spite of gradual progress. New subjects
arose, but Latin held its place ; a portion of
the laity claimed a share of the instruction of
the times, and ecclesiastics taught them the
Latin which only they knew, and that not
well. New languages were gradually formed,
and crept into general, unliterary, unscientific,
currency. But in European countries Latin
still maintained its place, more or less exclu
sively, as the medium of teaching science and
literature. Not many years ago, I travelled
with a Piedmontese physician, who spoke
Italian badly, French not at all, whose local
patois was a burden to himself, and who bitterly
complained to me of his having been taught
even medicine, as well as logic and rhetoric,
through Latin, while in Italian he had never
received a single lesson. In our own land,
the change has gone somewhat further in each
of the three respects just stated. Other sub
jects of instruction have, more or less recently,
more or less grudgingly, been allowed to break
in upon the sacred monopoly of Latin. First,
Greek (now so glibly coupled with Latin, like
Day with Martin, or Swan with Edgar)
fought its way to admission, through opposi
tion the story of which would now excite some
amusement and surprise;
*
Then mathema
tics, more lately ; and it is now commonly
declared that in this branch of study is found
the needful and sufficient counterpoise to the
old linguistic training, inasmuch as it exer
cises the reasoning faculties ; the subject, how
ever, being purely abstract, and one in which
never occur the names of man or woman, or
right or wrong, or duty or interest, of good
or bad, praise or blame, or any other of those
many things about which human reasoning
is habitually employed in late and early life ;
so that, though, like chess, it is valuable for
fixing the attention, it is a very inefficient
training for ordinary thinking on moral ques
tions. As Sir William Hamilton has said,
“ The railroad of demonstration is a poor pre
parative for the hunting-ground of proba
bility.” No other subject is taught otherwise
than too exceptionally and incompletely, to
claim notice in this brief paper.
Yet, how marvellously changed is the whole
aspect of the world since this system first took
shape. I need not do more than hint at our
progress in science, art, literature, mecha
nics, in production and exchange at home and
abroad; at the startling growth of foreign
literatures ; at the multiplication of sources of
thought and subjects of interest general and
deep ; at the discovery of new and vast con
tinents, over which is being rapidly spread a
population speaking our language, in part
living under this country’s government, in part
living under a government of its own ; in either
case bound to us by many ties of interest and
affection, and adding everywhere to the com
mon fund of the world’s thought and know
ledge :
“Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?”
What region of the wide earth is there that
is not filled with both the record and the
results of our national achievements ?
Is every thing to move on except education,
which is to prepare for every thing ? Is pro
gress to be universal except in that one thing
which ought to herald and facilitate and
guide all progress ? How long, one is driven
to ask, is the ancient system to be maintained ?
In spite of coming changes, the extent of
which we can but faintly guess, though we
may clearly foresee their direction, is it abso
lutely ordained that centuries hence, even to
the very end of time, our remotest posterity
shall learn precisely what their ancestors
learned, in default of aught else, and be taught
precisely as their ancestors, in the infancy of
the teaching art, were taught? Had we to
begin now, to construct anew the educa
tional edifice, few perhaps would say that it
ought to be precisely on the existing plan.
Can the present system, then, be not merely the
result of historic causes^ necessary and even
useful in its season, but the fulfilment of pro
vidential decree, which must be binding now,
henceforward, and for evermore? If not, then
it is wise to inquire whether the time has not
arrived for introducing changes, which may
facilitate and promote further gradual change
hereafter. I venture to think that this time
has arrived, and that, in the interest of what
ever is good in the old system itself, it is well
to modify what it is impossible long to pre
serve unchanged. The present system is clearly
untenable, and its doom is, I think, a question
of time only. It is because I attach a high
value to the educational influence of Greek
and Latin, in proper place and time and mode,
that I presume to invite the attention of this
meeting to the questions stated in the pro
gramme— “Why? When? For whom?’’
These three questions are intimately blended.
None of them can, apart from the other, be
fully answered. On the first—the reasons
why—1 need not enlarge. They have been
lately stated, for the ten thousandth time,
but with unusual freshness and force, by Mr.
Bonamy Price, who, being himself a bright
*
example of the good effects of such culture, is
modest enough to assume that most others to
whom it is applied are quite as good as he.
But on all those reasons it suffices to remark,
that not one of them applies to any but to au
advanced school age, when only can the youth
really appreciate the high work in which he is
engaged. The wretched reality which expe
* So lately as in the year 1772, Dr. Adam’s pro rience reveals is in contrast, at once ludicrous
posal to introduce Greek into the High School of
Edinburgh was violently opposed by no less a man
* See “The Shilling Magazine” for September,
than Principal Robertson, the historian.
1865.
�6
and painful, with the glowing picture painted
by Mr. Price.
As regards the second and third questions,
taken always in conjunction with the first, I
can only briefly say, as the result of my own
experience and reflection, that by deferring
these studies to a later period of life, by
thus reducing the number of those to whom
this instruction is administered, and the
amount of time devoted to it, as well as the
area over which it is spread, a greater amount
of good would, on the whole, be achieved.
Fewer persons would learn Latin and Greek, but
those few would learn them more thoroughly
and with greater profit. The fact that now,
after all the expenditure of time and labour,
so small a proportion of those taught exhibit
even fair attainments, is conclusive against
the present system, which sacrifices the many
needlessly and wrongly for the sake of a select
few. Nor can it be justly said, though it is
often said, that, even if no great knowledge of
the tongues, and no knowledge, of the litera
tures, have been acquired, still a useful train
ing has been gone through, and the mental
powers have been strengthened and suppled
by exercise. I much fear that the influence is
quite the other way, and tends to discourage
ment, apathy, distaste for learning, mental
confusion, and mental torpor. “ The labour
we delight in physics pain.” Intellectual occu
pation, in which the intellect is a willing agent,
not a drudging slave, and intellectual pro
gress, are needful for our moral health. Men
tal vacuity is at the root of much moral
mischief; and congenial mental work is one
of the best preventives of the vices which idle
ness ever fosters.
In discussing this subject, we are too apt to
fix our attention on the favourable exceptions,
the small minority, who seem to have really
derived advantage from the process through
which they have passed ; and we are tempted
to forget that it is to “ the mass” that educa
tion ought to be adapted, and by its success
with the mass that every system must be
tested. What should we say if a Sheffield
cutler were to boast that five, or even ten, per
cent, of his knives were sharp and strong and
bright? We should be disposed to inquire
about the remaining ninety, and to draw no
favourable inference as to their cutting power.
Again, we are often confronted by a dis
tinction which, though sound enough in itself,
has little real application here. Instruction,
we are told, is one thing; education is another.
Even of instruction, the imparting of know
ledge is not the chief part; while of edu
cation it is but a small and a very subor
dinate part. Very true; but it by no means
follows that those subjects which are capable
of what is called useful application in actual
life, are devoid of educational influence in the
process of their acquisition. The question is
really much less one of subject than of method.
Any subject may be taught intellectually,
suggestively, improvingly, or in a dull, me
chanical, stupifying way. Because much pre
sent teaching of Latin and Greek is of this
latter kind, I do not argue against all teaching
of Latin and Greek. But, on the other hand,
I contend that it is most unjust to speak, for
example, of physical science as a mere con
geries of detached facts, the learning of which
can give no beneficial training to the mind,
no real exercise to any of its powers, except to
memory. Were our scholars and our teachers
themselves better instructed in such subjects,
they would find, I think, that the processes
of observation, generalisation, and induction,
through which a pupil may be carefully led,
afford a mental discipline of the highest value,
and do much to train to habits of mental
accuracy, cautious inquiry, conscientious
balancing of probabilities, steady and honest
work.
Again, it is not unusual to speak and
write as if, outside of the charmed circle of
Greek and Roman letters, all were barren, arid,
prosaic, commonplace, mechanical, and cold.
The very exclusiveness with which the terra
“ classics” is popularly restricted to Latin
and Greek, is a standing monument of this
fallacy. Are such writers as Shakespeare,
and Milton, and Wordsworth, and Tennyson,
in our own tongue, or in others, as Gothe,
and Schiller, and Dante, and Ariosto, and
Rousseau, and De Stael, incapable of inspiring
literary enthusiasm, or exercising critical taste?
The case would not be altered were any amount
of indebtedness to the ancients proved against
the moderns.
Even if the superiority of Greek and Latin
over all living tongues be admitted, (and I
may say, in passing, that, without large
qualifications, I cannot admit it,) it is not a
necessary sequence that those other languages
are not important means of mental discipline,
if rightly taught, as well as of high utility in
the affairs of life. The whole question is com
parative. It- is not what subjects are, in
one or other way, useful; but what subjects
are, on the whole, the most useful in degree,
as in kind; which blend the greatest number
of utilities; Which are the indispensable, and
which the merely advantageous or orna
mental. Now I cannot but hope that in this
matter the progress of opinion is tending
towards this conclusion, that those subjects
most useful to the poor as well as to the rich,
to women as well as to men, those most akin
to the deep unity of our common human na
ture, are the subjects to which attention ought,
in every case, to be directed first and chiefly;
that the essentials of education (not confound
ing essential with necessary, as we often do)
are in all cases the same, and based on those
things in which we all agree, not on those in
which we differ. In urging, as I did some
time ago, that the education of girls ought,
in all essential respects, to be assimilated to
that of boys, I did not mean that it should be
made like to that of boys, as it now exists,—
may heaven forbid!—but rather that each
�1
should borrow from the other whatever it has
of good, and that both should grow towards a
common and still distant ideal. So with the
rich and the poor; the great substratum ought,
it seems to me, to be in both cases alike ; it
being the enviable privilege of the former to
superadd whatever other culture, deeper or
more ornamental, their greater leisure and
ampler means may enable them to obtain.
According to the length of time given by
the pupil to the school, would be the gradation
and development of his studies. No boy leav
ing any school, say at the age of even twelve
years, would be ignorant of his own language
as a means of communication by writing as
well as by speech,—of the elements of natural
science, especially of his own bodily structure,
and of the laws of conduct; without some
dawning, but ever brightening, perception of
the interdependence of all human interests
rightly understood, and without some purpose,
strengthening “ with the suns,” to guide his
own life accordingly, to seek his own blessing
in blessing others, to do good to others by
improving himself; unable to observe, and
think, and reason, but able to repeat snatches
of Latin grammar-rules, to decline certain
nouns and adjectives, to conjugate certain
verbs—a kind of knowledge which I venture to
think extremely unimportant, unless it be
carried forward to higher attainments, metho
dised and utilised by study of the literature.
A boy prolonging his stay at school beyond
the period necessary for acquiring the amount
and sort of knowledge and of training at
which I have but hinted, would, besides
deepening and widening and fixing his know
ledge of these subjects, and confirming his
mental and moral habits, extend his range of
study, and acquire more or less of one or more
modern tongues, say French and German, the
teaching being ever reflected upon that of the
vernacular, and would take up other branches
which it is impossible for me here to specify
in detail.
Lastly, those youths who should prolong
still further their school period, would, in
reduced numbers, with faculties well dis
ciplined, with a love of congenial mental
exercise—such as every human being has in
greater or in less degree, if it be not crushed
by bad teaching or by neglect—with a clear
perception of the use as well as of the pleasure
of learning, with minds maturer and more vigo
rous, enter on the study, say, first of Latin
and then of Greek. The progress now so
slow, painful, unequal, and irregular, would
be vastly more rapid, pleasant, uniform, and
sure. Cramming of the memory, now declared
to be indispensable with the very young, would,
at a later age, be superseded by intelligible
explanation and intelligent perception of prin
ciples ; the authors read would be better com
prehended, better appreciated, more enjoyed ;
the knowledge of words, constructions, idioms,
would grow swiftly, insensibly, day by day ;
the judgment and taste, first exercised on the
writings of their own country’s authors, would
be brought easily to bear on those of Rome
and Greece; the beauties of Homer and Horace,
and Virgil and Sophocles, and Livy and Thu
cydides, would not, as now, be wasted on dull
and unwilling ears, but would be really felt;
and all the good effects, intellectual, sesthetic,
and moral, which, in the hands of a skilful
teacher, with a heart in his bosom, and not
merely a mass of learned lumber in his head,
such studies can undoubtedly be made to
yield, would really be accomplished, and not
merely imagined, and in the great majority
of cases imagined falsely, to be accomplished.
Fewer persons would thus be taught Latin and
Greek ; but more persons would learn them
than now. They would learn them with greater
ease, satisfaction, and advantage in many
ways. This they would do without neglect,
nay to the gain, of other studies now too much
neglected. Those who could not carry on a
training in Latin and Greek to any really use
ful point, would not have wasted their time,
but would have gained that kind and amount
of knowledge and discipline, to which Latin
and Greek may be a most admirable comple
ment, but for which their verbal elements are
a most wretched substitute.
*
Let no one, therefore, denounce me as “ an
enemy of Latin and of Greek,” “ a foe to
liberal culture,” “alow utilitarian,” “an ad
vocate of cramming as opposed to training”—
of “bread and butter sciences” in opposition to
education worthy of the name; or pelt me
with any other verbal missiles, such as, in this
controversy, are too freely used. I am, I con
fess, a strict utilitarian; but it is a high and
broad, not a low and narrow, utility for which
I contend : imagination itself I maintain to be
truly and highly useful. I am at heart a friend
to Latin and Greek ; I would not lightly part
with my own knowledge of either, though it
might have been far less dearly purchased.
I would, it is true, save multitudes from the
mistake, the misery, and the mischief of merely
pretending to learn them ; but I would make
the teaching real and fruitful wherever it is
attempted, and I would put no limit to the
height or depth to which it should be carried
by those so disposed. I may, of course, be in
error as to the proposed means; but I am quite
certain that the end 1 aim at is the improve
ment, and the binding together, of all classes
of the community by a rational and generous
education, common to all in its main prin
ciples and essential features, but capable of
wide diversities in its later developments,
according to the means, the talents, the dis
positions, the destinations, social or profes
sional, of their individual members.
* “ Ipsum quidem illud callere linguam, si per se
solum spectes, neque majorem utilitatem intendas,
magno opere jejunum mihi videtur atque inanitatis
plenum: quid enim proficias ubi voces loquendique
formulas in cerebrum constipatas ingesseris ? ” —
“ Tib. Hemsterhusius, Orat. de Mathem. et Philosoph.
Studio cum Lit. Human, conjungendo,” p. 214.
�APPENDIX. (Seep. 4.)
“ Let us take a review of the acquirements of
a clever youth, not prematurely hurried from
school to the business of active life ; but left
there, we will suppose, to the age of sixteen or
seventeen, to acquire what knowledge he may.
He shall be found at that age tolerably well
skilled in the mysteries of longs and shorts;
to have acquired a facility of stringing together
doggerel verses ; to have construed unconnected
scraps from ancient writers, such as are to be
found in popular selections of extracts, his
attention having never been drawn to any of
those models of classic poetry so numerous in
his own ; familiar with the genealogies and
exploits of the heathen divinities ; well versed
in the history of the Trojan war, and the feuds
of the Grecian heroes, and but little in the
social convulsions of his native soil, and the
political storms which have swept over its face;
slightly acquainted with geography ; initiated
into arithmetic, not as a science built upon
principles, but as a set of rules, the arbitrary
invention (for anything he knows to the con
trary) of the book-maker; and acquiescing
upon trust in a few propositions of Euclid.
“ This, I apprehend, is rather an exaggerated
statement of a youth’s acquirements on leaving
one of our schools.
“ Now, of what is he wholly ignorant ?
“ The answer to this question is far too long
tobequoted here.” (See “Education and Edu
cational Institutions considered,” &c., by Rev.
J. Booth, LL.D., M.R.S.A. London, 1846
pp. 35, 36, et seq.)
“At Eton, the most aristocratic of schools,
though there is a drawing-master, and though,
more fortunate than the unlucky Italian mas
ter, he has a room, and even some casts and
models, the average attendance on his instruc
tion is 35 out of 783. Music is not taught at
all. In the report on Winchester, no mention
is made of either. At Harrow, music and
drawing are extras, studied by 18 and 50,
respectively, of the 464 boys. Even at Rugby,
the numbers are only 49 and 42 in 465. This,
then, is the amount of attention paid in these
great schools to the Fine Arts, and to the culti
vation of eye and ear. Geography, after a
little elementary instruction, is wholly neg
lected. Attention is paid to ancient history
at some schools, in connection with classical
work ; but at Winchester, Dr. Moberley says,
‘ we do not profess to teach modern history at
alland the case seems no better at the other
schools, though no such open confession of
failure is made.
“ What, then, do these great schools teach ?
I need not give the answer. They teach Latin
and Greek ; and, subordinate to these, mathe
matics. To these three studies, or rather to
two, Latin and Greek, almost the whole teach
ing-force of these great institutions is applied.
Of the 35 masters at Eton, 24, or about 70 per
cent., are classical; eight are mathematical;
and three teach all the modern languages, phy
sical science, natural history, English language
and literature, drawing, and music ; and this
is about the proportion in all save Rugby,
where matters are somewhat better.” (Clas
sical and Scientific Studies, and the Great
Schools of England. By W. P. Atkinson.
1865. Cambridge, U. S. pp. 22.)
“ There are no schools in the world which
approach the English public schools in the
immense cost at which tneir advantages, such
as they are, have to be obtained ; and yet Mr.
Matthew Arnold, the son of the most famous
Head-master who ever presided over an Eng
lish public school, and himself profoundly
acquainted with the state of the higher educa
tion both in England and on the Continent,
could say, the other day, with almost as much
truth as point,—‘At Eton, a boy learns a
gentlemanly deportment and cricket, at an
expense of .£250. a year.’ The able men who
reported upon Eton and the otherpublic schools
two years ago, pointed out a legion of abuses
that urgently call for amendment, proved,
indeed, to demonstration that the whole existing
system was rotten to its core; but, although
Bills were introduced by Lord Clarendon in the
Sessions of both 1865 and 1866, with a view
to remedy, to some small extent, the present
disastrous state of affairs, the obstructives
have up this time succeeded in preventing any
thing effectual being done.” (Grant Duff, Esq.,
M. P., Weekly Scotsman, 1st Sept., 1866.)
Printed by C. F. Hodgson & Son, Gough Square, Fleet Street.
�
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Classical instruction: why?-when?-for whom?: a paper read at the meeting in Sept. 1865 of the Social Science Association at Sheffield; and at the monthly meeting, in May 1866, of the College of Perceptors
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Printed in double columns. Reprinted from the Educational Times for June, 1866. Two copies bound into Conway Tracts 4, no. 15. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Education
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Classical Education
Education
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CONSTITUTION, ADDRESS,
p
-
•
AND
LIST OF MEMBERS
*r
’
*
'
OF THE
American Association for t^e promotion
of Social Science,
WITH THE
QUESTIONS PROPOSED JOB DISCUSSION:
TO WHICH ABE ADDED
A
MINUTES OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
V- -J
July,
1866.
BOSTON:
WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE.
1 8 6 6.
��CONSTITUTION
•
'
OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL
SCIENCE.
ADOPTED IN BOSTON OCTOBER 4, 1865.
♦
I. — This Society shall be called The American Association for
Promotion of Social .Science.
H. — Its objects are, to aid the development of Social Science, and to
guide the public mind to the best practical means of promoting the
Amendment of Laws, the Advancement of Education, the Prevention
and Repression of Crime, the Reformation of Criminals, and the pro
gress of Public Morality, • the adoption of Sanitary Regulations, and
the diffusion of sound principles on questions of Economy, Trade, and
Finance. It will give attention to Pauperism, and the topics related
thereto ; including the responsibility of the well-endowed and success
ful, the wise and educated, the honest and respectable, for the failures
of others. It will aim to bring together the various societies and indi
viduals now interested in these objects, for the purpose of obtaining by
discussion the real elements of Truth; by which doubts are removed,
conflicting opinions harmonized, and a common ground afforded for
treating wisely the great social problems of the day.
TTT. — This Association shall include four departments : the first,
for Education ; the second, for Public Health; the third, for Economy,
Trade, and Finance; the fourth, for Jurisprudence, and the Amendment
of Laws.
IV. — The officers of this Association shall be a President, four VicePresidents, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treas-„
urer, and five Directors, who shall constitute an Executive Committee
of thirteen, and shall have power to fill any vacancies in their body
which shall occur between the annual meetings. One Vice-President
and one Director shall be assigned to each department; and these,
together with a Special Secretary for each, shall constitute the Executive Committee for each department. The fifth Director shall act as
the
�4
q
Librarian. These seventeen officers shall hereafter be chosen annually,
on the second Wednesday in October, and shall hold office till their
successors are chosen.
V. — The annual meetings of this Association shall be held in Boston,
unless some other place is specially designated. Special meetings may
be called by the Executive Committee, or by the President and any five
members of the Committee, at any time and place which they may
. think proper; but no officers shall be chosen, assessments made, or
amendments to the Constitution passed, except at the annual meetings,
or some adjournment thereof.
VI. — The business of the meetings shall be to hear addresses,
reports, and papers, and to conduct discussions on the topics before
mentioned. When desirable, the meetings shall be held by depart
ments, over each of which a Vice-President shall preside. All mem
bers may take part in the discussions, but no papers shall be read which
have not been previously submitted to the Executive Committee in each
department.
VII. — Before any meeting shall divide into departments, and immediately after the transaction of the regular business, the President shall
call for, and the Executive Committee may bring forward, such sub
jects, not exceeding four in number, as are judged by them of immediate
practical importance ; and these shall have the precedence of all other
subjects during the first session of the meeting.
VTTT. — Any person may become a member by signing the Constitu
tion, and paying the sum of three dollars, and may continue a member
by paying annually such further sum, not exceeding five dollars, as may
be assessed on the members by vote of the Association at its annual
meeting. Any person may become a life member, exempt from assess
ments, by the payment of fifty dollars.
TX. — Honorary members and corresponding members may be chosen,
but shall not exceed the number of the regular members ; and members
thus chosen shall be exempt from the payment of assessments. All
members, both regular, honorary, and corresponding, shall be entitled to
receive a copy of the Transactions of the Association.
X. —The Secretaries, under the direction of the Executive Com
mittee, shall annually select from the papers handed in and the
addresses made such as they shall deem proper for publication, and shall
publish them, along with a report of the doings and discussions at the
meetings during the year. This publication shall be called the Trans
actions of the Association. They may also prepare and issue such
other publications as may be deemed best by the Executive Committee.
XI. — None but regular members shall have the privilege of voting
in the meetings, and none but_ members of taking part in the discus
�5
3
sions, except by invitation of the presiding officer; but it shall be the
policy of the Association to admit as many members as possible, and
encourage the co-operation of other societies having kindred objects
view.
XII. — Whenever other associations shall be formed in other parts of
North America, it shall be the policy of this Association to co-operate
with them so far as practicable. For this purpose, the Executive Com
mittee is empowered to call a convention of these associations, or to
send delegates to such a convention.
.5
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
[Those marked * have been chosen to fill vacancies. The numerals indicate the departments.]
PRESIDENT.
Professor William B. Rogers, 1 Temple Place, Boston.
VICE-PRESI DE NTS.
I. Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., Cambridge, Mass.
II. Vacancy.
HI. *Hon. George S. Boutwell, Groton, Mass.
IV. Francis Lieber, LL. D., 48 East 34th Street, New York.
DIRECTORS.
I.
IT,
TTT.
IV.
V.
Rev. Erastus 0. Haven, D. D., Ann Arbor, Mich.
Mrs. Mary Eliot Parkman, 109 Boylston Street, Boston.
*David A. Wells, Esq., Custom House, New York.
Hon. Emory Washburn, Cambridge, Mass.
Mrs. Caroline Healy Dall, 70 Warren Avenue, Boston.
GENERAL
'
SECRETARIES.
Samuel Eliot, LL. D., Cor. Sedy, 30 Chestnut St., Boston.
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Recording Sedy, 12 State House, Boston.
f
SPECIAL
SECRETARIES.
I. Hon. Joseph White, Williamstown, Mass.
TT. J. C. White, M. D., 10 Park Square, Boston.
TTT. Hon. George Walker, Springfield, Mass.
IV. Professor Theodore W. Dwight, Columbia College, N. York.
TREASURER.
Capt. James J. Higginson, 40 State Street, Boston.
�6
REGULAR MEMBERS OB THE AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.
Q
Hon. John A. Andrew, 27 Tremont Row, Boston.
Prof. William B. Rogers, 1 Temple Place, Boston.
Francis Lieber, LL. D., 48 East 34th Street, New York.
Hon. Josiah Quincy, 4 Park Street, Boston.
Mrs. Mary J. Quincy, 4 Park Street, Boston.
Samuel G. Howe, M. D., 20 Bromfield Street, Boston.
Thomas C. Amory, Esq., 15 Temple Place, Boston.
Hon. Edward S. Tobey, 103 State Street, Boston.
Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman, New York.
■.
*
Miss Mary Grey Chapman, Boston.
Rev. Rufus Ellis, Hamilton Place, Boston.
Henry B. Rogers, Esq., 5 Joy Street, Boston.
Rev. Andrew Bigelow, 3 Hancock Street, Boston.
Miss Matilda Goddard, 2 Florence Street, Boston.
Mrs. Zena Fay Peirce, Cambridge.
Wendell Phillips, Esq., 26 Essex Street, Boston.
Mrs. Mary E. Stearns, Medford.
Henry G. Clark, M. D., 18 Beacon Street, Boston.
William Lloyd Garrison, Esq., Roxbury.
Miss Abby W. May, 27 Hollis Street, Boston.
Mrs. F. C. Paine, 96 Chestnut Street, Boston.
John D. Philbrick, Esq., City Hall, Boston.
Henry I. Bowditch, M. D., 113 Boylston Street, Boston.
George William Bond, Esq., 167 Congress Street, Boston.
David Wilder, Jr., Esq., State House, Boston.
David Pulsifer, State House, Boston.
Hon. Otis Clapp, 3 Albion Building, Boston.
Rev. John T. Sargent, 70 Dover Street, Boston.
Francis L. Capen, K Street, corner of 9th, South Boston.
Rev. John W. Chickering, Boston.
George B. Emerson, Esq., 3 Pemberton Square, Boston.
Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, Columbia College, New York.
Rev. J. M. Manning, 9 Boylston Place, Boston.
Rev. William G. Babcock, Warren Street Chapel, Boston.
John M. Clark, Esq., Suffolk Jail, Boston.
Rev. George C. Beckwith, 23 Chauncy Street, Boston.
Rev. Frederic Hinckley, K Street, corner of Broadway, South Boston.
Rev. W. Phillips Tilden, 79 Bedford Street, Boston.
S. W. Hatheway, State House, Boston.
George H. Snelling, Esq., 2 Hamilton Place, Boston.
William Emerson Baker, 18 Summer Street, Boston.
G. Julian Harney, State House, Boston.
Prof. James C. White, M.»D., 10 Park Square, Boston.
�7
Charles K. Whipple, 59 East Chester Park, Boston.
Ira Steward, 12 Avon Place, Boston.
John S. Butler, M. D., The Retreat, Hartford, Connecticut.
Dr. Oliver S. Strong, House of Refuge, New York.
Rev. B. K. Peirce, House of Refuge, New York.
James M. Talcott, Esq., Reform School, Providence, Rhode Island.
Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Newport, Rhode Island.
Hon. John A. Poor, Portland, Maine.
John H. Rice, Bangor, Maine.
Charles N. Skinner, St. John, New Brunswick.
E. W. Hatch, M. D., Reform School, West Meriden, Connecticut.
Warren W. Rice, State Prison, Thomaston, Maine.
Rev. Erastus O. Haven, D. D., Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Rev.^Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut.
Prof. A. B. Palmer, M. D., Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Isaac Ray, M. D., Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island.
Prof. Daniel C. Gilman, Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut.
Rev. Oliver C. Everett, Charlestown.
Hon. Alfred Hitchcock, Fitchburg.
Rev. Edward H. Hall, Plymouth.
Miss Lucy Goddard, Roxbury.
George W. Coffin, Charlestown.
; ,
Benjamin W. Sawtell, Charlestown.
,
Rev. Horatio Wood, Lowell.
Hon. George S. Boutwell, M. C., Groton.
•
James Redpath, Malden.
Edward Earle, Worcester.
Mrs. Ann B. Earle, Worcester.
William Workman, M. D., Worcester.
George C. Davis, Esq., Northborough.
Hon. Gideon Haynes, State Prison, Charlestown.
Rev. Marcus Ames, Industrial School, Lancaster.
Nathan Allen, M. D., Lowell.
Hon. John Nesmith, Lowell.
Hon. P. M. Neal, Lynn.
John C. Metcalf, Esq., Mendon.
James B. Congdon, Esq., New Bedford.
Rev. Samuel May, Jr., Leicester.
Hon. Amasa Walker, M. C., North Brookfield.
Hon. Asa Millett, Bridgewater.
Edward Jarvis, M. D., Dorchester.
M. M. Fisher, Medway.
N. S. Shaler, Cambridge.
Hon. Phineas Ball, Worcester.
Hon. Emory Washburn, Cambridge.
Prof. W. P. Atkinson, Cambridge.
Jonathan Brown, M. D., Tewksbury.
T. Prentiss Allen, Esq., West Newton.
�8
George W. Searle, Esq., Boston.
Rev. James Thurston, West Newton.
Joseph A. Allen, Esq., Reform School, Westborough.
N. T. Allen, Esq., West Newton.
Hon. William H. Wood, Middleborough.
Rev. S. W. Bush, Roxbury.
F. B. Sanborn, Concord.
J. C. Zachos, West Newton.
E. B. Huntington, Esq., Stamford, Conn.
Rev. Charles F. Barnard, Warren Street Chapel, Boston.
Rev. A. A. Livermore, Meadville, Penn.
Miss Rebecca Bradford, Roxbury.
W. Ellery Copeland, Cambridge.
Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., Harvard College, Cambridge.
Prof. Samuel Eliot, 30 Chestnut Street, Boston.
Edward Atkinson, Esq., 40 State Street, Boston.
Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, 70 Warren Avenue, Boston.
Hon. George S. Hale, 4 Court Street, Boston..
David A. Wells, Esq., New York.
Hon. George Walker, Springfield, Mass.
Mrs. Mary E. Parkman, 109 Boylston Street, Boston.
Hon. Joseph White, Williamstown.
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Pemberton Square, Boston.
Mrs. R. W. Emerson, Concord.
S. R. Urbino, Boston.
♦
Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, West Newton.
Samuel F. Haven, Esq., Boston.
Capt. J. F. B. Marshall, State House, Boston.
Dr. Ammi Brown, 35 Common Street, Boston.
Mrs. Sarah H. Young, Lowell.
Delano K. Goddard, Esq., Worcester.
Lieut. T. Melville Chisholm, 108ZA U. S. Colored Infantry.
Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., 46 Washington Street, Boston.
Theodore H. Mead, Esq., 31 Union Park, Boston.
Capt. James J. Higginson, 40 State Street, Boston.
C. W. Dabney, Jr., 67 Commercial Wharf, Boston.
Sinclair Tousey, New York.
William T. Ingalls, M. D., 168 Tremont Street, Boston.
Samuel Jennison, Esq., 27 State Street, Boston.
. ..
HONORARY MEMBERS.
Residing in America.
Lewis A. Sayre, M. D., 795 Broadway, New York.
Samuel B. Ruggles, Esq., New York.
Henry Barnard, LL. D., Annapolis, Md.
A. Bronson Alcott, Esq., Concord, Mass.
Rev. Frederic N. Knapp, Yonkers, N. Y.
Prof. David Wilson, Toronto, C. W.
�9
Edward A. Meredith, Esq., Quebec, C. E.
Rev. Philip' P. Carpenter,* Montreal, C. E.
Henry C. Carey, Esq., Philadelphia.
Charles L. Brace, Esq., New York.
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
In Great Britain and Ireland.
The Right Honorable Lord Brougham,* London.
George W. Hastings, Esq.,* London.
John Stuart Mill, Esq., M. P., London.
Thomas Hughes, Esq., M. P., London.
Miss Mary Carpenter, Red Lodge House, Bristol.
Matthew Davenport Hill, Esq., Bristol.
Sir Walter Crofton, The Close, Winchester.
Edward Peacock, Esq.,* Botsford Manor, Lincolnshire.
Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers,* Oxford.
Rev. James Frazer, Ufton Rectory, Reading.
Lord Radstock, London.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, 26 Hereford Square, London.
Edwin Chadwick, Esq., C. B., 5 Montague Villas, Richmond.
Edwin Lankester, M. D., London.
William Farr,* M. D., F. R. S., London.
Hon. Edward Twisleton, London.
.
Prof. J. E. Cairnes, London.
,
Capt. J. M. Whitty,* Dublin Castle, Dublin.
James P. Organ, Esq.,* Dublin. .
Sir John Bowring, Exeter.
Prof. Henry B. Rogers, Glasgow.
' '
In France.
M. Bonneville de Marsangy, 7 Rue de Penthievre, Paris.
M. F. A. Demetz,* Mettray.
M. A. de Gasparin, Paris.
M. Guillaume de Felice,* Montauban.
M. Edouard Laboulaye,* Paris.
•
In Belgium.
Hon. Henry S. Sanford, U. S. Legation, Brussels.
M. Edouard Ducpetiaux, 26 Rue des Arts, Brussels.
*
*
1
In Prussia.
Baron Franz von Holtzendorff, Royal University, Berlin.
In Italy.
Signor Martino Beltrani Scalia, Turin.
In Russia.
J. Kapnist, St. Petersburgh.
* These gentlemen have been notified of their election, but have not’ yet signified their acceptance
of membership.
�10
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE ASSOCIATION.
The following Circular and Address will explain the origin
and objects of the American Social Science Association. The
Circular was issued before the organization of the Association,
and the Address appeared between the first and the second
general meetings:
I.
CIRCULAR OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF CHARITIES.
COMMONWEALTH
OE
MASSACHUSETTS.
Office of the Board of State Chrities, )
12 State House, Boston Aug. 2, 1865. )
Dear Sir,—Our attention has lately been called to the importance
of some organization in the United States, both local and national,
whose object shall be the discussion of those questions relating to the
Sanitary Condition of the People, the Relief, Employment, and Educa
tion of the Poor, the Prevention of Crime, the Amelioration of the
Criminal Law, the Discipline of Prisons, the Remedial Treatment of
the Insane, and those numerous ‘matters of statistical and philanthropic
interest which are included under the general head of “ Social Science.”
An association for the consideration of these questions has existed in
Great Britain for several years, including among its members many of
the most eminent philanthropists and statistical writers of that country.
Its published proceedings have been of great service to England and to
the world.
Some gentlemen of this city, during the present year, have taken
steps to organize such a society for Massachusetts, and will hold a pub
lic meeting here on the first Wednesday of October, 1865, at 10
o’clock, A. M., at which the general objects of such an organization will
be announced, and papers will be read on special topics. We are so
thoroughly convinced of the value of such an organization, that, at the
request of the gentlemen interested, we take the liberty of inviting you
to be present at that time, and to give us the benefit of your counsel as
to the proposed work of the Social Science League.
�11
It has been suggested that a local society should be established in
every State in which there shall be sufficient interest taken, and that
these societies shall all be represented, annually, in a National Conven
tion of the League, the proceedings of which shall be published along
with such contributions from the local societies as may be selected.
If unable to attend the proposed meeting, would you be so good as to
favor us with your views, by letter, concerning this plan, and in general,
in regard to the whole subject, in which, from your known reputation,
you are believed to take an interest ?
NATHAN ALLEN, Lowed.
EDWARD EARLE, Worcester.
H. B. WHEELWRIGHT, Taunton.
F. B. SANBORN, Concord.
THEODORE METCALF, Boston.
J. C. BLAISDELL, Ball Biver.
S. G. HOWE, Boston.
Members of the Board of State Charities.
II.
ADDRESS OP THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OE THE AMERICAN SOCIAL
SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.
PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER, 1865.
The Executive Committee of the American Association for
Promotion of Social Science, in submitting to the public
the Constitution of the Association, would state some facts and
present some considerations relating thereto.
It is now eight years since the formation of an Association in
Great Britain, for the promotion of Social Science, gave celeb
rity to a name that has since become familiar to philanthropists
all over the world. Uncertain to whom we may ascribe the
happy generalization by which all the subjects of human inquiry
that specially concern the institutions of society are classed
together under the name of Social Science, we have reason to
accept this name as the most appropriate yet invented. It
includes so much, and suggests so much, that we have adopted
it, without hesitation, in designating our own organization.
the
�12
The British Association, already alluded to, was founded by
a few earnest laborers in the cause of humanity, under the lead
of Lord Brougham, who has been from the beginning its Pres
ident. So great was the interest felt in the subject, however,
that, very early, a large number of justly distinguished persons
became members of the Association. Among these were Earl
Russell, Lord Shaftesbury, the Earl of Carlisle, Lady Byron,
Edwin Chadwick, Sir Walter Crofton, Miss Florence Nightin
gale, Sir James Kay Shuttle worth, Mrs. Jameson, Lord Hough
ton, Miss Mary Carpenter, Dr. Lankester, Matthew Davenport
Hill, General Sabine, Arthur Helps, and Sir Fitzroy Kelly. At
the annual meetings, which were held successively in Birming
ham, Liverpool, Bradford, Glasgow, Dublin, London, Edinburgh,
York, and Sheffield, a large attendance testified to the public
appreciation of the labors of the Association; while the course
of legislation, following the changes wrought in public opinion,
gave evidence that the measures advocated at these meetings
Q were of a practical soft. Several important bills, resulting in
acts of Parliament, have been carried by means of the discus
sions and the exertions of the Social Science Association.
In 1862, an International Association, embracing the conti
nental countries of Europe, was formed at Brussels, and has
since held annual meetings, the last of which was at Berne, in
the present year. This Association grew out of that in Great
Britain, and included members of the latter among its own
members. Our own Association, in the same way, traces its
origin to the British National Association; from which we have
taken the idea and the general principles of our Constitution.
In the details of its organization, the parent society has
made some modifications of its original plan, which we have
adopted as the approved result of experience. Originally it had
five departments: namely, I. Jurisprudence ; II. Education;
III. Punishment and Reformation ; IV. Public Health ;
V. Social Economy. Afterwards a sixth was added for Trade
and International Law; but, more recently, they have been
reduced to four, corresponding, except in order of sequence, to
our own.
The range of the International Association is somewhat wider.
In the words of its Constitution,—
�13
“ The Association aims to develop the study of social science; to
guide the public opinion towards the most practical means to improve
civil and criminal legislation; to perfect and generalize education; to
extend and determine the mission of art and literature in modern soci
ety ; to increase public wealth, and to insure its proper distribution; to
improve the moral and physical condition of the working classes; to aid,
in fine, in the diffusion of those principles which make the strength and
the dignity of nations.”
We have not thought it advisable to follow the usage.of the
International Association, preferring that Art and Literature
should be considered apart from the topics which we propose to
discuss.
The preliminary measures for the formation of an Associa
tion, on the basis of that existing in Great Britain, having been
taken by a few gentlemen and ladies in Boston, in the spring of
» 1865, at their request, the Massachusetts Board of State Chari
ties, in August last, issued a circular, inviting to a conference
• in Boston on the 4th of October. As it was presumed that
many persons favorable to such a movement might not be able
to attend the conference, the following suggestion and request
was made at the end of the Circular: —
“ It has been suggested that a local society should be established in
every State in which there shall be sufficient interest taken, and that
these societies shall all be represented annually in a National Conven
tion of the League, the proceedings of which shall be published, along
with such contributions from the local societies as may be selected.
u If unable to attend the proposed meeting, would you be so good as
to favor us with your views, by letter, concerning this plan, and, in
general, in regard to the whole subject, in which, from your known rep
utation, you are believed to take an interest ? ”
In response to this invitation, a large number of gentlemen
and ladies from Massachusetts, New York, and other States,
assembled at the State House, in Boston, on the 4th of October
last, and proceeded to form an Association for the whole
country. The meeting, presided over by His Excellency Gov
ernor Andrew, decided, by distinct vote, that the Association
should receive the name of “American,” and should enroll
members from any part of the country; and our list of mem
bers already enrolled will show that this purpose has already
�14
been carried out. We enclose herewith a copy of the Constitu
tion then adopted, with a form of signature for such persons as
wish to become members; and we would announce that the
Association is desirous of enrolling as many members as pos
sible from all parts of North America. To become members, it
is only necessary to sign the accompanying paper, and forward
it, with the fee for admission, to our Treasurer, James Jackson
Higginson, Esq., 40 State Street, Boston.
In response to that portion of the Circular of the Board of
Charities quoted above, a great number of letters were received;
one or more being sent from the States of Maine, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and California, and from
the District of Columbia. Among those who wrote, expressing
interest in such an association, were several Members of Con
gress; Drs. Ray, Chipley, Earle, Harlow, and Tyler, of the
American Association of Superintendents of Insane Asylums;
' 'I Messrs. Chandler and Willetts, of the Philadelphia Prison
Society; the Board of Managers of the Philadelphia House of
Refuge, the Warden of the Ohio Penitentiary, and many other
gentlemen connected with philanthropic enterprises or public
institutions. Portions of this correspondence will be included
in the Transactions of the Association, as being of public
interest.
Since the formation of our Association, we have received
notice of the formation of local Associations in Boston and
Quincy; and movements for the establishment of State Asso
ciations are making in Vermont, in California, and elsewhere.
A committee of one of the State institutions in Kentucky has
also signified its interest in the subject by inviting our Associa
tion to hold its next Annual Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky.
Indeed, we everywhere find the opinion expressed, that the
present is a particularly seasonable time for the labors of such
Associations as ours.
But we also find that there is some uncertainty as to the pre
cise nature of our Association, its aims and purposes. It may
be well, therefore, to copy here what was said in the brief
Report made by the Committee of Arrangements for the con
ference of October 4.
�15
“purposes
of the association.
“This Association proposes to afford, to all persons interested in
human improvement, an opportunity to consider social economics as a
whole.
“ The persons composing it are expected to meet together to read
papers and pursue discussions, and to seek the assistance of those who
have a practical acquaintance with reform, as well as that of purely
abstract reasoners.
“ They are to collect all facts, diffuse all knowledge, and stimulate all
inquiry, which have a bearing on social welfare. It has long since been
shown that the man of science who confines himself to a specialty; who
does not, at the very least, conquer the underlying principles of other
branches of scientific inquiry,—is necessarily misled, and cannot avoid
frequent mistakes. To have any perception of the perspective of his
subject, he must see it in its relation to other subjects. Something like
this is true of those who investigate the necessities of society. If they
associate themselves together, they have the advantage of each other’s
knowledge; they do not misunderstand their own relative positions;
and they insure an economy of time, labor and money.
“We would offer the widest hospitality to individual convictions, and
to untried theories, provided only that such convictions and theories are
the fruit of a serious purpose and an industrious life. To entertain the
vagaries of the indolent would be at once undignified and unprofitable.
“the
four departments.
“ 1. Under the Department of Education will come everything
relating to the interests of Public Schools, Universities, and Colleges;
to Reformatory, Adult, and Evening Schools; to Instruction in the
Useful Arts; to Systems of Apprenticeship; to Lyceums, Pulpits, and
the formation of Societies for the purposes of Public Instruction. In
this department will be debated also all questions relating to Classical,
Linguistic, and Scientific Studies, in their proportion to what is called
an English Education; and the bearing of the publication of National
and Patriotic Memorials upon Popular Culture.
“ 2. Upon the Department relating to Public Health, a very large
proportion of the popular interest will naturally be fixed. All Sanitary
and Hygienic matters will come before it; and what the Sanitary Com
mission has learned in the last four years will be made available,
through its action, to the people at large. The subjects of Epidemics,
of the origin and spread of Cholera, Yellow Fever, and Eruptive Dis
eases, will be legitimately discussed here. It will consider all questions
of Increase of Population, Vaccination, Ventilation of Public and Pri
vate Buildings, Drainage, Houses for the Poor, the Management of
�16
Cemeteries, Public Baths, Paris and Public Gardens, Places of Recre
ation, the Management of Hospitals and Insane Asylums, the Adultera
tion of Food and Drugs, all questions relating to the Duration of Human
Life, Sanitary Regulations for the Army and Navy, and all matters of
popular interest connected with medical science. We shall look to our
ablest physicians and surgeons for contributions to this department.
6* Under the head of Social Economy, we shall consider Paupei’ism
actual rather than legal, and the relation and the responsibilities of the
gifted and educated classes towards the weak, the witless, and the igno
rant. We shall endeavor to make useful inquiries into the causes of
Human Failure, and the Duties devolving upon Human Success. We
shall consider the Hours of Labor; the relation of Employers and
Employed; the Employment of Women, by itself considered; the
relation of Idleness to Female Crime; Prostitution and Intemperance;
Workhouses; Public Libraries and Museums; Savings Banks and Dis
pensaries. Here, too, will be discussed National Debt; the subjects of
Tariff and Taxation; the Habits of Trade ; the Quality of our Mannfactures; the Control of Markets; the Monopolies in the Sale of Food,
or the Production of articles of common use; the Value of Gold; and
/all questions connected with the Currency.
“ 4. In the Department of Jurisprudence, we aim to consider, first,
the absolute Science of Right; and, second, the Amendment of Laws.
This department should be the final resort of the other three; for when
the laws of Education, of Public Health, and of Social Economy, are
folly ascertained, the law of the land should recognize and define them
all. Under this head will be considered all questions of the justice, the
expediency, and the results, of existing statutes; including their admin
istration and interpretation, and especially their bearing on Suffrage,
Property, Privilege, Debt, Crime, and Pauperism. Here, then, will
come up the vexed questions of Prison Discipline and Capital Pun
ishment.”
It will thus be seen that our scope is sufficiently general, and
the field for our labors sufficiently broad. But we shall, with
out doubt, discover other topics which equally claim attention;
and shall not refuse to entertain any inquiry by which the
progress of humanity may be investigated or promoted.
In this great work there will be a place for all. All existing
societies for the advancement of Education, Public Health, the
Reformation of Criminals, the Improvement of Prison Disci
pline, &c., can and ought to co-operate with us. We shall be
glad to receive papers and hold discussions on any of the sub-
*
�17
jects named, or others which may properly come before us; and
we would here particularly invite students of these subjects to
bring or send papers discussing them to our next General
Meeting, the time and place of which will be hereafter
announced.
In the interval between this time and the General Meeting,
it is hoped that all members, and all persons to whom this
Address may be sent, will exert themselves to distribute it, to
enroll members, and to spread a knowledge of the existence
and objects of the Association, so far .as they have opportunity.
For the Committee,
WILLIAM B. ROGERS, President.
SAMUEL ELIOT,)
F. B. SANBORN, J General Secretaries.
The following List of Questions for Discussion has been pre
pared by the Secretaries, under the direction of the Executive
Committee. It is not meant that members shall confine them
selves to these Questions, or to the furnishing of the information
required under the head of Data. The Questions are given
rather as a sample of what may properly be discussed, and the
suggestions concerning Data are mere hints to assist collectors
of facts and observations. A full schedule of Questions would
fill a volume, if accompanied by the necessary specifications.
2
♦
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I' I 71i'u'io t'so'ti! ’to ono i Jo
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- 70 Jllf. ii i '■
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�»
18
III.
QUESTIONS PROPOSED TOR DISCUSSION.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
I.
*
THE RELATIVE VALUE OF CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INSTRUC
TION IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.
*
This question calls for the following data, which may he fur
nished by members of the Association.
(A.) 1. The number of hours devoted to the study of the
Classics in the------ School, (or College.)
2. The proportion which this time bears to the whole time
? occupied in Study and Recitation.
3. The difference, if any, between the studies of the two
sexes in this respect.
4. The degree of proficiency in Latin and in Greek, attained
by the students at the end of the regular course.
5. The degree of proficiency attained by the students who
pursue an advanced course, and the proportion to the whole
number of those who go beyond the regular course.
(B.) 1-5. The number of hours devoted to Mathematical
Scientific Studies, etc., (as in 2, 3, 4 and 5, A.)
6. The changes proposed with a view to extend or diminish
the course of Scientific Studies in the------ School, (or College.)
n.
THE FINE ARTS IN EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY.
Data Required.
1. The experience of foreign countries upon this point.
2. What provision exists in our own country for extending
the knowledge of the Arts, or employing them in Education or
Industry.
. .
3. Statements concerning the possibility of opening public
galleries of Painting and Sculpture in one or more of our large
cities, and the Establishment or Extension of Schools of Design.
■ "
�19
4. Applications of the Fine Arts to American Manufactures.
5. Statements respecting the development of the Fine Arts
in Industry as opening new and suitable Vocations for Women.
HI.
THE HALF-TIME SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION.
Data Required.
*
1. The localities and schools where this system is now in use.
2. The actual results of introducing it in schools formerly
taught on the old system.
3. The number of school hours in each week, the number of
studies pursued, and the number of different classes, in schools
using the Half-Time System.
4. The feasibility of introducing this system in communities
where the old system is established by law and long usage.
IV.
THE EDUCATION OF NEGLECTED AND VICIOUS CHILDREN.
This question divides itself into the following subordinate
questions, in regard to which information no less than opinions
should be given :—
1. The Distinction between Vagrancy and Destitution, on
the one hand, and Crime on the other.
2. The Comparative Value of the Family and Congregate
Systems in Reformatory Institutions.
3. The Work to be done by Public as contrasted with Private
Institutions, and the True Principle of Distributing these Insti
tutions in the Community.
4. The True Principles of Legislation in respect to Vagrant
and Criminal Children.
5. The Best System of Education in Reformatories; includ
ing Manual, Intellectual Moral and Religious Education.
6. The Best System of Discipline, and how to train Officers
to administer such a System.
7. The Length of Time during which Children should remain
in Reformatories, and the best method of providing for them
when discharged.
�20
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
I.
QUARANTINE CONSIDERED IN ITS RELATION TO CHOLERA.
Data Required.
1. Facts and observations tending to show whether Cholera is
contagious or not.
2. Statements concerning the efficacy of Quarantine Regula
tions to check Contagious and Epidemic Diseases.
3. The Different Methods of establishing Quarantine in dif
ferent localities; and the observed results of each method,
especially in relation to Cholera.
II.
THE TENEMENT HOUSE.
Data Required.
1. Statements concerning Tenement Houses already built and
occupied ; their arrangements for Economy, Convenience. and
Health, and the evils resulting from imperfection in these
arrangements.
2. Plans and statements concerning Model Lodging Houses,
and similar structures; and all information bearing on the
question of building these in cities, or in the suburbs of cities.
3. Existing and Proposed Laws for securing Health and
Economy in Tenement Houses.
4. Statements of Objections made by the Laboring Classes to
the occupancy of Lodging Houses, Tenement Houses, etc., and
how to overcome such objections.
in.
INSPECTION OF FOOD AND DRUGS.
Data Required.
1. Facts concerning the present method of Drug Inspection
in the United States, and in foreign countries.
2. Facts showing the evil results of an imperfect method of
inspection.
3. Facts concerning the Inspection and Adulteration of Milk ;
with the observed effects of such adulteration, on the health of
children, especially.
*
�21
IV.
PORK AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD.
Data Required.
1. Facts showing the general effect on the human system of
eating pork.
2. Facts relating to the specific disease known as Trichiniasis.
V.
THE SEWERAGE OF GREAT CITIES.
Data Required.'
1. Facts concerning the Sewerage of Cities on Tide Water.
2. The corresponding facts concerning Inland Cities.
■ 3. Statements of possible means for extending the Sewerage
of Cities, to meet the wants of a rapidly increasing population.
VI.
THE MANAGEMENT OF HOSPITALS AND INSANE ASYLUMS.
Data Required.
1. Facts and principles of construction, with regard not only
to arrangement of buildings and grounds, but also to extent of
accommodations and number of patients in any single insti
tution.
2. Facts and principles of classification, with regard to the
separation of different classes and individuals among patients,
and (in insane asylums) the distinction of chronic and recent
cases of insanity.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMY, TRADE AND FINANCE.
I.
NATIONAL DEBT AND A NATIONAL CURRENCY.
Data Required.
1. Statements of the National Debt of the United States, as
compared with that of other countries, both now and in former
years.
2. The modes of contracting and liquidating a National Debt,
as seen in the experience of the United States and of other
countries; with an especial view to the observed effect of a
National Paper Currency, and the debasing of the current coin,
on the increase and the diminution of National Debt.
3. The National Resources as advanced or checked in their
development by a great National Debt, and the limits of pro-
�22
portion, between Debt and Resources; with a view to exhibit
and define what is meant by National Bankruptcy.
4. The facts which tend to show the true relation of Gold
and Silver to a sound and manageable Currency; especially
such facts as have been elicited by the financial exigencies of
European and American Wars.
H.
TAXATION AND REVENUE.
Data Required.
1. Statements of the methods of Taxation Shd the amount
of Revenue collected in the several States of the Union, in the
United States, and in the principal countries of Europe, espe
cially since the year 1800.
2. The observed results of Excise Duties on Trade and
Manufactures, particularly under the Internal Revenue Acts of
the United States; the historical origin and effects of Income
Taxation in Europe and America; and similar information with
regard to Import and Export Duties, Land Taxes, Bank and
Corporation Taxes, Tithes, Postal Duties ; and generally of all
methods of raising Public Revenue.
3. The tendency of sagacious Economists and Statesmen in
Europe and America, towards common Principles of Taxation,
both for the advantage of the Revenue, and the Promotion of
National Industry and Morality.
*
HI.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Data Required.
1. The Amount and Classification of Productive Labor in
any of the States, or in the United States ; or in any of the
countries of the world; the amount and modes of Investment
of Capital in the same localities ; and the present and past rela
tions between Labor and Capital, whether established by Law,
Custom or Necessity.
2. The observed effects on Labor and on Capital of any
change in the hours of Labor required by law or custom for a
day’s work.
3. Facts relating to the causes and results of Strikes among
Laborers; their effect on the Laborer himself and on the
Capitalist.
�23
4
4. Statistics of Co-operative Societies and other forms of
associated Labor.
5. The actual Rates, of Interest on Capital and the observed
effect of Usury Laws.
6. All facts concerning the Condition and Prospects of the
Industrial Classes; especially such as show the causes of
Pauperism.
DEPARTMENT
I.
OF
JURISPRUDENCE.
HASTY AND EXCESSIVE LEGISLATION.
Data Required.
1. The number and character of public and of private
Acts passed by the different Legislative Assemblies in this
country and abroad; and the frequency of repeal and change of
policy in Legislation without any corresponding change in the
circumstances of the community.
2. The amount of time given by legislators to important
measures coming before them, and the extent to which private
interests seem to control legislation; with such information as
can be given concerning the practice of “ lobbying.”
3. Statistics of the length of service, and frequency ol
re-election of Legislators.
4. Statements of the checks on Hasty Legislation resorted to
in different communities, and of the efficiency of such checks.
5. Definite Statements of the results of Hasty and Excessive Legislation, as observed by the author of the statement.
II.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.
Data Required.
1. The Penal Codes of different communities, and the
changes made in them from time to time; with the reasons and
results of such changes.
2. Facts concerning Capital Punishment.
3. Facts concerning past and, present Systems of Prison
Discipline, particularly with regard to the Separate, the Con
gregate, and the Irish Systems.
4. Facts concerning the Treatment of Intemperance as a
♦
�24
crime, or as an evil; with a statement of the legal means
employed to diminish it, and the result of such means when
employed. •
5. Facts concerning Pardons and the Pardoning Power,
especially with regard to Conditional Pardons or “ Tickets-ofLeave.”
6. Facts concerning the Criminal Class in different States
and countries ; especially those bearing on the permanence and
possibility of reformation of this class.
HI.
THE PROVINCE OF LAW IN REGARD
TO
EDUCATION, PUBLIC
HEALTH, AND SOCIAL MORALS.
Data Required.
1. Statements of the effects of Compulsory Education as
contrasted with voluntary efforts to educate the people.
2. The observed effects, and the practical limits of Sanitary
Legislation.
3. The effects of restrictions upon Gambling, Prostitution,
Intemperance, etc., imposed by Statute, and enforced by the
Police.
4. Statements respecting the qualifications, responsibility and
efficiency of the Police; including the higher Police, the minor
officers, and the Detective Force.
�25
MINUTES
(w 1.1
OF THE
FIRST GENERAL MEETING IN THE STATE HOUSE.
Boston, October 4th, 1865.
. Pursuant to the call issued by the Board of State Charities
of Massachusetts, a numerous assembly of citizens of Massa
chusetts and other States met in the State House, in Boston,
October 4,1865.
The meeting was called to order at 10, A. M., by Dr. Edward
Jarvis, of Dorchester, Chairman of a Committee of Arrangements, representing the persons originally acting to form a
Social Science Association.
His Excellency Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts was
chosen by acclamation as Chairman, and Dr. James C. White,
of Boston, and F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, were chosen Secreta
ries of the meeting. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Miles, of
Boston. Governor Andrew took the chair at 10.15, A. M., and
in a brief speech thanked the meeting for the honor they had
Conferred on him, declared his interest in the subject to be
discussed, and called upon’ the Committee of Arrangements to
present the business of the session.
Dr. White then read the Report of the Committee of Arrangements, of which the most important parts are given on pages
15 and 16.
On motion of Rev. Charles F. Barnard, of Boston, the Report
was laid upon the table for the present.
On motion of Dr. Jarvis, it was voted, that a Society be now
organized on the basis indicated by the report just read. Mr.
Sanborn, one of the Secretaries, then read the draft of a consti
tution for the proposed Society, which was taken up and con
sidered, article by article. The first Article was as follows :—
8
t
�26
Article I. “This Society shall be called the Association for
Social Science.”
Mrs. C. H. Dall, of Boston moved the insertion of the words,
“ the promotion of,” after the word “ for,” and the motion was
carried.
Mr. Strong, of New York inquired whether it was proposed to
make the association a local or a national one.
Dr. Jarvis explained that the committee had discussed that
question, and had decided to report the name as it stood,
leaving it for the meeting to decide whether it should be a
Massachusetts, or a New England, or an American association.
A spirited discussion followed, in which Dr. Palmer, of Michigan,
Judge Russell, of Boston, Mr. Barnard and others took part.
On motion of Mr. Barnard, the word “ American ” was inserted
before the word “ Association.” The first article, thus amended,
was then adopted.
The second Article was then read, as follows:—
'
Article II. “Its objects are to aid the development of Social
Science, and to guide the public mind to the best practical means of
promoting the Amendment of Laws, the Advancement of Education,
the Prevention and Repression of Crime, the Reformation of Crimi
nals, the adoption of Sanitary Regulations, and the diffusion of sound
principles on questions of Economy, Trade, and Finance. It will give
special attention to Pauperism and the topics related thereto ; including
the responsibility of the well educated and successful, the wise and
educated, and the honest and respectable, for the failures of others. It
will aim to bring together the various societies and individuals now
interested in these objects, for the purpose of obtaining by discussion
the real elements of truth, by which doubts are removed, conflicting
opinions harmonized, and a common ground afforded for treating wisely
the great social problems of the day.”
Mr. George H. Snelling of Boston moved to strike out the
word “ special,” before “ attention to pauperism.” Agreed to.
The Rev. Mr. Chickering of Boston moved to insert the
words, “ and the progress of public morality,” after the words
“ reformation of criminals,” which after some discussion was
agreed to. The article, with these amendments, was then
adopted.
Article third was then read, as follows :—
♦
�27
Article III. “ This Association shall include four Departments:
the first for Education; the second for Public Health; the third for
Economy, Trade and Finance; the fourth for Jurisprudence and the
Amendment of Laws.”
Mr.\ George B. Emerson, of Boston moved to add a special
department, for the prevention of crime and the reformation of
criminals. He regarded that as the most important work now
before the public, and desired to see direct attention given to it.
Mrs. Dall opposed the motion as needless. Hon. Amasa
Walker, of North Brookfield also opposed it, on the ground that
the classification into four departments was enough for all
practical purposes.
Dr. Jarvis said that the committee had followed the classifi
cation of the British Association, and believed that they had
included the subjects proposed by Mr. Emerson under the head
of Jurisprudence and Education.
Mr. Emerson then withdrew his motion, which was renewed
by Dr. Palmer, of Michigan, and supported by him and others.
It was opposed by Dr. E. W. Hatch, of Meriden, Ct., by Mr. J.
D. Philbrick, of Boston, Mr. John A. Goodwin, of Lowell, and
several others. Finally, Dr. Palmer withdrew his motion, and
the third article was adopted without further change.
Article fourth was then read, as follows :—
Article IV. “The officers of this Association shall be a Presi
dent, four Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding
Secretary, a Treasurer, and five Directors, who shall constitute an
Executive Committee of thirteen. One Vice-President and one Direc
tor shall be assigned to each Department, and these, together with a
Special Secretary for each, shall constitute the Executive Committee
for each Department. These seventeen officers shall hereafter be
chosen annually, on the second Wednesday in October.”
This article was discussed and adopted, but afterwards recon
sidered, and amended by inserting the words, “ and shall have
power to fill any vacancies which shall occur between the
annual meetings,” before the first period.
Article fifth was then read, as follows:—
Article V. “The annual meetings of this Association shall be
held in Boston, unless some other place is specially designated. Special
meetings may be called by the Executive Committee at any time and
*
�28
place which they may think proper; but no officers shall be chosen,
assessments made, or amendments to the constitution passed, except at
the annual meetings or some adjournment thereof.”
Judge Wright moved amendment by the insertion of a clause
“ that special meetings be called by the President and any five
members of the Executive Committee; ” which was agreed to.
A warm discussion then took place in regard to holding the regular
meetings in Boston. Mr. P. T. Jackson, of Boston, Dr. Palmer,
of Michigan, Dr. Hatch, of Connecticut, and others spoke.
A motion was made by Mr. Jackson that the next meeting be
held in Boston, and that subsequent meetings shall be held
where designated by the executive committee. Lost.
The article was then adopted as amended.
The sixth and seventh articles were then read and adopted
without amendment as follows:—
Article VI. “The business of the meeting shall be to hear
Addresses, Reports and Papers, and to conduct discussions on the topics
before mentioned. When desirable, the meetings shall be held by
departments, over each of which a vice-president shall preside. All
members may take part in the discussions, but no papers shall be read
which have not been previously submitted to the executive committee
in each department.”
Article VII. “ Before any meeting shall divide into departments,
and immediately after the transaction of the regular business, the presi
dent shall call for, and the executive committee may bring forward such
subjects, not exceeding four in number, as are judged by them of immodiate practical importance, and these shall have the precedence of all
other subjects during the first session of the meeting.”
The eighth article was read and adopted as follows:—
Article VIII. “ Any person may become a member by paying the
sum of five dollars, and may continue a member by paying annually
such further sum, not exceeding five dollars, as may be assessed on the
members by vote -of the association at its annual meeting. Any person
may become a life member, exempt from assessments, by the payment of
fifty dollars.”
This article was afterwards reconsidered and discussed at
great length,—Colonel Higginson, of Newport, Dr. Wellington,
Wendell Phillips, Esq., Mrs. Dall, Mr. Earle, of Worcester, and
others taking part.
�Colonel Higginson moved that the annual assessment be
changed to three dollars, and life membership to thirty dollars,
and accepted an amendment by Dr. Wellington to his own by
substituting one dollar for three dollars. The amendment of
Dr. Wellington was adopted.
Mr. W. E. Baker moved that the members shall be elected
by a majority of the Executive Committee,—which was carried.
On motion, the one dollar amendment was reconsidered, and
the motion of Col. Higginson to strike out five dollars and
insert three dollars, was finally adopted.
A motion was then made to strike out the words “ shall be
elected by a majority of the Executive Committee,” adopted as
an amendment, and the motion was carried.
Dr. Jarvis moved the insertion of the words, “ and by signing
the Constitution,”—which was agreed to.
. The article was then again adopted.
Article ninth was read as follows
Article IX. “ Honorary members and corresponding members may
be chosen, but shall not exceed in number one-fourth of the regular
members ; and members thus chosen shall be exempt from the payment
of assessments. All members, both regular, honorary and corresponding,
shall be entitled to receive a copy of the Transactions of the
association.”
Hon. Amasa Walker moved to amend, by striking out and
inserting so that the clause -should read, “ shall not exceed the
number of the regular members,” which, after discussion, was
agreed to, and the article was adopted as amended.
Articles tenth, eleventh and twelfth, were adopted without •
amendment as follows:—
Article X. “ The secretaries, under the direction of the executive
committee, shall annually select from the papers handed in, and the
addresses made, such as they shall deem proper for publication, and
and shall publish them, along with a report of the doings and discus
sions at the meetings during the year. This publication shall be called
the Transactions of the association. They may also prepare and issue
such other publications as may be deemed best by the executive
committee.”
Article XI. “ None but regular members shall have the privilege
of voting in the meetings, and none but members of taking part in the
�30
discussions, except by invitation of the presiding officer; but it shall be
the policy of the association to admit as many members as possible, and
to encourage the co-operation of other societies having kindred objects
in view.”
Article XII. “Whenever other associations shall be formed in
other parts of North America, it shall be the policy of this association
to co-operate with them as far as practicable. For this purpose, the
executive committee are empowered to call a convention of these asso
ciations, or to send delegates to such a convention.”
The Constitution was then adopted as a whole. Further dis
cussion arose upon the question of making the association a
State or a National body, and a motion to reconsider the adoption
of the Constitution, in order to re-open the subject, was nega
tived, 21 to 27.
The secretaries now proceeded to enrol the names of persons
who desired to become members of the association. Nearly one
hundred signatures were obtained.
The Chair appointed a committee of thirteen to nominate
officers. The following persons were selected:—
Dr. Edward Jarvis, of Dorchester; Dr. J. S. Butler, of Hart
ford ; Prof., W. P. Atkinson, of Cambridge; Rev. C. F. Barnard,
of Boston ; Rev. Horatio Wood, of Lowell; Prof. Palmer, of
Michigan University: Dr. Chas. Beck, of Cambridge; Mrs.
Severance, of West Newton; Prof. D. C. Gilman, of Yale Col
lege, New Haven; Mrs. Dall, of Boston; Hon. John A. Poor,
of Maine; Rev. B. K. Pierce, of New York; Judge Wright, of
Boston.
The Chairman stated that he should be obliged to leave
the city in the afternoon, and called for a nomination for VicePresident of the meeting. Hon. Josiah Quincy having been
nominated, and having declined, Hon. Amasa Walker was cho
sen. At 1.30, P. M. the meeting adjourned, to re-assemble at 3
o’clock.
�31
AFTERNOON
SESSION.
At 3 o’clock the meeting re-assembled, Vice-President Walker
in the chair. The nominating committee made their report of
a list of officers, as follows:—
President,
Professor W. B. Rogers, of Boston.
Vice-Presidents—
First Department,
Second Department,
Third Department,
Fourth Department,
Rev. Dr. Hill, of Cambridge.
Dr. S. G. Howe, of Boston.
Rev. Dr. Woolset, of New Haven.
Dr. Francis Lieber, of New York.
Directors—
First, .
Second,
Third, .
Fourth,
Fifth, .
Rev. Dr. E. 0. Haven, of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Mrs. Samuel Parkman, of Boston.
Edward Atkinson, Esq., of Boston.
Hon. E. Washburn, of Cambridge.
Mrs. C. H. Dall, of Boston.
Treasurer,
Charles H. Dalton, Esq., of Boston.
.
Corresponding Secretary, Samuel Eliot, LL.D., of Boston.
Recording Secretary,
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., of Concord.
Special Secretaries—
First, .
Second,
Third, .
Fourth,
Hon. Joseph White, of Williamstown.
Dr. James C. White, of Boston.
Hon. George Walker, of Springfield.
Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, of New York.
The candidates nominated were unanimously elected.
Prof. W. P. Atkinson, of Cambridge, then read a paper on
Education.
He stated that his theory of education was diametrically opposed to
that of those who held that this science, like morals, depended upon a
few plain principles that had always been well understood; that could
not, be made to bear any more or any better fruit than they always had
borne, and that the true philosophy of the subject was to go on in the
old ways. No science had suffered more than education from this
theory. However plain some of its principles may be, it is always open
to fresh investigation; because it is dependent for the right conducting of
its practical details upon the varying circumstances of time and country.
Very closely connected with the whole circle of great social problems, it
is a most pressing question whether we have a system which adjusts
�32
itself to the other parts of the social structure, and is the true and natural
outgrowth of the circumstances and the times.
The educational system of the United States in its broad outlines
was unquestionably superior to any other national system, although
it was true that in the higher walks of learning, as of art, we
cannot as yet compete with the stored up resources of the old world.
Yet our system is still in the rough,—our duty now is to extend and
improve it; to spread it over all the South, and by most searching
criticism to raise it up higher here.
It is the height of folly to regard our school system as being mature
or perfect. The question of the improvement of our public schools
ought to be a prominent one in this Association. The improvements
needed were of a twofold kind.
First, in outward arrangements, organization and machinery; second,
internal improvements in methods and principles of teaching. Under
the first head, while there was less pressing need of reform, yet in many
parts of Massachusetts the old district system remains unabolished;
and Dr. Haven’s description of the Union schools of Michigan,
showed that our younger Western sisters are wholly distancing us.
Q Under the second head, we should regard education as the youngest of
the branches of knowledge. Founded as it must be on a science of the
mind, that very mental philosophy which is its basis, is in a great mea
sure yet to be created. The spirit of slavery which poisoned our teach
ing must be exorcised. Those teachings of liberty which it prohibited,
must be begun even in the primary schools. The question of the char
acter of the studies, and of the proportion in which each should enter
into the programme of instruction; the question, what class of studies
should be taken as the basis of our system; the question of a right
method of grading schools; the questions connected with the improve
ment of normal teaching; all these press themselves upon the student
of educational matters, as problems in which there is much mere random
thought, out of which there grows much mere random teaching. It
would surprise any careful inquirer to find how much there is in our
teaching that rests on mere unreasoning tradition. On methods of
teaching, the most enlightened instructors will be prompt to acknowledge
the need of mqre light in all those difficult problems, which lead so
directly into the obscurities of mental science. The field of study which
the philosophy of education offers is illimitable, and is almost untrodden
by English thought.
Education can only be pursued successfully as an inductive science.
Its history is strown with the wreck of theories. We want a body of
carefully recorded facts, the results of accurate observation. Few
teachers have ever thought of recording their observations of the work-
�33
ings of the minds of the young; and educational literature is almost a
blank as regards notes of the workings of systems of study, and above
all of the effects of different modes of education on the after-life of the
pupil,—the true touchstone of their worth.
It is on these that a science of education must be founded. It is only
lately that the importance has been recognized of those vital questions
which arise from the complex nature of man as at once a material and
spiritual being. Yet there is reason to suspect that many of our teach
ing processes have led to nothing but disaster, from the overlooking of
these most obvious relations.
The true order of the development of the faculties is inverted in our
schools.] Some of our studies often appeal to faculties that have not come
into existence. On the other hand, important studies of practical
importance are ignored. Had political science been assigned its proper
place, would we have needed a bloody war to open the eyes of the nation
to its plainest duties ? Would demagogues have misled the adults, had
youth been properly taught their rights and duties also ? Again, the
study of God’s great book of nature has no place in our national system.
Right methods involve an equally important question. Rote-learning
and cramming are mighty evils in our present system. Our normal
school and college system needs greatly to be reformed and extended to
adapt it to the wants of our country. Originally English, it has been
patched and mended, but it does not yet fit to our American life.
On all these questions cited we do not need to go abroad for a system.
We can find many hints for the improvement of the details of our own.
Mr. Atkinson passed rapidly in review the educational systems of Ger
many, France, England and Prussia, pointing out their defects, and
wherein they might serve us as models. He paid a high compliment to
the French school-books, which he regarded as superior to any similar
manuals in England or America, recognized the Germans as the only
people who had a philosophy of education, and held up England chiefly
as the temperance lecturer pointed to his drunken brother, as “ a shock
ing example ” of a bigoted adherence to old tradition.
Dr. Henry G. Clark of Boston then read a paper on Cholera.
The subject introduced by Dr. Clark was further discussed
by Dr. Reed, Hon. Otis Clapp, Rev. Mr. Barnard, Hon. T. C.
Amory and others, of Boston, and by Dr. Palmer, of Michigan.
Dr. Palmer dwelt upon the necessity of devoting more time to
sanitary matters in the highest education of our young men
and women, and spoke of the mode of teaching at the Univer
sity of Michigan..
5
.
�34
Professor Rogers, the newly elected President of the Associa
tion, having entered the room, was invited to take the chair,
and made a brief address. He thanked the Association for the
honor conferred upon him, spoke of the magnitude of the
enterprise this day undertaken, and the importance of the sub
jects to be discussed. He closed by promising to devote to the
work such powers and opportunities as he had, and inviting all
the members to apply themselves with zeal to the work before
them.
Referring to the statement made by Dr. Palmer, respecting
sanitary education in the University of Michigan, Dr. Jarvis,
Prof. Atkinson, of Cambridge, Mr. Snelling, of Boston, Mrs.
Pierce, of Cambridge, and others spoke.
Mr. Snelling and Mr. Barnard wished to have some expres
sion of opinion by this Association, as to the importance of such
information and the best mode of communicating it, and com
plimented Dr. Palmer on the method adopted at his University.
No formal action was taken, however.
Hon. Amasa Walker said that this Association had organized
with the most gratifying appearance of interest in the subject,
which he hoped would continue. It was too much the custom
in this country to organize societies and fail to keep them up.
In England they managed better. He spoke of the great work
done by the British Association of this character, and trusted we
should have as good a record. In the matter of finance much
is to be learned by our people, and many errors have been com
mitted in consequence of ignorance. Every member of this
Association should consider himself enlisted for life in a move
ment to increase the public information and serve the public
interest.
,
Prof. Atkinson moved that this association adjourn until
to-morrow, the fifth of October. After a discussion, in which
Mr. Walker, Mrs. Dall, Mr. Sanborn, Mr. Capen, of Boston,
Professor Gilman, of New Haven, the President and others took
part, it was voted that the Executive Committee be instructed
to call a meeting of the association, in Boston, before the first
of January, 1866.
On motion, the meeting adjourned.
�35
PROCEEDINGS OP THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Between the first and second General Meetings of the Associa
tion, frequent sessions of the Executive Committee were held, at
which vacancies created by declension or resignation were filled ;
by-laws for the guidance of the Committee were framed; an
address prepared, and measures taken to provide papers for the
second General Meeting, the time for which was fixed on the
. 27th and 28th of December, 1865. Since many of the Commit
tee live at a distance from Boston, where the sessions were held,
a full attendance was never secured ; but in regard to the most
important measures discussed, the opinion of absent members
was obtained by correspondence.
'
$-----------------
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND GENERAL MEETING.
The Association assembled for its second General Meeting in
the hall of the Lowell Institute in Boston, on Wednesday,
December 27th, 1865, at 10* A. M. Prof. William B. Rogers'j the
President, called the Association to order, and prayer was
offered by Rev. Dr. Neale. The Secretary, F. B. Sanborn, Esq.,
• of Concord, read the records of the last meeting. The report of
the Executive Committee in reference to their meetings was
also read.
A list of honorary , and corresponding members was presented
by the Executive Committee. Among the latter was the name
of Lord Brougham. Mr. George H. Snelling moved that the
nomination of his lordship be referred to a special committee,
saying that his perversion of historical facts in 1862 had ren
dered his name obnoxious to all loyal Americans. Discussion
followed, in which President Rogers, Hon. Otis Clapp, Mrs.
' Dall, Rev. Mr. Barnard and others spoke. On motion of Mr.
Clapp, the list was adopted as a whole, with but one or two
dissenting voices.
�This list will be found on pages 8-9.
On motion of Mr. Sanborn, the Association adopted a by-law
authorizing the Departments to hold meetings separately, and to
report their proceedings to the Executive Committee before
being published in the Transactions.
President Rogers made an address of welcome, referring to
the important objects of the Association, and to the wisest and
most desirable methods of securing its ends. Starting with the
proposition that “ society was the product of the social instincts
of man,” he said it has a growth like that of an organic being.
Out of this comes Social Science, which refers not only to the
particular branches of science which interest us, but also to the
whole range of human knowledge. Soine of the more important
topics Professor Rogers proceeded to specify as appropriate to
. the consideration of the Association.
Rev. President Hill, of Harvard College, was now introduced,
• and read a paper on the “ Problems of Education.” Dr. Hill
n began by saying that—
*
Philosophy has been defined as common sense accounting to itself for
its own opinions, and Science might be defined in like manner as com
mon sense, verifying this account by observation and experiment and
induction, or else by analysis and deductive reasoning. Common sense
passes a summary judgment upon matters presented before us; philoso
phy seeks the ground of that judgment and endeavors to explain its
reasonableness under the circumstances of the evidence ; science under
takes to find criteria by which the accuracy of the judgment can be
tested, and the grounds of our certainty in it be either discovered and
shown sufficient, or else shown to be sufficient while yet undiscovered.
The ultimate ends of common sense, of philosophy, and of science are
the same. They may be summed up in one,—it is the reading of God’s
thought. The order of the universe is rational, intelligible. The con
viction of this primal truth springs up upon occasion for its use in every
human /mind. No mind capable of scientific labor ever doubts that all
phenomena are subject to law, that is, that all phenomena succeed each
other in.an order which can be understood and expressed in the formulae
of human speech. To discover this order, to comprehend it, to express
it in words and teach others to see it, this is the labor and the play, the
work and the wages of the human intellect.
And by no means the least difficult part of the problems of Social Sci
ence belongs to the department of education. Education in the narrower
.sense in which it is .usually spoken of, belongs to the mind of man ; it is
�37
the training of the power of observation, memory, imagination, reason,
sentiment, affections and will, and as these are not directly manifested
in space and time, to which alone measurement directly applies, it is
difficult to devise any modes of measuring, however roughly, the effects
of different systems of education. Then in this department, as in all the
higher departments, the difficulty arising from the complication of causes
nffccting one effect, and the multiplicity of observations requisite on this
account, is very embarrassing.
After illustrating this latter point by several striking examples,
drawn from his own observation, Dr. Hill went on to say—
There are at least four distinct authorities to which the superintend
ence and direction of education may be intrusted,—and one of the funda
mental inquiries is : To what extent and in what method should each of
these four authorities charge itself with the duty and claim the right of
fulfilling it ? I refer of course to the State, to the Church, to voluntary
association, and to the family. Public schools, parochial schools and
Sunday schools, private schools and academies, family instruction,—what
are the rights, and duties of each, and the consequent advantages and
disadvantages of allowing each to have its own place or to supplant the
place of the other, and are there any direct numerical results by which
we can verify our philosophical conclusions upon these points ?
These inquiries are more interesting and complicated to us in this
country, because of the freedom of division in the Church, and because
of our sub-division of the powers of the State. The State is divided
with us into the main divisions of the nation, the State in the local
sense, or as we say in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth, and the town
or township; and it is a question of great importance whether the nation
has not the right and the duty to nationalize a system of education. It
is also a matter of vital importance that as great freedom as possible be
left with the towns. In all departments of our social life one law pre
vails, and in observing the history of education in our country I am
deeply impressed with the truth of the law that the most perfect develop
ment of. individuality, and the greatest multiplication and strengthening
of local centres of attraction, bind the whole community most firmly
together as one, and lead to the highest and best results,—that there is
therefore a natural aud healthful tendency in our school system as it
attains perfection, to have some common national bond, some common
head.
But in addition to this question of a public system, and whether that
system can and should be made national in any sense, comes the question
of religion,—whether public education should ignore religion,—whether
�38
churches should be allowed to supplant public schools by parochial
schools,—and whether Sunday schools should be allowed to supplant
family instruction.
Dr. Hill next specified other problems toward the solution of
which statistical and deductive inquiries might be directed;
such as the relative importance of physical, mental, moral and
religious training ; the extent to which special tendencies in the
• pupil should be fostered or thwarted ; the selection of text-books
and the order of studies. In this connection he said—
The better the general state of health and vigor, other things being
equal, the greater is the efficiency which can be given to one member,
and the greater the skill that can be acquired in one operation, so that
the best preparation for special pursuits is a general education. It was
in defence of this doctrine that Horace Mann brought forward the strik
ing fact to which I have referred, that the wages earned by piecework
% in a cotton mill were in proportion to the time previously spent by the
operative in studying arithmetic and geography and grammar. Similar
z ) statistics to show the advantages of general education in special pursuits
might doubtless be gathered in other departments of labor. It might be
worth while for example to compare the income lists with the catalogues
of schools an*d colleges, and see what ratio may exist between income
and education. A recent writer has shown how favorable mental cul
ture is to longevity, by actual statistics. The relation of culture in one
department to general life and activity of thought in other departments,
could be shown from the depopulation of observatories and laboratories
during the revolutions of 1848, and from the rolls of honor of our col• leges during the late war in our country, especially if, as has been
stated, the percentage of graduates who entered the service, proved to
have been in proportion to the height of the standard of scholarship in
the institution.
In conclusion, the learned. President remarked—
These questions concerning the true selection and true order of studies
in public education are manifestly of public interest. Not less really so
are the same questions as applied to special education for the various
pursuits of life. A man of high social position once expressed to me his
contempt of the questions of education in the primary school. Of what
consequence is it, said he, what babies are doing ?
Ah! it was a hasty, incorisiderate question. The interests of the
whole race are bound togethei' in one, and it as really concerns me to
�39
have a method discovered by which shoemakers’ apprentices at Lynn
shall be most rapidly converted into skilful workmen, as it does to have
the course of studies and instruction at the university made the best
possible; as really though not as nearly. The less time occupied in
learning, (provided the end of the teaching is attained, and the pupil
grows to his full stature in knowledge and wisdom,) the more time left
for practising, for doing the work of. life, for serving men, and it is in
the mutual serving of each other that our highest social life andjhighest
social happiness consists.
At the close of Dr. Hill’s paper, President Rogers called to
the chair Dr. Charles E. Buckingham, Vice-President of the
Department of Health, who presided during the rest of the
morning session. Dr. Buckingham introduced to the audienceMrs. Caroline H. Dall, of the Executive Committee, who read a
paper containing an appea^ and statement concerning a library
for the Association. After speaking of the great scarcity of
books in this country suitable for a Social Science library, Mrs.
Dall mentioned the efforts made by Mr. Everett, Mr. Ticknor
and others to collect works for such a department in the Public
Library of Boston. The object of an Association like this was
threefold,—to collect facts, to form theories from these facts,
and to project experiments. In her correspondence with the
secretary and assistant-secretary of the British Association, she
had learned that the books necessary were so easily accessible in
England that the Association had. never thought of forming a
library. If therefore a library was formed by the American
Association, it would be the first of this nature ever formed.
The money needed to gather such a library, and to supply the
equal need of a building, could be provided by memberships, life
memberships gtnd subscriptions. If persons would send to her
lists of desirable books, she would endeavor to give them her
consideration and make the preliminary examinations necessary
toward forming a library. Mrs. Dall concluded by referring to
the advantages which the Association is capable of conferring
upon women. •
The Chairman then read a paper sent in by Dr. A. B. Palmer
of the University of Michigan, on the importance of Sanitary
Science as a branch of education, of which the following is a
brief abstract:—
�40
The objects of education were to impart discipline and knowledge.
In scientific studies the relations of causes and effects were constantly
traced. Too exclusive study of mathematics and the languages tended
to dogmatism. A variety of studies was necessary. Students should
study the human body and its relation to natural and immaterial forces.
Thus the study of sanitary laws embraced a wide scope. There were
four branches in the study of disease; first, those most preventable by
any me^ns now kno^n; second, those preventable by proper personal
habits; third, those preventable by proper domestic arrangements;
fourth, those which are affected by the action of communities. It was
not necessary that the pathology and cure of disease should become a
general study. Men need special instruction in the laws of self-preser
vation and the prevention of disease. The vast number of premature
deaths, the general pallor and infirmity, proved that by the constant vio
lation of hygienic laws, life was robbed of half its pleasures. The paper
closed with references to the provision made by ancient and modern
nations for the preservation of the public ^health. At the present time
the chances of life in England were greater than ever before, McCul
loch’s statistics showing a gradual diminution of the rate of mortality for
Q a long series of years, especially among children. The mortuary sta
tistics of our own country, though imperfectly kept, show a very large
amount of unnecessary sickness in the cities, and considerable prevent
able disease in the rural districts. The study of hygiene in the Univer
sity of Michigan, of which the paper gave an outline, had already
developed beneficial results, and the general'instruction of the students
of colleges in mental and physical hygiene could not but have an impor
tant influence for good. These subjects were extremely interesting to
students, and whenever introduced had been pursued with pleasure and
alacrity, and followed with practical results. The signs of the times*
indicated that these studies were to receive more attention than had
hitherto been given them, and that the day was approaching when every
well-conducted university would include them in its curriculum.
At the close of the reading of this paper the Association
adjourned, till 3, P. M.
AFTERNOON
SESSION.
President Rogers on taking the chair in the afternoon intro
duced to the Association Henry C. Carey, Esq., of Philadelphia,
who read an extended paper on National Resources.
Mr. Carey began by comparing the prosperity of various nations and
States, possessing more or less natural advantages, and from the contrast
�41
thus drawn deduced the conclusion that, with societies as with indi
viduals, prosperity is far less due to the liberality of nature than to the
use that is made of the bounties of which they have been the recipients,
the question of the prosperity or adversity of nations being dependent,
mainly, not on the extent of natural gifts, but on the use that is made of
those which have been accorded. Studying the communities which he
had cited for comparison, the speaker said they would be found sus
ceptible of division into two well-defined classes, one of which exports
its products in their rudest state, leaving to the others the work of chang
ing their forms and fitting them for consumption and the other, buying
the raw products of other countries, combining with them those produced
at home, and sending the two thus combined to every market of the
world. In the first of these, the price of land is low, capital always
scarce, and the capitalist is always master of the laborer. We are thus
led inevitably to the conclusion that the growth of capital is slow, and
the price paid for its use high, in the direct ratio of dependence on stran
gers for finishing and distributing the products of the soil; but rapid
in its growth and declining in its prices in the ratio of the increase of
that national independence which enables each and every nation to
exchange directly and without the need of foreign intervention, with
each and every other. Admitting this, the extent’of national resources
must mainly depend upon the question whether the national policy
pursued tends to promote or to depress that independence.
Mr. Carey next proceeded,to the consideration of the question why
poverty, high interest and subjection of the laborer to the will of the
capitalist are constant attendants of a course of policy limiting nations
to the two pursuits of trade and agriculture. In treating this' branch of
his subject, the speaker illustrated, by many well-known facts, the
advantages of the concentration and interfusion of producers and con
sumers. The consequent gain by this state of things in the economy of
capital, would, he said, in this country represent many hundred millions.
For in every country in which the consumer and producer are near
neighbors to each other, everything yielded by the land is speedily con
sumed, the market gardener finds instant demand for his products, capital
abounds, and the rates of interests are low. With every step of progress
, in this direction, the various utilities of the raw materials of the neigh
borhood become more and more developed. Diversity of employment
produces diversity in the demands for physical and intellectual powers,
and for the use of the soil, and nothing grows in vain. Directly the
reverse of all this becomes obvious as the consumer is more and more
removed from the producer, and as the power of association is thus
diminished. Mr. Carey enlarged upon this topic, applying his theories
• to the processes of development of many branches of industry.
6
�42
Mr. Carey next went into a consideration of what he .termed the
waste of physical and mental forces in the United States, under the tariff
of 1846, the cost of which to the country he estimated at more than
$3,000,000,000 a year. That waste, so far as the population of the free
States were concerned, was at its height throughout* Mr. Buchanan’s
administration. For the products of our agriculture there was almost
literally no demand among the manufacturing nations of Europe. Corn
in the West was then being used for fuel, and thus was its producer
compelled to lo^e not only the interest upon his capital, but the very
capital- itself that he had thus invested. Eabor power was in excess.
Mills and furnaces were abandoned, and the stock of a number of the
most important roads of the country fell to, and long remained at, an
average price of less than fifty per cent. The community was paralyzed,
and so wholly destitute of force, that had the government then found
occasion to call upon the whole 32,000,000 for a sum so small as even a
single hundred millions, it could scarcely have at all been furnished.
Nevertheless, hardly had Mr. Buchanan left the seat of government,
when three-fifths of the nation, numbering but 20,000,000, commenced
the erection of the grandest monument the world has ever seen; one that
) during the whole five years that have since elapsed has, on an average,
required the services of more than a million of men, or more than five
per cent, of the total population, male and female, sick and well, young
and old. Not only have those services been given, but during all that
time the men employed have been well -clothed, abundantly fed, and
furnished with transportation unparalleled in the history of the world.
This extraordinary force, Mr. Carey said, resulted from a radical
change in the conditions of national existence; activity and life
having succeeded to paralysis, and the societary circulation having
become strong and vigorous to an extent never before known in any
community. The secret of all the force recently so well exerted was to
be found in the simple principle that the power of accumulation exists
in the ratio of the rapidity of circulation. The wonderful activity of
that circulation in the present instance did not result from the necessities
of the government. It came from the adoption at Chicago, six years
since, by the Republican party, of a resolution to the effect that the
produce of the farm should no longer be compelled to remain inert and
losing- interest while waiting demand in distant markets ; that the cap
ital which daily took the form of labor power should no longer be
allowed to go to waste; that the fuel which underlies our soil should no
longer there remain to be a mere support for foreign rails; that the
power which lay then petrified in the form of coal should everywhere be
brought to aid the human arm; that our vast deposits of iron ore should
be made to take the form of engines and other machinery to be used as
♦•
*
�43
substitutes for. mere muscular force; and that all our wonderful resources
must be at once developed. Such was the intent and meaning of
the brief resolution then and there adopted, to be at the earliest practi
cable moment ratified by Congress, as proved to be the case when the
Morrill Tariff, on the memorable 2d of March, 1861, was made the law
of the land. To that law, aided as it was by the admirable action of the
treasury in supplying machinery of circulation, we stand now indebted
for the fact that we have, in the short space of five years, produced more
food, built more houses and mills, opened more mines, constructed more
roads than ever before, and so greatly added to the wealth of the country.
The remainder of Mr. Carey’s address was devoted to a review of the
• industrial history of this country for the last half century, and a compar
ison of the advantages of the “national free trade system” of 1813,
1828 and 1842, over the “British monopoly system” of 1817, 1834,
1846 and 1857. In conclusion, he asked attention to the fact that com
mercial power has always gone hand in hand with that diversification of
pursuits which has everywhere resulted from measures tending to the
promotion of internal commerce. Such is the lesson taught by history,
* and we must now profit by it or abandon forever the hope of occupying
the proud position to which our natural resources so well entitle us.
Those who desire to command the respect of others must learn first to
reject themselves ; and this our people can never do until they shall
first have learned, that the road towards wealth and strength has, in all
nations, and at all ages, been found to lie in the direction of bringing the
plough, the loom, the anvil and th$ ship to work in harmony with each
other. Let us once learn thoroughly that great lesson, and then shall
we be enabled to control and direct the commerce of the world.
At the close of Mr. Carey’s paper a lively discussion took
place on the questions raised by him, in which several gentlenjen,
not members of the Association, took part. At 5 o’clock the
meeting adjourned until 10.30, A. M., on the 28th.
The sessions were attended not only by the members of the.
American Association, but by delegates from the local associa
tions in Boston and Quincy. The papers read were received
with attention and interest, and tolerably full reports of the
meeting appeared in the Boston newspapers.
�44
SECOND DAY.
•
On Thursday, Dec. 28th, the session was opened at 10.30,
A. M., by a papei fromF. B. Sanborn, Esq., the Recording Secretary, and Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Charities.
His subject was Prison Discipline in Europe and America, He
gave a brief summary of the systems now in use, naming the
Congregate or Auburn system, the Separate or Pennsylvania
System, and the ZmA system. Concerning the latter, he stated
that the best source of information accessible in America was a
work by Miss Mary Carpenter, a corresponding member of the
Association. The title of this book was Our Convicts j” it
was published in Boston by William V. Spencer, and should be
procured by all who desired to know what the Irish system
really is.
Mr. Sanborn also gave a sketch of the career of Captain
Maconochie, whom he regarded as the real founder of the Irish
system, and read portions of two letters addressed by Captain
Maconochie to Hon. Horace Mann in 1846, in which some
account was ,given of the Norfolk Island Prison from 1840 to
1844. These letters had never been published and were of great
value. He also read portions of & letter received from Captain
J. M. Whitty, the successor of Sir Walter Crofton in the man
agement of the Irish prisons, and laid before the Association a
letter from Mr. Ruth, of the Philadelphia Penitentiary, in rela
tion to the present form of the Separate System in use in Penn
sylvania, and concluded with some account of the movement in
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere,
for a reform in Prison Discipline. In this connection he spoke
of the Prison Association of New York, the most active organiz
ation for the reform of Prisons in America, and of the Prison
Society of Philadelphia.
At eleven o’clock, Mr. Sanborn gave way to Dr. Isaac Ray, of
Providence, R. I., who read a paper upon “ The Isolation of the
Insane.” Dr. Ray said :
When a man loses his reason, it becomes necessary that the reason of
others, in a greater or less degree, should supply its place. Humanity
and the safety and peace of society demand it, and the ultimate good of
<
�45
all parties is promoted by it. The inquiries suggested by this subject
are deeply interesting, because the idea is beginning to prevail that the
legislature should prescribe under what circumstances interference with
the inalienable rights of men, on the ground of insanity, is to be allowed,
and by what safeguards it is to be protected. This is one of the much
vexed problems of Social Science. Beginning with first principles, it may
be observed that in the more sudden and violent forms of insanity the
patient is necessarily placed under increasing surveillance, his wishes are
disregarded, medicines and food are forced upon him, and his limbs sub
jected to restraint. It is not very obvious how, in the subsequent stages
of the disease, the obligation to do this can be lessened, or a different one
created. Nor does it appear how this right can become a wrong, by
making the place of confinement some other than one’s own home. If,
in the progress of knowledge and philanthropy, institutions have become
established expressly for the care of the insane, in which they are sup
posed to be more successfully treated than they can be at home, it would
seem as if the natural right in question would be all the more heartily
recognized by making choice of them for this purpose.
Admitting, then, the right of the friends to isolate the patient, we may
well consider whether that right should not be so restricted as to prevent
its being used by bad men for bad purposes. Of late years the ordinary
practice has been to obtain a certificate of insanity from some physician,
which, with the prescribed obligations for the payment of expenses, has
been sufficient to procure the admission of a patient into any hospital or
asylum in the country. The question now before us is, whether, upon a
broad consideration of the various forms of insanity, of our social habits,
of the liability to mistake, of the sacredness of private grief, and the
requirements of justice, anything more than this is necessary. It is not
denied that, for the most part, the medical certificate fulfils every requi
site purpose, securing the performance of a painful duty without adding
to the motives for delay, and shielding the friends from all unnecessary
exposure of domestic affliction. But it is alleged that the physician may
be biased by his relation to the patient or his family, he may be deceived
by false representations, or be honestly mistaken in his opinion. Hence
a prevalent idea that there is an opportunity for flagrant abuses which
should be met by stringent legislation.
Dr. Ray considered at some length the question here pre
sented, and gave it as his opinion that the confinement of per
sons who were not insane in hospitals and asylums for lunatics,
is a very rare occurrence. He had never known such a case,
and they were almost unknown in England, in spite of what the
novelists might say.
�46
After a Jbrief examination, of the laws of various States in
relation to insane persons, Dr. Ray closed by submitting a pro
ject for a general law for regulating the isolation of the insane,
the provisions of which were substantially as follows :— *
Q
Section 1. Insane persons may be placed in a hospital for
the insane by their legal guardians, relatives or friends; or if
paupers, by the proper municipal authorities.
2. Insane persons may be confined by order of a magistrate
who, after proper inquisition, shall find it dangerous for them
to remain at large, the fact of their insanity to be certified by a
responsible physician.
3. Insane persons may be placed in a hospital by order of any
judge of the Supreme Judicial Court, upon the recommendation
of a commission appointed to investigate the case.
4. Such commission to be composed of not less than three
nor more than four persons, one of whom shall be a physician
and another a lawyer; all parties interested to have proper
notice, and a chance to be heard.
5. Empowering judges of the Supreme Court to place in hos
pitals insane persons not receiving proper care from their rela
tives, the expense to be borne by those legally bound to maintain
them.
6. The provisions of the last section to apply to persons suf
fering from want of proper care or treatment in jails or poor
houses.
7. Persons confined under the first section to be removed by
the party at whose instance they were confined.
Sections 8, 9 and 10 provide for the release of persons confined
under the second, third and fifth sections, on recovery, or on its
appearing that reasons for their isolation no longer exist.
Section 11 provides for • investigations by commissions, under
authority of a judge of the Supreme Court, on the representation
of respectable parties that a person not insane is unjustly
deprived of his liberty—the judge to issue his warrant for a
discharge of the person confined, if the facts warrant it.
Section 12 provides that the commission named in section 11
shall not be repeated oftener than once in six months, and in
cases of persons confined under the third section, shall not be
appointed within six months of their isolation.
�47
Section 13 prescribes the manner of releasing persons confined
under the first section.
Section 14 provides that superintendents of hospitals for the
ins&ne shall receive no person into their custody under the pro
visions of the first section, without a written request from the
party therein authorized to make it, and a certificate of insanity
from some regular physician.
Dr. Ray was followed by Professor W. P. Atkinson, of the
Institute of Technology, who read a paper on Competitive Exami
nations for the Civil Service, quoting frequently from the reports
of English commissions on this subject. The conclusion of
Professor Atkinson, was that the English method of Civil Service
examinations had not, on the whole, been successful.
The next paper was on the Sanitary Legislation of England
and the effect of Sanitary Science, by Mr. Charles L. Brace, of
New York. Mr, Brace gave an outline of the sanitary legis
lation of England, which might be said to have fairly begun in
1848. He showed how, by the workings of the English system,
the death-rate and the amount of sickness had been reduced
there to a remarkable degree. One evil which had been to a
great extent remedied in England was still very prevalent in
this country, viz., the corruption of water in wells by the proxi
mity of cess-pools and other sources of impurity. In speaking
of the power of removing inhabitants from infected districts,
given by British law, Mr. Brace gave a remarkable instance of
the beneficial effects of the exercise of this power in a Cornwall
. fishing town threatened with the cholera. Tenants in whole
streets were removed to tents outside the limits of the town,
and improvement in health at once followed.
The English local enactments against letting cellars as lodging
rooms were spoken of as highly salutary, and as providing a
remedy such as is much needed in New York. The best point
in -the sanitary legislation of England, was the requirement
securing the appointment of highly competent scientific and
medical men as health officers. The provision regulating the
location of slaughter-houses and the construction of lodging
rooms was also alluded to with commendation.
Referring to the practical effects of sanitary legislation in
England, Mr. Brace spoke of the remarkable pecuniary success
and the healthfulness of the lodging houses; the beneficial
�48 1
results of good drainage; the remarkable improvement in the
public health in Salisbury and other towns by a thorough sys
tem of sewerage and the introduction of pure water; and the
great decrease of zymotic deaths in these towns since these
improvements were made. Equally favorable results in other
localities were mentioned, the reform extending to the morals
as well as to the health of communities, and greatly reducing
poor rates.
Dr. H. Gr. Clark made a few remarks, indorsing the views of
Mr. Brace, and urging the importance of sanitary reform in
Boston, and a reorganization of boards of health. The difficulty
was that the community could not be brought to realize the
silent influences constantly tending to produce disease, until
some great emergency arose. He believed the State authorities
were ready to co-operate in measures looking to defence from
cholera.
Rev. Mr. Barnard spoke briefly in relation to the sanitary
condition of Boston and other subjects.
/
The Association then adjourned until 3, P. M.
AFTERNOON
SESSION.-
At the final session of the Association, Dr. Edward Jarvis, of
Dorchester, read a paper on Vital Statistics. The paper was an
able presentation of the causes which shorten human life and
lessen the powers of its abbreviated existence, and the methods
of securing sounder health and greater longevity.
Dr. Jarvis gave in detail many of the statistics of England
and the United States, on this point, fortifying his own con
clusions, and those of Mr. Brace.
The Secretary next read a communication from Mr. Tregurtha,
showing the successful working of the eight-hour labor system
in Australia, where, it was stated, it had worked its way to the
favor of employers, and had become so popular as to secure its
general adoption.
An informal discussion ensued, in which comments were made
upon the various papers read before the Association during the
session. Mrs. Dall, Mr. Sanborn, Rev. Mr. Barnard and Prof.
Rogers participated in the discussion, the latter drawing encour
agement for the success of the Association from the large amount
of work which it had accomplished, and the value of the papers
read before it.
�49
Judge Washburn also spoke briefly of the claims of the Asso
ciation to public attention. On his motion, the thanks of the
Association were voted to Mr. Lowell, for the use of the hall in
which the sittings had been held.
At 4.30, P. M., the Association adjourned.
Subsequent to the adjournment, a communication was received
from Mr. Walker, Secretary of the Department of Trade, calling
the attention of the Association to the system of instruction for
Deaf Mutes and blind persons, devised by Dr. Blanchet of Paris.
It is confidently declared by Dr. Blanchet, that these unfortu
nate classes can be instructed in the common schools, and that
they are so taught in several of the departments of France.
Concerning this and the other features of Drl Blanchet’s system,
the Recording Secretary is now in correspondence with that
gentleman, and the subject will be brought forward at the next
general meeting of the Association.
In response to the letters addressed to the honorary and cor
responding members, informing them of their election, about
thirty letters have been received. From one of these, written by
Edwin Chadwick, Esq., of London, the following passages are
selected as showing the opinion of that eminent gentleman in
regard to the work done by Social Science Associations.
[From Mr. Chadwick’s Letter, April 8th, 1866.]
“ I am very glad to hear of the formation of the American Associa
tion, as I believe it is calculated, if properly supported, to do the like
good that has undoubtedly been done by the Association for the promo
tion of Social Science in England. «
“ The English Association serves to prepare questions for legislation.
Our parliament has more to do than it can do properly,—at all events,
by amateur legislation within the usual time of its sittings. It can only
give sometimes not more than a day’s attention to large subjects, which
can only be developed by the attention, for considerable periods, of
persons specially interested in them.
The larger public meetings of our Association are attended by persons
of all parties, and, indeed, of no political parties, and without any of the
heats and animosities, the bigotry or the exclusiveness displayed on
political platforms. Some of our leading statesmen of both parties have,
7
�50
at times, occupied presidential chairs, but it is in the treatment of neu
tral questions. For myself, I have found the institution very serviceable
in getting some questions discussed before first class and superior
audiences. From this institution I have promoted a Commission of
Inquiry into the application of Sanitary Science to the protection of our
army in India, which has been productive of great and important results ;
also a Commission of Inquiry into our Middle Class Education, and one
on the management of our railways, which are in progress. In a recent
presidential address at Sheffield, I have endeavored to get an inquiry
into our severe losses by shipwreck, and the means of prevention, and
into the training and education of children for our mercantile marine.
“ I hope the new institution may be the means with you of getting im
portant questions discussed, for which there is no sufficient time or means
in your legislatures. The annual meetings in different parts of the
country serve to bring persons who give their attention to special sub
jects, as sanitarians, educationists, law reformers, political economists,
into personal communication with each other.
“ My engagements at present prevent me promising any paper, but I
hope to be able at some time to avail myself of the privilege you confer
Q upon me. In the meantime, I beg to express my best wishes for your
success, and to return you my best wishes for the honor you do me.
Yours, most truly,
EDWIN CHADWICK.”
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�51
THE REFORM SCHOOL CONFERENCE.
A Conference of the Managers of Reformatories, and of other
persons interested injhe training of orphan and vagrant chil
dren and juvenile delinquents, having been called by- a commit
tee of the Social Science Association, and many of the papers
presented at the Conference having been prepared by members
of the American Association, it is deemed proper to give here
some minutes of the sessions. These opened in the City Hall,
in Boston, June 5th, 1866, and closed on the evening of the 7th
of June.
The following is the Circular issued by the Committee of the
Association:—
CIRCULAR.
American Social Science Association,)
• Boston, May 1, 1866. j
’ The undersigned, a Joint Committee of the American Association for
the Promotion of Social Science, and of the Boston Social Science Asso
ciation, have been instructed to call a meeting of persons interested in
the training and reformation of vagrant children and juvenile delin
quents, to consider the present condition of our orphan asylums, pauper
schools, reformatories, &c., and what additional means are needed to
prevent and check vice among the young.
Two conventions, having a like object in view, have been held in the
United States; one in 1857 and the other in 1859. On both occasions
the attendance of delegates was so large, and the interest manifested so
earnest, as to justify the expectations of those who had originated the
plan of meeting; while the character of the papers read and the tone of
the discussions were such as to convey much important information, and
communicate fruitful ideas both to the persons present, and, through the
printed reports, to many who did not attend the conventions. It was the
purpose, therefore, of the members of these conventions to continue them
periodically; but the disturbed state of the country since 1859 has
prevented the holding of another.
Among the members of the American Social Science Association,
and of the branch Association in Boston, are many who feel deeply the
necessity of renewed and increased activity in the work of training and
reforming neglected children. This subject, accordingly, has been much
considered; and, by conversation and correspondence with persons in
�52
various parts of the country, it has been ascertained that a conference
on this subject would be welcomed by many who are not members of
either Association. It has therefore been decided to invite all who are
Concerned in the management of establishments and associations for the
prevention and correction of juvenile delinquency, and all who take an
interest in this subject, to assemble in Boston, on Tuesday, the 5th of
June next, for a three days’ conference. It is proposed at this meeting
to discuss the following general topics, which, with the subjects included
and connected with them, cover a wide field of inquiry:—
[For these topics see the seven heads of Section IV on page 19.J
These topics are mainly the same which were proposed for discussion
in 1859. In writing upon them it should be borne in mind that the
history and experience of existing organizations are among the best
guides to a correct opinion; and that all accounts of the actual working
of such establishments will be of great value. It is hoped that a suffi
cient number of papers on these subjects will be presented to occupy
the time of the conference in the reading and discussion of them.
It is contemplated to vary the discussions by visits to such reforma
tories as are accessible in this vicinity; particularly the Boston House
of Reformation, the Farm School, the Nautical Reform School, the
State Reform School at Westborough, and the Industrial School for Girls,
at Lancaster; or so many of these as can conveniently be visited during
the sessions.
In order to furnish material fin? .a statement of the actual condition
and working of the reformatory system of this country, it is desired that
the blanks enclosed to officers of establishments be filled up as soon as
convenient, and that other needful particulars in relation to these estab
lishments should be communicated in writing. Communications of this
kind should be sent to the office of the Committee, No. 12 State
House, as early as the 1st of June, 1866, and we hope to receive such
statements from private as well as from public organizations.
Allow us, in conclusion, to invite you to attend the conference, and to
give us the benefit of your experience and your reflections on this im
portant matter. The sessions will open at 9, A. M. on the fifth of June;
the place of meeting may be learned from the newspapers, or by inquiry
at the office above named.
With much respect, yours very truly,
William B. Rogers,
Samuel Eliot,
F. B. Sanborn,
>■ Joint Committee.
Charles F. Barnard,
William P. Atkinson,
Frederic Hinckley, .
�53
The following gentlemen, among others, have consented to act with
us as a Committee of Arrangements:—Dr. S. G. Howe, Boston; Hon.
Thomas Russell, Boston; Marshall S. Scudder, Esq., Boston;
Joseph A. Allen, Esq., Westborough; Nathaniel T. Allen, Esq.,
West Newton; Hon. J. Warren Merrill, Cambridge.
FIRST DAY.
The morning session on the 5th of June was occupied from 9
o’clock until 10.30, A. M., with the organization of the Confer
ence. The following officers were chosen:—
President.
His Excellency Alexander H. Bullock, Governor of Massachusetts.
■ ‘
f
Vice-Presidents.
Oliver S. Strong, Esq., of New York.
George W. Perkins, Esq., of Chicago.
Samuel Allinson, Esq., of New Jersey. •
Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Mayor of Boston.
James M. Talcott, Esq., Providence. R. I.
George B. Emerson, Esq., Boston.
Hon. Henry C. Brockmeyer, St. Louis.
Henry Barnard, LL. D., Annapolis.
Prof. William B. Rogers, Boston.
Dr. E. W. Hatch, West Meriden, Conn.
Hon. George B. Barrows, Cape Elizabeth, Me.
Secretaries.
Dr. S. D. Brooks, New York.
James Redpath, Esq., Malden.
Rev. Frederic Hinckley, Boston.
David P. Nichols, Esq., Danbury, Conn.
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Concord, Mass.
t
Business Committee.
Rev. Charles F. Barnard, Boston.
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Concord.
Hon. Nathan T. Stratton, New Jersey.
Israel C. Jones, Esq., New York.
Hon. Frank B. Fay, Chelsea.
Committee on Finance and Statistics.
Hon. Otis Clapp, Boston.
Oliver S. Strong, Esq., New York.
. James J. Barclay, Esq., Philadelphia.
Hon. Frank B. Fay, Chelsea.
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., Concord.
J. H. Stephenson, Esq., Boston.
•
�54
The following Establishments and Associations were repre
sented, by the persons named, during the sessions of the Confer
ence, although there was no session at which all were present:—
Maine.
State Reform, School—James T. McCobb, Esq., Trustee.
George B. Barrows, Superintendent.
•
Hon.
Massachusetts.
State Reform, School ( Westborough)—Henry Chickering, George C.
Davis, John H. Stephenson, E. A. Goodnow, Jones S. Davis, Trustees.
Joseph A. Allen, Superintendent. Orville K. Hutchinson, Assistant
Superinten dent.
State Industrial School (Lancaster)—George B. Emerson, Daniel
Denny, Jacob Fisher, Frank B. Fay, Trustees. Colonel F. B. Fay,
former Trustee.
State Nautical School—William Fabens, A. C. Hersey, Thomas
Russell, Trustees. Richard Matthews, Superintendent. M. L. Eldridge,
Assistant Superintendent.
Q Boston Asylum and Farm School—John L. Emmons, Samuel Eliot,
Managers. William A. Morse, Superintendent.
Boston Female Asylum—Mrs. Mary A. Wales, Miss Sarah C. Paine.
Home for Little Wanderers—Hon. Otis Clapp, Rev. R. G. Toles,
Superintendent.
Children!s Aid Society—Marshall S. Scudder, Rufus Cook.
Temporary Home for the Destitute— George W. Bond, E. T. East
man, Managers.
Warren Street Chapel—Rev. Charles F. Barnard. Superintendent.
Ministry-at-Large—Rev. E. J. Gerry, Rev. P. Davies, Rev. Andrew
Bigelow, D.’D., Boston. Rev. 0. C. Everett, Charlestown. Rev.
Horatio Wood, Lowell.
Boston Police Court—Judge Edwin Wright.
Cambridge Police Court—John S. Ladd, Esq.
Worcester Truant School—Thomas Wheelock.
Board of State Charities—Dr. S. G. Howe, Edward Earle, F.^B.
Sanborn.
Rhode Island.
Providence Reform School—James M. Talcott, Superintendent.
Connecticut.
State Reform School—David P. Nichols, Trustee.
Superintendent.
Dr. E. W. Hatch,
�55
New York.
House of Refuge (Randall’s Island}—Oliver S. Strong, President of
Managers. Israel C. Jones, Superintendent. Rev. B. K. Peirce,
Chaplain.
Juvenile Asylum, New York City—Dr. S. D. Brooks, Superintendent.
New York Prison Association—Dr. John H. Griscom.
New Jersey.
State Reform School—Hon. Nathan T. Stratton, Samuel Allinson,
David Ripley, John D. Buckalea, Trustees.
Illinois.
Chicago Reform School—George W. Perkins, Superintendent.
The American Social Science Association, the Boston and the
Hopedale Associations, were also represented by officers and
members. The president of the American Association took the
chair at the opening session, and welcomed the delegates to
Boston. He was succeeded by the president of the Boston
Association, who, on the receipt of a message from Governor
Bullock, regretting that his official duties* would prevent his
taking the chair, gave way to Mr. Strong, of New York, the
first vice-president, and this gentleman continued to act as
chairman during the conference.
The Business Committee having announced the order of
visits to the four establishments which it was proposed to
inspect, namely : to the School Ships and Farm School on
Tuesday the 5th, to Westborough on the 6th, and to Lancaster
on Thursday the 7th, the regular business of the Conference
was opened by the reading of a paper on The Reformato
ries of Massachusetts, and the present state of Legislation in
regard to them, by F. B. Sanborn, Secretary of the Massa
chusetts Board of Charities. After a brief introduction, Mr.
Sanborn said:—
There are two great classes of reformatories in all countries which
have yet established them—private and public institutions—the former
being controlled and supported by private benevolence, and the latter by
public officers and revenues. But it is evident that there may be as
many classes of public reformatories as there are public bodies in the
community; and, since we have in New England three well-defined
civil organizations—the State, the county and the municipality, (town
�56
*
or city,) we may, and actually do, find reformatories supported by each
of these public bodies. So that, besides private reformatories, like the
Farm School, on Thompson s Island, we have municipal reformatories
like the Boston House of Reformation on Deer Island, and the Lowell
Reform School, county reformatories in embryo, and State reformatories.
Of the latter we have three, the State Reform School for boys, at "West
borough ; the State Industrial School for girls, at Lancaster, and the
School Ships, both now lying in our harbor, but of which, one, the
Massachusetts, is soon to be transferred to New Bedford. We have,
therefore, four large public reformatories in Massachusetts, containing at
the present time nearly nine hundred children in all,—six hundred and
ninety-five boys and one hundred and eighty-three girls. We have one
large private reformatory, the Farm School, containing about ninety
boys. The legislation under which these five establishments have
grown up dates back at least forty years. Much earlier than this date,
however, there were orphan asylums established, and these, under various
names, and, approximating by almost imperceptible gradations towards
reformatories, are now very numerous. Exactly how many there are
in the State no one can say, for new ones are continually springing up.
In the second report of the Board of Charities mention is made of thirteen
such establishments, which is probably not more than half the actual
number. These are all private institutions. Returning to a considera
tion of public institutions on a smaller scale than the four already men
tioned, we find a number of truant schools, under diverse names, in the\
large towns and cities of the Commonwealth, about a dozen in number.
Another class of public reformatories in Massachusetts has been desig
nated by law, but not yet established—the County Houses of Reforma
tion, which, by chapter 208, of 1865, the County Commissioners of the
several counties are allowed to provide. Turning now to the course of
legislation in regard to neglected and vicious children, to the laws under
which these numerous establishments have grown up, it is shown that
those laws themselves indicate a gradual awakening of the community
to a sense of its duty towards these unhappy members of it.
At first, the provision made for general instruction in learning and
morality proved sufficient to keep the class of ignorant and depraved
children quite small; but as our population increased, and the disturbing
elements of new races and creeds were introduced, poverty became more
permanent, and juvenile crime more common. At first, the powers
granted to overseers of the poor in our towns and cities were so exer
cised as to provide for neglected children; and, when these were
inadequate, individual charity carried on the work. But soon societies
were incorporated to manage this increasing task; and from 1800 to
1850, these societies multiplied, and were of great service, as they still
�51
are. The interference of the magistrates, however, which was recog
nized as necessary in 1826, when the Boston House of Reformation was
incorporated, became the settled policy of Massachusetts about 1850 ;
and the power of committing neglected and vicious children to institu
tions supported by the public revenue has been fully exercised by all
our judges for nearly twenty years. This power has been gradu
ally extended, either by recognizing new causes of commitment, or by
increasing the means of receiving sentenced children, until now it is
very wide.
During the session of the legislature which has just closed, a new
step has been taken in this matter. We have three State Almshouses,
in -which there is an average of 600 school children the year round,
most of them belonging to the class from which our young vagrants and
criminals come. About half of these children are either orphans or else
deserted by their parents.
Now, these 600 children have hitherto been styled and treated as
paupers. Their schools, however good they might be, were pauper
schools. Their associates were paupers. Their dress, their food, their
whole surroundings, were those of an almshouse. A remedy for this evil
was found by the passage, about a month since, of the Primary School
Act, which enacts that so many of these children as can be separated
from the mass of pauperism in our almshouses shall be gathered in a
special school, where they shall cease to be called paupers, and where
the influences around them shall be of a higher order. This school is
located at Monson, near Springfield. It will gather together, when full,
perhaps 500 children, from four to sixteen years old. These children
will be carefully taught, and, as soon as it can well be done, will be pro
vided with places in good families in the central and western parts of
the State.
Another Act just passed provides that an amount of schooling double
that heretofore required by law shall be given to all children employed
in factories, both before they enter and while they continue at work
there, and it fixes the age at which a child can lawfully be employed in
- a factory at 10 years, while between 10 and 14 years, eight hours is a
day’s work. Moreover, it intrusts the execution of the law not to the
school committees of the cities and towns alone, but to the State Con
stabulary, which has shown itself a very efficient police force. The
defect of the former law on this subject was that it was very often dis
regarded, and prosecutions under it were seldom brought by school
committees, who, being local officers, were under the influence of the
sentiment of their locality. The State Constables will have no such
reasons for neglecting violations of the law, and it is hoped that much
8
4
�58
good will result from it in keeping poor children at school and away
from demoralizing influences.
After quoting from a paper by Miss Mary Carpenter, of Eng
land, Mr. Sanborn closed by saying,—
“Our laws, though far from perfect, are now more than sufficient for
the work which we give them to do. It is we ourselves-^it is the
churches and the communities of New England and New York, and the
Great West, that are not accomplishing the work given us to do. We,
the citizens of the country, .meeting in benevolent activity, according to
our means and opportunities, have the power to make our beneficent
laws fertile in good results, and then to amend still further the Mws
themselves.”
Q
A brief discussion followed the reading of this paper. Dr.
Hatch, of the Connecticut Reform School, said he agreed with
the closing sentiment of the paper, that there was legislation
enough on the subject, and that there should be a greater reli
ance on Christian efforts and influence. Messrs. Pierce, of New
York, Perkins, of Chicago, Dr. Griscom, Talcott, of Providence,
Barnard, of Boston, and others also took part in the discussion.
When the discussion on Mr. Sanborn’s paper was concluded,
Mr. B. J. Butts, of Hopedale, read an essay upon “Vagrancy
and its Causes,” in which the labor question was largely con
cerned, the assumption being that, to a great extent, vagrancy
resulted from the unequal distribution of the fruits and burdens
of labor.
Another short discussion followed this paper. Rev. Mr.
Gerry, of this city, said it was the experience of those who
visited much among the poor, that vagrancy very generally had
its origin in the condition of the homes of the poor. Crowded
dwellings and tenements were almost necessarily corrupting,
and, in his opinion, the best remedy for the great evil of
vagrancy was the improvement of the homes of the poor.
Rev. Mr. Toles, Superintendent of the Baldwin Place Home
for Little Wanderers, read a paper on the object and the bene
ficial results of this institution. So successful had it been that
homes could be found for a greater number of children than
the House could supply.
Nearly five hundred children had been received in the Home,
of all the various classes which furnish young vagrants, and
�59
which Mr. Toles described in detail. He thought the success of
this new establishment had been very gratifying.
The.fourth paper read was written by Rev. G. W. Holls,
Superintendent of the Orphan’s Farm School at Zelienople, Penn.
His subject was, The European Reformatories, as compared
with those of America, and it was read by Rev. C. F. Barnard.
The following is a brief abstract of this very valuable communi
cation :—
The revolutions of the earlier part of this country, and especially the
revolution of 1848, renewed or awakened a general and deep interest in
the condition of the poorer classes and the causes of crime. Reforma
tory institutions have sprung up rapidly since that time. In Bavaria
alone, for example, 87 institutions of a distinctly reformatory character
have been established since 1848, and, in Prussia, 18. There were, in
Europe, little more than 100 Houses of Refuge of the character of the
Rauhe Haus in 1848, whereas, at present, there are from 800 to 1,000,
over two-thirds of which are Protestant charities, established and almost
wholly supported by private individuals, societies, and churches. A
list of nearly 600 of these accompanied Mr. Holls’ paper. This list
includes different asylums, institutions for idiots and cretins, agricultural
colonies, associations for the care of vagrant children, and the like; but
it is wholly exclusive of Orphan Asylums, Houses of Correction, Indus
trial Schools, Ragged Schools, and similar establishments, which the
Governments control.
By far the larger number of all the institutions enumerated here are
established on the family principle. The Government Institutions,
Houses of Correction, State or City Orphan Asylums and the like,
mostly adhere to the Congregate System.
The German family system has no room for legions or classes of
honor. Nor are the elder brothers military drill-masters. Much less
does the spirit of the Rauhe Haus admit of any public exhibitions in
which the children are looked at as so many curiosities. The mark
system of discipline would be entirely adverse to that spirit.
It will be conceded by all who have ever been engaged in the educa
tion of vicious youth of both sexes, that it is not this or that system,
classification, or arrangement, but the spirit which pervades the whole
institution, which will give a character to it. Most of the European
Reformatories were commenced on a small scale, and consequently had
a natural growth and a healthful development. The individual or
society by which they have been established takes a more direct and
lively interest in their welfare than is the case in the State institutions,
�60
which are managed more or less by lifeless official forms, rules or regu
lations. European Reformatories desire to be entirely , independent of
the State, and by far- the larger number receive no support whatever
from the public treasury; much less do they ever apply for any such
support. These Reformatories have been very successful and are still
progressing.
After speaking of the Central Committee of Inner Missions in
Germany—which he compares to a Social Science Association—
Mr. Holls says that—
One of the most striking features of the European Reformatory Insti
tutions, both Protestant and Catholic, is the presence of a large number
of male or female assistants in the large establishments. These young
men and women belong to the different institutions of brothers and to
the Deaconess Institutions of Germany and other countries. They are
prepared, theoretically and practically, to fill the posts of the different
branches of the Inner Mission; as, for instance, superintendents of
reformatories, warders in prisons, managers in poor houses, city mission
aries, superintendents of orphan asylums, nurses in hospitals, teachers in
infant schools, &c.
Much statistical information was also given by Mr. Holls in
regard to the locality and extent of the establishments of which
he spoke.
At the close of this paper, the Conference adjourned until
2.30, P. M., when the members visited the School Ships and the
Farm School in Boston Harbor, returning to the city about 6,
P. M.
At the evening session, in Mercantile Hall, a paper was read
by Rev. B. K. Peirce, chaplain of the New York House of
Refuge, (Randall’s Island,) on The Adaptation of the Congre
gate System for. Juvenile Reformation in Dense Communities.
Mr. Peirce said:—
The <f Family System” in reformatories was unquestionably a
progress in the right direction, since there were many boys and girls
who needed just the discipline thus received. For private reformato
ries especially, this system was the best; but for the necessities of a
large city the Congregate System was indispensable.
Of those arrested there will be boys of 16, often of 18, but still wear
ing a youthful aspect, and giving some promise of redemption under
wholesome influences; some of 12 and 14, who have committed quite
�61
serious crimes, such as grand larceny, burglary, arson, forgery, and
assault with dangerous weapons. “ To send these hoys to the penitentiary
is to deliberately give them over to ruin, and to entail upon the community
the frightful tax of a life of crime.” They cannot be sent to a family
at once. They would escape if admitted. Positive restraint is neces
sary to prepare the way for the discipline of love, education and piety.
The arrangement of various divisions readily secured in large establish
ments defends younger and softer boys from the possible injury of con
tact with those more confirmed in criminal habits. Many of the boys
go forth from the Congregated Refuge to a life of crime and to the
suffering of its penalties ; but the overwhelming majority of even these
mature boys turn out well. The evidence on this point is voluminous
and decisive.
The records of the largest institution in the country, and probably in
the world, (the New York House of Refuge,) show that the number of
those*known to do well after their discharge far exceeds the number
that do ill. At this time, when its numbers are fifty per cent, greater
than heretofore, there are more perceptible evidences of the presence of
a strong moral influence among the inmates than for many years. In
all this time there is no recorded instance of one dating his ruin to inti
macies formed in the House, or of combinations to commit crime after
discharge. This plainly shows that what may be considered the incident
evils of a congregate institution may be very largely controlled.
It is not, however, desirable that boys should remain long. In Europe
they are expeeted to learn their trade in the Reformatory; but in
America, where the demand* for even unskilled labor is so great, they
should be intrusted to farmers and others who are ready to receive them
as soon as their habits are sufficiently formed—especially when, by the
terms of the indentures, they can be recalled at any time. When chil
dren are intractable, a long stay in an institution rather confirms them
in the temper than cures them of it. They should be given repeated
chances of improvement by being tried in different families. Institution
life should be as limited in all cases as it can conveniently be, consist
ently with the results it seeks to accomplish, and then the children
should be sent forth to the best homes that can be secured for them.
Even the family system, after, all, is a make-believe family. If the
introduction of a step-father into a family circle so often breaks its
power of love over a child, we can readily see how almost impossible it
is, by any artificial arrangement, exactly to renew the natural relation.
The positive advantages of a large reformatory in a dense community,
are, that from its extensive resources—sanitary, educational, industrial
and moral—and its capacity to receive a large number at any given
time, a great diminution of juvenile crime may be secured in that
�62
vicinity; that it enables the reforming genius, when found, to have a
large field for the exertion of his powers; and that it offers a great
opportunity for systematic labor.
Mr. Peirce spoke at much length on these points, and illus
trated them from the records of the House of Refuge. He
dwelt particularly on the value of labor as a reformatory agent,
and dissented from some of the views expressed by the Massa
chusetts Board of Charities in their recent report.
A general discussion followed, in which Mr. George B. Emer
son, of Boston, and other gentlemen took part. Pending the
discussion,'the Conference adjourned, to meet at Westborough
on the next day.
SECOND DAY.
There was a general attendance cff the Conference at the State
Reform School, in Westborough, on the 6th of June. The
forenoon was devoted to an examination of the establishment,
and the afternoon to a session in the chapel. Papers were read
by Joseph A. Allen, Esq., Superintendent of the Westborough
School, on the Comparative Merits of the Congregate and
Family Systems, by Dr. S. D. Brooks, of New York, on the
New York Juvenile Asylum, and by George William Bond, Esq.,
of Boston, on the Temporary Home in Kneeland Street. These
papers were all prepared with care, and will appear in the
printed report of the Conference. Mr. Allen advocated the
Family System ; Dr. Brooks thought the Congregate System
ought to be combined with it; while Mr. Bond favored small
families, and a speedy transfer of children into private house
holds.
A discussion followed, in which David Ripley, Esq., of New
ark, N. J., favored the Family System, and denounced the New
York institutions for sending so many vicious children to the
West. Dr. Brooks explained the manner in which the Juvenile
Asylum regulates this, and was supported by Mr. Perkins, of
Chicago,.in the statement that no complaint was made at the
West of children sent out under these regulations.
In the evening the members of the Conference, after return
ing from Westborough, met socially at the house of Dr. S. G.
Howe, in Boston.
�63
THIRD
DAY.
At 11, A. M. on Thursday, the 7th of June, the delegates took
the train for Lancaster, and arrived at the Industrial School
there, about 1.30, P. M. After an examination of the schools and
family houses, the Conference met in the chapel, to listen to the
recitations of the pupils, who are all girls, about 150 in number.
Before returning to Boston, a business meeting was held, and
the report of the Committee on Statistics was read. From this
it appeared that there are in the United States and Canada
about thirty Reformatories, besides some hundred or more
orphan asylums, industrial schools, Ac. From eighteen of the
reformatories, and from a few of the other establishments returns
had been received, showing that about 6,000 children were
residing in them on the 1st of May, 1866.
The Committee was instructed to complete these statistics as
soon as possible, and to print their report along with the papers
read and minutes of the discussions, in a pamphlet for the use
of the Conference. 2,500 copies of this pamphlet were ordered
to be printed.
In the evening the final session was held at Mercantile Hall,
where J. H. Stephenson, Esq., of Boston, read a paper on the
Best Combination of the Family and Congregate Systems in
Reformatories. Mr. Stephenson thought the family system
preferable, but that it would be necessary to combine the two.
A very earnest discussion followed in which Messrs. Allinson
and Ripley, of New Jersey, Mr. Barrows, of Maine, Mr. Allen, of
Westborough and others took part. At a late hour, the con
ference adjourned to meet in Philadelphia in 1867.
Besides the communications already noticed, letters were
received from the mayor of Boston, James J. Barclay, Esq., of
Philadelphia, W. R. Lincoln, Esq., of Baltimore, and Dr.
Barnard, of Annapolis, Maryland, George E. Howe, Esq., of the
Ohio Reform School, Hon. Thomas H. Barrows, State superin
tendent of soldiers’ orphans in Pennsylvania, Hon. H. C. Brockmeyer, of St. Louis, Mr. Monfort, of the Cincinnati House of
Refuge, Mr. Robinson, of the Michigan State Reform School, Mr.
Pease, of the Vermont Reform School, Mr. E. A. Meredith, pro
vincial secretary of Canada, and other gentlemen, expressing their
�64
interest in the objects of the Conference, and their regret at not
being able to attend. A paper on Canadian Reformatories,
made up chiefly from information furnished by Mr. Meredith,
was also submitted but not read.
THIRD GENERAL MEETING.
q
The Third General Meeting of the Association, which will
include the Second Annual Meeting, will be held in New
Haven, Conn., on Tuesday, the 9th of October, 1866, at 10,
A. M. Notice of papers to be presented, or the papers themselves
should be sent to the Recording Secretary before the first of
October. The first business on Wednesday, the 10th, will be
the election of officers for the year, after which provision will
be made for printing the Transactions for 1865-6, for the annual
assessment, and other matters of business. All members,
whether Regular, Honorary or Corresponding, are invited to
communicate papers on such topics as they may select; prefer
ence being given to those indicated on pages 18-24 of this
pamphlet.
ADDITIONAL MEMBERS.
The following names of Regular Members were omitted from
the list on pages 6-8.
Mrs. Mary A. Whitaker, Springfield, Mo.
Dr. S. D. Brooks, Juvenile Asylum, New York.
Henry G. Denny, Esq., 42 Court St., Boston.
.-J
The asterisk should be removed from the name of Mr. Carpenter, on
page 9.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Constitution address and list of members of the American Association for the Promotion of Social Science, with the questions proposed for discussion: to which are added minutes of the transactions of the Association
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American Social Science Association
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Place of publication: Boston. Mass.
Collation: 64 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Wright & Potter
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1866
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G5619
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Social sciences
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Conway Tracts
Social Sciences
-
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0601cbc80a9c2163684e49d060d4c575
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Text
DOGMA versus MORALITY.
.
A
REPLY TO CHURCH CONGRESS.
BY
CHARLES VOYSEY, B.A.,
INCUMBENT OF HEALAUGIT, NEAR TABCASTER.
SECOND THOUSAND.
LONDON:
TEUBNEE AND CO., 60, PATEENOSTEE EOW.
1866.
Price Threepence.
�I
�PREACHED AT HEALAUGrH,
Sunday Morning, October 21st, 1866.
1 John iii. 7.—11 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that
doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous."
The week before last, at a Congress of Bishops
and Clergy held at York, a dignitary of the
church is reported to have said, that it was
“ better to have a religion without morality than
morality without a religion,” As I have not the
exact words before me, 1 will not mention the
name of the speaker; but, as far as I could gather
from the report, the whole speech was intended to
advocate the necessity for a dogmatic creed, and
to shew the superiority of creed over practice.
Painful as such a view must be both to you and to
myself, I am not at all surprised at a Church
dignitary putting it forth, nor at the applause
with which it was received by the assembled
clergy.
For, indeed, I have often before heard it
expressed and implied, in different ways, and in
different degrees of shamelessness. Some High
Churchmen have as good as denied the possibility
of being righteous, without being baptised and
�4
partaking of the Lord’s Supper; and Evangelicals
have gone so far as to say, that a moral life was a
hindrance, rather than a help, to our reception of
the Gospel. They deserve some credit for their
candour and consistency; and if it were not for
such utterances as these, the popular credulity
would never be shaken. When, however, one more
energetic than the rest follows out the principles of
his party to their legitimate consequence, then the
people have their eyes opened to a simple question,
on which they are quite competent to pronounce
an opinion. I am, therefore, under some consider
able obligation to the speaker of that remarkable
sentence, in which he deliberately prefers religion
to morality, as he makes it all the easier for me to
carry on the delightful work of drawing you on,
step by step, to think out for yourselves a true
faith, and to shake off irrational and ill-founded
beliefs and opinions. We must, however, first try
to get a clear notion of what we are talking about,
before we can derive any benefit from the discus
sion of this unwise maxim,— “Religion without
Morality is better than Morality without Religion.”
What do the words “religion and morality”
here mean? There is no doubt about the meaning'
of “morality.” We all mean by it “ Doing what
is right to our fellow-men;” “Loving our neigh
bour as ourselves;” “Doing as we would be done
by.” Both the speaker and ourselves agree in
calling this “morality.” But I am sure we do not
�5
agree with him as to the meaning of the word
“religion;” simply because he contrasts in this
sentence the one with the other. He draws a
distinction and makes a choice between religion
and morality; whereas you, if you have followed
my teaching for three years, as I believe you have
done, would never have dreamt of separating
religion from morality, nor morality from religion.
Your idea of true religion is, if I mistake not,
true obedience to God’s laws; and true obedience
to God’s laws is to do what is right, to love your
neighbour as yourself. You' believe that no
amount of doctrinal belief, of lip service, or
even of long and earnest prayers and praises
to God, will do instead of our being good;
or would at all please God, if we were not,
at the same time, working righteousness in
our daily lives. So with us, true religion and
morality must go together—must be so intimately
bound together as to be one and the same. Our
religion is our duty, and our duty is our religion.
We know of nothing which God demands of us as
religious duty which is not part and parcel of
moral duty. If I made any distinction between
them it would be this:—> Religion is morality with
a conscious reference to God’s authority over us,
or with a sense of His interest in our well-doing.
You see, then, when a Church dignitary talks of
religion and morality as if they could be separated,
as if one could exist without the other, he cannot
�6
mean by the word “ religion ” what we mean by it.
His idea of religion cannot be the same as ours, or
else he would never have thought of such a thing
as religion without morality, or morality without
religion.
Now, as he is not here to answer for himself the
question, “ What do you mean by religion as
separate from morality?” the only fair way of pro
ceeding is to suppose an answer, and to remember
all through that we are only supposing it. We
can only be certain of one thing, that he did not
mean by religion 'what we mean by it. That is
clear. Beyond this we can only guess. But, my
friends, if you will trust me, I will do my best to
tell you what the speaker meant by the word
“religion.” I am unhappily more familiar with
clerical notions than you are, and have dim recol
lections of having once thought and spoken as they
do now.
From the whole tenor of the speech referred
to, the speaker meant by “religion” a “ belief in
the articles of the Christian Faith.” I do not
think, as some have suggested, that he meant any
religious belief without morality to be better than
morality without any religious belief; but, espe
cially and definitely, that the maintenance of
Christian dogmas, such, for example, as the
dogmas of the Incarnation and Atonement, the
assertion of the Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection,
and Ascension of Jesus Christ, and the dogmas
�7
about the Holy Ghost, the Church, and the for
giveness of sins—that the maintenance of all these
without morality was better than morality without
this religious belief. Incredible as it seems to you
that any minister of Christ should have so far
forgotten, or remained ignorant, of the Master’s
own religious belief and religious morality, it is
nevertheless true that hundreds of clergymen, and
some few laymen, whom they have misled, actually
prefer the maintenance of these dogmas to every
other cause in the universe. Indeed, as I told
you, the Evangelical, seeing that integrity of life
renders the mind incapable of being enslaved by
his fearful doctrines, frankly owns that a good life
is a hindrance to the reception of what he calls the
Gospel. It is indeed a hindrance, thank GodI
and if you want to be free from credulity
and superstition, begin betimes to “ amend your
lives, and live in charity with all men.” “ So
shall you be meet partakers” of that rich banquet
of truth, which God has spread for all upright
souls. So surely as you carelessly launch your
selves into the waves of sin and selfishness, you will
have to take refuge, if you ever get to land at all,
on some far distant foreign shore, terribly unlike
your own home and your native land.
Now, if the meaning of the speaker be, that
a belief in the articles of the Christian Creed
without morality is better than morality with
out this belief, I put it to you very simply, Do
�8
you think so? I frankly own that, though I
am a Churchman, I should much rather see them
put aside and torn up as rubbish, than to see
the cause of morality, which is true religion, for
a moment imperilled. I -would honestly prefer
a morality without any religious belief—nay,
even without any religious hopes and religious
consolations — than the most comforting, satisfy
ing creed without morality. I will not judge
other men — not even by their foolish words —
but I will say that God has taught me, or I
believe He has taught me, that the highest and
noblest thing to which we can aspire, is to be
righteous — to do what is right—to live and walk,
in love; that this is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end of all true religion, and
that if any religion were found unfavourable to
this personal righteousness, this divine morality,
it must be a false religion and not a true one;
that if any religion could be substituted for
morality, so as to make its professors sit down
contentedly without making moral effort, satisfied
and even happy,".while they are still unrighteous,
and morally* no^better for their religion, that
religion, whether spoken by men or angels, con
secrated or not with the testimony of ten thousand
miracles, would be a curse instead of a blessing;
and what is more, [could have no abiding roots
in a world where God has placed the sons of
men. For men will be true to the nature which
�9
God has given, them, and must learn, whether
they will or not, every lesson which their bitter
experience forces upon them, with regard to the
sovereign importance of righteous dealing.
It is from statements like the one which we
are considering, that the gravest attacks are made
upon existing religious beliefs.
The reverend
speaker little knew that those few words of his
would awaken enquiry, thought, and scepticism
which no after apologies can allay. Common
men and women like you and me, dear friends,
who have our daily work to do, our many self
denying duties to fulfil, our own rough or sour
tempers to control, our homes to guard and
our dear ones to cherish and to help—who know
how hard the battle between the flesh and the
spirit really is — who yearn after eternity, not
for its rest and its joy, but for its divine promise
of perfect righteousness—when we hear an advo
cate of modern Christianity talk in these, to us,
pagan—nay, worse than pagan—Pharisaical riddles,
we feel inclined to retort—“Keep your religion
and leave us our morality. Comfort your hearts
with incessant religious rites, and stimulate your
imaginations with contemplation of wonders which
tax human credulity without healing human
wounds, which stimulate your fevered selfishness,
and narrow up the channels of the love of God;
and leave us to ourselves, and to our unaided, un
seen struggle in the darkness of our own hearts.
�10
We would rather thus fight against our daily be
setting sins, from simple sense of duty, or regard
for fellow-men, even should we have to do so with
out a ray of hope from above, than give up our
march onwards, over the stones and briars of life,
to stop playing with you by the wayside, while
you are mimicking the grand rites of Ancient
Sacrifice/ and thinking to please your Maker, or
some of His subordinate deities, by your empty
and dreary conjuring!
“ Take your religion, with its mystifications and
its impossibilities, and leave us to our excommuni
cated morality, and to the uncovenanted mercies of
God!”
Truth must be spoken, Though God forbid it
should ever be said of us, it is certain that some
have been driven by these foolish priests into
downright Atheism. And an Atheist, you know, is
one who does not believe in the existence of God
at all. Inexpressibly sad as it is to us, who rejoice
in our Maker, and whose hearts pant for the Living
God, yet there are some who cannot believe in
Him at all. Some of these are kept stedfast in
duty, pure and upright in their lives, models of
good fathers and mothers, good husbands and
wives, and fulfilling God’s own law of love, which
in mercy He has not made dependent on Creed,
* See Letter, signed C.C., on St. Alban’s Church, Holborn, in
the Times, October 19th, 1866, and the article thereon.
�11
but lias engraven on our very hearts. They are
living evidences of morality without a religion;
and if I had to choose between the lot of the
righteous man who could not believe in a God, and
the man of unlimited credulity, who cared not to
be righteous so much as to be a believer, I would
infinitely sooner be the righteous Atheist. Simply
and solely from love of God I would thus choose.
Because I believe that God would be more pleased
with any one for doing his duty to his fellow-men,
than for being merely occupied with making
prayers, and singing psalms, and filling the mind
with all sorts of profitless imaginations respecting
the unseen. Even, as a poor selfish father, if I
must choose, I would rather my children behaved
well to each other, and to their mother, than to me.
And I would much prefer their doing this, to their
coming to me all day long, and making petitions,
and saying over the same words of praise to me.
But, never fear, there is no need of our having
such an alternative set before us. God will not—
at least, so we hope and believe,—God will not
require us to choose between a religion without
morality, and a morality without religion. To
“ love our neighbour as ourselves ” is to render the
best homage of our lives to our adorable Maker,
who has written this as His law upon our hearts.
“ To do righteousness is to be righteous even as
Christ was righteous.” These are not my words,
but St. John’s. u Let no man deceive you.” Be
�12
not put off with the enticing parade of religious
ceremonies, or the long list of religious dogmas
and religious miracles, to abandon your devotion
to God in the more difficult, but more honourable
conflicts of daily life. If religious belief, and the
cause of morality, should ever come into open
•1
collision, I know well which must give way. A
Creed crowned with the victories of twice .two
thousand years cannot stand a day when brought. .Jl
into open contrast with the Eternal Law oMoff,
M
the Law of Love, which man’s deepest heart yearns
to fulfil.
Priests may howl at you, “ He that believeth not
shall be damned” but you may cheerfully and
kindly reply, “ We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love our brethren.”
J. Wertheimer & Co., Printers, Circus Place, Finsbury Circus.
i*
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Dogma versus morality: a reply to Church Congress
Creator
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Voysey, Charles
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Preached at Healaugh, Sunday morning, October 21st, 1866. Printed by Wertheimer & Co., Finsbury Circus, London.
Publisher
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Trubner and Co.
Date
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1866
Identifier
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G5259
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Ethics
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English
Conway Tracts
Religion and Morality
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Text
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
AT EDINBURGH, APRIL 2nd, 1866 ;
BY
THOMAS CARLYLE,
ON BEING INSTALLED AS RECTOR OF THE
UNIVERSITY THERE.
[AUTHORIZED REPORT]
EDINBURGH: EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS.
LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL.
.1 8 6 6.
�ADDRESS.
Gentlemen,—I have accepted the office you have elected
me to, and it is now my duty to return thanks for the
great honour done me. Your enthusiasm towards me, I
must admit, is in itself very beautiful, however undeserved
it may be in regard to the object of it. It is a feeling hon
ourable to all men, and one well known to myself when I
was of an age like yours, nor is it yet quite gone. I
can only hope that, with you too, it may endure to the
end,—this noble desire to honour those whom you think
worthy of honour; and that you will come to be more
and more select and discriminate in the choice of the
object of it:—for I can well understand that you will
modify your opinions of me and of many things else,
as you go on. {Laughter and cheers?) It is now fifty-six
years, gone last November, since I first entered your City,
a boy of not quite fourteen; to ‘attend the classes’ here,
and gain knowledge of all kinds, I could little guess
what, my poor mind full of wonder and awe-struck ex
pectation ; and now, after a long course, this is what we
have come to. (Cheers?) There is something touching
�6
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
and tragic, and yet at the same time beautiful, to see, as
it were, the third generation of my dear old native land,
rising up and saying, “ Well, you are not altogether an
unworthy labourer in the vineyard; you have' toiled through
a great variety of fortunes, and have had many judges:
this is our judgment of you I” As the old proverb says,
‘ He that builds by the wayside has many masters.’ We
must expect a variety of judges; but the voice of young
Scotland, through you, is really of some value to me; and
I return you many thanks for it,—though I cannot go
into describing my emotions to you, and perhaps they
will be much more perfectly conceivable if expressed in
silence. (Cheers.)
When this office was first proposed to me, some of you
know I was not very ambitious to accept it, but had my
doubts rather. I was taught to believe that there were
certain more or less important duties which would lie
in my power. This, I confess, was my chief motive in
going into it, and overcoming the objections I felt to
such things: if I could do anything to serve my dear
old Alma Mater and you, why should not I ? (Loud
cheers.) Well, but on practically looking into the matter
when the office actually came into my hands, I find it
grows more and more uncertain and abstruse to me whether
there is much real duty that I can do at all. I live four
hundred miles away from you, in an entirely different
scene of things; and my weak health, with the burden
of the many years now accumulating on me, and my total
unacquaintance with such subjects as concern your affairs
here,—all this fills me with apprehension that there is
�EXTEMPORE.
7
really nothing worth the least consideration that I can do
on that score. You may depend on it, however, that if
any such duty does arise in any form, I will use my most
faithful endeavour to do in it whatever is right and proper,
according to the best of my judgment. (Cheers.)
Meanwhile, the duty I at present have,—which might
be very pleasant, but which is not quite so, for reasons you
may fancy,—is to address some words to you, if possible
not quite useless, nor incongruous to the occasion, and on
subjects more or less cognate to the pursuits you are
engaged in. Accordingly, I mean to offer you some loose
observations, loose in point of order, but the truest I have,
in such form as they may present themselves; certain
of the thoughts that are in me about the business you
are here engaged in, what kind of race it is that you
young gentlemen have started on, and what sort of arena
you are likely to find in this world. I ought, I believe,
according to custom, to have written all that down on
paper, and had it read out. That would have been much
handier for me at the present moment—(A laugh);—
but, on attempting the thing, I found I was not used
to write speeches, and that I didn’t get on very well.
So I flung that aside; and could only resolve to trust, in
all superficial respects, to the suggestion of the moment, as
you now see. You will therefore have to accept what is
readiest; what comes direct from the heart; and you must
just take that in compensation for any good order or
arrangement there might have been in it. I will endea
vour to say nothing that is not true, so far as I can
manage; and that is pretty much all I can engage for.
(A laugh.)
�8
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Advices, I believe, to young men, as to all men, are
very seldom much valued. There is a great deal of ad
vising, and very little faithful performing ; and talk that
does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed
altogether. I would not, therefore, go much into advising;
but there is one advice I must give you. In fact, it is the
summary of all advices, and doubtless you have heard it a
thousand times; but I must nevertheless let you hear it
the thousand-and-first time, for it is most intensely true,
whether you will believe it at present or not:—namely,
That above all things the interest of your whole life depends
on your being diligent, now while it is called to-day, in this
place where you have come to get education ! Diligent:
that includes in it all virtues that a student can have: I
mean it to include all those qualities of conduct that lead
on to the acquirement of real instruction and improve
ment in such a place. If you will believe me, you who
are young, yours is the golden season of life. As you have
heard it called, so it verily is, the seed-time of life; in
which, if you do not sow, or if you sow tares instead of
wheat, you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you
will arrive at little. And in the course of years, when you
come to look back, if you have not done what you have
heard from your advisers,—and among many counsellors
there is wisdom,—you will bitterly repent when it is too
late. The habits of study acquired at Universities are of
the highest importance in after-life. At the season when
you are young in years, the whole mind is, as it were,
fluid, and is capable of forming itself into any shape
that the owner of the mind pleases to allow it, or con
�HONESTY OF MIND.
9
strain it, to form itself into. The mind is then in a
plastic or fluid state ; but it hardens gradually, to the
consistency of rock or of iron, and you cannot alter the
habits of an old man: he, as he has begun, so he will
proceed and go on to the last.
By diligence I mean among other things, and very
chiefly too,—honesty, in all your inquiries, and in all you
are about. Pursue your studies in the way your conscience
can name honest. More and more endeavour to do that.
Keep, I should say for one thing, an accurate separation
between what you have really come to know in your minds
and what is still unknown. Leave all that latter on the
hypothetical side of the barrier, as things afterwards to be
acquired, if acquired at all; and be careful not to admit a
thing as known when you do not yet know it. Count a thing
known only when it is imprinted clearly on your mind, and
has become transparent to you, so that you may survey it
on all sides with intelligence. There is such a thing as a
man endeavouring to persuade himself, and endeavouring
to persuade others, that he knows things, when he does
not know more than the outside skin of them; and yet
he goes flourishing about with’ them. (Hear, hear, and
a laugh?) There is also a process called cramming, in some
Universities (A laugh),—that is, getting up such points of
things as the examiner is likely to put questions about.
Avoid all that, as entirely unworthy of an honourable
mind. Be modest, and humble, and assiduous in your
attention to what your teachers tell you, who are pro
foundly interested in trying to bring you forward in the
right way, so far as they have been able to understand it.
�10
e
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Try all things they set before you, in order, if possible, to
understand them, and to follow and adopt them in propor
tion to their fitness for you. Gradually see what kind of
work you individually can do; it is the first of all pro
blems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to
do in this universe. In short, morality as regards study
is, as in all other things, the primary consideration, and
overrules all others. A dishonest man cannot do anything
real; he never will study with real fruit; and perhaps it
would be greatly better if he were tied up from trying
it. He does nothing but darken counsel by the words
he utters. That is a very old doctrine, but a very true
one; and you will find it confirmed by all the thinking
men that have ever lived in this long series of generations
of which we are the latest.
I daresay you know, very many of you, that it is now
some seven hundred years since Universities were first set
up in this world of ours. Abelard and other thinkers had
arisen with doctrines in them which people wished to hear
of, and students flocked towards them from all parts of the
world. There was no getting the thing recorded in books,
as you now may. You had to hear the man speaking to
you vocally, or else you could not learn at all what it
was that he wanted to say. And so they gathered to
gether, these speaking ones,—the various people who had
anything to teach;—and formed themselves gradually,
under the patronage of kings and other potentates who
were anxious about the culture of their populations, and
nobly studious of their best benefit; and became a body
�UNIVERSITIES.
11
corporate, with high privileges, high dignities, and really
high aims, under the title of a University.
Possibly too you may have heard it said that the course
of centuries has changed all this ; and that ‘ the true Uni
versity of our days is a Collection of Books.’ And beyond
doubt, all this is greatly altered by the invention of Print
ing, which took place about midway between us and the
origin of Universities. Men have not now to go in person
to where a Professor is actually speaking; because in
most cases you can* get his doctrine out of him through a
book; and can then read it, and read it again and again,
and study it. That is an immense change, that one fact
of Printed Books. And I am not sure that I know of any
University in which the whole of that fact has yet been
completely taken in, and the studies moulded in complete
conformity with it. Nevertheless, Universities have, and
will continue to have, an indispensable value in society;
—I think, a very high, and it might be, almost the highest
value. They began, as is well known, with their grand
aim directed on Theology,—their eye turned earnestly on
Heaven. And perhaps, in a sense, it may be still said, the
very highest interests of man are virtually intrusted to them.
In regard to theology, as you are aware, it has been, and
especially was then, the study of the deepest heads that
have come into the world,—what is the nature of this stupen
dous universe, and what are our relations to it, and to all
things knowable by man, or known only to the great Author
of man and it. Theology was once the name for all this;
all this is still alive for man, however dead the name
may grow! In fact, the members of the Church keeping
�12
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
theology in a lively condition—(Laughter)—for the benefit
of the whole population, theology was the great object of
the Universities. I consider it is the same intrinsically
now, though very much forgotten, from many causes, and
not so successful—(A laugh)—as might be wished, by any
manner of means I
It remains, however, practically a most important truth,
what I alluded to above, that the main use of Universities
in the present age is that, after you have done with all
your classes, the next thing is a collection of books, a
great i library of good books, which you proceed to study
and to read. What the Universities can mainly do for
you,—what I have found the University did for me, is, That
it taught me to read, in various languages, in various
sciences ; so that I could go into the books which treated of
these things, and gradually penetrate into any department
I wanted to make myself master of, as I found it suit me.
Well, gentlemen, whatever you may think of these
historical points, the clearest and most imperative duty
lies on every one of you to be assiduous in your reading.
Learn to be good readers,—which is, perhaps, a more
difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be di scrim in ative in your reading; to read faithfully, and with your best
attention, all kinds of things which you have a real in
terest in, a real not an imaginary, and which you find to be
really fit for what you are engaged in. Of course, at the
present time, in a great deal of the reading incumbent on
you, you must be guided by the books recommended
by your Professors for assistance towards the effect of their
�READING.
13
prelections. And then, when you leave the University, and
go into studies of your own, you will find it very important
that you have chosen a field, some province specially suited
to you, in which you can study and work. The most unhappy
of all men is the man who cannot tell what he is going to
do, who has got no work cut out for him in the world,
and does not go into it. For work is the grand cure of
all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind,—
honest work, which you intend getting done.
If, in any vacant vague time, you are in a strait as to
choice of reading,-^-a very good indication for you, perhaps
the best you could get, is towards some book you have
a great curiosity about. You are then in the readiest
and best of all possible conditions to improve by that
book. It is analogous to what doctors tell us about the
physical health and appetites of the patient. You must
learn, however, to distinguish between false appetite and
true. There is such a thing as a false appetite, which will
lead a man into vagaries with regard to diet; will tempt
him to eat spicy things, which he should not eat at all,
nor would, but that the things are toothsome, and that
he is under a momentary baseness of mind. A man ought
to examine and find out what he really and truly has an
appetite for, what suits his constitution and condition;
and that, doctors tell him, is in general the very thing he
ought to have. And so with books.
As applicable to all of you, I will say that it is highly
expedient to go into history; to inquire into what has
passed before you on this Earth, and in the Family of Man.
�14
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
The history of the Romans and Greeks will first of all
concern you; and you will find that the classical know
ledge you have got will he extremely applicable to eluci
date that. There you have two of the most remarkable
races of men in the world set before you, calculated to
open innumerable reflections and considerations; a mighty
advantage, if you can achieve it;—to say nothing of what
their two languages will yield you, which your Professors
can better explain; model languages, which are universally
admitted to be the most perfect forms of speech we have
yet found to exist among men. And you will find, if you
read well, a pair of extremely remarkable nations, shining
in the records left by themselves, as a kind of beacon, or
solitary mass of illumination, to light up some noble
forms of human life for us, in the otherwise utter darkness
of the past ages; and it will be well worth your while if
you can get into the understanding of what these people
were, and what they did. You will find a great deal of
hearsay, of empty rumour and tradition, which does not
touch on the matter; but perhaps some of you will get
to see the old Roman and the old Greek face to face; you
will know in some measure how they contrived to exist,
and to perform their feats in the world.
I believe, also, you will find one important thing not
much noted, That there was a very great deal of deep reli
gion in both nations. This is pointed out by the wiser kind
of historians, and particularly by Ferguson, who is particu
larly well worth reading on Roman history,—and who, I
believe, was an alumnus of our own University. His book
is a very creditable work. He points out the profoundly
�ROMANS AND GREEKS.
15
religious nature of the Roman people, notwithstanding their
ruggedly positive, defiant, and fierce ways. They believed
that Jupiter Optimus Maximus was lord of the universe, and
that he had appointed the Romans to become the chief of
nations, provided they followed his commands,—to brave
all danger, all difficulty, and stand up with an invin
cible front, and be ready to do and die; and also to have
the same sacred regard to truth of promise, to thorough
veracity, thorough integrity, and all the virtues that ac
company that noblest quality of man, valour,—to which
latter the Romans gave the name of ‘ virtue’ proper (yirtus,
manhood), as the crown and summary of all that is en
nobling for a man. In the literary ages of Rome, this re
ligious feeling had very much decayed away; but it still
retained its place among the lower classes of the Roman
people. Of the deeply religious nature of the Greeks,
along with their beautiful and sunny effulgences of art,
you have striking proof, if you look for it. In the tragedies
of Sophocles, there is a most deep-toned recognition of
the eternal justice of Heaven, and the unfailing punish
ment of crime against the laws of God. I believe you
will find in all histories of nations, that this has been at
the origin and foundation of them all; and that no nation
which did not contemplate this wonderful universe with
an awestricken and reverential belief that there was a great
unknown, omnipotent, and all-wise and all-just Being,
superintending all men in it, and all interests in it,—no
nation ever came to very much, nor did any man either,
who forgot that. If a man did forget that, he forgot the
most important part of his mission in this world.
�16
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Our own history of England, which you will naturally
take a great deal of pains to make yourselves acquainted
with, you will find beyond all others worthy of your study.
For indeed I believe that the British nation,—including
in that the Scottish nation,—produced a finer set of men
than any you will find it possible to get anywhere else in
the world. (Applause?) I don’t know, in any history
of Greece or Rome, where you will get so fine a man as
Oliver Cromwell, for example. (Applause?) And we, too,
have had men worthy of memory, in our little corner of
the Island here, as well as others; and our history has had
its heroic features all along; and did become great at last
in being connected with world-history:—for if you examine
well, you will find that John Knox was the author, as it
were, of Oliver Cromwell; that the Puritan revolution
never would have taken place in England at all, had it
not been for that Scotchman. (Applause.) That is an
authentic fact, and is not prompted by national vanity
on my part, but will stand examining. (Laughter and
applause^)
In fact, if you look at the struggle that was then going
on in England, as I have had to do in my time, you will
see that people were overawed by the immense impedi
ments lying in the way. A small minority of God-fearing
men in that country were flying away, with any ship they
could get, to New England, rather than take the lion by
the beard. They durst not confront the powers with their
most just complaints, and demands to be delivered from
idolatry. They wanted to make the nation altogether con
formable to the Hebrew Bible, which they, and all men,
�ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH HISTORY.
17
understood to be the exact transcript of the Will of God ;
—and could there be, for man, a more legitimate aim ?
Nevertheless, it would have been impossible in their
circumstances, and not to be attempted at all, had not
Knox succeeded in it here, some fifty years before, by
the firmness and nobleness of his mind. For he also is of
the select of the earth to me,—John Knox. (Applause?)
What he has suffered from the ungrateful generations that
have followed him should really make us humble ourselves
to the dust, to think that the most excellent man our country
has produced, to whom we owe everything that distin
guishes us among the nations, should have been so sneered
at, misknown, and abused. (Applause?) Knox was heard by
Scotland; the people heard him, believed him to the marrow
of their bones : they took up his doctrine, and they defied
principalities and powers to move them from it. “We
must have it,” they said; “ we will and must!” It was in
this state of things that the Puritan struggle arose in
England; and you know well how the Scottish earls and
nobility, with their tenantry, marched away to Dunse Hill
in 1639, and sat down there: just at the crisis of that
struggle, when it was either to be suppressed or brought
into greater vitality, they encamped on Dunse Hill,—thirty
thousand armed men, drawn out for that occasion, each
regiment round its landlord, its earl, or whatever he might
be called, and zealous all of them ‘ For Christ’s Crown and
Covenant.’ That was the signal for all England’s rising up
into unappeasable determination to have the Gospel there
also ; and you know it went on, and came to be a contest
whether the Parliament or the King should rule; whether it
B
�18
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
should he old formalities and use and wont, or something
that had been of new conceived in the Souls of men, namely,
a divine determination to walk according to the laws of
God here, as the sum of all prosperity; which, of these
should have the mastery: and after a long, long agony of
struggle, it was decided—the way we know.
I should say also of that Protectorate of Oliver Crom
well’s, notwithstanding the censures it has encountered,
and the denial of everybody that it could continue in the
world, and so on, it appears to me to have been, on the
whole, the most salutary thing in the modern history of
England. If Oliver Cromwell had continued it out, I
don’t know what it would have come to. It would have
got corrupted probably in other hands, and could not have
gone on; but it was pure and true, to the last fibre, in
his mind; there was perfect truth in it while he ruled
over it. Machiavelli has remarked, in speaking of the
Romans, that Democracy cannot long exist anywhere in
the world; that as a' mode of government, of national
management or administration, it involves an impossibility,
and after a little while must end in wreck. And he goes
on proving that, in his own way. I do not ask you all to
follow him in that conviction—(hear),—but it is to him
a clear truth; he considers it a solecism and impossibility
that the universal mass of men should ever govern them
selves. He has to admit of the Romans, that they con
tinued a long time; but believes, it was purely in virtue
of this item in their constitution, namely, of their all
having the conviction in their minds that it was solemnly
�THE PROTECTOR.
19
necessary, at times, to appoint a Dictator; a man who had
the power of life and death over everything, who degraded
men out of their places, ordered them to execution, and
did whatever seemed to him good in the name of God above
him. He was commanded to take care that the republic
suffer no detriment. And Machiavelli calculates that this
was the thing which purified the social system, from time
to time, and enabled it to continue as it did. Probable
enough, if you consider it. And an extremely proper
function surely, this of a Dictator, if the republic was
composed of little other than bad and tumultuous men,
triumphing in general over the better, and all going the
bad road, in fact. Well, Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate,
or Dictatorate if you will let me name it so, lasted for
about ten years, and you will find that nothing which was
contrary to the laws of heaven was allowed to live by
Oliver. (Applaus'e.)
For example, it was found by his Parliament of Notables,
what they call the ‘Barebones Parliament,’—the most
zealous of all Parliaments probably (laughter),—that the
Court of Chancery in England was in a state which was
really capable of no apology; no man could get up and
say that that was a right court. There were, I think,
fifteen thousand, or fifteen hundred (Laughter),—I really
don’t remember which, but we will call it by the last num
ber, to be safe (Renewed laughter);—-there were fifteen
hundred cases lying in it undecided; and one of them,
I remember, for a large amount of money, was eightythree years old, and it was going on still; wigs were
wagging over it, and lawyers were taking their fees, and
�20
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
there was no end of it. Upon view of all which, the
Barebones people, after deliberation about it, thought it
was expedient, and commanded by the Author of Man and
Fountain of Justice, and in the name of what was true and
right, to abolish said court. Really, I don’t know who could
have dissented from that opinion. At the same time, it was
thought by those who were wiser in their generation, and
had more experience of the world, that this was a very dan
gerous thing, and wouldn’t suit at all. The lawyers began to
make an immense noise about it. (Laughter?) All the public,
the great mass of solid and well-disposed people who had got
no deep insight into such matters, were very adverse to it:
and the Speaker of the Parliament, old Sir Francis Rous,—
who translated the Psalms for us, those that we sing here
every Sunday in the Church yet; a very good man, and a
wise and learned, Provost of Eton College afterwards,—
he got a great number of the Parliament to go to Oliver
the Dictator, and lay down their functions altogether, and
declare officially, with their signature, on Monday morning,
that the Parliament was dissolved. The act of abolition
had been passed on Saturday night; and on Monday
morning, Rous came and said, “We cannot carry on the
affair any longer, and we remit it into the hands of your
Highness.” Oliver in that way became Protector a second
time. I give you this as an instance that Oliver was
faithfully doing a Dictator’s function, and of his prudence
in it, as well.
Oliver felt that the Parliament, now
dismissed, had been perfectly right with regard to Chan
cery, and that there was no doubt of the propriety of
abolishing Chancery, or else reforming it in some kind
�sources of history.
21
of way.. He considered the matter, and this is what he
did. He assembled sixty of the wisest lawyers to be found
in England. Happily, there were men great in the law;
men who valued the laws of England as much as anybody
ever did; and who knew withal that there was something
still more sacred than any of these. (A laugh,^ Oliver
said to them, “ Go and examine this thing, and in the name
of God inform me what is necessary to be done with it.
You will see how we may clean out the foul things in that Chancery Court, which render it poison to everybody.”
Well, they sat down accordingly, and in the course of six
weeks,(there was no public speaking then, no reporting
of speeches, and no babble of any kind, there was just
the business in hand,)—they got sixty propositions fixed
in their minds as the summary of the things that re
quired to be done. And upon these sixty propositions,
Chancery was reconstituted and remodelled; and so it got
a new lease of life, and has lasted to our time. It had
become a nuisance, and could not have continued much
longer. That is an instance of the manner of things that
were done when a Dictatorship prevailed in the country,
and that was how the Dictator did them. I reckon, all
England, Parliamentary England, got a new lease of life
from that Dictatorship of Oliver’s; and, on the whole, that
the good fruits of it will never die while England exists as
a nation.
In general, I hardly think that out of common history
books you will ever get into the real history of this
country, or ascertain anything which can specially illu
�■
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
minate it for you, and which it would most of all behove
you to know. You may read very ingenious and very
clever books, by men whom it would be the height of in
solence in me to do other than express my respect for.
But their position is essentially sceptical. God and the
Godlike, as our fathers would have said, has fallen asleep for
them; and plays no part in their histories. A most sad and
fatal condition of matters; who shall say how fatal to us all'
A man unhappily in that condition will make but a tem
porary explanation of anything:—in short, you will not be
able, I believe, by aid of these men, to understand how this
Island came to be what it is. You will not find it re
corded in books. You will find recorded in books a
jumble of tumults, disastrous ineptitudes,, and all that
kind of thing. But to get what you want, you will have
to look into side sources, and inquire in all directions.
I remember getting Collins’s Peerage to read,—a very poor
performance as a work of genius, but an excellent book
for diligence and fidelity. I was writing on Oliver Crom
well at the time. (Applause?) I could get no biographical
dictionary available; and I thought the Peerage Book,
since most of my men were peers or sons of peers, would
help me, at least would tell me whether people were old
or young, where they lived, and the like particulars, better
than absolute nescience and darkness. And accordingly
I found amply all I had expected in poor Collins, and got
a great deal of help out of him. He was a diligent dull
London bookseller, of about a hundred years ago, who
compiled out of all kinds of parchments, charter-chests,
archives, books that were authentic, and gathered far and
�COLLINS’S PEERAGE.
23
wide wherever he could get it the information wanted.
He was a very meritorious man.
I not only found the solution of everything I had ex
pected there, but I began gradually to perceive this im
mense fact, which I really advise every one of you who
read history to look out for, if you have not already found
it. It was that the Kings of England, all the way from
the Norman Conquest down to the times of Charles I.,
had actually, in a good degree, so far as they knew, been
in the habit of appointing as Peers those who deserved
to be appointed. In general, I perceived, those Peers of
theirs were all royal men of a sort, with minds full of justice,
valour, and humanity, and all kinds of qualities that men
ought to have who rule over others. And then their genea
logy, the kind of sons and descendants they had, this also
was remarkable:—for there is a great deal more in genea
logy than is generally believed at present. I never heard
tell of any clever man that came of entirely stupid people.
(Laughter^) If you look around, among the families of your
acquaintance, you will see such cases in all directions;—
I know that my own experience is steadily that way; I
can trace the father, and the son, and the grandson, and
the family stamp is quite distinctly legible upon each of
them. So that it goes for a great deal, the hereditary prin
ciple,—in Government as in other things; and it must be
recognised so soon as there is any fixity in things. You
will remark, too, in your Collins, that, if at any time the
genealogy of a peerage goes awry, if the man that actu
ally holds the peerage is a fool,—in those earnest practical
times, the man soon gets into mischief, gets into treason
�24
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
probably,—soon gets himself and his peerage extinguished
altogether, in short. (Laughter?)
From those old documents of Collins, you learn and
ascertain that a peer conducts himself in a pious, highminded, grave, dignified, and manly kind of way, in his
course through life, and when he takes leave of life:—his
last will is often a remarkable piece, which one lingers
over. And then you perceive that there was kindness in
him as well as rigour, pity for the poor; that he has fine
hospitalities, generosities,—in fine, that he is throughout
much of a noble, good and valiant man. And that in general
the King, with a beautiful approximation to accuracy, had
nominated this kind of man; saying, “ Come you to me,
sir. Come out of the common level of the people, where
you are liable to be trampled upon, jostled about, and can
do in a manner nothing with your fine gift; come here and
take a district of country, and make it into your own image
more or less; be a king under me, and understand that
that is your function.” I say this is the most divine
thing that a human being can do to other human beings,
and no kind of thing whatever has so much of the
character of God Almighty’s Divine Government as that
thing, which, we see, went on all over England for about
six hundred years. That is the grand soul of England’s
history. (Cheers?) It is historically true that, down to
the time of James, or even Charles I., it was not under
stood that any man was made a Peer without having
merit in him to constitute him a proper subject for a
peerage. In Charles i.’s time, it grew to be known or
said that, if a man was born a gentleman, and cared to
�BOOKS.
25
lay out £10,000 judiciously up and down among courtiers,
lie could be made a Peer. Under Charles H. it went on
still faster, and has been going on w7ith ever-increasing
velocity, until we see the perfectly breakneck pace at
which they are going now (A laugh?), so that now a
peerage is a paltry kind of thing to what it was in those
old times. I could go into a great many more details
about things of that sort, but I must turn to another
branch of the subject.
First, however, one remark more about your reading.
I do not know whether it has been sufficiently brought
home to you that there are two kinds of books. When a
man is reading on any kind of subject, in most depart
ments of books,—in all books, if you take it in a wide
sense,—he will find that there is a division into good
books and bad books. Everywhere a good kind of book
and a bad kind of book. I am not to assume that you
are unacquainted, or ill acquainted with this plain fact;
but I may remind you that it is becoming a very im
portant Consideration in our day. And we have to cast
aside altogether the idea people have, that, if they are.
reading any book, that if an ignorant man is reading any
book, he is doing rather better than nothing at all. I must
entirely call that in question; I even venture to deny it.
(Laughter and cheers?) It would be much safer and better
for many a reader, that he had no concern with books at
all. There is a number, a frightfully increasing number,
of books that are decidedly, to the readers of them, not
useful. (?H?ear?) But an ingenuous reader will learn, also,
that a certain number of books were written by a su
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
premely noble kind of people,—not a very great number
of books, but still a number fit to occupy all your reading
industry, do adhere more or less to that side of things.
In short, as I have written it down somewhere else, I
conceive that books are like men’s souls; divided into
sheep and goats. (Laughter and cheers.) Some few are
going up, and carrying us up, heavenward; calculated,
I mean, to be of priceless advantage in teaching,—in
forwarding the teaching of all generations. Others, a
frightful multitude, are going down, down; doing ever
the more and the wider and the wilder mischief. Keep
a strict eye on that latter class of books, my young
friends!—
And for the rest, in regard to all your studies and read
ings here, and to whatever you may learn, you are to
remember that the object is not particular knowledges,—
not that of getting higher and higher in technical perfec
tions, and all that sort of thing. There is a higher aim
lying at the rear of all that, especially among those who
are intended for literary or speaking pursuits, or the sacred
profession. You are ever to bear in mind that there lies
behind that the acquisition of what may be called wisdom;
—namely, sound appreciation and just decision as to all
the objects that come round you, and the habit of behaving
with justice, candour, clear insight, and loyal adherence to
fact. Great is wisdom; infinite is the value of wisdom.
It cannot be exaggerated ; it is the highest achievement
of man: ‘ Blessed is he that getteth understanding.’ And
that, I believe, on occasion, may be missed very easily;
never more easily than now, I sometimes think. If that
�ENDOWMENTS.
27
is a failure, all is failure!—However, I will not touch
further upon that matter.
But I should have said, in regard to hook-reading, if it
he so very important, how very useful would an excellent
library be in every University! I hope, that will not be
neglected by the gentlemen who have charge of you; and,
indeed, I am happy to hea.r that your library is very much
improved since the time I knew it, and I hope it will go
on improving more and more. Nay, I have sometimes
thought, why should not there be a library in every county
town, for benefit of those that could read well, and might
if permitted? True, you require money to accomplish
that;—and withal, what perhaps is still less attainable at
present, you require judgment in the selectors of books;
real insight into what is for the advantage of human souls,
the exclusion of all kinds of clap-trap books which merely
excite the astonishment of foolish people (Laughter), and
the choice of wise books, as much as possible of good books.
Let us hope the future will be kind to us in this respect.
In this University, as I learn from many sides, there
is considerable stir about endowments; an assiduous and
praiseworthy industry for getting new funds collected to
encourage the ingenuous youth of Universities, especially of
this our chief University. (Hear, hear?) Well, I entirely
participate in everybody’s approval of the movement. It
is very desirable. It should be responded to, and one
surely expects it will. At least, if it is not, it will be
shameful to the country of Scotland, which never was so
rich in money as at the present moment, and never stood
�28
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
so much iu need of getting noble Universities, and insti
tutions to counteract many influences that are springing
up alongside of money. It should not be slack in coming
forward in the way of endowments (A laugh) ; at any rate,
to the extent of rivalling our rude old barbarous ancestors,
as we have been pleased to call them. Such munificence as
theirs is beyond all praise; and to them, I am sorry to say,
we are not yet by any manner of means equal, or ap
proaching equality. (Laughter?) There is an abundance
and over-abundance of money. Sometimes I cannot help
thinking that probably never has there been, at any other
time, in Scotland, the hundredth part of the money that
now is, or even the thousandth part. For wherever I go
there is that same gold-nuggeting (A laugh?),—-that ‘ unex;
ampled prosperity,’ and men counting their balances by
the million sterling. Money was never so abundant, and
nothing that is good to be done with it. (Hear, hear, and
a laugh?) No man knows,—or very few men know,—what
benefit to get out of his money. In fact, it too often is
secretly a curse to him. Much better for him never to
have had any. But I do not expect that generally to
be believed. (Laughter?) Nevertheless, I should think it
would be a beneficent relief to many a rich man who has an
honest purpose struggling in him, to bequeath some house
of refuge, so to speak, for the gifted poor man who may'
hereafter be born into the world, to enable him to get on
his way a little. To do, in fact, as those old Norman
kings whom I have been describing; to raise some noble
poor man out of the dirt and mud where he is getting
trampled on unworthily, by the unworthy, into some kind
�A DEEPER WANT.
29
of position where he might acquire the power to do a little
good in his generation! I hope that as much as possible
will be achieved in this direction; and that efforts will
not be relaxed till the thing is in a satisfactory state. In
regard to the classical department, above all, it surely is
to be desired by us that it were properly supported,—that
we could allow the fit people to have their scholarships and
subventions, and devote more leisure to the cultivation of
particular departments. We might have more of this from
Scotch Universities than we have; and I hope we shall.
I am bound, however, to say that it does not appear as if,
of late times, endowment were the real soul of the matter.
The English, for example, are the richest people in the
world for endowments in their Universities; and it is
an evident fact that, since the time of Bentley, you
cannot name anybody that has gained a European name
in scholarship, or constituted a point of revolution in the
pursuits of men in that way. The man who does so is
a man worthy of being remembered; and he is poor,
and not an Englishman.
One man that actually did
constitute a revolution was the son of a poor weaver in
Saxony; who edited his Tibullus, in Dresden, in a poor
comrade’s garret, with the floor for his bed, and two folios
for pillow; and who, while editing his Tibullus, had to
gather peasecod shells on the streets and boil them for his
dinner. That was his endowment. (Laughter?) But he
was recognised soon to have done a great thing. His
name was Heyne. (Cheers?) I can remember, it was
quite a revolution in my mind when I got hold of that
�30
INAUGURAL address.
man’s edition of Virgil. I found that, for the first time,
I understood Virgil; that Heyne had introduced me, for
the first time, into an insight of Roman life and ways of
thought; had pointed out the circumstances in which
these works were written, and given me their interpreta
tion. And the process has gone on in all manner of
developments, and has spread out into other countries.
On the whole, there is one reason why endowments are
not given now as they were in old days, when men founded
abbeys, colleges, and all kinds of things of that description,
with such success as we know. All that has now changed;
a vast decay of zeal in that direction. And truly the reason
may in part be, that people have become doubtful whether
colleges are now the real sources of what I called wisdom;
whether they are anything more, anything much more, than
a cultivating of man in the specific arts. In fact, there has
been in the world a suspicion of that kind for a long time.
(A laugh.') There goes a proverb of old date, ‘ An ounce
of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy.’ {Laughter^)
There is a suspicion that a man is perhaps not nearly so
wise as he looks, or because he has poured out speech
so copiously. {Laughter.) When ‘the seven free arts ’
which the old Universities were based on, came to be
modified a little, in order to be convenient for the wants of
modern society,—though perhaps some of them are obsolete
enough even yet for some of us,—there arose a feeling that
mere vocality, mere culture of speech, if that is what comes
out of a man, is not the synonym of wisdom by any
means ! That a man may be a ‘ great speaker,’ as eloquent
as you like, and but little real substance in him,—espe
�FINE SPEECH.
31
cially, if that is what was required and aimed at by the
man himself, and by the community that set him upon
becoming a learned man. Maid-servants, I hear people
complaining, are getting instructed in the ‘ologies,’ and
are apparently becoming more and more ignorant of brew
ing, boiling, and baking (Laughter); and above all, are
not taught what is necessary to be known, from the highest
of us to the lowest,—faithful obedience, modesty, humility,
and correct moral conduct.
Oh, it is a dismal chapter all that if one went into it,—
what has been done by rushing after fine speech! I have
written down some very fierce things about that, perhaps
considerably more emphatic than I could now wish them to
be; but they were and are deeply my conviction. (Hear,
hear?) There is very great necessity indeed of getting a
little more silent than we are. It seems to me as if the
finest nations of the world,—the English and the Ameri
can, in chief,—were going all off into wind and tongue.
(Applause and laughter?) But it will appear sufficiently
tragical by-and-by, long after I am away out of it. There
is a time to speak, and a time to be silent. Silence withal
is the eternal duty of a man. He won’t get to any real
understanding of what is complex, and what is more than
aught else pertinent to his interests, without keeping
silence too. ‘Watch the tongue,’ is a very old precept,
and a most true one.
I don’t want to discourage any of you from your
Demosthenes, and your studies of the niceties of language,
and all that. Believe me, I value that as much as any
�32
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
one of you. I consider it a very graceful thing, and a
most proper, for every human creature to know what the
implement which he uses in communicating his thoughts
is, and how to make the very utmost of it. I want you
to study Demosthenes, and to know all his excellences.
At the same time, I must say that speech, in the case
even of Demosthenes, does not seem, on the whole, to
have turned to almost any good account. He advised
next to nothing that proved practicable; much of the re
verse. Why tell me that a man is a fine speaker, if it is
not the truth that he is speaking ? Phocion, who mostly
did not speak at all, was a great deal nearer hitting the
mark than Demosthenes. (Laughter?) He used to tell
the Athenians, “You can’t fight Philip. Better if you
don’t provoke him, as Demosthenes is always urging
to you to do. You have not the slightest chance with
Philip. He is a man who holds his tongue ; he has
great disciplined armies; a full treasury; can bribe any
body you like in your cities here; he is going on steadily
with an unvarying aim towards his object; while you, with
your idle clamourings, with your Cleon the Tanner spout
ing to you what you take for Wisdom— ! Philip will in
fallibly beat any set of men such as you, going on raging
from shore to shore with all that rampant nonsense.”
Demosthenes said to him once, “ Phocion, you will drive
the Athenians mad some day, and they will kill you.”
“ Yes,” Phocion answered, “ me, when they go mad; and
as soon as they get sane again, you I ” (Laughter and
applause?) It is also told of him how he went once to
Messene, on some deputation which the Athenians wanted
�FINE SPEECH.
33
him to head, on some kind of matter of an intricate and
contentious nature: Phocion went accordingly; and had,
as usual, a clear story to have told for himself and his
case. He was a man of few words, but all of them true
and to the point. And so he had gone on telling his
story for a while, wheii there arose some interruption.
One man, interrupting with something, he tried to answer;
then another, the like ; till finally, too many went in, and
all began arguing and bawling in endless debate. Where
upon Phocion struck down his staff; drew back altogether,
and would speak no other word to any man. It appears
to me there is a kind of eloquence in that rap of Phocion’s
staff which is equal to anything Demosthenes ever said:
“ Take your own way, then; I go out of it altogether.”
(Applause?)
Such considerations, and manifold more connected with
them,—innumerable considerations, resulting from obser
vation of the world at this epoch,—have led various
people to doubt of the salutary effect of vocal education
altogether. I do not mean to say it should be entirely
excluded; but I look to something that will take hold of
the matter much more closely, and not allow it to slip out
of our fingers, and remain worse than it was. For, if a
‘good speaker,’ never so eloquent, does not see into the
fact, and is not speaking the truth of that, but the untruth
and the mistake of that,—is there a more horrid kind of
object in creation ? (Loud cheers?) Of such speech I hear
all manner of people say, “ How excellent!” Well, really
it is not the speech, but the thing spoken, that I am
anxious about! I really care very little how the man
I
�34
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
said it, provided I understand him, and it be true. Ex
cellent speaker ? But what if he is telling me things that
are contrary to the fact; what if he has formed a wrong
judgment about the fact,—if he has in his mind (like
Phocion’s friend, Cleon the Tanner) no power to form a
right judgment in regard to the matter? An excellent
speaker of that kind is, as it were, saying, “ Ho, every
one that wants to be persuaded of the thing that is not
true; here is the man for you!” (Great laughter and
applause?) I recommend you to be very chary of that
kind of excellent speech. (?Renewed laughter?)
Well, all that sad stuff being the too well-known product
of our method of vocal education,—the teacher merely
operating on the tongue of the pupil, and teaching him to
wag it in a particular way (Laughter),—it has made various
thinking men entertain a distrust of this not very salu
tary way of procedure; and they have longed for some less
theoretic, and more practical and concrete way of working
out the problem of education;-—in effect, for an educa
tion not vocal at all, but mute except where speaking was
strictly needful. There would be room for a great deal of
description about this, if I went into it; but I must con
tent myself with saying that the most remarkable piece
of writing on it is in a book of Goethe’s,—the whole of
which you may be recommended to take up, and try if you
can study it with understanding. It is one of his last
books; written when he was an old man above seventy
years of age: I think, one of the most beautiful he ever
wrote; full of meek wisdom, of intellect and piety; which
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
35
is found to be strangely illuminative, and very touching,
by those who have eyes to discern and hearts to feel it.
This about education is one of the pieces in Wilhelm,
Meister’s Travels; or rather, in a fitful way, it forms
the whole gist of the book. I first read it many years
agoand, of course, I had to read into the very heart of
it while I was translating it (Applause); and it has ever
since dwelt in my mind as perhaps the most remark
able bit of writing which I have known to be executed in
these late centuries. I have often said that there are some
ten pageS of that, which, if ambition had been my only rule,
I would rather have written, been able to write, than have
written all the books that have appeared since I came into
the world. (Cheers?) Beep, deep is the meaning of what
is said there. Those pages turn on the Christian religion,
and the religious phenomena of the modern and the
ancient world: altogether sketched out in the most aerial,
graceful, delicately wise kind of way, so as to keep him
self out of the common controversies of the street and
of the forum, yet to indicate what was the result of things
he had been long meditating upon.
Among others, he introduces in an airy, sketchy kind
of way, with here and there a touch,—the sum-total of
which grows into a beautiful picture,—a scheme of entirely
mute education, at least with no more speech than is ab
solutely necessary for what the pupils have to do. Three
of the wisest men discoverable in the world have been
got together, to consider, to manage and supervise, the
function which transcends all others in importance; that
of building up the young generation so as to keep it
�36
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
free from that perilous stuff that has been weighing
us down, and clogging every step;—which function, in
deed, is the only thing we can hope to go on with, 'c we
would leave the world a little better, and not the worse,
of our having been in it, for those who are to follow.
The Chief, who is the Eldest of the 'three, says to Wil
helm : “ Healthy well-formed children bring into the
world with them many precious gifts; and very frequently
these are best of all developed by Nature herself, with
but slight assistance, where assistance is seen to be wise
and profitable, and with forbearance very often on the
part of the overseer of the process. But there is one
thing which no child brings into the world with him,
and without which all other things are of no use.”
Wilhelm, who is there beside him, asks, “And what is
that?” “All want it,” says the Eldest; “perhaps you
yourself.” Wilhelm says, “Well, but tell me what it is?”
“ It is,” answers the other, “ Reverence (EhrfurcM); Re
verence! Honour done to those who are greater and
better than ourselves; honour distinct from fear. Ehrfurcht; the soul of all religion that has ever been among
men, or ever will be.”
And then he goes into details about the religions of the
modern and the ancient world. He practically distinguishes
the kinds of religion that are, or have been, in the world ;
and says that for men there are three reverences. The
boys are all trained to go through certain gesticulations;
to lay their hands on their breast and look up to heaven,
in sign of the first reverence; other forms for the other
two: so they give their three reverences. The first and
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
37
simplest is that of reverence for what is above us. It is
the soul of all the Pagan religions; there is nothing better
in th# antique man than that. Then there is reverence
for what is around us,—reverence for our equals, to which
he attributes an immense power in the culture of man.
The third is reverence for what is beneath us; to learn to
recognise in pain, in sorrow and contradiction, even in thoee
things, odious to flesh and blood, what divine meanings
are in them; to learn that there lies in these also, and
more than in any of the preceding, a priceless blessing.
And he defines that as being the soul of the Christian
religion,—the highest of all religions; ‘ a height,’ as Goethe
says (and that is very true, even to the letter, as I con
sider), ‘ a height to which mankind was fated and enabled
to attain; and from which, having once attained it, they
can never retrograde.’ Man cannot quite lose that (Goethe
thinks), or permanently descend below it again; but
always, even in the most degraded, sunken, and unbe
lieving times, he calculates there will be found some few
souls who will recognise what this highest of the religions
meant; and that, the world having once received it, there
is no fear of its ever wholly disappearing.
The Eldest then goes on to explain by what methods
they seek to educate and train their boys; in the trades,
in the arts, in the sciences, in whatever pursuit the boy is
found best fitted for. Beyond all, they are anxious to dis
cover the boy’s aptitudes; and they try him and watch him
continually, in many wise ways, till by degrees they can
discover this. Wilhelm had left his own boy there, per
haps expecting they would make him a Master of Arts,
X
�38
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
or something of the kind; and on coming back for him,
he sees a thunder-cloud of dust rushing over the plain,
of which he can make nothing. It turns out to be a
tempest of wild horses, managed by young lads who had
a turn for horsemanship, for hunting, and being grooms.
His own son is among them || and 'he finds that the
breaking of colts has been the thing he was most suited
for. (Laughter?)
The highest outcome, and most precious of all the fruits
that are to spring from this ideal mode of educating, is
what Goethe calls Art:—of which I could at present give
no definition that would make it clear to you, unless it
were clearer already than is likely. (A laugh?) Goethe
calls it music, painting, poetry: but it is in quite a higher
sense than the common one ; and a sense in which, I am
afraid, most of our painters, poets, and music men, would
not pass muster. (A laugh?) He considers this as the
highest pitch to which human culture can go; infinitely
valuable and ennobling; and he watches with great in
dustry how it is to be brought about, in the men who have
a turn for it. Very wise and beautiful his notion of the
matter is. It gives one an idea that something far better
and higher, something as high as ever, and indubitably
true too, is still possible for man in this world.—And that
is all I can say to you of Goethe’s fine theorem of mute
education.
I confess it seems to me there is in it a shadow of what will
one day be; will and must, unless the world is to come to a
conclusion that is altogether frightful: some kind of scheme
of education analogous to that; presided over by the
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
39
wisest and most sacred men that can be got in the world,
and watching from a distance: a training in practicality
at every turn; no speech in it except speech that is to be
followed by action, for that ought to be the rule as nearly
as possible among men. Not very often or much, rarely
rather, should a man speak at all, unless it is for the sake
of something that is to be done; this spoken, let him go
and do his part in it, and say no more about it.
I will only add that it is possible,—all this fine theorem
of Goethe’s, or something similar ! Consider what we have
already ; and what ‘ difficulties ’ we have overcome. I
should say there is nothing in the world you can conceive
so difficult, prima facie, as that of getting a set of men
gathered together as soldiers. Rough, rude, ignorant, dis
obedient people; you gather them together, promise them
a shilling a day; rank them up, give them very severe
and sharp drill; and by bullying and drilling and com
pelling (the word drilling, if you go to the original,
means ‘beating,’ ‘steadily tormenting’ to the due pitch),
they do learn what it is necessary to learn; and there is
your man in red coat, a trained soldier; piece of an ani
mated machine incomparably the most potent in this
world; a wonder of wonders to look qt. He will go
where bidden; obeys one man, will walk into the can
non’s mouth for him; does punctually whatever is com
manded by his general officer. And, I believe, all
manner of things of this kind could be accomplished,
if there were the same attention bestowed. Very many
things could be regimented, organized into this mute
system;—and perhaps in some of the mechanical, com
�40
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
mercial, and manufacturing departments, some faint in
cipiences may be attempted before very long. For the
saving of human labour, and the avoidance of human
misery, the effects would be incalculable, were it set about
and begun even in part.
Alas, it is painful to think how very far away it all is,
any real fulfilment of such things! For I need not hide
from you, young gentlemen,—and it is one of the last
things I am going to tell you,—that you have got into a
very troublous epoch of the world; and I don’t think you
will find your path in it to be smoother than ours has been,
though you have many advantages which we had not.
You have careers open to you, by public examinations and
so on, which is a thing much to be approved of, and which
we hope to see perfected more and more. All that was
entirely unknown in my time, and you have many things
to recognise as advantages. But you will find the ways
of the world, I think, more anarchical than ever. Look
where one will, revolution has come upon us. We have
got into the age of revolutions. All kinds of things are
coming to be subjected to fire, as it were: hotter and hotter
blows the element round everything. Curious to see how,
in Oxford and other places that used to seem as lying at
anchor in the stream of time, regardless of all changes,
they are getting into the highest humour of mutation, and
all sorts of new ideas are afloat. It is evident that what
ever is not inconsumable, made of asbestos, will have to
be burnt, in this world. Nothing other will stand the
heat it is getting exposed to.
And in saying that, I am but saying in other words that
�AN AGE OF REVOLUTIONS.
41
we are in an epoch of anarchy. Anarchy plus a constable!
(Laughter?) There is nobody that picks one’s pocket
without some policeman being ready to take him up.
(?Renewed laughter?) But in every other point, man is
becoming more and more the son, not of Cosmos, but
of Chaos. He is a disobedient, discontented, reckless,
and altogether waste kind of object (the commonplace
man is, in these epochs); and the wiser kind of man,
—the select few, of whom I hope you will be part,—has
more and more to see to this, to look vigilantly forward ;
and will require to move with double, wisdom. Will
find, in short, that the crooked things he has got to pull
straight in his own life all round him, wherever he may
go, are manifold, and will task all his strength, however
great it be.
But why should I complain of that either ? For that is
the thing a man is born to, in all epochs. He is born to
expend every particle of strength that God Almighty has
given him, in doing the work he finds he is fit for; to
stand up to it to the last breath of life, and do his best.
We are called upon to do that; and the reward we all get,
—which we are perfectly sure of if we have merited it,—is
that we have got the work done, or at least that we have
tried to do the work. For that is a great blessing in itself;
and I should say, there is not very much more reward than
that going in this world. If the man gets meat and
clothes, what matters it whether he buy those neces
saries with seven thousand a year, or with seven million,
could that be, or with seventy pounds a year? He can
get meat and clothes for that; and he will find intrinsi
�42
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
cally, if he is a wise man, wonderfully little real differ
ence. (Laughter?)
On the whole, avoid what is called ambition; that is
not a fine principle to go upon,—and it has in it all de
grees of vulgarity, if that is a consideration. ‘ Seekest
thou great things, seek them notI warmly second that
advice of the wisest of men. Don’t be ambitious; don’t
too much need success; be loyal and modest. Cut down
the proud towering thoughts that get into you, or see that
they be pure as well as high. There is a nobler ambition
than the gaining of all California would be, or the getting
of all the suffrages that are on the Planet just now. (Loud
and prolonged cheers?)
Finally, gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which
is practically of very great importance, though a very
humble one. In the midst of your zeal and ardour,—
for such, I foresee, will rise high enough, in spite of all the
counsels to moderate it that I can give you,—remember
the care of health. I have no doubt you have among you
young souls ardently bent to consider life cheap, for the
purpose of getting forward in what they are aiming at of
high; but you are to consider throughout, much more than
is done at present, and what it would have been a very
great thing for me if I had been able to consider, that
health is a thing to be attended to continually; that you
are to regard that as the very highest of all temporal things
for you. (Applause?) There is no kind of achievement you
could make in the world that is equal to perfect health.
What to it are nuggets and millions ? The French financier
�HEALTH.
43
said, “ Why, is there no sleep to be sold !” Sleep was not
in the market at any quotation. {Laughter and applause?)
It is a curious thing, which I remarked long ago, and have
often turned in my head, that the old word for ‘holy’
in the Teutonic languages, heilig, also means ‘healthy.’
Thus Heilbronn means indifferently ‘holy-well,’ or ‘health
well.’ We have, in the Scotch too, ‘ hale,’ and its deriva
tives; and, I suppose, our English word ‘whole’ (with a
‘w’), all of one piece, without any hole in it, is the same
word. I find that you could not get any better defini
tion of what ‘holy’ really is than ‘healthy.’ Completely
healthy; mens sana in corpore sano. {Applause.) A
man all lucid, and in equilibrium. His intellect a clear
mirror geometrically plane, brilliantly sensitive to all
objects and impressions made on it, and imaging all
things in their correct proportions; not twisted up into
convex or concave, and distorting everything, so that he
cannot see the truth of the matter-without endless groping
and manipulation: healthy, clear, and free, and discerning
truly all round him. We never can attain that at all. In
fact, the operations we have got into are destructive of it.
You cannot, if you are going to do any decisive intellectual
operation that will last a long while; if, for instance, you
are going to write a book,—you cannot manage it (at
least, I never could) without getting decidedly made ill
by it: and really one nevertheless must; if it is your
business, you are obliged to follow out what you are at,
and to do it, if even at the expense of health. Only
remember, at all times, to get back as fast as possible out
of it into health; and regard that as the real equilibrium
�44
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
and centre of things. You should always look at the
heilig, which means 1 holy’ as well as ‘healtny.’l I
And that old etymology,—what a lesson it is against
certain gloomy, austere, ascetic people, who have gone
about as if this world were all a dismal prison-house. It
has indeed got all the ugly things in it which I have been
alluding to ; but there is an eternal sky over it; and the
blessed sunshine, the green of prophetic spring, and rich
harvests coming,—all this is in it, too. Piety does not
mean that a man should make a sour face about things,
and refuse to enjoy wisely what his Maker has given.
Neither do you find it to have been so with the best sort,
—with old Knox, in particular. No; if you look into
Knox you will find a beautiful Scotch humour in him, as
well as the grimmest and sternest truth when necessary,
and a great deal of laughter. We find really some of
the sunniest glimpses of things come out of Knox that I
have seen in any man; for instance, in his History of
the Reformation,—which is a book I hope every one of
you will read (Applause), a glorious old book.
On the whole, I would bid you stand up to your work,
whatever it may be, and not be afraid of it; not in sor
rows or contradictions to yield, but to push on towards the
goal. And don’t suppose that people are hostile to you or
have you at ill-will, in the world. In general, you will rarely
find anybody designedly doing you ill. You may feel often
as if the whole world were obstructing you, setting itself
against you: but you will find that to mean only, that
the world is travelling in a different way from you, and,
rushing on in its own path, heedlessly treads on you.
�A LAST WORD.
45
That is mostly all: to you no specific ill-will;—only each
has an extremely good-will to himself, which he has a right
to have, and is rushing on towards his object. Keep out
of literature, I should say also, as a general rule (Laughter),
—though that is by-the-by. If you find many people
who are hard and indifferent to you, in a world which you
consider to be inhospitable and cruel, as often indeed
happens to a tender-hearted, striving young creature, you
will also find there are noble hearts who will look kindly
on you; and their help will be precious to you beyond
price. You will get good and evil as you go on, and
have the success that has been appointed you.
I will wind up with a small bit of verse which is from
Goethe also, and has often gone through my mind. To me,
it has something of a modern psalm in it, in some mea
sure. It is deep as the foundations, deep and high, and it
is true and clear :—no clearer man, or nobler and grander
intellect has lived in the world, I believe, since Shakspeare left it. This is what the poet sings;—a kind of
road-melody or marching-music of mankind :
‘ The Future hides in it
Gladness and sorrow;
We press still thorow,
Nought that abides in it
Daunting us,—onward.
And solemn before us,
Veiled, the dark Portal;
Goal of all mortal:—
Stars silent rest o’er us,
Graves under us silent.
�46
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
While earnest thou gazest,
Comes boding of terror,
Comes phantasm and error;
Perplexes the bravest
With doubt and misgiving.
But heard are the Voices,
Heard are the Sages,
The Worlds and the Ages
“ Choose well, your choice is
Brief, and yet endless.
Here eyes do regard you,
In Eternity’s stillness;
Here is all fulness,
Ye brave, to reward you ;
Work, and despair not.” ’
Work, and despair not: Wir heissen euch hoffcn, We bid
you be of hope!’—let that be my last word. Gentlemen,
I thank you for your great patience in hearing me ;
and, with many most kind wishes, say Adieu for this
time.
EDINBURGH I THOMAS CONSTABLE,
PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
�
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Inaugural address at Edinburgh, April 2nd, 1866; by Thomas Carlyle, at being installed as Rector of the university there
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Carlyle, Thomas [1795-1881.]
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Place of publication: Edinburgh; London
Collation: 46 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: 'Authorised Report' [title page]. Later published under the title 'On the Choice of Books'. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Edmonston and Douglas; Chapman and Hall
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1866
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G5189
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Education
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Addresses
Education
Reading
Speeches
Thomas Carlyle
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Text
MATERIALS
roR
THE TRUE HISTORY
OP
L LORD PALMERSTON. • i
7. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CRIMES.
CASE OF ALLEGED BRIBERY.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 8. PROSTRATION OF PUBLIC CHARACTER
AND AUTHORITY.
CONNEXION WITH THE PRINCESS LIEVEN.
9. CHARACTER AS DISPLAYED IN THE
CAREER OF FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS.
CHANGE OF THE SUCCESSION TO DEN
PARALLEL CASE OF CHATEAUBRIAND—
MARK.
MINISTER OF FRANCE AND AGENT OF
10. CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING §IR JOHN
RUSSIA.
BOWRING.—(APPENDIX.)
6. CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
t
(REPRINTED FROM THE “FREE PRESS,” FROM MAY TO NOVEMBER, 1865.)
LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.
April, 1866.
Price One Shilling.
��Materials for the True History of
Lord Palmerston.
No. I.—Case of Bribery.
TO THE PRESIDENT OE THE FINAN struct themselves by all requisite study, so
that they may understand public affairs;
CIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.
having for years past applied themselves to
Saint Pancras Foreign Affairs Committee,
the examination of transactions in China,
June 21, 1865.
and having ample means for such inquiry in
Sir,—I recently, as Secretary to a Committee the published official documents ; had ascer
of Working Men in this Metropolis, signed a tained that Sir John Bowring had, in his
Memoir in reference to the conduct of Sir public capacity at Canton, lent himself to
John Bowring, and to the recent connexion the prosecution of a criminal and ruinous
of the Financial Reform Association with that policy dictated from home; and in doing so,
individual. To avoid placing that Association had had recourse to means so flagitious and
in the dilemma of having to justify its con disgraceful as to exclude him from the inter
duct, or confess its error, this Memoir was course of all honest men.
not addressed to it, but copies were sent to
Judging that the Financial Reform Asso
the office, and forwarded with or without
ciation, through neglect of these sources of
private letters to every member of the Council
in Liverpool, and to some leading members information, to which alone we look, had re
of the Association elsewhere. From the As mained in ignorance of such conduct on the
sociation we have received no communication. part of the individual referred to, and had
A notice of our Memoir has, however, been been surprised into intercourse with him, we
inserted in its organ, which I enclose here drew up the Memoir in question.
After an interval of six weeks—ample time
with, from the incapacity I feel to describe
or characterise it. I have to request to know for investigation and reflection—the organ of
whether this insertion has been made with the the Financial Reform Association published
knowledge and sanction of yourself, or of the the notice, the subject of this letter.
Council of the Financial Reform Association.
We should have supposed that any notice
Having discharged this duty, I have to ad of such charges must have been either a re
dress you, as President of the Association, on futation or a justification. We are answered
the subject of the statements thus put for merely by scoffing iteration of disjointed
ward in its organ to its members and the words, coupled with a justification, not of the
world, as a matter perfectly distinct from the acts we charge on Sir John Bowring, but
forms, usages, and courtesies of correspond of Sir John Bowring himself, notwithstand
ing those acts, because he made “ a capital
ence between individual men.
The origin of the Memoir, not published, free trade speech.”
What signifies it that the proof of delibe
but commented on in the Financial lieformer
(and not published at the time in any news rate falsehood stands in the Blue-book ?
paper), was the presence of Sir John Bow That on the 11th of October, 1856, Sir John
ring at a meeting of the Financial Reform Bowring wrote to his subordinate that the
Association. The Foreign Affairs Committee, Arrow had no right to carry the British flag,
on whose behalf I write, being, like many but that “ the Chinese had no knowledge of
others, composed of men whose object is not the expiry of the licencethat presuming
to advance any particular theory, but to in on this ignorance, he wrote to the Chinese
E
�2
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
Commissioner on the 14th of November,
“ There is no doubt the lorcha Arrow law
fully bore the British flag.” ?
What matters it that the end and aim of
this falsehood, and these unjust demands, was
to bring about the slaughter of helpless
Chinese without just cause, and without a
declaration of war, by military and naval
forces, with which they were quite unable to
contend, on the ground that Chinese subjects
had been taken out of a Chinese boat in
Chinese waters by a Chinese officer ? What
matters it that he should thus have “entailed
upon every British subject the guilt of
murder ?”*
What matters it that a Hong-Kong jury
should have found by their verdict that Sir
John Bowring was the accomplice of Mr.
Caldwell, the Registrar-General of HongKong, partner of pirates, and proprietor of
houses of ill fame ?t What matters it that
this Apostle of Tree-trade, Peace, and
Financial Reform should break the peace be
tween two great nations by hostilities founded
on a false pretext and supported by an “ ac
knowledged lie ?” thereby injuring and
fettering an important trade, and, by the
consequent expenses, preventing reduction
of expenditure and “ Financial Reform ?”
What matter these things ? says the organ of
the Financial Reform Association — “ Sir
John Bowring has made a ‘ capital Freetrade speech.’
* Sir James Graham, in the House of Commons, 17th
of August, 1860, said, “ If there were not a state of war
with China, the aspect of the case was fearful indeed ;
for without a declaration of war, any man who put an
end to the life of a Chinese was, by statute, guilty of
murder.”
f The following description of the administration of
Sir John Bowring at Hong-Kong was given by
his successor, Sir Hercules Robinson, after the conviction
of Machow Wong for piracy :
“ There is no doubt that Machow Wong had the
power, through Mr. Caldwell, of directing the move
ments of ships of war against pirates, or alleged pirates,
whenever he pleased.”
1! It was shown, during the progress of the investiga
tion, that Mr. Caldwell was entrusted with the power
of obtaining, on his own authority alone, the services of
men-of-war to proceed in search of alleged pirates; that
nothing further was required of him than that he should
say he had received information of an act of piracy, and
that, with no greater formality than this, he should apply
personally to the senior naval officer for the assistance
of one or more ships, or boats, embark himself in one of
them, describe the place to which they should proceed,
and there point out the vessels or place to be attacked.”
“ If the mere landing of cargo captured at sea -would
justify the firing of a town, I fear a similar pretext
might be found daily for the bombardment of the capital
of Hong-Kong.”
J The expenditure of England at the time when the
Financial Reform Association was formed for the purpose
This must be the impression of any un
prejudiced person, after reading our Memoir
and the article in the Financial Reformer.
Sir John Bowring has either been guilty
of these things, or he has not. It is impos
sible to deny that he has, since the evidence
is on record, and is supplied by himself. If
he has, loss of character must surely ensue to
any one who associates with him. Further,
the extinction of its corporate purpose in an
Association, having economy for its end,
must follow its acceptance of the patronage
of a man whose public acts have entailed
“ profligate expenditure,” and who is also the
servant of a Government whose extravagance
that Association seeks to expose and correct.
We submit that, under such circumstances,
your Association must be suspected by the
thoughtful, and must tend to mislead those
who look to it as a guide.
We beg of you to consider the conse
quences that must ensue to all of us from
this loss of the sense of justice and of right.
Akenside has said, “ No nation ever lost its
liberties at home till it had been made the
tool of designing men against the liberties of
others.” If we make ourselves the accom
plices of Sir J. Bowring in destroying the
Chinese, surely we shall deserve that as we
have meted unto others, even so shall it be
meted unto us. If we lay down the rule that
might is right in respect to the Chinese,
where shall we stop ? We see some of the
results in India and New Zealand, and we
cannot suppose we shall end there, if those
who should set an example of honour and
consistency will give countenance to and
take by the hand the men who, by breaking
the law, involve us in these wasteful and dis
graceful quarrels.
But it is not merely that such toleration is
a participation in, and an encouragement to,
cruelty and extravagance. Sir John Bow
ring is himself ashamed of his crimes, for
he uses falsehood to justify them. Having
used falsehood to carry out his purpose
against the Chinese, he falsely declares at
home that he bombarded Canton to protect
the crew of the Arrow, the truth being,
according to the statement sent home by
himself’, that he gave up the -crew of the
Arrow in order that he might have an excuse
for bombarding Canton. Surely the sense of
their position as gentlemen must &rbid the
Council of your Association to continue to
of controlling its extravagance was 54,(100,000?. The
expenditure of England is now 66,000,000/. This
increase being almost, wholly dependent upon the acts of
the Foreign Department.
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
3
exception of these two insertions from other
papers, there is no hint in the Free Press of
bribery as connected with Lord Palmer
ston, and no mention of a sum of money
paid to him or to any other Minister. Thus
the Financial Reformer itself puts forward
what it considers an atrocious calumny
against the Premier, falsely charges another
paper with putting it forward, and then uses
its own assertion to justify the connexion of
the Einancial Reform Association with a
disreputable subordinate.
Now, as to the belief that a bribe, not of
30,000Z., but of 20,000Z., was paid to Lord
Palmerston ; the members of this Com
“ The London Free Press, the organ of Mr. David
Urquhart, has made a most remarkable discovery, mittee do unquestionably entertain it, and
one which may even match with the revelation that the special grounds on which they do so
Lord Palmerston, being totally cleaned out of land have been furnished to them not by the
and fortune by losses at a gaming-house, was then Free Press, but through the agency of Mr.
and there, or shortly afterwards, pounced upon by
the Princess Lieven with a bribe of 30,0001, and Macqueen, Secretary to the Einancial Re
became thenceforth, what the Free Press believes him form Association, and doubtless the author
still, viz. the bond-slave and tool of Russia, work of the article in the Financial Reformer.
ing everywhere, even when fighting against her, as The inquiry referred to took place because
in the Crimea, in furtherance of Russian aggran Mr. Macqueen, who now brings up the
disement.”
holding of this belief as a proof of extreme
We fail to perceive wbat connexion there folly, actually gave, as a proof of inconsis
can be between this “ revelation,” whatever tency against the very same persons,, that
its value, and the charges we make against they never even alluded to any such belief.
Sir J. Bowring, founded on passages from
During forty years there have, doubtless,
his own despatches, published in the Blue- been whisperings on the subject in diplo
books. Still less can we perceive how such a matic circles, but these would never have
“ belief” in the mind of any journal or person taken a substantial shape, far less would
can be adduced, either as controverting the they have reached the knowledge of persons
avowal of Sir John Bowring that he made occupying so humble a station as ours. The
use of a falsehood to bring about the bom Premier has been continually, during many
bardment of CantoD, or as showing that years, openly and boldly charged with
honest men can associate with a person who' Treason, in the public journals, in the
makes such an avowal otherwise than as a House of Commons, in a variety of pub
confession of guilt—for such is the matter at lished works, and even by the Financial
issue between the AzkawcwZ Reformer and Reform Association itself.
ourselves.
I.
But what renders this passage still more
CHARGES IN THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
extraordinary is that the newspaper referred
On the 15th December, 1837, the Times
to as the source of this extravagant belief
has not a single word, either asserting, or contained the following :—
implying, such a “ belief.” The Free Press “ Our dissection of Lord Palmerston’s speech
in which the correspondence on this subject has called forth a defence, at which, though unex
first appeared was published at Sheffield pected, we are not astonished.
“ We should not have thought it wrorth while to
under a different- management. We have notice it, but for the painful consideration that we
searched the files of the Free Press, under are replying to the individual who disgraces the
its present management, from its first number station of Minister for Foreign Affairs. We are
in August, 1856, down to its last, and have accused of having preferred charges against Lord
. That duty belongs not to
found no original article or paragraph con Palmerstonof his impeachment arrives, his us ; and
when the day
bitterest
taining a trace of such belief. Two inser enemies could not wish him a more damning de
tions from other journals we have indeed fence.
found, which mention the subject, one from “ The distinct accusations again st Her Majesty’s
the Birmingham Journal, the other from the ‘Foreign Secretary,’which we are stated ‘to wish
to establish,’ are thus quoted:—
Sheffield Free Press. Even these articles
“ 1st Charge.—‘ That Lord Palmerston has given
do not use the word “bribery” or make the sanction and assent of England to the augmen
mention of any particular sum. With the tation of the Russian navy.’
B 2
associate with a man who is now proved to
be in the habit of telling falsehoods. Surely
the most meagre capacity will be able to see
that in an agitation in which a good speech
is held to outweigh a bad action, there must
at least be ; the presumption that such a
speech is not insincere. Sir John Bowring
made speeches for free trade and peace be
fore, as well as after,his unprovoked bom
bardment of a “Commercial City.” How can
his speech be true whose life is a lie ?
But there is another part <5f this singular
article which has caused us the greatest sur
prise. It is as follows :—
�4
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
2nd Charge.—‘ That his Lordship has given the
same sanction to the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi.’
“3rd Charge.—‘That his Lordship has relieved
Russia from anxiety as to any intervention on the
part of England in the Circassian 5var,’
“4th and Sth Charges.—‘ That his Lordship has
exhibited a Minister of England supporting in the
House of Commons the policy of the Russian Go
vernment, and avowing that co-operation and con
cert between the two Governments under circum
stances which can only appear throughout Europe,
and Asia, and India as the result of a necessity
which Russia had influenced, and which England
had not the power to resist.’
“ We admit that our words are correctly extracted,
and our meaning fairly represented.”
On the 1st January, 1838, it wrote as
follows:—
“Lord Palmerston actually supports Russia in
her aggressions against Circassia, whilst in Greece,
jvhich his Lordship boasts of having raised to a
state of freedom and independence, he has, during
seven years, been the instrument of Russia in extin
guishing those municipal and representative rights
which the Ambassadors of England and France
affirmed, during the Conference at Poros, that it
would be cruel, unjust, and even dangerous, to de
prive them of.”
And again, on the same day:—
“ What does Lord Palmerston mean by denying
that he has interfered in the Circassian War? lias
he not prostituted truth itself in favour of Russia
and against Circassia? Has he not knowingly as
serted an untruth in stating that Soudjouk Kale
was in de facto military possession of Russia when
the testimony of his own countrymen proved the
reverse?”
On the 20th April, 1838, the Times ac
cused Lord Palmerston of garbling docu
ments, a charge since brought home to him
by Mr. Dunlop and Mr. Bright in the
case of the Affghan Forgeries:—
quoting similar passages from the Herald |
and the Post.
i
II.
1
CHARGES IN PARLIAMENT.
On the 23rd February, 1848, Mr. Anstet,
in bringing forward a Motion for papers with |
a view to the impeachment suggested by the ,
Times ten years before, said :—
“ I charge the noble Lord with the wilful and
deliberate betrayal of the Circassians, the ally of
England, who had been encouraged by a recommen
dation to open trade with this country. I charge
the noble Lord with their betrayal to the deadly
foe of this country as well as their own ; and I
charge him further, with the deliberate betrayal and
violation of the honour and safety of Great Britain,
and of the rights of British merchants; whose losses
remain uncompensated to this hour. I charge the
noble Lord with having done this, with the design
and with the effect of transferring to a foreign"Power,
the dominion of an independent territory, which it
was necessary for that Power to possess in the pro
secution of her designs against our Indian Empire.
I further charge the noble Lord with having deceived
the Parliament with false statements and suppressions
offact in reference to this matter. And I charge
him with having practised the same deception upon
his colleagues, and upon his Sovereign. Therefore,
sir, combining these charges together, and as the
necessary result thereof, I, in the last place charge
the noble Lord with the superadded guilt of High
Treason. And, sir, I undertake to prove all these
charges to the very letter. When the noble Lord
shall lay the papers I demand before this House, I
will prove my charges before any tribunal this
House may think fit to appoint.”
And again:—
“ I recal here an incident narrated by a gentleman
whom I will name—for his authority for the state
ment has been cited in a printed document in 1841,
with his full knowledge, and without the least pro
test or disapprobation on his part, and was never
“ In exposing the general ruin of the interests of protested against—I refer to Mr. Porter, of the
England in foreign countries, through the miscon Board of Trade. He was the gentleman who, in
duct of our Foreign Minister, we have already 1840, negotiated, with so much success, the Treaty
entered at length into the question of the north-east of Commerce with France. Mr. Porter, then of the
boundary of the United States. The papers pre Board of Trade, has been promoted to a higher
sented to Parliament, a part of which we published office. I presume, therefore, that he enjoys the con
yesterday entire, and of which an analysed abstract fidence of the colleagues of the noble Lord. Now,
will be found in another portion of our columns this on this gentleman’s being selected, in 1840—before
day, not only go to confirm entirely the view we had the Treaty of July—by the then colleagues of the
previously expressed of Lord Palmerston’s crimi noble Lord, in consequence of his connexion with
nality, but exhibit his character in a point of view the Board of Trade, to negotiate a Treaty of Com
even more contemptible than that by which it has merce with France, Mr. Porter informed those
already become known and execrated. Not the Ministers that he was confident that, whatever
least'interesting feature in those papers is the art treaty he might negotiate for such a purpose, would
with which the particular documents on which the be interfered with by the noble Lord, and either
question turns have been transferred from the chro brought to nothing, or, as in the case of the Turkish
nological order, in which they ought to have been Treaty, perverted to the ruin of its objects. Mr.
placed, to the appendix, whereby the reader is led Porter, therefore, demanded and obtained this con
into the belief that the despatches and diplomatic dition from the then Ministry—that the Treaty
notes, extending over a hundred folio pages, repre should be kept out of the Foreign Office, and that he
sent a bond fide negotiation, whereas they only con should not be called upon to report to, or receive
ceal the fraud previously practised by Lord Pal. any instructions whatever from, the noble Lord or
mekston on his colleagues and his country, in his department, in the conduct of that negotiation.
allowing the United States to violate the Convention On the faith of that condition alone he undertook
to which both the President and the Senate, and, the mission. It is further stated, on the same gen
consequently, the State of Maine through its repre tleman’s authority, and in the same document, that
he brought the matter to a happy conclusion; that *
sentatives, were solemnly pledged.”
the French Government were quite ready to adopt,
To save time and space, we refrain from sign, and ratify the Treaty which he had framed;
I
J
J
'
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
that they were most willing to adopt it; that it was
based upon the most perfect system of free trade
and reciprocity; and that, in spite of the precautions
he had taken, and the conditions he had exacted,
that Treaty was, at length, set aside by the noble
Lord. There is no doubt that the direct act of the
noble Lord occasioned its failure. An insulting
despatch on the subject was addressed by the noble
Lord to the French Minister, which occasioned the
utter shipwreck of that Treaty ; and all chance of
renewing the negotiations with respect to it was, in
consequence of that event, as well as of those of
July, 1840, made for ever afterwards impracticable.
Sir, I state this on the authority of Mr. Porter,
and I refer to the fact of his recent appointment as
showing that, notwithstanding that declaration was
made in 1841, the noble Lord has not induced liis
colleagues to disgrace that gentleman.”
In Lord Palmerston’s deliberate reply of
five hours, which he made, holding in his
hand the printed slips of Mr. Ansley’s
speech, not only was no answer made upon
this point, but no notice whatever was taken
of the subject.
Subserviency to or rather collusion with
Russia, betrayal of Russia’s foes, the telling
of falsehoods, and the garbling of docu
ments ; these are the charges made in the
press and in Parliament.
We now come to
III.
CHARGES MADE BY THE FINANCIAL REFORM
ASSOCIATION.
5
sixty thousand men, had therefore kept to the original
Convention, and was therefore entitled, &c., &c. The
argument is noticeable for this reason, that the Duke
of Wellington and Earl Grey, who were in office
together with his Lordship, both averred that such
offer had never reached their ears; and, whatever
may have been the case with the Earl, the Duke’s
memory, it is well known, gripped like a vice.”—
Page 7.
In May, 1865, the Financial Reformer
sneers, as the height of absurdity, at the
belief of the Free Press, that Lord Palmer
ston has been “ working every where, even
when fighting against her, as in the Crimea,
in furtherance of Russian aggrandisement.”
But in May, 1855, when the fighting in
the Crimea was actually going on; when Mr.
Urquhart had declared that the “Pour
Points” were Russian, and that the Allies
were doing all they could to destroy Turkey
the Einancial Reform Association was the
only public body which gave utterance to
similar views.
Their Tract No. IX, New Series, contains
the following:—
“ The independence of Europe was vitally as
sailed, its best bulwark against Muscovite inva
sion was struck down, and treaties were most
grossly violated when Poland was incorporated in
the Russian Empire. No hand was raised to help
the noble, chivalric, and Christian Poles, who saved
Austria from falling under the Turkish yoke; and
Europe is now reaping the fruit of her acquiescence
in that most iniquitous transaction ; for the Poles,
whom she abandoned and betrayed, are fighting
compulsorily in the ranks of the aggressor. As to
the independence of the Ottoman Empire, that is at
an end, whether Russia triumphs or the Allies. It
was substantially compromised and destroyed, both
in the original Four Points, which the Allies were
ready to force on the Sublime Porte, until the Rus
sian interpretation of them showed the justice of the
Turkish objection, that they conceded more to Russia
than Russia had demanded; and also in the latest
amended version of them, which has recently va
nished in fumo at Vienna,” page 8.
These charges are similar to the former
ones. Their pamphlet on the Russo-Dutch
Loan, published in 1855, accused Lord Pal
merston of having saddled England with a
debt she did not owe, by a falsehood con
certed with, the Russian Ambassador.
In 1857, the Annual Report of the Asso
ciation referred to this pamphlet as showing
how British interests and British money
were sacrificed by diplomacy. Some years
afterwards, this pamphlet being out of print,
When the Secret Correspondence with the
the Association published what professed to
be its “ substance.” We extract two passages. Emperor of Russia was published, the
The first charged upon England subserviency public were shocked only at the ambition of
the Czar, but Mr. Urquhart declared that
to Russia.
that correspondence proved the complicity of
“ In the reign of the second Charles, and of
the second James, England was the Pensioner the British Government in his designs. This
of France; in our own days she is the Tribu doctrine, held by the public opinion of the
tary of Russia.”—Page 8.
day to be insane and calumnious was, never
These, “ our own days,” namely, from 1830 theless, boldly put forward by the Einancial
to 1860, comprehend thirty years, during Reform Association. The pamphlet already
more than twenty of which the foreign rela quoted from says:—
tions of England have been in the hands of “ Sir Hamilton Seymour discouraged these im
perial schemes of spoliation, so far as he dared, and
Lord Palmerston.
The second passage reiterates the charge of communicated them, with his own impressions, to
his superiors at home. And what did our Ministers?
falsehood told in the service of Russia.
Instead of protesting, in the name of threatened
“A noticeable argument was pressed into the
service in one of the Debates on this subject, by
Lord Palmerston, who declared that, at the time
of the Belgic-Dutch quarrel in 1830, Russia had
offered to come to the assistance of Holland with
Europe, against the meditated aggression, and de
claring that it would be opposed with all the power
of Britain, they addressed him in terms of fulsome
adulation, assuring him, indeed, that England would
take no part of the spoil, but complimenting him on
�6
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
his magnanimity, his generosity, and the services
3
which he had rendered to Europe—most especially
£
to the Christian population of Turkey. The Czar
I
having thus no reason to believe that Great Britain
would oppose any substantial obstacle to his designs,,
sought an active accomplice in France; and though
i
failing there also, he was undoubtedly encouraged to
’
proceed, on the supposition, that by neither would
3
he be opposed separately, and that an armed alliance
1
between them was impossible. Hence he proceeded
in his career of aggression, step by step, with the con
currence or acquiescence of the Four Powers, until,”
&c, page 9.
This is a general charge against the
3
Ministry. We go on therefore to page 15 :—
'
“ Passing from the Ministry to its head, what has
’
Lord Palmerston done to justify the general ex
pectation ? Never was so entire a failure; never
?
did man so completely disappoint the predictions of
f
his friends, or justify the anticipations of his enemies..
.... Many of his appointments, both civil and[
military, might have been deliberately designed to>
insult, outrage, and defy the national feeling; in no>
instance has be put the right man in the right place;,
on the gravest and most melancholy subjects he has1
thought it befitting the dignity of his station to
indulge in miserable jokes and evasions, and his'
whole conduct since his accession to the chief power
of the State has been such, that it can only be ac.
counted for on the supposition that he has lost, or’
never had, the talent attributed to him, or on Mr. David
Urquhart’s startling theory that, in deliberate
purpose as well as in practical effect, Lord Palmer
'
ston is, and has long been, playing the game of
Russia.”
The part of Mr. Macqueen in furnishing
us with this key was as follows. It was submitted to the Financial Reform Association
that the increase of expenditure against
which they, struggled, might be dependent
on a general purpose prompted by a foreign
Power, and that consequently it was desirable
for the Association to institute a general inquiry into the source and effect of those
diplomatic and military operations which had
so vastly increased the public expenditure.
Mr. Crawshay wrote in this sense to the
Secretary of the Financial Reform Association on the 5th September, 1855 :—
“I write to ask you whether you would think it
of any use to have demonstration that the late Mr.
Porter, of the Board of Trade, lived and died in
the conviction, derived from his own observation,
whilst in office, that in commercial treaties due interests were systematically and wilfully sacrificed by
Lord Palmerston to those of Russia?”
This proposition was met on the part of
Mr. Macqueen, by denying that any such
inquiry could be prosecuted unless it were
“ proved that Lord Palmerston was actuated by corrupt personal motive.”
Mr. M ac queen replied, September 21:—
“ Supposing that you do prove not only that such
was Mr. Porter’s conviction, but that that con
viction was correct, you will give no additional
weight to Mr. Collet’s charge of treason against
Lord Palmerston, unless you can also prove that
his Lordship was actuated by some corrupt personal
motive in his subserviency to Russia..........................
“In this way he has blundered wofully; but
thus to err is a very different thing to deliberate
treason, which is the accusation brought by Mr.
Collet against his Lordship. To give the slightest
colour of probability to this, corrupt motives must
be shown, and if not proved, it must at least be alleged
that Lord Palmerston is, in plain terms, the
bribed tool of Russia. This, so far as I am
aware, has not been suggested by Mr. Collet, or
even by Mr. David Urquhart, the most virulent
and the most mysterious of his Lordship’s assailants,
whose hatred and suspicion seem almost to amount
to monomania.”
The alternative of incompetency is here
put in such a light as to show its absurdity.
This is, therefore, a charge of Treason. It is
not the less so because it is extorted from
the writer by his utter inability to explain in
any other way the things which have been
done.
If the Financial Reform Association has
now become able to explain the secret of
events by some other “theory,” a vindica
tion of Lord Palmerston’s character is due
at their hands. Till that vindication appears,
it is, to say the least, in very bad taste to
sneer at others for holding views which they
This letter is iu striking contrast with
themselves once held, and which they still
the article in the Financial Reformer for
feel themselves unable to refute.
This charge of treason, made alike in the May last. The belief there held up to
press, in Parliament, and in thq publications ridicule, namely, that Lord Palmerston was
of the Financial Reform Association, has in working for Russia in the Crimea, has
variably grown out of the several trans been shown to have been put forward by the
actions examined ; and, each presenting the Financial Reform Association. The article
same result, it is but natural that the mem- further stigmatises us for believing that Lord
:
bers of the Foreign Affairs Committee which .Palmerston has received a sum of money
drew up the Memoir on Sir John Bowring, ifrom Russia. But in the letter just quoted,
should have yielded their “belief” to the .Mr. Macqueen declares that without making
motive suggested by a payment of money esuch a charge no other can be of any avail.
alleged, on grounds apparently authoritative, He further adds that it is not necessary to
commencing at a period antecedent to ]prove the charge, but only to allege it.
Doubtless Mr. Macqueen deemed his
Lord Palmerston’s enkry into the Cabinet
suggestion to be an effectual way to arrest
and coincident with a period of known ex- s
treme embarrassment in his circumstances, iinquiry. The effect, however, was different.
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
The Committee to which this reply was given
had already applied itself to collect evidence
on the subject.
From the evidence then forwarded, the fol
lowing are extracts:
ALLEGED BBIBEBY OF LOBD
PALMEBSTON.
REPORT OF THE NEWCASTLE COMMITTEE.
The Committee appointed to obtain evidence as to
the fact of the charge having been made by the late
Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade, against Lord
Palmerston, of having received money from Russia
in the form of a gambling debt, have to report:—■
1. That Mr. Porter, whilst in office at the Board
of Trade, during the administration of Lord Mel
bourne, and whilst Lord Palmerston was Foreign
Minister, formed and expressed the conviction, as the
result of his own observation, and of facts within his
own knowledge, that Lord Palmerston systemati
cally sacrificed the interests of England to those of
Russia, in matters relating to commercial treaties.
2. That Mr. Porter did not conceal this convic
tion from his official chief, the President of the Board
of Trade, Lord Palmerston’s colleague ; but that,
on the contrary, when, in 1840, he was offered a mis
sion to Paris, for the purpose of negotiating a com
mercial treaty with France, he declined to accept
•that mission, except on the express condition that
he should have no communication to make to the
Foreign Office, assigning, as a reason for this demand,
his conviction that his endeavours to conclude such
a treaty would be treacherously thwarted by the
Chief of that department.
3. That this condition was submitted to; and Mr.
Porter, in consequence, withdrew his objections to
and undertook the mission to Paris.
4. That whilst in office, under Mr. Gladstone,
during Sir R. Peel’s administration, Mr. Porter
adhered to his former convictions, and, in addition,
charged Lord Palmerston with having received
Russian money; alleging that the agent in this trans
action was a Jew, by name Jacob James Hart,
who formerly kept a gambling-house, near St.
James’s-street, and who was subsequently appointed
British Consul at Leipsic, by Lord Palmerston ; and
that he had ascertained this in consequence of in
quiries made by the Government, with a view of
cancelling the appointment of Hart.
5. That, independently of Mr. Porter’s evidence,
it is an indubitable fact, to be ascertained by any
who will take the trouble to inquire, as we have
done, that Jacob James Hart did keep a gambling
house, and was appointed by Lord Palmerston to
be British Consul at Leipsic, where he was universally
shunned as a most disreputable character.
The committee subjoin evidence which they have
taken:
G. Crawshay.
William Stewart.
F. Carr.
George Stobart.
Robert Bainbridge. James Watson.
John Younge.
John Jewitt.
Newcastle, September 20, 1855.
STATEMENT OF MR. URQUHART BEFORE
THE COMMITTEE.
Newcastle, June 2, 1855.
The communication respecting Hart—the consular
agent at Leipsic, was made to me (to the best of my
recollection, in August, 1841), in Mr. MacGregor’s
room, adj oining that of Mr. Gladstone, who was there
at the time, by Mr. MacGregor and Mr. Porter,
in presence of Col. Taylor, and in consequence of a
note from Mr. Porter to me, requesting my attend
ance atthe Board of Trade to receive a communication
of the gravest importance. I received this communi
cation as from Mr. Gladstone, with a view of its
being published, in order to enable the Government
to cancel the appointment, and so to free them in
that respect from the pressure that Lord Palmer
stone could apply to them. I immediately declined
having anything to do with a charge of that descrip
tion.
Q. What was the charge ?
A. That this Hart had been an agent employed by
Princess Lieven for the payment of certains sums to
Lord Palmers ton, in the form of money lost at a
gambling-table.
Q. What was the sum ?
A. The sums mentioned were two sums of 10,000?.
each.
Q. At what period ?
A. In the year ’25 or ’26, but I cannot answer with
precision on this point.
Q. Why did you decline ?
A. Because my charges against Lord Palmerston bore
upon his acts, and I could have nothing to do with a matter
such as this. Not only did I decline making use of the
information so tendered, but during these thirteen years, I
have never mentioned the incident, until recently called upon
to state whether such and such a thing had taken place. I
must add that the matter had not for us the importance
which it seems to have now for you.
Q. Had you heard of this charge before the com
munication from these gentlemen ?
A. No.
Q. Are you prepared to make an affidavit of the
above statements ?
A. Certainly.
INQUIRY AT LEIPSIC.
September 20, 1855.
I have made inquiries in Leipsic, through a London
solicitor, about Hart. The answers represent Hart
as universally shunned in Leipsic, as disreputable.
That the appointment was generally accounted for
by the supposition that Lord Palmerston owed him
money, and that there was a rumour of Hart’s
having exhibited a complimentary letter to himself
from Lord Palmerston.
G. Crawshay.
Questions.
1. Who was the British Consul at Leipsic, during
the years 1837, ’38, ’39, ’40, and ’41 ?
2. Was a Jew of the name of Hart ever British
Consul at Leipsic, during any of these years, or near
that time ?
3. If so, was not the appointment objected to
by the British and other residents at Leipsic, as dis
reputable, and at last withdrawn ?
4. Was it not pretty well known that Hart
exhibited to many persons at Leipsic a letter from
Lord Palmerston, expressing regret that he had no
better office to give him ?
Answers.
I received your favour of the 14th instant', and
came to-day in the state to give you the following
replies on your questions :—
1 and 2. The British Consul at Leipsic, during
the named time, has been a person who was thought
a Jew, of the name of Hart.
�8
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
3. Not officially, till a member of the House of’ S’ R; PoRT,ER> of the Board of Trade, and also, to
Commons called attention of the Government to it.
rSt nF my recolle,ction, by Mr. J. McGregor,
A more disreputable person, or one more unfit to fill
. M.l. for Glasgow, on the occasion of my calling at
a situation of British Consul, could scarcely have
Lowndes-square, with a friend, who was
been found : it was generally believed that Lord‘ his> house inwith him.
acquainted
Palmerston must have owed him money.
In reference to the very Neapolitan Treaty of
4. Such a report was in existence, but there is1 which Mr. . Monteith speaks in his letter I renobody to be found who has actually seen a letter “ember being in conversation with JosephHume,
of this kind.
, at his house in Bryanstone-square, when Lord PalA son of Dr. Southwood Smith, of the name of
s character for untruthfulness was
Herman Smith, in London, was at one time doing merstonMr. Hume exclaimed :—“ Oh! we allspoken
of; and
know
the business of the Consulate here; he is most likely the value of Lord Palmerston’s denials. I was in
in London now, and may be a proper person to o-ive the House of Commons when he denied the exist
information.
°
ence of the Commercial Treaty with Naples, and I
I shall keep a further look-out about this affair, turned round to Labouchere, and said, ‘ Why, Laand if I should hear anything more, I shall not fail bouchere, I know the drawer at the Board of Trade
to let you know.
in which that Treaty lies.’ ”
Leipsic, May, 1855.
DAVID ROSS OF BLADENSBURGH, TO THE NEW
r. Monteith, esq., to the Newcastle committee.
CASTLE COMMITTEE.
(Extract.)
(Extract.)
Carstairs House, Lanark, May 4, 1855.
.
Rostrevor, April 19, 1855.
My surprise was great at receiving a reply in terms
lhe circumstances connected with Mr. Porter’s
and manner of the greatest respect, of more than
respect, for the person referred to. Sir John mission to Paris were as follows:—In 1840, the
McNeil declined, indeed, to adopt the great charge Board of Trade was anxious to conclude a commer
against Palmerston; but of Mr. Urquhart he cial treaty with France, and the mission was offered
spoke as a man of the highest capacity, the most to Mr. Porter. He accepted it, on the condition that
minute knowledge of international affairs, and the he should have no communication to make to the
Foreign Office, as, to use his own words—“ I know
most perfect integrity.
In Mr. Porter I discovered the proof that, among the chief of that department to be a liar, and I be
the working officers of the State, among men of the lieve him to be a traitor.” These words were spoken
highest standing, character, and experience, the con to his official chief and colleague of Lord Palmers
clusions of Mr. Urquhart were acknowledged as ton in the cabinet. But, as I before observed, this
the secret of events, and accepted as the only clue to occurred before he had cognisance of the transaction
otherwise incomprehensible facts; others who had with the Jew. The words had reference to previous
professed to know Mr. Urquhart to be in the right, transactions of commercial treaties, in which Mr.
and that they lived on in the anguish of their con vic- MacGregor was engaged, and which were thwarted
:
tions, sustained by the hope that he who had a cou- •by Lord Palmerston, particularly the Neapolitan,
which Lord Palmerston falsely declared, in the
rage beyond their own, would yet succeed in awaken
House of Commons, had no existence.
ing England.
C. ATTWOOD, ESQ. TO THE SAME.
(Extract.)
Tow Law, May 12, 1855.
I was told, in the Turkish Association rooms, last
summer (but I am not sure by whom), that Mr.
Walpole, a member of the Association, had said
that his father, Lord Orford, had said, speaking to
him about these charges, at breakfast, a few days be
fore:—“Oh, as to Lord Palmerston having got
Russian money, that is not only a fact, but I know
the man by whom, and the occasion when it was paid
to him.”
Perhaps this may be the case you refer to. If so
this is all I know about it.
’
FROM STEWART ERSKINE ROLLAND, ESQ.
June 5, 1855.
Having read the above, I beg to state that I am
the person referred to by Mr. Attwood, as having
given him the anecdote of Lord Orford and Mr.
Walpole. Mr. Walpole’s words to me were to
this effect:—“My father said to me, ‘Are you only
beginning to find out that Palmerston sold himself?
We have known all along when it was, and how
much he got.’ ”
F. MARX, ESQ., TO THE NEWCASTLE COMMITTEE.
(Extract.)
Arlebury, Hants, Aug. 20, 1855.
Whether Hart had been employed to lose 20,-000/.
of Russian money to Palmerston, at a gambling
house, and subsequently received his appointment, as
a reward for this service, I know not; but I heard
the statement made as one of positive fact, by Mr.
THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Rostrevor, April 7, 1855.
The circumstances, as related by Mr. Porter to
me, are as follows:—
There was a Jew, a British Consul at Leipsic,
who was considered, both by native and British
merchants, as a most discreditable representative of
England, particularly as it was ascertained that he
had been the keeper of a gambling-house somewhere
about St. James’s-street. An attempt was made to
get him removed, and the matter was brought before
Sir R. Peel’s government. But that government
experienced such fierce and violent opposition from
Lord Palmerston, who had made the appointment
originally, that they gave way. The secret of Lord
Palmerston’s adherence to such a disreputable
character came then to be inquired into, and it was
found that Lord Palmerston, at a time when he
was in great pecuniary embarrassment, I think
about 1825, was told by Princess Lieven to go to
the . gambling-house kept by this Jew, where a
foreigner was instructed to lose to him 30,000/. in
two nights.
Mr. Porter spoke of this openly to many persons,
amongst others to Mr. Bright, as he confessed to
me some time ago.
There is another person who can give evidence on
this matter I am inclined to think, for I have never '
spoken to him on the subject, but whether he will is
another matter, and that is Mr. MrcGregor, M.P. for
Glasgow. He was at the Board of Trade at the time,
and most intimate with Mr. Porter. He would
know what Mr. Porter believed. He should know
'
j
•
’
i
i
’
■'
(
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
9
of his own knowledge. He knows also what Lord Pal ‘That Russian gold had found its way into the
House.’ I read that speech in the Era weekly
merston did in respect to the Neapolitan treaty.
my eye
a placard
The same allegation had been openly made newspaper; of one of having been caught by was sold,
at the door
the shops at which it
in Parliament, without denial, by Mr. on the Sunday following its publication, and which
Thomas Attwood, in the House of Com referred in large letters to that speech and charge.
I was much struck with the fact that I had read no
mons, August 6, 1839.
such report of that speech as made by him in any of
“It has been thought and said that Russian gold the daily papers. The first time I saw him after
has found its way into this House. I do not mean wards I adverted to it, and he told me that it was
to accuse the noble Lord of having received Russian correct, and that he did use the above-quoted words,
gold, but the idea has gone abroad that Russian gold in the presence of Lord Palmerston, and as applied
has found its way into this House. The noble Lord to him, and not a word was said in answer.”
cannot but be aware that charges involving crimi
The report of Mr. T. Attwood’s speech
nality of a serious nature have been put forth against
him—in print, too—not alone in the daily and will be found in Hansard’s Debates.
The next witness called in disproof by Mr.
weekly press, but in pamphlets and works, some of
which I now hold in my hand—not the productions Macqueen is the late Mr. MacGregor,
of obscure and unknown individuals, but respectable M.P. for Glasgow, a Director of the British
gentlemen, having filled high offices—secretaries of
embassy—employes and proteges of the noble Lord Bank, and formerly Under Secretary of the
himself. Mr. Urquhart and Mr. Parish have Board of Trade. The statement of Mr. Mac
brought forward these accusations, and supported queen respecting his evidence is as follows :—
them by documentary evidence. God forbid that I
“ There is no truth whatever (says Mr. Mac
should say that they are true ; but they are uncon Gregor) with regard to what is said in the Sheffield
tradicted—they have gone forth to the country, and Free Press, in asserting that I could corroborate the
why is it that the noble Lord has not instituted legal pro charges against Lord Palmerston; nor do I believe
ceedings against these gentlemen? I think it right to there is a single word of truth in the charges made
state to the noble Lord, that the country expected against him by Mr. Urquhart and others. Why did
that he would have taken such a course, as a means not Mr. Urquhart bring forward these grave accusa
of self-justification. Why have not the parties who tions against his Lordship in the House of Commons,
bring forward such charges been prosecuted for and there state the sources of his information? I,
libel? I have not brought this forward to the notice admit hearing Mr. Urquhart state such charges
of the House from any unpleasant feeling to the fifteen years ago, on his calling on me and Mr.
noble Lord, but in fulfilment of a duty; I have a Porter, at the Board of Trade ; and I much regret
right to call attention to this subject.”
that my late friend, Mr. Porter, most credulously,
After the receipt of the documents from and to me most unaccountably, believed them. They
which the above are extracts, the Pinancial said they could proveIthe same; but I never saw a
shadow of a proof.
have seen, however, abundant
Keform Association, published through their proof, while I was with our ambassador at Vienna
Secretary, a letter dated 27th November, —then Sir Frederick Lamb — to the contrary.
1855, to Mr. Crawshay, purporting to be Everything since then confirms me in this opinion.
a refutation, on the authority of three mem Believing these charges had no foundation, except
in the feelings of a
they
bers of Parliament, Mr. Thorneley, Mr. were the offspring disappointed man, or thatceased
of a disordered mind, I
MacGregor, and Mr. Bright.
after 1841, to see or hear any one on this subject."
Mr. Macqueen says, respecting Mr. “ Mr. MacGregor (says Mr. Macqueen) denies that
the treaty with France was circumvented by Lord
Thorneley :—
Palmerston, and states that Mr. Porter was re
“ A third statement consists in the extract from called from Paris ‘ in consequence of a most indis
the Hamilton Gazette, giving part of an alleged creet and improper letter written by him to the
speech of Mr. T. Attwood, which is said to have Foreign Office, refusing to follow Lord Palmerston’s
covered Lord Palmerston with confusion and dis instructions,’ and says of Mr. Porter, ‘ He was a
may ; to have brought Mr. Thorneley to his rescue; valuable public servant, and, on commercial policy,
and, mirabile dictu! to have been wholly suppressed of correct judgment. He was, however, sometimes
by all the newspapers, with the exception of the indiscreet, and at all times credulous in believing
Sun, which had only a slight and distant allusion to anything against Lord Palmerston. He perpe
it. To begin with the last affair first:—I have seen tually endeavoured to impress his opinions on me ;
Mr. Thorneley, and he dentes, positively, that Mr. and he was like Mr. Urquhart, one of those who
Attwood ever made any such speech in his hearing, believed that, when his statements were not replied
and ridicules the idea of its having been suppressed to, they were admitted as true.’ ”
in all the English newspapers, supposing it to have
In respect to Mr. MacGregor’s imputabeen delivered, and finding its way into a colonial
tation of credulity on Mr. Porter, we will
one ”
quote the words of Mr. Gladstone, in his
letter (which we shall presently give at
length) to Mr. Crawshay, of the 14th of
January, 1856. He speaks of Mr. Porter’s
“ scrupulous care and honour in all official
(Extract.)
relations.”
“ Now for Mr. Thomas Attwood’s speech. He
The following extracts bear on Mr.
did make that speech, and it was not at all replied
to; and he used the words that it appeared to him MacGregor’s assertion that he had never
The Newcastle Committee, having sub
mitted this statement respecting his brother
to Mr. C. Attwood, received the following
reply
�10
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
stated or believed that the 20,000Z. had been quhart’s veracity, that gentleman felt bound
paid by Hart to Lord Palmerston.
to call Mr. MacGregor to account. The cor
Mr. Urquhart writes to Mr. Crawshay respondence which ensued brings out most
January 16, 1856 :—■
clearly the tergiversations of Mr. Mac
“ If you will turn back to my testimony, you will Gregor.
find that I put the name of Mr. MacGregor before
that of Mr. Porter, conveying the impression upon
my mind, when for the first time I applied myself to
recal the circumstances, of Mr. MacGregor having
taken the lead. This impression is confirmed by the
statement of Col. Taylor, who says emphatically,
‘ The statement was made to me by Mr. MacGregor and
not by Mr. Porter.’ ”
Mr. Urquhart encloses a letter addressed
No. 1.
MR. URQUHART TO MR. MARX.
Castle Bromwich, Nov. 29, 1855.
My dear Sir,—You will learn from the enclosed
all that is necessary. The extract is a wilful and
deliberate falsehood. If Mr. Macgregor has writ
ten these words; if he does not retract them, and
apologise for them, you have to tell him this on my
behalf, and to obtain the name of his friend with
whom to settle preliminaries.
to him by his short-hand writer:—
Telegraph for me, and 1 shall be in Glasgow as
15, Moon-terrace, Walworth, Dec. 30, 1855.
soon as steam will carry me.
Dear Sir,—Having seen in a correspondence with
Believe me,
Mr. Macqueen, of Liverpool, various statements
Most faithfully yours,
which I know to be untrue, I am anxious to place
D. Urquhart.
my testimony at your disposal.
F. Marx, Esq.
First, as to your having been the promulgator,
enclosure.
as asserted by Mr. MacGregor, of the story respect
Castle Bromwich, Nov. 29, 1855.
ing the gambling transaction between Lord Pal
My dear Sir,—I cannot assume that you could
merston and Hart; during the whole course of the
time I was with you, from 1839 to 1844, all your have written the subjoined extract, until I receive
letters being dictated to me, and having been pre that knowledge from yourself.
The (Sheffield) Free Press, containing the state
sent, generally speaking, whilst conversations were
*
going on, I never heard you once allude to that case; ment in question, was at the time communicated
but I recollect your speaking of it as a matter be to you by me, and must have been known to you
neath contempt, when called up by certain of your from other sources.
This letter will be placed in your hands by a
friends. Particularly I recollect this occurring in a
conversation with Mr. Ross of Bladensburg. At friend to whom I beg you to give your answer, and
Glasgow, on several occasions, questions were put to who is fully empowered to act on my behalf.
I address to Glasgow, not knowing where else to
you by the operatives, as to the motives of Lord
Palmerston, and as to whether or not he had been address you.
I am, my dear Sir,
paid by Russia. Your answer invariably was,—“I
Your faithful and obedient Servant,
don’t accuse Lord Palmerston of having received
D. Urquhart.
money: that matter is totally beside the question.
John Macgregor, Esq., M.P.
I here place facts before you, and it is your duty to
see whether I am correct in my statements or not.”
No. 2.
Secondly, Mr. MacGregor says that he did not
entertain the same convictions as Mr. Porter and MEMORANDUM FROM MR. MARX TO MR. URQUHART.
London, Dec. 14, 1855, 10 p.m.
yourself. Now, I have a most distinct recollection
of a fact which settles that matter.
Mr. Macgregor refuses to submit the case to an
Shortly after the Treaty of the 15th July, 1840, arbiter. He admitted the truth of your statement,
Mr. MacGregor and Mr. Porter came to you one as to your having heard the story about the Leipsic
Sunday morning, in Mount-street, and a meeting Consul in his room from Mr. Porter, he (Mr. Mac
took place of such extraordinary interest, and which gregor') ard Colonel Taylor being present. But he
I believe lasted three hours, that against your wont utterly denied his having himself told a word of the
no one was admitted. I therefore was not present, story. He pleaded the fifteen years which had
but I am aware of the fact of the result of that elapsed, and the number of occasions on which you
were at his room in the Board of Trade. We were
meeting.
You dictated a letter to me to Lord Melbourne, several times interrupted by other persons speaking
in which, after laying down the case against Lord to Mr. Macgregor, who took the first opportunity
Palmerston, you stated that in making the allega of saying that he was going to Paris to-morrow
tion you acted in concurrence with, and supported morning, and entered into long stories with them.
by, gentlemen who had themselves been engaged in He said he could swear that you had told him the
diplomatic transactions, and actually held office story of the Leipsic Consul two months before the in
under the Government, and this letter was sent terview at the Board of Trade.
When I pointed out to him that this was a con
down to the Board of Trade for their approval before
transmission, and it is my belief that I was myseii tradiction of his own statement, viz. that Mr. Por
ter had told you the story, he again admitted that
the bearer of it.
I am perfectly ready to verify these facts, if it was Mr. Porter who told the story to you and to
Colonel Taylor. He said Mr. Macqueen should
necessary.
have published the whole of his letter, and that he
I remain, dear sir,
Your most obedient servant,
would write to him to do so—that the context would
James White.
in some degree modify his assertion in the extract.
But he afterwards adhered to the contradiction that
To D. Urquhart, Esq.
The letter of Mr. MacGregor, published he had told any part of the story about Hart, not-
by Mr. Macqueen, impugning Mr. Ur
* Of September 29th, 1855.
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
withstanding my telling him that I was in posses
sion of Colonel Taylor’s statement to the contrary.
I ended by telling him that he was going further
and further from the truth—that there must be some
redress in a case of this kind, and that he must ex
pect to be exposed either in a court of justice or in
some other manner. You know the man, and can
appreciate the difficulty I had, as I had debarred
myself from resorting to the old-fashioned methods
of bringing to reason a person who has made a false
statement.
No. 3.
11
Having so disposed of Mr. Macqheeh’s
second witness, we come to the third. This is
Mr. Macqueen’s statement as to Mr.
Bright :—
Mr. Bright has marked his reply “privatebut;
I may inform you that he states, in substance, his
belief that Mr. Porter had a very bad opinion of
Lord Palmerston in connexion with Russian affairs,
but never heard him speak of any sum of money;
that the Leipsic appointment was a discreditable
one, but that he never heard Mr. Porter connect it in
any way with the other matter, and is not sure that Mr.
Porter ever alluded to the appointment in his hear
MR. MARX TO MR. URQUHART.
ing. Mr. Bright adds, that he has heard that Mr.
Arie-Bury, near Alresford, Dec. 16, 1855.
Porter modified his opinions at a more recent
My dear Sir,—I think you may dismiss from your period, but to what extent he says that he is not
mind all remembrance of Mr. John Macgregor,
and his contradiction of the statement made by you accurately informed.
On this the following correspondence en
on the 2nd of June last before the Newcastle Com
mittee, viz. that '“The communication respecting sued between Mr. Ubawshay and Mr.
IIart, the consular agent at Leipsic, was made to Bright :—
me (to the best of my recollection in August, 1841)
No. 1.
in Mr. Macgregor’s room, adjoining that of Mr.
MR. CRAWSHAY’S INQUIRY.
Gladstone, who was there at the time, by Mr.
No. 2.
Macgregor and Mr. Porter, in presence of Colonel
MR. BRIGHT’S REPLY.
Taylor, and in consequence of a note from Mr.
Rochdale, September 25, 1855.
Porter to me, requesting my attendance at the
Dear Sir,—The fact is, that Mr. Cobden and I
Board of Trade to receive a communication of the know nothing of the matter, except the gossip of the
gravest importance.”
day. I presume it to be notorious that the Leipsic
In the interview I had with Mr. Macgrbgor on Consul was a disreputable person, and that he was
the 14th, he admitted to me that your statement, appointed by Lord Palmerston; but I suspect our
which he had appeared so decidedly to contradict, system of appointments is not intended to exclude
was correct in every point save one—namely, that such. I know nothing whatever of the matter, and
he had told you any part of the Hart story, and on I think Mr. Cobden knows nothing that will serve
that point your correctness is proved, and Mr. Mac your object, or that you can publish.
gregor’s incorrectness is established by the evi
With regard to the Prime Minister, he knows the
dence of Colonel Taylor, a witness of unimpeach ignorance and the foibles of the people, and suits
able honour, who states in his letter of the 24th himself to them. That he is an impostor is evident
July, 1855, “ My recollections are distinct as to Mr. enough, but to expose him does nothing ; he exactly
Macgregor having told me of this matter.”
suits the frothy politicians that are so numerous
As far as the Newcastle Committee and the public among our countrymen. He is to the middle classes
are concerned, all the important part of your state what Feargus O’Connor was to the working classes,
ment is confirmed by Mr. Macgregor. himself, and and I wish them joy of him.
it is of little public importance whether one or both
Yours, very truly,
of the Board of Trade Secretaries were speakers on
G. Crawshay, Esq.
John Bright.
the occasion referred to.
'
No. 3.
With regard to yourself the case is different, for
MR. CRAWSIIAY TO MR. BRIGHT.
of course nothing can be of greater importance than
.
Gateshead, October 2, 1855.
such a contradiction upon a matter of fact, as that
Dear Sir,—I duly received your reply of the 25th
publicly made by Mr. Macgregor; but from the
moment you placed the affair in my hands, the ult., with respect to which I feel called upon to
responsibility rested with me. I have now carried make a remark.
You observe, with respect to the Prime Minister,
the matter as far as I can, and I do not hesitate to
assure you that in the minds of gentlemen no im “That he is an impostor is evident enough, but to
putation can by possibility rest upon you. You expose him does nothing.”
May I beg of you to ask yourself the question,
have done all in your power to. obtain redress from
Mr. Macgregor, who has convicted himself of at how far such a description may not be justly ap
least one false statement, for after publishing that plied to a member of Parliament who can hold such
you had told him the Hart story at the Board of language?
Yours truly,
Trade, he now states that Mr. Porter told you the
J. Bright, Esq., M.P.
G. Crawshay
story on that occasion. He has shown that he is not
to be reached by the process employed on such oc
No. 4.
casions between gentlemen. He has absolutely
MR. BRIGHT TO MR. CRAWSHAY.
refused to retract his statement, or to allow it to be
Rochdale, October 3, 1855.
brought to the test of an arbitration. And as he
Dear Sir,—I hope I do not rightly understand
has not thought proper to reply to your letter, it your note; it seems intended as an insult to me,
appears to me that the only course now left open because I am unable to join in proceedings which I
for you, is, in case you deem it necessary, to appeal am not clever enough to comprehend. To expose
to a Court of Justice.
the Minister is nothing, so long as the people are a
I am, my dear Sir,
prey to the delusions through which he practises
Very faithfully yours,
upon them.
F. Marx.
He is the proper ruler of a nation arrogant and
| intoxicated, and so long as the present temper of
David Urquhart, Esq.
�12
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
the public is maintained, they have the Government
they most deserve.
Lord Palmerston is Minister because he is sup
posed to be wishful to support the foreign policy
you advocate. I am not sorry if he plays false to
his credulous followers, for it is difficult to say whe
ther his policy or theirs would be most pernicious
to the country. Perhaps as we differ so much on
these topics, it is better that our correspondence
should cease.
I am, respectfully,
George Crawshay, Esq.
John Bright.
No. 5.
house keeper, but those I need not now allude to.
There was, however, no doubt in the mind of Mr.
Cobden that Lord Palmerston was capable of what
had been imputed to him, for in the course of the
same conversation he remarked—“Oh, there is
nothing of which I do not believe these men (the
ministers) capable.” Mr. Bright, who was at his
elbow, added energetically,—“ They are not even
gentlemen—they are a set of liars and scoundrels.”
I have a vivid remembrance of the expressions,
which made a deep impression on me.
insult, but blame. I would not willingly insult any
man.
In my first letter I only asked you to give me
some facts. You could not. How could I insult or
even blame you for that? But I could not pass over
the doctrine repeated in your last, “ that to expose the
Minister is nothing,” put forth with whatever qua
lification. This has nothing to do with our opinions.
Suppose you had a friend in the position in which
you yourself depict the nation, “ a prey to delusions,
and practised upon by an impostor.” Would you
consider it nothing to show him that he was made a
fool of? Most certainly, if you see nothing wrong
in the language I have complained of, our corre
spondence, at least upon this subject, cannot proceed.
Yours truly,
J. Bright, Esq., M.P.
George Crawshay.
The noble Lord is on his trial in this case. (Hear,
hear.) . . . After a few sentences the noble Lord
went on to say that, after all, what was in or what
was left out was unimportant. I should like, then,
to ask the noble Lord what was the object of that
minute, ingenious, and, I will say, unmatched care
which was taken in mutilating the despatches of a
gentleman whose opinions were of no importance,
and whose despatches could not make the slightest
difference to the actions or opinions of any person
concerned ? (Hear, hear.) The noble Lord, too,
has stooped to conduct which, if I were not in this
House, I would describe in language which, if
I were to use in this House, I should possibly
be told that I was transgressing the line usually
observed in discussions in this assembly............
He tried to lead the House to believe that it was
proposed to have a committee to dig up all questions
regarding our supposed peril from the designs of
Russia at that time; but the fact is, that my honour
able and learned Friend has no such intention, and
no man was more cognizant of that fact than the noble
Lord when he endeavoured so ingeniously to convey a
contrary impression to the House................... I say it
is worth knowing whether there was a man in high
position in the Government here or'in India who had
so low a sense of honour and of right that he could
offer to this. House mutilated, false, forged opinions
of a public servant who lost his life in the public
service................... It is admitted—the noble Lord
himself has not flatly denied it; in fact, he knows it
perfectly well—as well as the member for Greenock,
as well as the very man who did the evil (a laugh)—-the
noble Lord knows that there have been garbling,
mutilation, practically and essentially falsehood, and
forgery in these despatches. .... I say, then,
avoiding all the long speech of the noble Lord, that
the object of the committee is to find out who did
this evil thing—who placed upon the table of the
House information which was knowingly false, and
despatches that were knowingly forged; because if
you add to, or detract from, or so change a coin, a note,
or a deed as to make it bear a meaning contrary to the
original meaning, you are guilty of such an act as I
have described, and that is precisely what somebody
has done with the despatches we are now discussing.
(Hear, hear.) I say, then, an odious offence has
been committed against this House; and we want to
know who did it. (Hear, hear.) The noble Lord does
not think it is anything wrong. The letters, he says,
are of very trifling importance, and Sir Alexander
Burnes’s opinions are not worth much. But if this
be a matter of such little importance, will the noble
Lord tell us who did it? . .
. Now, I do not
think I am wrong in supposing that this matter lies
between the noble Lord the Prime Minister and Lord
Broughton. (Hear, and a laugh.) The despatches
The second is an extract from a subsequent
speech of Mr. Bright, delivered March 19,
MR. CRAWSHAY TO MR. BRIGHT.
1861, on the subject of the Affghan for
Gateshead, October 4, 1855.
Dear Sir,—What I intended by my note was not geries :—
Mr. Bright is hardly the witness to cha
racter who would have been called had the
defendant been consulted. His testimony
appears to be to the effect that, although he
had no knowledge of this particular case, yet
he believed Lord Palm.eb.ston to be capable
of acting in the manner imputed. On this
subject we add two more testimonies. The
first is a contemporaneous one :—
MR. RICHARD HART TO THE EDITOR OF THE
(Sheffield) “ free
press.”
(Extract.)
Birmingham, January 9, 1856.
Shortly after the return of Lord John Russell
from his mission to Vienna, I, as one of the mem
bers of a deputation, had an interview in the tea
room of the House of Commons, with Messrs. Cob
den, Bright, and Milner Gibson. After the busi
ness of the deputation had been concluded, a con
versation arose respecting Hart, the Leipsic Consul,
in the course of which, Mr. Cobden said that Hart
was a man of notoriously bad character; that when he
Mr. C.) went to Leipsic, he had letters of introduction
to Hart, but when he became acquainted with the
reputation that person bore, he “ would not be seen
in the streets with him.” On being asked what he
knew about the appointment of Hart, Mr. Cobden
replied—“I have heard that story about Palmer
ston, but I know it is not true, for----- (here Mr.
Cobden mentioned, in a very familiar manner, a
gentleman who was not present, and whose name
I have no right to use), told me that he was under
great obligations to Hart, and that he got Hart the
appointment.” Mr. Cobden entered into some de
tails as to the nature of the obligation which the
gentleman referred to, and who has since held influ
ential public positions, was under to the ex-gambling
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
were not garbled by some subordinate who cannot
be found out. My honourable and learned Friend
told us of tne marvellous care which has been taken,
so that the guilty person must have been not only a
man of ability but a man of genius. (A laugh.) Of
course, there are men of genius in very objectionable
walks of life—(laughter)—but we know that the noble
Lord is a man of genius, or he would not have been
on that bench for the last fifty years—(laughter)—
and we know also that Lord Broughton is a man
of many and varied accomplishments. I ask again,
will the noble Lord tell us who did it ? He knows
who did it. Was it his own right hand, or Lord
Broughton’s right hand which did this work, or
was it some clever secretary in his or in the India
Office? The House has a right to know; we wish
to know, because we want to drag the criminal
before the public; we wish to deter other Ministers
from ever committing a like offence.
Mr. Bright’s speech on the Affghan
Forgeries was only a repetition of Mr. Anstey’s on the same subject, February 23,
1848
“ It is not by accident that frauds like these can
have been committed. Sir, I think it eminently
disgraceful to the character of the British Nation—
and, let me add, of this House, too—that the charge
should ever have been made, and should then have
been suffered for so many years to remain without
investigation. It has been pending ever since 1841;
and yet no'efforts have been made to vindicate the
dignity of the law and the honour of the country.
No prosecution has been instituted to punish—if not the
noble Lord and those who did the deed—then at least,
those insolent libellers who had ventured to accuse them of
it............ I do not hesitate to maintain that every
one of those unhappy persons who have, at any time
since 1841, been transported from England to the
shores of the South Pacific, for forgeries or crimes
of the nature of forgery, has the right to say that he
has been most unjustly dealt with, when he sees
that perpetrators of iniquities, similar in kind, but
far more monstrous in character, have been suffered
to remain so long unscathed and unquestioned; nay,
and to approach the person of Her Majesty, and to
sit in Her Councils, and to lead the deliberations of
Parliament.
In the Press, in Parliament, and in the
Financial Reform Tracts, it is always the
same story when Lord Palmerston’s acts
are examined. It is always forgery and false
hood, and to the detriment of England. No
State is ever suggested as deriving benefit
except Russia.
We have already alluded to a letter from
Mr. Gladstone. It is as follows:—
MR. GLADSTONE TO MR. CRAWSHAY.
Hawarden, Chester, Jan. 14, 1856.
Sir,—I have the honour to acknowledge your
letter of the 11th ; and in compliance with your re
quest, I have adverted to several passages in the
accompanying printed paper, No. 1, where it ap
pears to be conveyed that the late Mr. Porter, of
the Board of Trade, made to Mr. Urquhart a state
ment, or imparted to him an understanding, to the
effect that I had authorised Mr. Porter to give
certain information to Mr. Urquhart respecting
Lord Palmerston and a Mr. Hart.
I never had any communication whatever, to my
knowledge, with Mr. Porter, on the subject of Mr.
13
Hart, and never gave Mr. Porter any information
respecting Lord Palmerston, or authorised him to
carry any information of any kind to Mr. Urquhart.
I am bound to add, from my recollection of Mr.
Porter’s scrupulous care and honour in all official
relations, that I am convinced the statements to
which you have called my attention could not have
been warranted by anything that had proceeded
from him, and that, if Mr. Urquhart entertained a
supposition to the contrary, he has been in total
error.
I remain, Sir, your very obedient Servant,
W. E. Gladstone.
I do not trouble you with any remarks upon those
portions of your inclosures in which I am not indi
vidually concerned.
G. Craw shay, Esq.
This letter was forwarded to Mr. UTiQrHAKT. The following was that gentleman’s
reply
MR. URQUHART TO MR. CRAWSHAY.
Jan. 16, 1856.
My dear Sir,—I have carefully weighed the careful
letter of Mr. Gladstone, and I can perfectly con
ciliate every word therein contained with my recol
lection of what occurred. Mr. Gladstone says that
he never made to Mr. Porter any communication
on the subject of Hart to be conveyed to me. This
I accept as unquestionable, as being his statement,
and therefore as a point established. But you will
observe that Mr. 1-orter was not the only one con
cerned, and that of the two he occupied the inferior
station. Now, I hold it to be impossible that that
communication could be made in the Board of
Trade, except at the instigation, or at least with the
concurrence, of the chief of that department. If you
will turn back to my testimony, you will find that I
put the name of Mr. MacGregor before that of Mr.
Porter, conveying the impression upon my mind,
when for the first time I applied myself to recall the
circumstances, of Mr. MacGregor having taken the
lead. This impression is confirmed by the statement
of Col. Taylor, who says emphatically “ The state
ment was made to me by Mr. MacGregor, and not
by Mr. Porter.” The letter of Mr. White shows
that both were filled with sufficient zeal to have
extorted, or even to have believed they had extorted
the consent of Mr. Gladstone to such a step ; nor
in taking it was it necessary that my name should
have been mentioned. Some such expression as
“ really, this is too bad, it ought to be brought
out,” was all that was required in the way of
sanction
Besides the general grounds of official subordina
tion, I had others by which to connect Mr. Glad
stone with the communication. First, when on the
day in question I entered Mr. Porter’s room on the
lower floor, instead of his ordinary manner he was
abrupt, formal, and proceeding immediately to the
door and begging me to follow him, I became alarmed,
fearing some domestic disaster or some painful per
sonal affair; not a word was said by him upon the
subject; I was merely conducted to Mr. MacGre
gor’s room. Secondly, my being taken to Mr.
MacGregor’s room, which I had never entered
before. (Mr. MacGregor, you will observe, speaks
of the frequency of my visits there as a reason for
not recollecting particularly the circumstance.)
Thirdly, the presence of Mr. Gladstone in Mr.
MacGregor’s room, which he quitted hurriedly,
and though seeing me, without recognition. This
struck me at the time as strange; afterwards, I
�14
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
explained it by his knowledge of the purpose of my
visit.
Your letter to Mr. Gladstone, put to him certain
remarkable facts regarding which you requested an
answer, i.e., the creation of the consulship by Lord
Palmerston for Hart, and the getting rid of Hart
by the government of which Mr. Gladstone was a
member, by the abolition of the post. To this Mr.
Gladstone carefully avoids giving a reply.
Your letter did more than ask this question. It
conveyed the whole of the correspondence as en
closures.
Mr. Gladstone, in answering, is aware that every
thing hinges on the truth or falsehood of the facts
connected with Hart,—that Hart having been dis
missed by his own government. Now the allegations
thus publicly made, coupled with the fact of his dis
missal, made it imperative upon Mr. Gladstone to
vindicate the character of Hart unjustly impugned,
or at all events to say that these allegations did not
constitute the grounds of his dismissal. Mr. Glad
stone carefully avoids any such declaration.
He
speaks of “certain information” of “a Mr. Hart.”
Every line is that of a man who is fearful of com
mitting himself. And he even adds in a postscript
that he “ will not trouble you with any remarks on
those portions of the enclosures in which he is not
individually concerned.” More than this negative tes
timony you had no right to expect from Mr. Glad
stone, who has but recently been a member of the
same Cabinet as Lord Palmerston.
But in fact, Mr. Gladstone gives you a great
deal more. As if to meet the insinuations of Mr.
MacGregor respecting Mr. Porter’s unfortunate
“ credulity” as to Lord Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone
offers his testimony as “ to Mr. Porter’s scrupulous
care and honour in all official relations.” Weigh
well these words ; “scrupulous” ‘■'■honour” and that
comprehensive monosyllable all. Now, as a hun
dred witnesses can be adduced to prove that Mr.
Porter made those statements which your com
mittee have now brought to light, Mr. Gladstone’s
letter, being a voucher for the scrupulous care and
comprehensive honour of Mr. Porter, is an inva
luable document, and a most important addition to
your case.
As to your question respecting my belief in the
same, I have difficulty in giving an answer. I re
jected the evidence when tendered to me at the
time, and therefore I have no means of knowing on
what it rests. It could not awaken interest in my
mind, because it proved to me nothing new. All I
can now say is this: that T am persuaded of there
being grounds for the charge, by the falsehood of
Mr. MacGregor, and by the reserve of Mr. Glad
stone, especially when taken in conjunction with
the fact that no legal proceedings have been taken
either by Lord Palmerston or by Hart.
I would not venture on the suggestion I am about
to make, had you not given me the liberty to do so.
But I really do not think you would be justified in
pressing Mr. Gladstone further. Your first letter
was an invitation of testimony. In answering you
he has taken a deliberate step, and he is not a man
who will deviate from the course he has laid down
by the words that you may put in a letter. You had
a right to put the question that you have done; he
has acknowledged it by his answer; beyond this you
have none.
I remain, very faithfully yours,
D. Urquhart.
George Crawshay, Esq.,
Chairman of Newcastle Committee.
And with no better evidence than this to
rest on, Mr. Macqueen decides (for we
believe he decided before consulting the
Council) that the whole statement was a
fabrication, and that consequently the Finan
cial Beform Association should not examine
into any diplomatic transaction.
Be it remembered that though Mr. Macqueen had declared Lord Palmebston not
guilty of Treason, the body whose Secretary
he was had published charges against him
which amounted to that accusation.
On being remonstrated with and offered
proof that a valued servant of the Crown did
believe Lord Palmebston guilty of Treason,
Mr. Macqueen says, “ It is of no use; you
must, if not prove, at least allege ‘ Corrupt
personal motive.’ ” The accusation of cor
rupt personal motive, hitherto gossip, as
sumes a tangible shape at the bidding of Mr.
Macqueen, only to be dismissed by him as
a fiction. Nobody ever said it was proved.
But it was proved that the accusation was
made and believed by public servants of the
Crown thirteen years before.
What could Mr. Macqueen mean by say
ing that “ corrupt motive” must be, “ if not
proved, alleged ?” What but this, that
treason must have a motive ; that such motive
would be rumoured about, but that there
would be no direct evidence on the subject.
What was produced was exactly what Mr.
Macqueen had called for: evidence of a
rumour believed by influential persons ; but
no categorical proof.
It is not our intention here, Sir, to speak
of the vulgarity and insolence with which
Mr. Macqueen scatters imputations against
the veracity and honour of those whose
statements he is unable to controvert. But
we desire to call your attention to this, that
the gentlemen involved by him in this corres
pondence, were not the first to introduce the
topic of “ corrupt personal motive
their
charges embrace the acts of a life, in which
this, though an explanation, is but an inci
dent. It was in the endeavour to urge your
Association into an investigation of these
acts, that they were brought up short against
this difficulty started by your Secretary,
which he declared was the obstacle to that
investigation. From the attempt to over
come it, sprang this laborious inquiry. Again,
we repeat, it has slumbered from that time
to this, and it is again the organ of your
Association that brings the matter forward.
The fact that this allegation, previously
concealed from him, was communicated to
Mr. Macqueen on the ground that he had
�CASE OF BRIBERY.
declared it to be important, is given as an
answer to us, who liad nothing to do with that
allegation. And what is it which is thus
answered ? We have quoted not alleged
rumours, but despatches and speeches of Sir
John Bowring, which prove that he is in the
habitual practice of falsehood. These charges
nobody has so much as attempted to deny.
The only question 'at issue therefore is,
whether the habit of falsehood is or is not,
at this present day, a disqualification for the
society of gentlemen ? Mr. Macqueen, by
implication, declares that it is not. We can
not conceive it possible, Sir, that you will
acquiesce in such a decision.
Such a decision acquiesced in by a body of
persons professedly united for the good of
their country, would be a lamentable fulfil
ment of the words of Mr. Canning’s Secre
tary, Mr. Stapleton, when, in 1857, he
concluded his “ Hostilities at Canton,” with
these words:—
“ If such dishonourable practices are to be
adopted by the British people, and to be ap
plauded by British statesmen, the public men
of Great Britain, henceforth, will only re
semble public women, without honour, and
without shame.”
With this brief resume of the case, Sir, we
leave the matter in your hands.
We also beg to say that our belief as to all
the acts of Lord Palmerston being for the
advantage of Russia rests on the evidence
we possess on each special case ; each one at
the same time being connected with and.
strengthening the other.
But, .in addition to this, we possess evi
dence which far transcends any other in
importance and authority.
We possess
the words of the Queen herself, in her
letter to Lord John Russell, of August,
1850, read by that Minister in the House
of Commons, on the occasion of the dis
missal of Lord Palmerston from the office
of Foreign Minister, because he had renewed
the offences which, by that letter of the
Queen, he was required to abstain from.
This letter, although published in such a re
markable manner, is so strangely omitted on
all occasions when either the conduct of
England in respect to any Foreign Power is
considered, or the character of Lord Palmer
ston himself is called in question, that we
insert it here, entreating you to weigh well
each word, and to consider what the conduct
and the circumstances would have been that
could have given rise to it; what the source
from which such influence must have sprung;
and what the consequences for your country
15
when such things can be, and remain un
known, or be published even by the Sovereign
herself, and remain unavenged and un
checked.
THE QUEEN’S LETTER.
“The Queen requests —First, that Lord
Palmerston will distinctly state what he pro
poses in a given case, in order that the Queen
may know as distinctly to what she is giving
Her royal sanction. Second, that having
once given Her sanction to a measure, it be
not arbitrarily altered or modified by the
Minister. Such an act she must consider as
failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and
justly to be visited by the exercise of her
constitutional right of dismissing that Minis
ter. She expects to be kept informed of what
passes between him and Foreign Ministers,
before important decisions are taken based
upon such intercourse; to receive the foreign
despatches in good time, and to have the
draughts for her perusal sent to her in suffi
cient time to make herself acquainted with
the contents before they are sent off. The
Queen thinks it better that Lord John Russell
should show this letter to Lord Palmerston.”
There are three points here which we must
further call your attention to :—
1st. This is but a part of the Queen’s
original letter, as is shown by these words of
Lord J. Russell :—
“I shall refer only to that part of the document
which has reference to the immediate subject.”
2nd. The date of the letter. It is August,
1850. You will see that it corresponds with
a most important diplomatic transaction,
which at the time was carried on by Lord
Palmerston in secret, which was denied by
him in the House of Commons, and is now
known ; namely, the Treaty of London of
1852, which altered the succession to the
Danish Crown, so as, by the cutting out of
heirs, to secure that kingdom to the Russian
line. It now being universally acknowledged
that that Treaty was for the interests of
Russia, there can remain no doubt as to the
Foreign Power in whose interests the “ insin
cerity” of Lord Palmerston towards the
British Crown was practised.
3rd. That Lord Palmerston accepted, as
Lord John Russell took care to let the
Parliament know, every word of the allega
tions of the Queen. For he added, quoting
them, these words of Lord Palmerston’ :—
“ I have taken a copy of this Memorandum
of the Queen, and will not fail to attend to
the directions it contains.”
When, now, we consider that three years
afterwards the Minister so charged and so
�16
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
dismissed, became the Queen’s Prime
Minister, and that soon afterwards Lord
John Russell, who had dismissed him, and
had laid the Queen’s letter as the grounds
before Parliament, accepted office as his sub
ordinate, it becomes utterly impossible to
resist the conclusion that Lord Palmebston
is backed by some Power and Influence,
secret, but supreme, which cannot belong to
his personal character or position, and which
has evidently no internal British source.
The writer of the article in the Financial
Reformer, casts ridicule on the Committee
at Bolton, because of the bad spelling of one
of its members. We are glad that the Bolton
Committee have been exerting themselves in
this matter; and for our part, must confess
that we entertain a higher feeling of respect
for those men, because of that unfamiliarity
with literary composition, which does not
deter them from dealing with the highest
matters of policy and of moral character,
who strive to arrest their country in its course
of crime, and to save their countrymen from
the pollution of intercourse with its imme
diate perpetrators.
There are two considerations to which I
particularly implore your attention. The
first is the character of the motives which
alone could have influenced so many gentle
men in endeavouring to bring this transaction
to light. The second, the absence of any
steps taken on the part of the accused to
defend his character ; nor have his private or
public friends shown the least desire to have
his character cleared.
The matter is not one which belongs to
speculation. Nor is it one affecting the cir
cumstances of any particular person. It is the
affairs of England that are so disposed of;
her fortunes and her fate. The humblest and
poorest family in the land is as much, and as
directly involved in it as the wealthiest and
the noblest.
I have the honour to remain,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
C. F. Jones, Secretary.
*
No. 2.
Lord Palmerston’s Introduction
to the Foreign Office.
Editor
Free Press.
July 25,1865.
Sir,—In the leader in the last number of the
Free Press, which number will be justly de
signated the anticipation of the judgment of
future times of the man who has at present
England, and, through England the world, in
his hands, there is a passage of which I ven
ture to offer you a rectification. It bears
upon a critical turn of events, his entrance
into the Foreign Office, and appears to offer
an explanation, which is far from being a true
one. You say, “ Lord Palmerston, being
practically acquainted with the method of
proceeding (in the Foreign Office), was a
godsend to the Whigs in Downing-street.”
The Whigs, that is to say the colleagues of
Lord Grey, had no opportunity of expressing
any opinion as to Lord Palmerston’s ad
ministration at the moment of his appoint
ment. And if his claims were discussed at
all on the first draft of the Cabinet, that dis
cussion was unfavourable to him, since that
first draft did not contain Lord Palmer
ston’s name. On the forenoon of the day
when the change of Ministry took place, and
whilst Lord Grey was in the act of writing
down the list of the new Ministry for the
Evening Papers, he was interrupted by a
visit, which must have been of the highest
importance, since at that moment it wras pro
longed an hour and a half; and at its close,
and without the presence or intervention of
any of his new colleagues, a new list was fur
nished to the person in waiting for insertion
in the papers. This statement I make on
the authority of the very person then in
waiting, yyho preserved the evidence of it in
the slip of paper, which on the one side con
tained the first list of the Cabinet, the same
slip of paper having been inadvertently used
for the final list on its back. The person who
visited Lord Grey, and who detained him
this momentous hour and a half, was the
Princess Lieven.
That Lord Grey considered this nomina
* This letter was posted on the 23rd of June, but up
tion his own particular act is confirmed by an
to the present time no answer has been received.
incident which took place shortly before his
death. He wrote to Prince Adam Czartoryski, urgently requesting him to come
down to Howick. Sending the other persons
who were there out of the way, he said to
him, “ I have before my death to implore and
obtain your forgiveness. I am the assassin
of Poland.” In reply to the Prince’s look of
To
the
oe the
�17
CONNEXION WITH PRINCESS LIEVEN.
amazement, he added, “ It was I who placed
that man in the Foreign Office.” I have
heard this mentioned between Mr. Urquhart,
to whom it was related by Prince Czartoryski himself, and another person, still alive,
who was present at the time at Howick Castle,
and to whom it was related by Prince Czartoryski immediately after its occurrence.
As these circumstances are generally
known to those who have been so long en
deavouring to rescue their country from the
hands of this man, I am surprised that the
writer of the article in the last number was
not acquainted with them. I can see no
reason why a truth so important as this
should be concealed.
There is nothing unlikely in the circum
stances as I have mentioned them, of Lord
Palmerston’s appointment. That ata sub
sequent period Princess Lieven had “ the
nominations” in France is notorious. That
Lord Palmerston was a person for Russia
to push into the Foreign Office it did not
require to wait for results to ascertain. He
was her man before he was Minister. The
moment also was of the utmost importance
for Russia, alike as regards Turkey and
Poland. So completely were those supposed
to be the best informed, perplexed and puz
zled by his "words and conduct in opposition,
that on one occasion Sir Robert Peel in
dignantly asked whose representative the
noble Lord was in that House ?
The passage will be found, if looked for,
in Hansard’s Debates. It seems to me you
cannot render a greater service than by dis
interring the words of Lord Palmerston at
that period, the words which awoke the sus
picions of Sir Robert Peel, and merited
the applause of the Russian Ambassador.
Words which can be rendered intelligible by
the parallel expressions in the Secret Russian
Despatches of the same period, ar 1 which
made him Minister without the concurrence
of his colleagues, the sanction of his Sove
reign, or the knowledge of his country. It
must be remembered that Lord Grey had,
at that moment, everything in his hands. So
that this case serves to illustrate the position
you have so often laid down in reference to
so many other countries; that Russia’s aim
always is to concentrate the affairs of each
country in the hands of one man. As we
see in this case, that man need not be her
Agent. The result of the Reform Agitation
and triumph in England was to make Lord
Grey for a moment Dictator. The effect of
that Dictatorship has been to transfer the
world to Russia. Your obedient Servant,
H. A.
Note
subjoined by the Editor
“Free Press.”
or the
By a hasty perusal of the authorities re
ferred to by our correspondent, we are
enabled to vouch for the accuracy of the
collateral points connected with the remark
able disclosures contained in this letter. We
subjoin a few extracts :—
On the 13th of June, 1829, the Russian
Ambassadors in London wrote to Count
Nesselrode :—
“Your Excellency will have rehiarked that the
Ministry has not dared to answer either to that part
of the observations of Sir James Macintosh relative
to the Danger of any guarantee in favour of the Otto
man Territory, nor to the speech in which Lord Pal
merston, whose name is henceforward associated
with those of the first orators of the Parliament of
England, has insisted on the preservation of the
general peace, and proved that an Austro-Turkish
policy would only serve to disturb it.”*
On June 1, 1829, Viscount Palmerston
had said : —
“ I said that the delay in executing the Treaty of
July, 1827, had brought upon us that very evil of a
war in the East of Europe, which that Treaty was
calculated to prevent. In that war, my opinion is,
that the Turks were the aggressors. I am pro
nouncing no opinion whether Russia has or has not
ambitious views upon Turkey. It might, indeed, be
thought that the Russian Empire is sufficiently ex
tensive to satisfy the most ambitious sovereign, or to
find employment for the most enlightened; but on
that point I give no opinion. I will not decide,
either, on which side may be the balance of that
general account of reciprocal grievances, which has
so long been standing between the two parties; but
in that particular transaction Turkey was the
aggressor; she seized Russian ships and cargoes,
expelled Russian subjects from Turkey, and shut
the Bosphorus against Russian commerce, all in
violation of Treaties, and declared her intention not
to fulfil the Treaty of Akerman; and all this upon
no other pretence than certain things which Russia
had done in conjunction with her allies England and
France, to prevail upon Turkey to accede to some
arrangement about Greece.”
The concessions of the Treaty of Akerman
(which "with the Treaty of Bucharest, the
British Government omitted when it pub
lished, in 1855, the other Treaties between
Russia and Turkey) were made on the dis
tinct agreement that Russia was not, col
lectively or separately, to interfere in the
affairs of Greece. The “ certain things which
Russia had done” were an open breach of
this agreement, and therefore a sufficient
reason for considering the Treaty of Aker
man as null and void.
The speech which excited the suspicion of
Sir Robert Peel, was on the settlement of
Greece.
* Portfolio, Second Series, vol. i. p. 24. FrtJ Press
vol. viii., p. 81.
C
�18
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
On February 16,1830, Viscount Palmer
said:—
ston
“ The natural defence of Greece on the South
would be Candia, for with that island left in the
possession of the Turks, the means of aggression
would be continually in their hands. . . . He be
lieved he should be borne out in this assertion, that
if the wishes of England were decisively made
known upon this subject, the Allies would accede
to them, and that it rested with the Cabinet of
England to decide whether or not the new State
was to be rendered secure or insecure.”
In his reply, Sir R. Peel said :—
“ My noble Friend has stated that if England
would consent to enlarge the limits of Greece, he
was pretty sure that the other Powers who have
joined in the Treaty would not be opposed to such
extension. Certainly this is a statement which I
did not expect to hear from my noble Friend. I
do not, however, know z'm whose confidence he may be,
or whom he may undertake to represent in making that
statement, unless he comes to that conclusion from
having been in office at the time of the execution of
the Treaty.”
Viscount Palmerston said in answer :—
“ I am sure the House could not imagine, when I
was stating my opinion as to the boundaries of
Greece, after having been two years out of office,
that I was taking upon myself to ensure what were
the sentiments of Russia or France.”
It is also in this speech that is to be found
an argument which is identical with one used
in the Secret Russian Despatch of June 1,
1829 ; namely, that what England had to do
in the interests of Turkey was to prevent
her from expecting any help from England,
so that she might not be encouraged to re
sist.
From the Russian Despatch, June 1, 1829.
“ I took advantage of this opportunity to remark
to Lord Aberdeen, that from the moment that
justice was rendered to our policy, it would be right
to manifest it publicly, and to abstain from all the
direct and indirect measures which make people
believe in too favourable a disposition on his part towards
the Porte, and which thereby encouraged its resist
ance.”*
From Lord Palmerston’s Speech, February, 16,
1830.
“I should like to see, that, whilst England
adopted a firm resolution—almost the only course
she could adopt—upon no consideration, and in no
event to take part with Turkey in that war; that
that decision was fairly and frankly communicated
to the Turk, and that he was made acquainted from
the beginning, that he was in nd possible contin
gency to look to England for assistance.”!
* For this Despatch see Portfolio, New Series, vol. i.
p. 3 ; also Free Press, vol. iii. p. 81.
t “ Opinions and Policy of Lord Palmerston,” p. 137.
No. 3.
Lord Palmerston and Princess
Lieven.
Mount Pleasant, Gateshead,
August 19, 1865.
Sir,—In a letter in the Free Press of this
month a statement is made regarding the in
troduction of Lord Palmerston into the
Foreign Office, in which your name is men
tioned as an authority for the following
statement: that “ Lord Grey wrote to
Prince Adam Czartoryski urgently re
questing him to come to Howick. Sending
the other persons out of the room, he said to
him, ‘ I have, before my death, to implore
and obtain your forgiveness. I am the
assassin of Poland.’ In reply to the Prince’s
look of amazement he added: ‘ It was I who
placed that man in the Foreign Office.’ ”
Not having heard any statement from you
of this circumstance, and as the letter is
anonymous, it has occurred to me to ask you
to state what you know relative to this
matter ? I should also wish to know whether
you are aware of the circumstances men
tioned in the same letter about the appoint
ment of Lord Palmerston ?
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
D. Urquhart, Esq.
D. Rule,
reply.
Chalet des Melezes, St. Gervais,
August 31, 1865.
Sir,—The statement you quote from the
letter in the Free Press is perfectly con
formable to the account given me by Prince
Czartoryski himself of his last interview
with Lord Grey. I may further add, that
Lord Grey’s fall from office arose out of that
very nomination, as it was in consequence of
Lord Palmerston’s showing to the King a
letter of Lord Grey to Princess Lieven, the
possession of which was explained by its
having been opened and copied at the Post
office.
As to Princess Lieven’s part in obtaining
from Lord Grey Lord Palmerston’s ap
pointment as Foreign Minister, the details
given in the above-quoted letter agree with
what w'as told me by Mr. Scanlon, at that
time Editor of the Courier, who was the
person who received from Lord Grey the
sheet of note-paper, on the two sides of
which were the two different lists of the
Ministry, and who was waiting in the ante
room whilst Princess Lieven was with Lord
Grey.
Your obedient servant,
David Urquhart.
�19
CONDUCT RECAPITULATED.
No. 4.
The Fifty-eight Years of Lord
Palmerston’s Career.
In the course of nature only a short time
can now be expected to elapse before the ca
reer of Lord Palmerston will have to be
examined as a closed chapter. The corres
pondence which we publish this day between
the Financial Reform Association and one of
the Foreign Affairs Committees may almost
be considered as the anticipation of a post
humous revelation.
Never before has a minister, during his
life-time, been charged with the crimes
alleged against Lord Palmerston without
having to undergo or to fly from legal pro
ceedings. For nearly thirty years has he
been accused of collusion with a Foreign
Power, to the detriment of his own country,
but to this charge have been added the more
vulgar accessories of falsehood and forgery
used to deceive Parliament. Moreover,
these latter charges have produced events
unparalleled, at least in English history, for
when accused on three separate occasions,
and by three different members, of falsehood,
he answered the first, Lord It. Montagu,
by counting out the House; the second,
Mr. Cobden, by renewed equivocation, and
the third, Mr. Bernal Osborne, by total
silence. When accused, by Messrs. Dunlop
and Bright, of altering the terms and
sense of the despatches of Sir Alexander
Burnes in such a manner as to amount to
forgery, he justified the forgery, and did not
deny that he was the author of it.
The man thus accused and thus convicted
has now, with a few short intermissions, been
in the public service since 1807, that is to say,
for fifty-eight years. In 1828, he was ad
mitted into the Cabinet. Since 1830, he
has generally been either Foreign Miuister
or Prime Minister. During these thirtyfive years every convulsion has been traced
to him, yet he is still a mystery. But so
long a career requires a summary from an
' authoritative source. We turn to that in
valuable publication, the Foreign Office List,
and find the following narrative, to which we
have to prefix that the subject of it was born
October 20, 1784.
“ Palmerston (Henry John Temple) Viscount,
K.G., G.C.B., M.P., is M.A. of St.John’s, Cambridge.
Succeeded as third Viscount, April 17, 1802. Was
elected an Honorary Burgess of the Corporation of
Southampton, August 7, 1807. Was appointed Se
cretary at War, October 27,1809, which office he held
till May 31, 1828. Was made a Privy Councillor,
November 1, 1809. Upon the formation of a Cabinet
by the late Earl Grey, was appointed Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, November 22, 1830; he
held the seals of that office ^77 WwemSer 21, 1834,
when he was succeeded by the late Duke of Wel
lington. Was appointed a G.C.B. June 6, 1832.
Was appointed one of the Commissioners for the
Affairs of India, December 13, 1832. Was again ap
pointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, April
18, 1835, and resigned, September, 1841. Was ap
pointed one of the Commissioners for the purpose of
enquiry whether advantage might not be taken of
the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament, for pro
moting and encouraging the Fine Arts, November
22, 1841. Was for the third time appointed Secre
tary of State for Foreign Affairs, July 6, 1846, which
post he held till December, 1851. Was appointed Se
cretary of State for the Home Department, December
28, 1852, and one of the Committee of Council to
superintend the application of any sums voted by
Parliament for the purpose of promoting Public
Education, January 4, 1853. Was appointed First
Lord of the Treasury, February 10, 1855. Was M.P.
for the University of Cambridge from 1806 till 1831 ;
*
for Bletchingley from July 1831 till 1832 ; for South
Hants, from 1832 to December, 1834; and has sat for
Tiverton since June 5, 1835. Was made a K.G. July
12, 1856. He resigned office, February 19, 1858. Was
appointed, July 9, 1858, one of Her Majesty’s Com
missioners for the purpose of inquiring into the esta
blishment, organisation, government, and direction
of the Militia Force of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. Was appointed First Lord of
the Treasury, June 24, 1859 ; was appointed July 6,
1859, one of the Committee of Council to superintend
the application of any sums of money voted by Par
liament for the purpose of promoting Public Educa
tion. Was granted March 27, 1860, the office of
Constable of Her Majesty’s Castle of Dover, and also
the office of Warden and Keeper of Her Majesty’s
Cinque Ports, and the office of Admiralty within the
said Cinque Ports. Was appointed April 14, 1862,
one of Her Majesty’s Commissioners for opening
the International Exhibition of 1862. Was elected
Master of the Corporation of the Trinity House,
June 16, 1862.” f
The first tbing remarkable in this narrative
is its reticence and its inaccuracy. Lord
Palmerston’s public services are made to
commence in 1809. Yet we learn,' from the
well-known work of Mr. George Henry
Francis, “ Opinions and Policy of Lord
Palmerston,” that he was made a Lord of
the Admiralty in 1807, on the formation of the
Duke of Portland’s Administration. Con
sequently, it was in that capacity that, in
1808, he made a speech in favour of refusing
the papers connected with the lawless attack
* Dodd, on the contrary, says that Lord Palmerston
“was an unsuccessful candidate for the University of
Cambridge in 1806 and 1807 ; and sat for Newport,
Isle of Wight, from 1807 to March, 1811, when he was
returned for the University of Cambridge, and sat till
1831.”
f “ The Foreign Office List for January, 1863, com
piled from official documents by Francis W. H. Caven
dish and Edward Hertslet, of the Foreign Office.
London: Harrison, 59, Pall-mall, Bookseller to the
Queen,” p. 128.
C 2
�20
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
on Copenhagen. Not a word is said, either, Lord Napier, in direct opposition to those
in the Foreign Office List, of his being four of his Sovereign, instructions which led to
times defeated as a parliamentary candidate : the troubles in China, and to the Opium
at Cambridge University in 1806, 1807, and War.
*
1831 • and at South Hants in December,
In September, 1841, Lord Palmerston
.1834. . Mr. Francis, though he records the
Cambridge defeats, makes no mention of his resigned with the rest of the Whig adminis
sitting for Newport from 1807 to 1811, but tration, their majority having been gradually
says that during that time he represented worn out. But the act was well timed; for
Bletcbingley, a rotten borough, in which he on the 2nd of November occurred the out
took refuge only during the Deform agitation break at Caubul, and the expulsion of the
of 1831, and which was disfranchised by the British. The brunt of this disaster was thus
removed from the Author of the war.
Deform Act.
In December, 1851, Lord Palmerston
Other Ministers ascend to or descend from
office in compliance with the oscillations of was dismissed by the Queen for conspiring
party, but every occasion on which Lord with Louis Napoleon to put down Consti
Palmerston has quitted office presents some tutional Government in France. This signal
suspicious circumstance. His resignation act is veiled in the Foreign Office account
May 31, 1828, ostensibly on the ground that by the use of the words, “ which post he held
Mr. Huskisson’s complimentary offer to re till December, 1851.”
Lord Palmerston’s next dismissal was by
sign was accepted by the Duke of Welling
ton, received its explanation when, in Novem the people, in February, 1858, for conspiring
ber, 1830, he became Foreign Minister in an with Louis Napoleon to change the laws
Ad ministration formed entirely from his former of England. Whether this was a real blow
political opponents. In the interim, he made to him or whether, as we have alwavs con
the speech against Turkey which obtained tended, it was contrived by himself, need not
the commendation of the Dussiau Ambas now be discussed. Suffice it to say that the
sador, and that Motion in favour of taking a event was predicted in these columns more
part in the civil war in Portugal, which than three months beforehand.t
pointed him out as the proper agent for a
Whatever the sincerity of his dismissal in
“policy of non-intervention.”
1858, there is now no question of the fraud
The Whigs had been excluded from office, by which he induced Mr. Bright to restore
with very short intervals, for two generations him to place in 1859. The history of the
or more. The Foreign Office, shrouded in Willis’s Dooms Compact, the fancy fran
secresy, was a mystery to them. Lord Pal chises of Mr. Disraeli, and the open viola
merston, having already disentangled him tion of the Deform pledges of Lord Pat,self from the Duke of Wellington’s Admi merston are among the very few things the
nistration, and being practically acquainted memory of which has survived the six inter
with the method of proceeding, was a god vening years. In an age like this, scandal
send to the Whigs in Downing-street.
survives, while nations pass away and are
_ During his short term of office Poland forgotten. J
disappeared from the map of Europe, and
The few years which preceded the death of
England was saddled with the expense of the Mr. Canning, saw the Holy Alliance nearly
transaction, in the shape of a renewal of the paralysed by the opposition of England, and
expired Dusso-Dutch Loan, the method of the New World resisting successfully the
this achievement being a falsehood concerted attempts to entangle it in the diplomacy of
between Lord Palmerston and the Russian the old.
Ambassador.
* See “ China A Narrative,” Free, Press, September,
Lord Palmerston’s departure from office
’
in November, 1834, was not caused by any 1859.
t See
act of his own. William IV. dismissed the Februarythe Free Press for November, 25, 1857, and
24, 1858.
administration on the grounds of the suc
+ Mr. Bright writes to his constituents, June 29,
cession of Lord Althorp, then Chancellor of 1865:—“The Administration which in 1859 climbed
the Exchequer, to the House of Lords. The into office under the pretence of its devotion to the
of Parliamentary Reform, has violated its
interval between November, 1834, and April, questionpledges. Its chief men purposely betrayed the
solemn
1835, was, however, signalised by the arrival cause they undertook to defend, and the less eminent
at the Foreign Office of despatches from members of it have tamely aequiesced in that betrayal.
China, addressed as private letters to Lord The Ministry have, for six years, held office, which
promises
made, and
Palmerston, and which proved that he had, but for they could theyhave obtained which they have
broken,
not
possession of even
as regards that conutry, given instructions to for a day.”
�21
CONDUCT RECAPITULATED.
With Lord Palmerston’s accession to
the Poreign Office the attacks of Russia on
the independence of States were made effec
tive by an Anglo-French League for imposing
Constitutional Government, so that the
nations were torn to pieces by this double
intrigue. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece,
Denmark, have thus been made the prey of
contending factions, as well as the Republics
of Central and South America. In two
cases alone where the naval power of En
gland made her word omnipotent, this
pretence was laid aside for a naked partner
ship with Russia. In Poland the rights of
the Czar were declared to be “ incontest
able,” and the independence of Circassia
was destroyed by permitting Russia piratically to seize English merchant ships trading
to her coasts. Denmark and the Duchies
Lord Palmerston gave to Russia by a Eu
ropean Treaty ; India he first endangered by
the Affghan War, and then subverted by the
Greased Cartridges ; China, which he found in
perfect peace with us, he first made an enemy
by violating its laws, and then convulsed by
the weakness thus caused, so that Russia is
able to make use of Circassia in the west,
and China in the east for facilitating the
invasion of our Indian Empire. The Otto
man Empire has indeed resisted his material
attacks, but he has seduced it into an imita
tion of English finance, which, if persevered
in, will bring it to ruin. Finally, he has
betrayed Hungary as well as Poland to
Russia, and has engaged in a war with her in
which he sacrificed a hundred millions ster
ling, and fifty thousand Englishmen, by
conducting it in the way in which Russia
prescribed. In 1801 the English cruisers
humbled Russia in a few months and, without
any attack upon her territory, compelled her
to sue for peace. In 1856 this easy method
having been abandoned during the war, to
the great loss of this country in blood and
treasure, Lord Palmerston, in a document
unauthorised, and still unratified by the
Queen, undertook that England would never
resume it. While thus abandoning the right
of seizing enemies’ goods in neutral vessels,
as if in order to show that he is not a visionary,
but a man with a purpose, he refuses to
agree to the entire abolition of the capture
of merchant vessels and merchandise at sea,
so that in the event of a war he has deprived
England not only of her naval power, but of
her commercial marine.
Such are the achievements of Lord Pal
merston, such the triumphs of civilisation
and progress since he first held the seals of
the Foreign Office, in an administration
pledged to Reform, Retrenchment and Non
intervention. Tinder the administration of the
Duke of Wellington, a movement for re
trenchment did commence, which continued
till 1835. How' much was effected will be
seen from the following tables :—
Expenditure.
(Exclusive of Cost of Collection and Interest of National
Debt.')
*
1827
1835f
Army, Navy, and Ord-?• £16,205,812
£11,657,486
nance ........................ J
Permanent Civil Serviced
charged on the Con-S
2,103,105
2,082,817
lidated Fund ........... )
Miscellaneous, chargeable'I
upon annual Parlia- !> 3,226,759
2,144,345
mentary Grants .........
Total..... .£21,535,676
15,884,648
A reduction of nearly six millions per
annum was thus effected in eight years. But
when Lord Palmerston returned to office in
1835, “Reform” had done its work, not that of
promoting retrenchment, but that of securing
the Reform Ministry in office. We go for
ward at once a quarter of a century, during
which Lord Palmerston, whether in office
or in opposition, managed the foreign affairs
of the country, and we find an increase ex
ceeding 26,000,000Z.
Expenditure in 1860.J
Army, Navy, and Ordnance, including )
a special vote for the China War...)
Permanent Civil Service charged on the 1
Consolidated Fund............................$
Miscellaneous, chargeable uponannual?
Parliamentary Grants........................ J
1
Q
’
’
ooocjsn
„ 41 icon
’
’ '
Total.......£42,123,592
The expenses of the country have nearly
tripled under Lord Palmerston. Since
1860 there has been a reduction; the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, Earl Russell
and his other colleagues who submitted to
the disgrace of participating in that assault
on China, which they had so eloquently
deprecated, have evidently required some
compensation in diminished activity for mis
chief; which only shows what they might
have done had they, by refusing to act under
Lord Palmerston, left him without col
leagues.
This unwillingness to act against Lord
Palmerston in any way more effective than
a speech on a particular case, is the most
mysterious part of the whole matter. His
accusers tremble before him, not because they
* Sir Henry Parnell “On Financial Reform,” p. 102.
f Parliamentary Papers, No. 147, of 1836.
J Parliamentary Papers, No. 526, of 1861.
�22
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
are confounded by his innocence, but because
they are confounded by his guilt. When
Lord Eobert Montagu charged him with
falsehood, in that he had denied the exist
ence of any negotiations for changing the
succession to the Crown of Denmark, Lord
Palmerston avoided reply by counting
out the House. Lord Eobert Montagu
has never since opened his mouth on the
subject. When Mr. Dunlop moved for an
inquiry into the Affghan forgeries, he had
no idea that the forger was Lord Palmerston. That discovery was forced upon him
by Lord Palmerston’s justification of the
act, unaccompanied by any denial of his
being its author. Prom the time of his
making this discovery, Mr. Dunlop has
been mute. Mr. Dunlop has neither
been bribed nor menaced; he is appalled by
his conviction of the Premier’s guilt. This
mystery, however, loses some of its darkness
when we find that it was predicted a quarter
of a century ago, and an explanation given of
that which, though it is before our eyes, seems
incredible. In 1839, when Lord Palmer
ston was comparatively an obscure man,
when the disasters in India were not, in
general, laid to his charge, Mr. Urquhart,
accusing him of being the author of the
Afighan war, predicted his approaching un
controlled supremacy. He explained his
prevision in this manner: “ Lord Palmer
ston’s connexion with Eussia will afford
him field and scope for action; the character
of crime involved in each apt will confer
impunity, and therefore supremacy at home.”
Here is one of the passages written at that
time, viz. in 1839 :—
The few leading men who have been the channels
through which this bewilderment has been poured
out upon tlie land, have unconsciously yielded them
selves up for this purpose. It is not by conviction
that they have been gained, it is by fascination that
they have been subdued; the eye is caught, and is
fixed by varying images and indistinct forms, and
their convictions are taken by surprise, while they
are endeavouring to understand the thoughts pre
sented to them, and which are only not rejected be
cause incomprehensible. While too preposterous for
conscious admission, they are also too insidious for
unconscious rejection ; and so artfully are they
linked together that all find entrance if one is ad
mitted, and no one is safe against them, but he who
grasps them as a whole, and detects them at a
glance.
“ These statements are made public long after
the facts have occurred, and a few hours at
best are given to examine transactions which years
have been employed to arrange and to disguise.
They are presented to men who only seek to be
informed how things have happened ; who are
doubly hopeless by the ignorance which admits
falsehood, and the diffidence that excludes judgment,
who now, unconscious of ignorance, accept every
statement, and now quell suspicion or doubt,
attributing them to their own ignorance of policy
or of facts; who have no idea of an interna
tional crime ; and, if such is forced upon them—who
have so much honesty and courage as to make up their
minds to avoid the responsibility of having convic
tions. The few men moreover who control Great Bri
tain, and in whose individual thoughts lie her political
destinies as her moral character, occupy stations of re
sponsibility. They are not spectators merely—they
are actors. If they do not expose that which is repre
hensible, they yield to it their support, and how can
they expose what they do not comprehend ? When
that occurs which they do not comprehend, they array
themselves against inquiry, joining from opposite
sides in an arch to cavern darkness and to shelter
crime. A small transgression which can be explained
by a motive within their reach, they will seize and
convert into a brand of party warfare. But if there
be found in the State a bad man who understands
them, he will subdue them and use them by doing
what they cannot conceive. He has but to commit
a great crime to convert the antagonists of his party,
and the judges of his acts into advocates and partisans.
Then will faction subside, antagonism disappear, and
the traitor, because he is a traitor, and by that alone,
stand surrounded by the united power of a people,
among whom the very traditions of sense and custom
have been effaced, though, unhappily for mankind and
for itself, a tongue is in its brainless head, and arms
are in its cruel hands.”*
We now come to the allegation of bribery.
The career, the success of which was pre
dicted in 1839, has been followed from 1826
up to the present time.
That for the entrance on this career there
must have been some motives either of se
duction or coercion no one can doubt. What
these motives have been may be interesting as
a speculation, but cannot be of the slightest
real importance. These things are not ma
naged on an exchange, and even if the motive
alleged should be the true one (or one of the
true ones), this much is nevertheless certain,
that it has not become known or suspected,
through the imbecility of those engaged. If
the Bum stated did come from the source
specified, through the agent designated and
to the person in question, no living being
would have known anything of the matter,
unless in so far as the briber distrusted the
bribed, and was resolved to hold a check over
him.
This, at all events, comes out, that it was
believed and spoken of in, and promulgated
from, a Government office in 1841, and that
the then head of that office is now Lord Pal
merston’s Chancellor oe the Exchequer.
Eor once we have, in this affair, Lord Pal
merston and Mr. Urquhart on the same
line, both concurring to suppress this-charge.
The charge thus suppressed is brought to
light by the intervention of the Secretary of
the Einancial Eeform Association. That
* Transactions in Central Asia, p. 223.
�23
CONDUCT RECAPITULATED.
body had just published a most important
pamphlet (on the Russo-Dutch Loan)
proving the betrayal of the interests of
England to a Foreign Power by Lord Pal
merston. The Chairman of one of the
Foreign Affairs Committees ' (Mr. Crawshat) urges the Society to follow up this
branch of diplomatic investigation on which
the Association had commenced to enter.
Mr. Macqueenanswers, “The proposition in
volves treason, therefore you must eitherprove
or allege corrupt motives.” This is the first
stage. When a primct facie case is pre
sented, corroborated by testimony as to
the conviction of a highly-esteemed public
officer, and the allegations, made in Parlia
ment without contradiction, of a well-known
public character; instead of dealing with the
evidence, and concluding thereon, he writes
letters to other persons, and thereon pre
tends to conclude that the speech in question
had never been delivered, and that the opi
nions in question had never been enter
tained.
When, in reply, the proof is furnished to
him that the speech was delivered, and the
opinions were entertained he simply drops
the matter. His object, however, having
been obtained.—that of preventing the Asso
ciation of which he had recently been ap
pointed the Secretary from prosecuting the
inquiries which it had already commenced.
But in all this, what part does the Finan
cial Reform Association play ? The commu
nications are made to Mr. Macqueen, not
as an individual, but as Secretary of the
Association, Mr. Macqueen utterly effaces
that body, and puts himself in its place.
What has happened to England is this,
f that a clerk has got possession of it by beingdexterous and unscrupulous, and by being
employed for the prosecution of designs
which the nation does not comprehend and,
dares not investigate. This position being so
established, it is easier for minor instruments
to do the like for minor bodies. In such a
case neither capacity nor design is required:
baseness is alone sufficient.
After all, no one cares whether the Prime
Minister is bribed or not. The only feeling
is that of anger at the accusation. Were he
to confess that he had been, they would only
laugh.
“ Anger if they are accused ; laughter if
they confess.” These are the words which
Demosthenes uses in reference to the
orators purchased in his day by Macedonian
gold.
Such is the story of the first intervention
of the Financial Reform Association in this
matter, by means of which it made known to
the public, or at least placed within the
reach of the public the knowledge, that in
1841, the Board of Trade believed itself to
be in possession of evidence to prove that
Lord Palmerston had in 1826 received a
sum of 20,000Z. from Princess Lieven, and
sought to publish that belief to the world.
The matter is now again brought up, after
slumbering for ten years, by Mr. Macqueen,
in order to meet the charge brought against
the Financial Reform Association that it had
“renounced its principles and abdicated its
character.”
It may be entirely false that the Premier
has been bribed. But it is undoubtedly true
that the public, the parliament, and his own
personal friends are perfectly indifferent
whether he has been bribed or not. This is
the point of importance, and not the former
one. There may be a question whether, as
Mr. Thomas Attwood said more than
twenty years ago, “ Russian gold has found
its way into this House.” But there can be
no question of the receipt by British Minis
ters in former times of Russian gold; nor
as to contemporaneous practices of a like
nature in other countries. Nor must it be
forgotten that the present Premier of Eng
land has repeatedly expressed convictions
identical writh these, and has during thirty
years been in the habit of charging persons
who opposed him with being the “creatures,”
“tools,” and “paid agents” of Russia.
Notably this charge has been by him brought
against Mr. Urquhart. When called upon
by his colleagues to prosecute that gentleman;
that is to say, to clear himself in reference to
those charges so publicly and perseveringly
made ; and on other occasions besides, he has
privately and confidentially said : “ He at
tacks me because I am for England; he
being the paid agent of Russia.”
No. 5.
Parallel Case of M. de Chateau
briand—Minister of France
and Agent of Russia.
In the present number of the Free Press, in
the course of an historical elucidation of the
connexion between the events in the New
World, and the Secret System which rules
the Old, a French Minister, who held office
�24
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
but for a few months, is shown to have played which he enjoyed, that at an after time his
a most important and fatal part in bringing Confession was made. Seeing no danger,
about this result. This comes out of his own his vanity indulged itself by appearing to be
Confession. A Confession not made on a the originator and prime motor of magnifi
death-bed and to a Priest, but to the World, cent schemes.
in a work published by him, in which he
The Confession, however ample it may ap
justifies his conduct, and glories in it. Re pear, is still but partial. The third volume of
presenting it as patriotic, whilst at the the “ Congress of Verona” was suppressed,
same time he professes his personal and ex and has never appeared. On the appear
clusive devotion to the Emperor of Russia. ance of the two first volumes, other persons
This Minister—M. de Chateaubriand— took alarm, and measures were taken to stop
in this work of his, “ The Congress of Verona,” such indiscretions. He was sought by those
explains with painfully elaborate detail how, interested in his retirement in Switzerland.
acting under the instructions of the Emperor It is said that M. de la Ferronais went
Alexander, when he was the Representative down on his knees before him to obtain the
of France at the Congress of Verona, he de suppression of the third volume.
*
ceived the French Premier, M. de Villele,
This has happened in France. Why
as to the views of Austria and Prussia, and should not the same thing have happened in
deceived the Ministers of Austria and Prussia England ?
as to the views of M. de Villele. So that
Twenty-five years ago, when the con
while severally the Cabinets of Austria and nexion of Lord Palmerston with Russia
Prussia were opposed to Intervention in was first detected and proclaimed, a deputa
Spain, he brought about the French Inva tion from Glasgow waited on Sir Robert
sion of Spain in 1823, by making Prussia Peel to demand a parliamentary inquiry.
and Austria believe that France had con In the course of the interview Sir Robert
certed that measure with Russia, so that it said :—
“ Treason is a word which I do not understand as
would be impossible for them to oppose it;
Minister.
guilty of
and by making M. de Villele believe that applied toofaNeglect, but A than may he constitute
Impolicy,
that does not
Austria and Prussia were so resolved to put Treason. These are words which may place the
down the Revolution in Spain, that they individual bringing them forward in great personal
would invade France if France did not invade peril.”
Spain. So the army of the Duke d’ANGouDid the use of these words place the per
leme marched, and the explanation and justi sons who employed them in any personal
fication given by M. de Villele in the peril? Has any one ever been prosecuted
Chamber was, that France had sent an army for applying to Lord Palmerston in any
across the Pyrenees to avoid having to send possible shape the terms “ Traitor,” “ For
one to the Rhine.
ger,” and the like? No doubt there would
Now, this was the turning-point for Europe, have been great personal peril, as there must
wrhich, being passed, consigned it to an end have followed condign punishment, for those ■
less course of Revolutions. And this was the who did use those terms, had they been in
turning-point for the New World, involving correctly applied. x
it ultimately in the fate of Europe. This was
Again, Sir Robert Peel does not under
managed, having got a Congress to assemble, stand Treason as applied to a Minister.
at the expense, for Russia, of a journey of the Understand the word he must. It is the
Emperor to Verona, some private walks of application that he denies. But he does not
that Emperor in a garden with a French say, like Lord John Russell, “ British
Poet, and a pension to that Poet of 25,000 Minister.” SirR. Peel says, “aMinister,”
any Minister. He could not have drawn a
francs.
But M. de Chateaubriand was not alone. distinction thus, and have said, “ I can un
He had a colleague at Verona. The colleague derstand Treason as applied to a French, but
was M. de la Ferronais. His assent was I cannot understand Treason as applied to a
not withheld from the plan, and he also re British Minister.” Therefore again we say,
If such things happen in France, why not in
ceived a pension of 25,000 francs.
This treachery, which ultimately brought England ?
What constitutes Treason ? Open any
the fall of the Dynasty in France, so far
from being detected or suspected at the time,
* The Author’s Preface commences as follows:—
made Chateaubriand Foreign Minister at “ The following work must not be confounded with the
Paris. There never was a whisper against Memoirs that are intended to appear after my death. I
his private honour, or his public loyalty, and now put forth that which I may utter while living; the
it is in consequence of the perfect immunity rest will be revealed from the tomb.”
�PARALLEL OF CHATEAUBRIAND.
25
law book and it will give you the definition ; But if Russia requires tools for particular
which in plain language amounts to this : purposes, far more does she require them for
The doing, or suffering, that which is con general ones. If she requires tools in the
ducive to the interests of an extrinsic Power, Government of Prance, she must require
and injurious to the honour or interests of them in every other Government. In the
the British Crown. The crime has no more avowed case of Chateaubriand we shall
to do with the motives or considerations of find indications of what she wants in every
the criminal than any act of private murder. similar case.
The object of a Cabinet in having a secret
Lord Bolingbroke was impeached, and had
to fly, not because he was accused of having agent in another Cabinet is to get its own
received money from Prance, but because he plans carried out by another State, and
was accused of negotiating a Treaty in which cause the results subsequently to appear as
the honour and interest of his Sovereign had if they were its own projects. What Russia
been compromised ; or, rather, not suffi wanted in the case of M. de Chateaubriand
was the unsettlement of Spain and of Spanish
ciently vindicated.
What is there in the word “ Minister”— America. Such an object could not have
a word un-English, and a post unconstitu been effected by Russia in her own person,
tional—which shall confer on the individual and, the event brought about, it could be be
holding it immunity from temptation ? That lieved that the Bourbon King of France ob
it confers, in the eyes of our age, and in the jected to the enforcing of a Constitution on
practice of our times, immunity from conse the Bourbon King of Stain.
In discussing the Invasion of Spain, the
quences, we know: to the horror of those
who are conscious, and to the suffering of all. mind of everybody was turned towards
But far different from this brazen declara France and away from Russia. The effect
tion of immorality, “ we will not punish crime was that everybody was confused. Mr.
in high places” is the insinuated maxim of Canning, who could not understand the
SirR. Peel., that the post of Minister effaces word Treason as applied to a French Minister,
in the individual all the weaknesses of believed that the French Government really
humanity, and throws law and constitution were afraid of the Spanish Revolution, and
into abeyance, by rendering the official inno thought that a modification of the Constitu
cent in intention, and only liable to faults tion of 1812 would satisfy them.
Such is the history of every, important
of judgment.
Coming closer to the point, and down to movement in which England has been en
the very case itself, how could Sir R. Peel gaged since Lord Palmerston has come into
predicate impeccability of the man in respect office. The ostensible meddlers in each case
to whom he had to ask the question in the have gained nothing for themselves. Take the
House of Commons, without obtaining an Danish case. Denmark wanted to retain the
answer, or being able to furnish a solution, Duchies. Where are the Duchies now ?
By this process, everywhere repeated since
“ Whose interest does the noble Lord repre
sent in this House ?” And to whom, eleven 1830, affairs have been rendered so confused,
years later, he addressed this menace : “ Let and the subject has consequently become so
the noble Lord beware—let the noble Lord abstruse, that it is out of the question that
beware I” Telling him that, unless he ceased the public should be enlightened upon it.
his taunts :.nd his gibes, he would quit the In the conversation already alluded to, Sir
House, and thereby leave the House to deal Robert Peel said that the Glasgow Me
with the man at that time charged with the morial contained questions of so comprehen
criminal invasion of Afghanistan, and the sive a character, that days and weeks would
not suffice to examine them. This was in
loss of 25,000 British lives ?
Sir R. Peer was not so innocent and igno 1840, a quarter of a' century ago, and the
rant of human nature, British history, and process has continued ever since. But if the
the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. But be process cannot be taken in, this, at least,
tween the alternative of leading the Im may be taken in—that the individual Mi
peachment and quashing the inquiry, for nister is playing false. Then, indeed, does
him there was no escape. He preferred the the mystery and unintelligibility of every
particular transaction turn to light and con
latter.
In the case of Cha.teattbr.iand, we have a firmation.
It is the anticipation of the consequences
Minister avowing that he had been playing
false. Had been, for he had ceased to be to follow, that has inspired energy, resolu
Minister the moment the particular work tion, and perseverance in those few who from
was accomplished for which he was retained. the beginning, or nearly from the beginning,
�26 „
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
have understood the character of the man,
and therein the danger of the Empire. Hence
those efforts which they have made, and con
tinue to make, and the testimony they have
accumulated, awaiting the hour when Eng
land may seek to understand her position, in
order to find a way of escape from its conse
quences.
One of the means employed was Deputa
tions from Towns and Public Bodies to
Public men, to lay grounds before them for
this charge of collusion with a Eoreign
Power. Whilst no means could be so effica
cious for counteracting the secret designs of
the Minister, at that time only Foreign Se
cretary, so also was this the most effectual for
testing the accuracy of their conclusions.
For, had these been baseless, of course they
would have been upset in a moment. Out
of hundreds of such interviews, extending
over twenty-seven years—that is, from 1838
down to the present time, there is not a
single instance of a Deputation, or the
Member of a Deputation returning shaken.
But, on the contrary, they acquired in many
cases that certitude, from the inability of the
Colleague of the Minister, or the Antagonist
of the Minister—for it amounts to the same
thing—to disprove the charges against him,
or to explain his acts in any other intelligible
fashion, which they had not acquired from
the documents themselves.
The extracts which we have already given
are from a conversation between Sir Fobert
Peel and a Deputation sent to him in the
year 1840 by the City of Glasgow, headed
by Mr. William Brown, then Dean of
Guild.
We give in another column, in extenso,
the Beport of a similar Deputation sent at
the same time to Sir James Graham.
Unlike Sir B. Peel, he did not refuse to
accept the idea, or the possibility of Treason.
He did indeed refuse to accept the statement
as particularly applied, but simply on the
grounds that it was repulsive to his self-love.
He did not so much as apply himself to the
subject-matter of the Interview — i. e. the
acts of the Minister. He neither controverted
the statements of the Deputation, nor justi
fied the conduct of Lord Palmerston. He
merely said, If the case is as you have stated
it to he, I, who have heen the Colleague of
that Minister, have heen either a dupe or an
accomplice. I will not examine such a case.
You cannot expect me to do so. This is the
substance of his reply.
The Documents contained in our last
Number show that in the year following
these Interviews, the Government which had
come into office (for we cannot suppose that
the Department of the Board of Trade acted
independently), made an attempt, though an
abortive one, to have Lord Palmerston
publicly denounced as having received a bribe
of 20,0001. from Princess Lieven. In a
letter which appears in our columns of this
day, from a source in which we have the most
entire confidence, the circumstances of Lord
Palmerston’s introduction into the Foreign
Office, are for the first time revealed. From
which it appears that it was owing to no
home party combination; but that the ap
pointment was suddenly extorted from Lord
Grey by Princess Lieven. Now, in the
two Interviews to which we have above re
ferred, both SirBoBERT Peel and Sir James
Graham admit that in the conduct of Lord
Palmerston there is a mystery to them in
soluble. A mystery may exist for the
Public, without the necessity of crime being
involved. Not so when the mystery is with
reference to Colleagues in office; or to suc
cessors or predecessors, who take up or leave
the thread of affairs, and yet do not under
stand what has been done, or what they have
got to continue.
During the quarter of a century that has
since elapsed no new solution has been
offered, not a single attempt has been made
in that direction even by a solitary in
dividual.
Since that time, the many deputations
that have waited on public men, Ministers or
Members of Parliament, as our columns
abundantly testify, have brought back from
these occasions of testing the character
and knowledge of public men, only the con
viction that it was on their own efforts alone
that depended the safety of their country.
On the other hand, how much has occurred
to confirm the solution originally offered.
First. Everybody now knows Lord Pal
merston to be guilty of acts which at the
commencement of these discussions would
have been considered shameful and absurd
even to suppose. The argument then was,
the honour of an English gentleman.
Secondly. The predictions that were made
on this hypothesis are all either accom
plished or in visible course of accomplish
ment. Poland is gone; Circassia is gone ;
the Bight of Search is gone ; India is shaken,
expenditure doubled; foreign affairs every
where so complicated that there is scarcely a
country in the world with which we have not
one or more standing quarrels that might at
any time be the cause of war.
A Lord Chancellor, despite the manoeuvres
of the Premier, retiring because of corrupt
�J
,27
CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
J
|
I
g1
I
tion ; a general election, in which the question has been, not whether Lord Palmebston and his policy should be supported,
but whether they should be supported by
“ Liberals” or “ Conservatives.5'
1S
Is not this “ supremacy ?” Was not this
supremacy predicted in the clearest and most
emphatic terms twenty-six years ago, and
(| A
was not the condition of that supremacy ex
plained by treason? Here are the memorable
words which resume the past, describe the
present, and contain the future fate of Eng
land, Europe, and the world :—
“ Then will faction subside, antagonism
disappear, and the traitor, because he is a
traitor, and by that alone, stand surrounded
by the united power of a people, among
whom the very traditions of sense and custom
i
fhave been effaced, though, unhappily for
mankind and for itself, a tongue is in its
brainless head, and arms are in its cruel
hands.”*
importance as the commencement of a new order
of things, which may emancipate our National
affairs from the recognised danger of foreign com
plications felt by the leaders of every party, but
which cannot be effected by the Legislature until a
new selection of members can take place through
out the kingdom. He emphatically pointed to the
nation itself as the only channel through which
those abuses could be rectified. If they were con
tented with the Government of Parliament as at pre
sent constituted, they would allow their Represen
tatives to remain. If, on the other hand, they are
discontented, it remains with them to request their
Members to resign the trust which has been mis
placed in their hands. Nothing could be done
without the commercial constituencies and the
electors of the kingdom, as four attempts had been
made to rectify the infringement of Foreign
Treaties, and each result had notified to foreign
nations, by a majority of the House, that the Mi
nisters had the confidence of the Parliament,
although it was evident from appearances through
out the kingdom that they had not the confidence
of the nation. A false position, which made our
danger appalling to contemplate, and most difficult
to rectify.
SIB JAMES GBAHAM ON L0BD PALMEBSTON.
{From the Fortfolio, Second Series, Vol. II. p. 212.)
London, April 29, 1840.
We have just returned from an interview with
Sir James Graham. He had already, through Sir
Robert Peel’s letter, and Mr. R-------’s interview
in Wales, become fully apprised of the magnitude
of the question, and of the awfulness of the charge.
It had sunk into his mind, and it transpired in the
conversation that he felt he might have been a dupe
of Lord Palmerston’s, at all events. He said, “ I
am to understand either that I have wilfully parti
cipated in this man’s acts, or that I have been a
dupe, and that this is the least of the imputations
to which I am liable.” He did not at all seem to
think the charge impossible of proof, but he said,
“ Situated as 1 am, having been a member of the
Cabinet, and colleague of Lord Palmerston
during the affair of the Boundary and on the
Eastern Question, it is utterly impossible for me
to be his accuser, nor should I be willing even to
vote for a Committee of Inquiry except on strong
evidence laid before me. I cannot, after having
lived on terms of intimacy and friendship with Lord
Palmerston, come to the belief of so awful a
charge as that which has been advanced ; nor can
I, although entirely opposed to the Government,
consent to array the whole power of the Conserva
tive Party against one solitary individual, singled
out from a Cabinet of so many members, with the
view of crushing him as an individual.” He said
Sir Robert Peel’s position may be different.
It is impossible for me to go over the whole of
what passed. But reflecting on the earnest atten
tion he paid, and his pertinacious refusal to be in
terrupted by the announcement of visitors, &c., we
have felt that his mind is agitated and oppressed
with the belief that this movement is of historical
* Transactions in Central Asia, 1839.
I
•f
No. 6.
Connivance of Sir Robert Peel.
A sentence of Sir R. Peel, which we quoted
and commented on in our last, is so full of
meaning, and has been so pregnant with dis
astrous results for England and the world,
since the hour when it was uttered, that we
must revert to it.
“ A Minister may be guilty of Impolicy, or
Neglect, but that does not constitute Trea
son.”
These words were not spoken in the House
of Commons They were used privately to
a Deputation of persons of influence sent
from the second city of the Empire, and who
appealed to him to obtain a parliamentary
inquiry into the acts of the Eoreign Office.
They were spoken with a view of arresting
the impulse which had in that year mani
fested itself in the Commercial Towns to
obtain light as to the proceedings of the
Eoreign Department.
Sir Robert Peel either believed that
there were justifiable grounds for such a de
mand, or that there were none. In the first
case he should have hailed the awakening of
the Nation, and acted thereon in the sense
of his words iu Parliament at a subsequent
period : 1 wish the people of England
would take their affairs into their own hands.”
�28
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
In the second case he would have relieved
the minds of the Deputation by telling them
that they were mistaken, and satisfied their
scruples by giving them the proof of his
words, which no man was better able to do,
seeing that he had returned to office in the
middle of the period over which the transac
tions complained of extended. He would
not have had recourse to a generality, whe
ther one of ancient date, or of new inven
tion, nor would he have offered hitherto un
heard-of distinctions and qualifications, as to
the nature of offences, of which a Minister
could, or could not be guilty.
If, then, Sir R. Peel adopted the latter
course, and not the former, it is clear to de
monstration that he was at once conscious of
the truth of the averments of the Deputa
tion, and resolved to prevent that truth from
becoming generally known and acted upon.
The Truth urged by the Deputation, and
evaded by Sir Robert Peel, was, that the
Nation was betrayed. This comes out from
the circumstances of the case.
It further comes out cumulatively from
the plea of Sir Robert Peel. He says,
“ Treason is a word which I do not under
stand as applied to a Minister.” He does
not say, “ Treason has not been committed.”
He then says, “ A Minister may be guilty of
Impolicy, or Neglect, but that does not con
stitute Treason.” What the Deputation
had alleged was not capable of definition as
Impolicy, or Neglect. It was contrivance, it
was suppression, it was Forgery, it was
War levied without the authority of the
Sovereign, it was guilt of every form, and of
every dye. It was violation of municipal
law, of criminal law, and of international
law. The whole with the purpose and the
effect of High Treason, as defined by Black
stone, i. e. to advance the interests of an ex
trinsic Power. The false definition of the
allegations of the Deputation was therefore
employed to arrive at the conclusion, “ This
does not constitute Treason.” But this con
clusion was superfluous, since the very sen
tence itself commenced with a denial in
general terms that a Minister could be guilty
of Treason. Thus the words of Sir Robert
Peel themselves convey the perfect con
sciousness on his part that the described
condition of things did exist for England.
The form of the phrase, “ A Minister may
be guilty of Impolicy or Neglect; but that
does not constitute Treason,” conveys the
admission of the acts urged on the other
side. Exception is only taken to their legal
qualification. What does this amount to?
Everything and nothing. To support the
Russian Pretender to the Throne of Persia,
and to call him an English Partisan, may no
doubt be called “Impolicy.” But it may
also be called “ Treason.” To abrogate the
defensive Treaty with Persia, to paralyse the
efforts of the East India Company to support
Herat, to suppress the Despatches of the
English Envoy which represented Dost
Mohammed as appealing to England against
Russia, and then to invade his country on
the grounds that he was a Partisan of Russia;
to send Orders in defiance of the orders in
Council, to violate the municipal laws of
China, and then to wage a lawless wrar on
the Chinese Empire, may all be called by Sir
R. Peel, if he chooses it, “ Impolicy,” with
out the slightest derogation to their quali
fication as “ Treason.” In the meantime they
are, all of them, violations of the laws, the
punishment for which is duly consigned in
our Statute-books. The sense, therefore, that
can apply to the epithet “ Impolicy,” must
have reference to detection not to perpetra
tion. So in private life, if people were ac
customed to use amphibology, which they
would do, if the pursuit of Crime depended
solely on arrangements of partisanship, it
might be said that Poisoning was inaccuracy,
not murder, and breaking into a house, im
policy but not burglary.
After all, what did the word “ Treason”
matter in the Case ?' What the Deputation
said was this, “ The examination of such
Documents as are within our reach, and the
consideration of such acts and facts as are
public, leave us no doubt of great injury,
great wrong, great expenditure, and great
crimes. We further suspect that these are
not accidental, but are connected with a
general system, directed to the advancement
of the interests of a Foreign Power, and the
sacrifice of the honour and interest of the
British People and Crown, and the prostitu
tion of their resources to that end. We,
therefore, demand a Parliamentary inves
tigation into these transactions, that the
Truth may be known ; so that on the one
hand the evil may be arrested if it exists,
and on the other that suspicion and anxiety
may be allayed, if there be none.” In other
words, and adopting the phraseology of Sir
R. Peel, the inquiry they sought for was,
as to whether there had been “ Impolicy and
Neglect.” This is the inquiry which Sir R.
Peel refuses, and the refusal rests on the
phrase, “Impolicy and neglect are not sub
jects of inquiry.” As the term applying to
anything beyond, is not to be understood as
applying to a Minister, it follows that a
Minister was by the maxim of Sir R. Peel
�CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
in 1840, placed absolutely beyond the Law.
The history of the World since that period
illustrates the practical working out of the
position.
In this case, the mind of Sir R. Peel was
severely taxed. He had a great effort to
make and he made it. He had to find an
epithet for acts that were illegal, which would
cause them to pass free of legal consequences,
and so confuse or dishearten the persons he
was addressing, and send them home brow
beaten and discomfited. Thus, while shield
ing the Minister under a subterfuge, he used
threats towards those who demanded protec
tion and justice, telling them that they in
curred great personal peril by the course they
were taking.
At that moment the destinies of the Nation
hung upon the character of a single man;
that man was Sir R. Peel. His own cha
racter hung upon the decision of the moment.
He was upon a sudden brought up to the
adoption of one of two alternatives: “ Am I
to lead the Impeachment ?” “ Am I to sup
press the inquiry?” The latter was the
easiest; the result of the Glasgow Deputa
tion was to hand over Sir R. Peel as an Ac
complice to Lord Palmebston.
The state of things existing as the Deputa
tion presented it, it would be clear to any
man who examined the matter as a past his
torical event, that the fate of the Empire de
pended upon the success of the efforts made
under the impulse of the first suspicion. Eor
the suspicion arising, and the charges being
made, and nothing ensuing thereon, it was
clear that the Nation was alike destitute of
the instincts of self-preservation and of in
dignation against calumny, for the charges
would be henceforth treated as calumny. The
self-love of the nation—the only powerful
motive remaining—would be enlisted on the
side of the Minister, and arrayed against all
inquiry, which it would treat as an offence
against itself and an aspersion cast on its
own sagacity. So that the whole matter
would remain buried in oblivion, until the
progress of the scheme had arrived at the
point when the awakening of the People
would be profitless for its own security, and
only available as exasperating the catastrophe,
by superadding internal violence to external
decay.
Erom that hour the work of Sir Robebt
Peel, on this higher field, began. A variety
of terse and poisonous sophisms emanating
from his practised mind were cast from time
to time into the public thoughts, to pervert
any healthy impulse manifesting itself in the
Parliament or the People. One of these alone
29
will we quote, from its singular efficacy, and
from its presenting the counterpart of the
sentence on which we are commenting :—
“ I am afraid there is some great principle at work
where civilisation and refinement come in contact
with barbarism, which makes it impossible to apply the
rules observed towards more advanced nations.”
We have underlined some of the co-efficient
terms to evoke the attention of the reader to
the anxiety of mind under which Sir R. Peel
must have laboured in concocting and ar
ranging this sentence. It was uttered in the
House of Commons, in reference to an Event
of the most signal importance, which had
taken place out of the House, in despite of
all the sophisms of the man, and all the in
fluence of the Minister exerted to prevent it.
There existed in the England of that day,
1844, a body which held the administra
tion and the guardianship of India to a cer
tain degree independently of the Govern
ment. That body—the Court of Directors
of the East India Company—alarmed at the
course of encroachment, usurpation, and in
vasion dictated to them by the Board of
Control, whose secret communications they
were coerced to carry into effect under threat
of being sent to prison, resolved to take their
stand upon an authority which had not yet
been withdrawn from them by the Parliament
—that of dismissing the Governor-General.
They therefore did dismiss Lord Ellenbobough on the ground of his aggression in
Scinde. There were not wanting those in
Parliament inclined to follow up this blow,
struck at that course of lawlessness, which
half a century before had been arrested in
India by the Impeachment of Wabben
Hastings ; so restoring in the practice of
India that same respect for the Laws which
at that time it was supposed continued to
exist in Europe. Sir R. Peel had no more
interest in the protection of Indian Crime
than he had in the shielding of British
Treason. But the measures in India were
mere corollaries of those in Europe. The x
Eoreign Department had decided on the
Wars in Afghanistan, in China, and in
Scinde, just as it had on the betrayal of
Poland in 1831, on the Spanish Quadruple
Treaty of 1834, on the rupture with Erance
of 1840. Having protected the acts of the
Eoreign Department against Inquiry, it fol
lowed that Sir R. Peel had to resist inquiry
whenever demanded and to protect wrong
whenever committed. The importance of his
position as the leader of the Party opposed
to the Minister did not, however, suffice for
this end. A fallacy was required, and a fal
lacy was found. “ We are civilised, and these
�30
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON-.
People are barbarians. There is a different! you had. He sends a shell, in which the
law for the civilised and the barbarians. It body is conveyed to the dead house; he orders
is by no means a thing that I commend. But the parish surgeon to hold a, post mortem ex
still the thing is there, and it is at work. amination of the body; he summons the
We must let it go on, for we cannot stop Coroner, the Jury, and the witnesses. The
it.” The fallacy triumphed. Nobody ques attendance of these is not optional. In the
tioned the civilisation of the one, or the want case supposed, the inquisition will not be
of refinement of the other. Nobody saw that long or the evidence elaborate, but if the
if there was any meaning in these words, it dead man had been a sober person, if traces
was that the civilised were under a law supe of poison had been found in the body, neither
rior to that of the barbarians, and that as it the Coroner nor the Jury could separate till
was the acts of the civilised and not those of every witness whose testimony could be ex
the barbarians that the speaker was defend pected to throw light on the matter had been
ing, his own proposition did not apply. For examined. With the witnesses it is the
in that case the Civilised had to say to the same. Unless involved in the guilt of murder,
Barbarians, ££ It may be right for. you, as they cannot but tell what they know. If
barbarians, to break faith and commit vio they are so involved, the discrepancy of their
lence. But we, as civilised men, cannot do evidence with that of the innocent witnesses
so.” Nobody said to himself, “ A people tends to the discovery of the crime, and the
that disregards the laws is not refined and punishment of the criminal. Till the Jury is
not advanced.” Least of all, did anybody say satisfied of the cause of death, the Coroner
to himself that these acts were ipso facto ar cannot give his warrant of interment, and
rested by the act of the East India Com without that warrant no custodian of a
pany, and that it was by his own accept cemetery co bury the body.
Whence arises this universal non-posance of this sentence of Sir B. Peel’s that
the portals of impunity were again thrown sumus ? How is this vast and intricate
machinery put in motion ? Its security lies
open to the Indian Administration.
Yet nothing is simpler than the Bule by in the number of its parts, every one neces
which to judge of such matters. We have sary to the action of the whole, but each
only to appeal to our own daily practice in separate until combined by particular cir
cumstances. The motive power is the sense
the things with which we are familiar.
No private individual would say, “I may of law in the breast of every man. Every
rob and murder those who are not so rich or one of the persons concerned has, in the first
so clever as myself.” If he did say so, and place, the conscientious sense of the one thing
acted upon the maxim, he would find himself it is his duty to do, and, in the second, the
feeling that, if he neglect his duty, he may be
in the hands of the Police.
If a servant were detected in a system of punished for his neglect, and even lie under
false accounts, he would not be borne harm suspicion of complicity. The co-operation of
less by saying, “ I have not embezzled, but every one of these persons scattered in dif
only neglected to pay over the sums of money ferent parts of a district is necessary to ob
which I have received on my master’s ac tain the required result; namely, the deci
count.” He would find that the Magistrate, sion as to the cause of death. The failure of
the Judge, and the Jury would not excuse any one person to perform his duty would
him because he was his master’s “ minister.” draw upon him the responsibility of the
Seeing that so great a difference exists be failure of justice. He cannot venture to in
tween the mode of treating affairs that are cur this responsibility ; he cannot foresee its
public and those that are private ; that the amount; he cannot tell even the names of all
former are removed from the control of the the persons who may be concerned to exact
law, while the latter are still subject to it, it it from him. On the other hand, his own
cannot be a waste of time to consider in prescribed duty being performed, he is per
what this control of the law really consists. fectly free from all further consequences.
But this sense of law is not always to be
Let us take a case: an habitual drunkard
walks into your garden, you see him from found in mankind. It is not like the pulsa
your window^ repeatedly stagger and fall, and tion of the heart, or the operation of the
on going out to look after him, find him de gastric juice. Where it has been brought
prived of sense or motion. You can do but into operation it is quite possible to destroy
one thing: send for the nearest medical man. it. Suppose that some philosopher were to
He comes, and pronounces the patient dead. discover that the inquiry into the cause of
Again you have no alternative. You send death required from every person concerned
for the Beadle. He has no more choice than ! therein a special training, and that some
�CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
31
of Mrs. P
I must say I could
political economist were to announce that it appearance from my ritchard. conviction that her
not banish
mind the
was a shameful burthen upon, respectable symptoms betokened that she was under the de
householders to have to undergo so much pressing influence of antimony. . . . On the 3rd of
trouble for the sake of being quite sure whe March I received, through the post-office, a schedule
ther or not a drunken vagrant had committed from the Registrar, in which I was requested to tell
cause of Mrs.
an involuntary suicide ; suppose that in the him the her disease. Taylor’stodeath, and the dura
tion of
I refused do so, and sent the
“ Progress of Civilisation” it were deter schedule back to the Registrar on the Saturday,
mined that this matter should be given up to with a note accompanying it, and directing his
a special class of officials created ad hoc, and attention to the circumstance. . . .
“
impression,
,
under the guidance of a Board sitting in thatIt was mypoisoned, or on seeing Mrs. Pritchard
she was
being poisoned, with anti
London, with a gentleman at the head of it mony. I did not go back to see her because she was
to answer questions in Parliament, and a not my patient. I had nothing to do with her. It
medical man well skilled in chemistry as per was not my duty to do so.
manent secretary; suppose that, on the oc “ Question. You saw a person being poisoned with
currence of any sudden death, an Act of antimony, and you did not think it your duty to
interfere?
Parliament should prescribe that an officer
“ Answer. I did the best I could to prevent her
should be sent for from the branch office of the being further injured by apprising the Registrar of
Central Board, and that the warrant of that the fact.
“Q. Did you tell Dr. Pritchard?
officer should be sufficient authority for
“ A. I did not.
burial—it would then be an impertinence for
“ Q. You were surely under an obligation to go
any private individual to inquire into the cir back again, when you saw a person being poisoned
cumstances. If the official chose to content by antimony ?
“A. 1 took what steps I could to prevent any
himself with a mere view of the body, as he
administration of
refused to
very probably would do, there would be but further the death of Mrs. Tthe drug. I if there had
certify
aylor, and
small security against death by poison.
been a post mortem examination of Mrs. Taylor’s body,
.Some few individuals might still be found I believe that the drugging with antimony would have gone
more vigilant than the rest. They might no further at that time. I observed that she was suffer
symptoms
select some medical man high in his pro ing under theI samecalled in on as those formerly obI
served when was
the 2nd of March.
fession, and laying before him such details of still believed her (Mrs. Pritchard) to be suffering
suspicious cases of death as had come to their from antimony, and prescribed for her accordingly.
knowledge, might call on him to put himself .... It was Dr. Pritchard who asked me to visit
at their head, and demand the suspension his wife on the occasion. I did not mention to him
what I thought. It would not have been a very safe
from office of the permanent Secretary, and a matter to have done. I did not go back because it
judicial investigation into his conduct. Then was none of my business. I did not consider it my
would this ornament to the medical profes duty. She had her husband, who was a medical man. I
sion, that is if he were a proficient in the had discharged my duty.
By
things, and not
doctrines of intelligence and civilisation, to “ Q. that prescribing certainwas followed ? going
see
your prescription
reply as follows :—
“ A. In the case of a consultation, the consultant
“ Murder is a word I do not understand as applied has no right to go back.
“ Q. The dignity of your profession, then, pre
to a medical man. A Doctor may be guilty of Im
policy, of Neglect, but that does not constitute vented you?
Murder.”
“ A. The etiquette of the profession.”
We are not, however, left to induction or
analogy, to discover what such a person -would
say or do. In a recent trial for murder, a
medical man, who had no interest or desire to
promote murder, who was sufficiently con
scientious to refuse to give a false certificate,
nevertheless became a silent witness of a case
of slow poisoning. He prescribed medicines
to avert the fatal result, but he did not even
insist on his prescriptions being carried out,
and he did not reveal to the Magistrates the
crime which was being committed under his
very eyes. We extract from the Times report,
in order to place it on record, a portion of
the evidence of Dr. Paterson, on the recent
trial of Dr. Pritchard at Edinburgh:—
This is the necessary result of the Propo
sitions, uttered so long ago by Sir B. Peel.
There is no alternative between bringing
back into public affairs the practice still pre
served in private affairs, and the introduction
into private affairs of the lawlessness prac
tised inpublic affairs. Sir R. Peel himself
pointed out the analogy between the Minister
and the medical man, when he said, “ I will
not give advice until I am regularly called
in.” Yet, unlike the physician, he took on
himself the responsibility of the case when
not regularly called in, by saying, “ We (the
Opposition) are strong enough to support
the Government when it is right, and to
break it when it is wrong.”
Thus can we see with our eyes, hear with
“ While attending to Mrs. Taylor, in the bedroom,
I was very much struck at the same time with the our ears, and handle with our hands those
�32
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
causes of the decay of States which, in the
past, at once excite our imagination and
baffle our grasp. Those causes are fallacious
sentences, and amphibological terms which
darken the understanding, to reconcile the
conscience with evil. So combining in one
end the intelligent and active guilt of a few,
with the inert and cowardly indifference of
all.
No. 7.
Public and Private Crimes.
We resume the weighty subject of our last:
the words of Sir Robert Peel, and their
effect on the character and destinies of the
nation.
We had come down in point of date to the
time when Sir Robert Peel was engaged in
warding off inquiry, prompted only by in
ternal doubts and anxieties. Another phase,
whether foreseen or not by him, was of
necessity to follow. That of the disasters
entailed by the crimes which he condoned,
and the schemes which he concealed. At the
period to which we refer, the idea of danger to
the Minister was involved in that of disaster
to the nation. It was the corollary to that
conjunction which had hitherto prevailed
amongst mankind, more or less distinctly, of
doubt and inquiry. Since there was to be
no inquiry where there was doubt, so there
was to be no danger where there was
disaster. This, also, was the achievement of
the fallacious sentences of Sir Robert Peel.
The first of these disasters was that in
Afghanistan. The nation had not been con
sulted about the expedition across the Indus;
it had exulted in its success.
All at once came the news that Sir W.
Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes
had been killed, the British force expelled
from Caubul, and that one solitary horseman
had escaped to join his countrymen at
Jellalabad. The Whig Ministry, kept alive
for a twelvemonth by a majority of two, had
been dismissed from office by an adverse vote
of the House of Commons. Close on the ap
pointment of the new Ministry came the
terrible news.
But the Afghan War did not stand alone.
It was accompanied by an assault upon Persia,
and by the Opium War. The contempora
neous proceedings in Europe included the
sacrifice of the Vixen, the setting up of
Mehemet Ali, and the Treaty of 1840, which
all but produced a war, and did break up the
supposed great European Policy—the Alli
ance between England and Erance. The
Opium War had called forth the warmest
reprobation from the Conservative party.
The Afghan War had been disapproved, but
not formally opposed. Yet Sir Robert Peel
had declared that 11 he was strong enough to
resist the Government when wrong, and to
support it when right.” The acts of the
Whig Government had destroyed their ma
jority in Parliament, and seated their op
ponents in office. It was expected that a
change of men would bring a reversal of
measures. But these measures, though they
had disgusted the nation, had not been con
demned by Parliament; they stood supported
by the active concurrence of a former ma
jority, and the silent acquiescence of the
rest. To reverse them they had first to be
condemned. But they could not be con
demned without being explained. It was
necessary to know who gave the order to
cross the Indus. The instructions to do so
have not even yet been published. On the
occurrence of the disaster the war was attri
buted by the public to the East India Com
pany. The East India Company declared
that they had no hand in it, and themselves
demanded inquiry, they further required the
reimbursement of the expenditure which had
been imposed upon them. Again everything
was in the hands of Sir Robert Peel.
Now there were no longer doubts as to the
consequences of the system of secret and
mysterious crime. Now there were the
effects of the disaster upon the public to sup
port and justify him, had he been prompted
either by awakened conscience or aroused
fears, to crush this conspiracy ; for which not
even an impeachment was requisite, but
simply a committee of the House of Commons
to report upon the causes of the Afghan In
vasion.
On a Motion by Mr. Roebuck in the
House of Commons on the 1st of March,
1843, for a Committee of Inquiry, Sir Robert
Peel said :
“ There are two questions which have been brought
under the consideration of the House in the course
of the present discussion. The one, whether or no
the expedition undertaken by the Governor-General
of India into Afghanistan was consistent with sound
policy; and the other, whether it is fitting for the
House of Commons to appoint a Select Committee
for the purpose of inquiring into the policy of that
expedition. These two questions, I consider, to be
not necessarily connected with each other. ... I
consider that question (the expedition) to be per
fectly distinct from the question, whether as a mem
�33
CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
ber of the Government, possessing the confidence of
Her Majesty, I should think it expedient to lend the
influence, which a Government naturally exercises,
to appoint a Select Committee for the purpose of in
quiring into the policy and justice of a great opera
tion undertaken four years ago.”
Executive Government to the Committee of the
House of Commons.”
“There are two considerations under our discus
sion; the first is whether the death of the deceased
is to be attributed to other than natural causes; the
second, whether any inquiries should take place on
the subject. These questions I consider to be not
necessarily connected with each other.”
every injury from without; he has linked together
extreme danger and internal treason, and con
ferred upon them a charter of immunity. Assuming
inquiry into home delinquency and foreign designs
to be interference with the functions of the executive
Government, he shows us that the present Govern
ment is but a continuation of the past system. He
has connected the Afghan War with the other transactions
in which England has been involved in all other quarters
of the globe. He has connected the acts of the late Govern
ment and the projects of Russia. He has then stood
up to resist all disturbance of this conspiracy by
inquiry or by punishment.
“ Surely a more unconstitutional and a more unEnglish speech was never uttered in the House of
Commons. In it were given first the propositions,
only insinuated by Lord Palmerston, that Prero
gative of the Crown, Duty of Parliament, and Law
of the Land, may be made matter of accommodation
between successive Cabinets.
“ Formerly there was a struggle between Privi
lege and Prerogative, or between the Crown and the
Country; then came a struggle in the House between
Whigs and Tories; now it is a struggle of Cabinets
on one side, Crown, Parliament, Law, and Nation
on the other. A struggle? No, there is no struggle.
Whoever holds the Foreign Office may dispose of England
as of a wardrobe. He may keep it, sell it, cheat with it,
or be cheated out of it; and supposing that public in
dignation is at length aroused, there is a sluice now
constructed to let it flow harmlessly away.
“ The Ministry is not to lend the influence of its
position to inquire into mal-administration by the
preceding Ministry. But guilt not repudiated is
accepted, and thus, by a change of Men, the con
tinuance of the Measures which have driven
What are the consequences of this deci
sion? We quote from among many pro
phetic passages in a contemporary publication
Now let us revert to the recent trial for the following, which gives the history of the
murder, which we used as an illustration in twenty-two years that have since elapsed;—
“ What are the consequences of this decision ?
our former article, altering in imagination
and
placed
the circumstances so as to present a parallel be Firstly: Ministers may menenjoyed in authority now
know that power
be
without respon
tween the High Court of Justiciary at Edin sibility, and that malversation of any kind may be
burgh and the High Court of Parliament at indulged in without fear of any consequences.
Westminster. To do this, we must suppose Secondly: Foreign Powers will now know that con
the judge, the counsel, and the jury, instead of sequences by them are not to be apprehended from
a nation
proceeding to try the case, debating whether become itswhose servants, by being faithless, have
masters.
there should be any trial at all. We must
“ Sir Robert Peel has pronounced sentence of
suppose the counsel for the Crown saying:
acquittal upon every crime within, of approval on
The law of England in respect to sudden
death reverses, as regards the fact, the rule
which it applies towards the person. It re
gards every man as innocent till he is proved
guilty; it regards every sudden death as
violent till it is proved natural. The pro
posal here is that every death shall be
treated as natural, even when it is known to
be violent.
But to make our analogy complete, we
must suppose that the Advocate for the
Crown went on to give his reasons for
abolishing trials for murder. He must have
said :
“ This is not the only case in which the cause of
death is questionable. There is the case of Mary
Windsor, who appears to have been in the liabjt of,
at least, disposing of dead bodies for money, in a
mysterious and questionable manner. There are
also many cases which, if pursued to inquiry,
would show that infanticide is becoming a common
practice. Now if this Court should take cognisance
of the case of Mrs. Pritchard, it must take cognisance
of a great many other cases, and the result will be
that the management of the private affairs of every
family in the country will be transferred to this
Court.”
Now hear Sir Eobebt Peel.
“Where are the limits to such inquiries? Shall I
inquire as to the policy of the Syrian war; as to
the effect of our bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre;
and as to the effect our conduct on that occasion had
upon France? (Mr. Hume, you ought.) Yes, the
Hon. Member for Montrose says, truly enough, that
if I grant one Committee I ought to grant another.
Because, observe, if on every point of questionable
policy this House is to have a Committee of Inquiry,
another member will come down and say, that the
arrangements under the American Treaty are preju
dicial to our interests, and that we must have a
Committee of Inquiry on that subject. Having
granted the first two Committees, I could not refuse
the third; and of consequence I must hand over the
THEM FROM OFFICE IS SECURED.”*
Has not this prediction been accomplished
to the letter ? What have been the events
which have happened, or rather the things
which have been done, since 1843, in pur
suance of this “ conspiracy against the human
race ?” We have the Invasion of Sindh, the
Annexation of Oude, the Abolition of the
right of Adoption, the Canton Massacre, the
Invasion of Persia, the Greased Cartridge
Mutiny, the Destruction of the Summer
Palace at Pekin, the Bombardment in Japan,
* “Appeal against Faction,” by David Urquhart,
1843, pp. 18-19.
D
�34
I
i
i
II
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
the Wars of Extermination in New Zealand, escence in the crimes of his predecessors would
the Syrian Massacres, the Annexation of lead to his own expulsion from office.
*
The
Savoy, the Destruction of every native Go prediction was accomplished. The Conser
vernment in Italy, the Invasion of Mexico, vative Party have since then twice held the
the Sacrifice of Schleswig - Holstein, the reins of power. In each case they carried
American Struggle, the Suppression of out the crimes of their predecessors, and in
Poland; and in this list, we have omitted each case their term of office endured only
the Convulsion of the Continent in 1848, the for about a year. Since the fall of Sir Robert
Betrayal of Hungary, the Coup d’Etat at Peel, in 1846, nineteen years have elapsed,
Paris, the burying of our army at Sebas out of which not more than two years and
topol, the Surrender of the Bight of Search, two months have been occupied by a Con
and the consummation of the sacrifice of the servative Administration.
Circassians, after their public appeal to our
There have been, from either side of the
Queen for help.
two Houses of Parliament, isolated endea
These are the consequences of Sir Robert vours, if not to restore the State, at least to
Peel’s maxim, that for the House of Com resist the progress of evil. In these endea
mons to inquire into the conduct of the vours, at least three of the present subordi
Executive Government, would be for it to nates of Lord Palmerston, have taken part.
usurp the functions of that Government.
On one occasion, indeed, Lord John Rus
It was on a subsequent occasion when Sir sell, eschewing the formula of Sir Robert
Robert Peel had repeated in Sindh the Peel, accused the Eoreign Minister of, not
crime first committed at Caubul, that the “ Neglect ” or “ Impolicy,” but Treason in
compact between the two factions was openly its gravest aspects ; of “ having passed by the
ratified in the House of Commons, and their Crown, and put himself in the place of the
mutual criminality referred, by Sir Robert 'Crown.” These words did not form part of
Peel to a law of nature, a law, however, so a charge, they were not followed by a Motion
mysterious that it could only be hinted at that Lord Palmerston should be committed
to the custody of Black Rod, and sent to the
and could not be specified :—
“ We may lay down what positions we please with Tower. They formed part of a speech in
respect to the propriety of observing in our Indian which Lord John Russell, had to defend
policy the same rules and principles which are ob himself by explaining the reasons for the
served between European States; we may pass Acts
of Parliament interdicting the Governor-General dismissal of his insubordinate Colleague, these
from extending his territories by conquest; but I am reasons being that the offence of putting
afraid there is some great principle at work, where himself in the place of the Crown had been
civilisation and refinement come in contact with repeated after a promise not to do so again
barbarism, which makes it impossible to apply the had been extorted by the Queen.
rules observed towards more advanced nations ;
We have thus two opposite practices in
more especially when civilisation and refinement
come in contact with barbarism, in an immensely private and in public life. In the former
extended country.”
we have a sense of law, by which every indi
There is no difference, between the rules vidual is made to perform his separate func
observed by us in Asia and in Europe; the tions in ascertaining the existence of crimes,
difference is between the acts of private in the combination of these separate functions
dividuals, and those of individuals acting in securing against private offenders the safety
the name of the State. In the former, as in of the community. In the latter, the com
the latter case, we may lay down what moral mission of a known crime awakes no sense
positions, we may pass what Acts of Parlia of duty in any individual or corporate body.
ment, we please, but there are, and always The Court Leet, whose duty it was to pre
have been, men who will set at naught moral sent such crimes is gone; the Municipal
positions and Acts of Parliament, unless the bodies avoid this duty as “political;” the
penalties attached to the latter are enforced. House of Commons, which has usurped the
The whole case resides in this, that the pos prerogative of the Crown of nominating the
session of office does not make the holder Ministers, accepts the doctrine that to control
exempt from the temptations incident to the men they have nominated is to usurp
humanity, and that this certainty of impunity the functions of the Crown. A Minister of
does lead to the commission of crime.
* “ The House or Commons will sink into that bed
The work done by Sir Robert Peel has
been continued by those who, as leaders of that the speech of Sir Robert Peel has made for it; and
hastened for the return
men
the opposition, may be considered as his the time is stand accused, by the to power of the their
who now
degradation of
natural successors. The Author of the work antagonists for having basely screened them.”—Appeal
already quoted predicted that this acqui against Faction, p. 19.
�CONNIVANCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
35
sudden notifications to a nation to change its habits
on a given day. I avow that in this sense throughout
the greatest portion of Asia, there is nothing that can
be called Institutions. The rules and principles
which control the powerful and protect the weak,
are customs and national character based upon pre
judices, beliefs, or errors » . . . These impose upon
authority more effectual checks than any written
stipulations, and from which tyranny can only
emancipate itself by running the risk of perishing
by violence. I see but some isolated points where
nothing is respected, where consideration is unknown,
and where power rules free from obstacle. These
are the spots where the weakness or improvidence
of Asiatics has allowed strangers to establish them
selves, moved by the sole desire of amassing riches;
people without pity for men of another race, neither
understanding their language, nor sharing in their
M. A. REMDSAT ON “ CIVILISATION” AND
tastes, their habits, their faith, or their prejudices.
“BARBARISM.”
Force alone can maintain for a time that absolute
As throwing light on the two several exist
ences, the subject matter of Sir R. Peel’s despotism which is necessary to a handful of domi“ Great Principle,” we quote from M. Abel nators, who will grasp all in the midst of a multitude
which believes itself bound by no right to give any
Remusat the following passage:—
thing. The effects of such a struggle are t o be
“ One striking feature amongst all varieties of observed in the Colonial establishments of Asia, and
Eastern Governments is, to find nowhere, and the strangers of whom I speak are the Europeans.
scarcely at any period, that odious despotism of de
“ A singular race is this European race. The
grading servitude, the dark genius of which, we
opinions with which it is armed, the reasonings upon
imagined, towered over all Asia. Except in the
which it rests, would astonish an impartial judge, if
Mussulman States, the springs of which require a
such a one could be at present found on earth. They
peculiar study, the sovereign authority, surrounded walk the globe, showing themselves to the humiliated
with imposing exteriors, is not the less subject to
nations as the type of beauty in their faces, as the
restrictions the most inconvenient, I had almost
basis of reason in their ideas, the perfection of un
said, the only ones which are really effective. An
derstanding in their imaginations. That is their
Indian king, it is true, burns like the sun, and no
unique measure. They judge all things by that rule.
human creature can contemplate him. But that
In their own quarrels they are agreed upon certain
superior being cannot raise a tax on a Brahmin,
principles by which to assassinate one another with
were he himself to die of hunger; convert a field
method and regularity. But the Law of Nations is
labourer into a merchant, or infringe the slightest
superfluous in dealing with Orientals.”
enactment of the civil and religious code. An Em
It was in 1829 that M. Abel Remusat
peror of China is the Son of Heaven, but he cannot
choose a sub-prefect, except from the list of candi wrote these words.
dates presented by the Colleges; and if he himself
neglected to fast on a day of eclipse, or to acknow
ledge publicly the faults of his Government, ten
thousand pamphlets, sanctioned by law, would
trace to him his duties, and recal the observance of
ancient rule. Who dare in Europe oppose such
CONTRADICTIONS OE THE “ TIMES.”
barriers to the power of Princes ?
“ I have spoken of institutions, and this word, from the “times” of FROM THE “ TIMES” OF
SEPTEMBER 28, 1865.
SEPTEMBER 28, 1865.
quite modern and quite European, may appear pom
pous and sonorous when applied to a people which “ This immense mass “ It is not a paradox to
(the Russian Empire) is
knows neither budgets, nor reports, nor bills of in the product of acquisition say that if Russia be
demnity. It certainly is not here applied to those and attraction perpetu came more enlightened
ally going on. Towards she would become less
* The Times of last Monday writes of the taking the west, conquest and powerful. Something of
possession of Lauenburg by Prussia. “We wonder if it diplomacy have been em the barbarian element is
ever occurred to the King of Prussia, or to Count Bis ployed ; towards the east,
marck, or to any of those engaged in this remarkable conquest and civilisation. required in a conquering
scene that the whole proceeding was an anachronism.” Say what we will, orpro- race. To make the people
D 2
the Crown, himself not engaged in designing
mischief, gravely suggests that the office
itself is a guarantee for the purity of the
intentions of the holder, whilst, after a
quarter of a century of such practices on
the most gigantic scale, the public hold mal
administration in public affairs — “an ana
chronism.”*
We have now to make a step forward or
backward. We must' adapt the maxim to
private life and declare that all crime is
anachronism and all punishment superfluous ;
or we must reduce public measures to the
simple and prosaic rule of our daily life and
position, and say to each other “ The days of
impeachment are not gone by.”
�36
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
phesy as we may, it is not
to be denied that all the
progress of Russia in the
east is mainly that pro
gress which, as we have
found, is almost inevit
ably forced upon a supe
rior race in contact with
semi-savages or barbatians.”
“ The Turkish Empire
was formed in a compa
ratively short period, by
an overwhelming torrent
of armed fanatics, and it
represents at this day
only an aggregate of re
gions on which the de
scendants of the conque
rors are encamped.”
a perfect instrument in
the hands of their ruler,
they must be partly fa
natics or partly slaves.
The conquests of more
civilised nations may be
more rapid, but they are
less durable. The brave
stolid, passive, supersti
tious Russian has been
the true unit of that
power which has created
the Empire. Make him
a reasoning, independent
or capricious thinker, and
the power is gone.”
No. 8.
Prostration before him of all
public Authority and Charac
ter.
The relationship of the aphorisms of Sir
Robert Peel to the acts of Lord Palmeb
ston, which we have been tracing in our
last two numbers, offers an historical deduc
tion which supersedes all the rest of con
temporary municipal history. It is this :
That the public measures which the English
Government and nation have adopted, and
the acts which they have peformed during a
quarter of a century, have proceeded from
no will or purpose of the Crown, of the
nation, or of the factions; that they have
had their origin in the will of a single
member of one of the parties, and have been
rendered practicable by the co-operation of
the leader of the other party.
The abolition of the Corn Laws by Sir
Robebt Peel dispelled in an instant a
belief previously existing, and which was
universal. It was believed by the trivial
talker, it was believed by the profound
thinker, and that not only within the three
kingdoms, but throughout the whole of
Europe, that England was an aristocratic
country, and that the landed interests were
predominant. This experience might be
sufficient to satisfy any man that nothing is
less likely to be true than any belief or
opinion which he may entertain respecting
any of the circumstances in which he is
placed, the motives of measures which he
sees, the sources of acts in which he is
engaged, the secret zof the influences which
rule.
It is not alone the event of the Corn
Laws which might have suggested such re
flections. There is not a measure, there is
not an opinion, which comes into being—
each of these being a change upon that
which has previously been done or thought
—which does not equally afford to each
individual the opportunity of informing him
self with regard to himself, and of discover
ing that he has been all his life talking
about things which he did not understand.
Such a conclusion will, however, be con
sidered humiliating. It is, or it is not,
according to the application. It is humi
liating to a man if he says, “ Henceforth I
must cease to talk;” it is anything but hu
miliating if he says, “ Henceforth I must
know the truth.” The condition of a nation
is hopeless, however vast its dominions and
great its wealth and power, if, being in
doubt, it has not the idea of inquiry. But
the germs of greatness exist in a community,
however small; or even in a fragment, how
ever insignificant, of an enervated commu
nity, wherever there exists in men the simple
and upright thought of understanding what
they speak about.
Let us go a step further. If the matter
with regard to which the nation is in doubt,
is merely speculative, its doubt may be very
beneficial, as preventing it from acting. But
if the doubt is in reference to conduct, to
measures, to things that are being done for
it and by it; if these things involve changes
which have to be examined into as matters of
account; if they involve acts to be decided
upon on legal grounds—and these include
all that man can do, and man can suffer—
then, to be in doubt, and thereby to remain
inert, is to submit, that is to say is to
suffer. It is to suffer that money shall be
taken from it wrongfully ; it is to suffer that
acts shall be committed against it wrongfully;
it is to suffer that its own means shall. be
employed to inflict the same evils upon
others. Being at the same time honourable,
upright and conscientious—that is to say,
each individual having no intention of doing
wrong, it must go on to justify. So it has to
suffer in its heart and in its understanding
to a far greater degree than in its circum
stances and its person.
But in the condition which we suppose, and
which is at the same time that around us,
for any particular individual to adopt the
contrary line to suffering, is an impossibility.
Consider what would be required in the way
of strength of character, powers of mind,
alertness of spirit. There must be a com
prehensive knowledge of all circumstances
(which by the conditions of the case are
�CONCLUSION.
37
concealed and perverted), a perfect know way to ends beyond all relation to the
ledge of the men who manage, not in Eng means of execution. They are relieved from
land onlv, but everywhere. There must be every counteracting agency, screened from
the devotion and consecration of the whole all scrutiny during, the prosecution of their
mind, and of every moment of existence to design, and protected from all retribution or
the enterprise. There must be an integrity its accomplishment. This is what is called
to resist all seduction, a courage to defy “ Public Opinion.”
At a given point a man may be suddenly
all opposition, an endurance to meet all
persecution and reproach, with the faculty, startled into a transitory perception of the
so rare as to be wonderful, of retort. Not truth, and exclaim, as once did M. Thiers,
to fall into the trough, but to emerge from “We (England and Prance) have mistaken
doubt upon the high bank of action, jt re the interests of Russia for our own, that is
quires that a man should take upon himself tall.” But having given utterance to this
the whole State, assume to himself to be sentence, nothing follows upon it. M
s
its protector and saviour, and experience Thiers did not go on to say “We must there
the consciousness of this in his own breast. fore institute an inquiry with a view to the
Now the historical deduction with which reversal of this state of things. This effort,
•
we have to do, goes much further than that however great, is imposed upon us by every
which had to be drawn from the Repeal of consideration of honour and of safety.” M.
<
the Corn Laws. “Aristocracy,” “Landed Thiers said the very reverse. He continued,
Interest,” are vague generalities, and to “ Therefore there remains for us nothing to
displace them is a small matter. Not so the do,” and the Prance of that day was swept
terms—Crown, Executive, High Court of away, and another nine-pin set up.
England has been thus disposed of through
Parliament, Grand Inquest of the Nation, or
even the terms, Whig and Tory, as repre two false beliefs. The first was that Eng
senting the Eactions. These have to disappear land and Russia were opposed. This, again,
so soon as it is known that the vast measures arose from two generalities—“ England” and
carried on through the world, by this great “ Russia.” England at the time was one
Empire, proceed from the private will and man, whom England herself knew by name
unavowed purpose of one individual; through only. Russia was one woman in the
the aid of three or four insidiously constructed Russian service, who was at that time in
sentences, uttered at intervals of years by London, and held all the leading men in the
another individual, not acting in concert with hollow of her hand. The second false belief
him, and belonging to the opposite political was, that Whigs and Tories (Liberals and
Conservatives) entertained opposite opinions
party.
If this question be put to any individual on public matters. But here, again, 'men
taken at random from the streets : “ Do you were entangled in a generality. They in
believe that Lord Palmerston could have cluded under one head opinions in reference
carried the invasion of Afghanistan against to measures to be introduced into Parlia
the resistance of Sir R. Peel ? Do you ment, and measures in respect to the em
believe that he could have invaded China ployment of armies, navies, and despatches.
against the resistance of Sir R. Peel ?” the These measures being concealed from the
answer would undoubtedly be in the nega Parliament, concealed in thair inception
tive. Nor did Lord Palmerston question from the Sovereign under whose prerogative
in Parliament the assertion of Sir R. Peeli they are masked, concealed from the colhimself that he was strong enough to resist; leagues of the Minister, whose apparent
the Government when it was wrong. We• responsibility enables him to dispose of all
have gone beyond this point, and have shownL things at his own pleasure and caprice.
This corruption and these elements of
that he could not have carried his measuresi
without the co-operation of Sir R. Peel. decay might have existed in a somnolent
That co-operation could not have been ob• state for ages and centuries, had they not
tained had Sir R. Peel been his confederate,, been quickened by particular circumstances.
and it would have been ineffectual unless Sir• Even Russia might have been there with all
her own organised means, having yet cenR. Peel had been his antagonist.
As Lord Palmerston could do for Russial turies to wait for a satisfactory fruition.
what no Russian could do for her, so Sir R.. But the avalanche has been hastened for our
Peel could do for Lord Palmerston what; times by the conjunction of two such men
no Whig could have done for him. Wheni contemporaneously existing in the bosom of
there are among a people beliefs that are un the British State.
?
Of these, one has already disappeared,
founded, the dexterous are able to work their
�38
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
without any loss to Russia; his peculiar
work had been accomplished, and his suc
No. 9.
cessors have continued to do the small base
displayed in the
nesses that were required. The other must Character
soon follow in the course of nature. He too
Change of the Succession to
willhave done his w'ork, and his death, when it
Denmark.
comes, will have secured her in respect to
the most powerful instrument she has ever
(From the Free Press, Nov. 1, 1865.)
possessed, from the only danger she has
to fear, namely, that her tools be detected If we refer in a particular manner to the
and broken. The succeeding Ministers of death of Lord Palmerston, it is only because
England, in continuing the line laid out for we find that it is so much expected that we
them, will not even have to be initiated, and should do so, that not only disappointment
will all unconsciously carry into execution,
but misconception might arise from our pass
the Will of PETER THE GREAT.
ing it by in silence.
However, as there must have been some
The death of Lord Palmerston will undo
mysterious and nefarious part connected with
the bringing of a man not then in office, and none of the things that he has done. The
so not compromised by his own acts, into prolongation of his life would have facilitated
collusion with the enemy of his country;
and as from highly authoritative quarters the doing of other things which may not be
the suspicion had emanated of a positive so easily done by his successors. But these
money transaction, we had judged it desir are not under discussion, not having ex
able whilst he was still alive, still in the istence.
possession of his faculties, still in the exer
Journals have an article upon public men
cise of his functions as Premier, to bring
forward these allegations. To print them in when they die, and that is generally the
full, with all the collateral circumstances beginning, the middle, and the end of all
within our reach, in order that he might have they have to say respecting them. As Public
the opportunity of vindicating his character, Men are known only through Public Mea
if in this particular circumstance—capable sures, what is said of them during their life
of vindication — whether by a statement time is said upon the measures, and not upon
that should carry weight, whether by a the men. Here, in reference to the man and
prosecution in a Court of Justice. We the journal, the case is the very reverse.
have done so in order that these charges The Free Press occupies itself with Lord
which required to be solemnly dealt with Palmerston, and with Lord Palmerston
during his life time, if not by him, then alone ; that is to say, with results which he
by others, should not be disposed of as post has brought about. These results not coming
humous calumnies when brought forward at as measures presented, and argued, and dis
a subsequent time. This exposition which has cussed on public grounds ; but brought about
now occupied a large portion of the Free Press secretly, coming without the foreknowledge
for the last four Numbers, will be reprinted of any one, presenting themselves without
under the title of Materials for the Post the appreciation of any one, and springing,
humous history of Lord Palmerston.
therefore, entirely out of his private purposes ;
that is to say, his character. The Free Press,
POSTSCRIPT.
therefore, exists in and by Lord Palmer
ston ; and if it does not disappear at his
Nov. 1, 1865.
Rate has followed fast on the traces of our death, it is because of him, pre-eminently
pen, but has allowed us time to accomplish amongst the human race, it has to be said,
our purpose, as stated at the close of this “ The evil that men do lives after them.”
*
review.
To some it may not at once be apparent
that the statement we have just made is
* Lord Palmerston died on the 18th of October, correct in its comprehensiveness.' There are
1865.
those who will perceive at once that the
many columns and numbers of the Free
Press devoted to the Right of Search, to the
Danish Succession, to the Government of
India, and the like, are in fact occupied with
the character of Lord Palmerston ; know
ing that it is he as a man, and not as the
�HIS ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE DANISH SUCCESSION.
39
organ of an English Party, or the representa affair was the corollary of the Afghan affair,
tive of a known system, that has brought and such an argument was in the mind of
about the sacrifice of our Maritime Hights, the Nation before it could have been used.
It is impossible that a nation should fall
the sacrifice of an European Crown, and the
into the hands of a Traitor unless it be cor
convulsion, with the view to its ultimate sa
crifice, of our Indian Empire. But they may rupt. It is impossible, therefore, that any
not perceive that it is the treatment of the effort should be made in the sense of counter
same theme that has brought into these acting Treason except in so far as it tends to,
columns the history of machinations, whe aiifl is effectual in, restoring integrity to the
ther in the New World or in the Old, whe hearts of at least some of the men composing
ther in the Italian or the Iberian Peninsula; that nation. This can be done only by con
whether as to the extinction of public rights, victing them of their guilt. A picture must
the absorption of political existences, the be held up to them of w’hatthey are, and that
perversion of political judgment, or the picture can be drawn only by contrasts. It
amphibologies, which have rendered men and must be shown to them what their fathers
nations food for deception, and active instru were; those fathers who made the Laws
ments in their own undoing. All which, which still exist, but the use of which they
extending over past periods of history, give have abandoned. The successive steps ot de
to this Journal the character rather of cline and decay must be traced. And this
antiquarian research, than of daily comment. field, spreading so wide and extending so far,
This is, therefore, the very occasion to has to be trodden of necessity by us, who pro
point out how and in what the two are con pose to ourselves to rescue the State; because
nected ; how in travelling back to past it is in consequence of this universal ignor
periods, however remote, and in searching ance, disregard, and indifference, that its be
out the origin of things, we have been still trayal has been planned and carried into
engaged solely m the task of elucidating the effect.
The tranquillity, the security, the perma
individual character of this one man.
In the series of Articles which we have nency of States depend, ano only can depend,
recently finished on the fallacious aphorisms upon the obstructions that lie in the way of
of Sir R. Peel, concocted to screen himself innovation. There are always some individuals
from censure, in his screening Lord Palmer who, by the activity of their passions, seek to
ston from inquiry, we have shown that these disturb ; that is to say, to gain unduly. They
sentences could not have been uttered, far are unsuccessful according as they find sense
less have been successful, had the public in their neighbours to detect imposition, and
judgment in England at the time been less courage to resist violence. The oid strophe
obscured. In other words, that these sen preserved to us by Aristotle, weakly para
tences would not have been spoken by a phrased by Sir William Jones, tells the
judicious man in the course of the last gene whole story of human disturbance, or of
ration, because the effect at that time would human tranquillity.
“ Men equal to save themselves constitute
have been to arouse scorn and indignation.
The fallacies of the times were, therefore, the a Free State.”
Rendered by Sir W. Jones :—
very instruments with which Lord Palmer
“ Men who know their rights,
ston effected his ends. To deal with him,
And knowing, dare maintain.”
w’e had to deal with those fallacies. There
When it comes to be a question no longer
would have been no necessity to show that
there was no such thing as “ a great prin of individual, but public Acts, when it is not
ciple at work” when more refined or less re a man acting by his own means for himself,
fined races came into contact, unless it had but a man with delegated authority using the
so happened that Lord Palmerston, in order powers of others, the public tranquillity can
to throw Central Asia into the arms of be secured against his undue activity, only in
Russia, caused Afghanistan to be trea so far as he is prevented from acting unless
cherously attacked by an English Army; after deliberation. This restraint exists in so
that the English Nation, not being ready to far only as the moorings of Law and Custom
accept such an attack from mere delight in guarantee the public life.
Suppose the case of a nation that consents
bloodshed, had to be reasoned into accept
ance of the deed; and that the reasoning to acts being done by its Executive without
found and put forward had not been “ The previous deliberation; and at the same time
Great Principle.” These words, it is true, declares to itself, and prides itself on the de
were used in reference to Sindh, and not in claration, that it will never call its Ministers
reference to Afghanistan. But the Sindh to account for their acts after they have been
�40
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
committed; then it is evident that that Nation may appear a strange word in these columns.
is cast about upon the waves of chance. That Nothing can be more sure and certain. Lord
chance must depend upon the character of Palmerston had a conscience, as we will
the Minister. He may be a good and great prove. It may be explained by another word ;
man, he may be a mean and a base one. The it may be called “ fear.” But, however
Nation will be equally filled with gratitude designated or qualified, it is certain that con
and admiration for the one who confers upon fessions could be extorted from him through
it prosperity, or the other who leads it to de the emotions of his own mind. This was
struction. If it be elaborately organised in reckoned on, and acted on, by those who have
detail, if it possess wealth and armies and succeeded in collecting a mass of evidence,
navies, it passes from an intellectual to a which, if unavailable for the security of
material existence, and becomes a machine, present times, will remain for the amazement
moved by a spring. Such is England at the of future generations. We give an instance.
present hour. Lord Palmerston has
When the question was put, Are you alter
fashioned her fortunes as they now stand. ing the Succession to the Crown of Denmark?But he himself was a chance. So there may Lord Palmerston staggered, as if he had re
be chances on the other side. All that Eng ceived a blow. When he had recovered, the
land has become was locked in the breast of answer was an emphatic denial. That denial,
one man thirty years ago.
which soon became a damning evidence, was
Let it not be supposed that those who attributable only to the emotions of his mind.
have struggled on the one hand to open the Nothing would have been easier for a cool
eyes of the nation, and on the other to arrest man than to have answered the question with
the career of this man, and to bring him to out compromising himself, and his peculiar
condign punishment, rejoice in his death. As parliamentary dexterity consisted in baffling
they have looked upon his retirement from questioners.
office as the gravest of disasters, in like
In terms the question was insignificant;
manner must they consider as such his dis the effect of it came from the common know
appearance from the scene. Their aim has ledge in the mind of the questioner and the
been that he should be known. They have questioned, that these, then secret negociahad to show in respect to his colleagues that tions, were carried on with a purpose of
his was the active hand, and that thus his transferring the Crown of Denmark to Russia.
colleagues were but masks. This was the This, of course, would not have happened
great difficulty at the beginning, as he was had he been prepared for the question. And
considered an insignificant person. Then it as Ministers are not held bound to answer
had to be shown that the other party came questions of which notice lias not been given,
in merely to do his work, and to be com it will appear impossible that a Minister
promised thereby. So in respect to his death, should thus have been taken by surprise.
not having paid the penalty of his misdeeds, But the matter was managed in this way.
he withdraws the means of conviction in his Notice was given only of a question about
own person, and leaves a course of conduct the War in the Duchies, and when that
established and a tradition for others obtusely question was put and answered, the ques
and unconsciously to follow. Whilst Lord tioner suddenly got up and put the other.
Palmerston lived, acts could be brought
This occurred on the 20th of March, 1851.
home to the man. Whilst he was here, and
On the 18th of June, 1861, another Member
acting, he could be forced into speech, and of the House of Commons introduced a Mo
dragged into explanations. His words always tion on Denmark. That Motion excited no
furnished, for those who knew how to use alarm. So the House was suffered to be
them, the tnost important of all events. His made, and the Member allowed to proceed
mind was so full of his subject, that he could with his speech, which produced no emotion
not speak but to the point, whether in regard on the Treasury Bench, until he arrived at a
to denial or explanation. When he denied, certain point, used certain words, and held
there were his own words at another time, up a certain paper. Then there was emo
there were his own acts to establish the evi tion; the signal was given; the Members
dence of falsehood, which at least was within from both sides slipped from their places;
the comprehension of the meanest capacity. then one arose, requesting the Speaker to
All these means of bringing the truth to Count the House, and the House was Counted
*
light have disappeared. What remains but out !
chaos, when explanations have to be furnished
* Some time was, of course, requisite for accom
by others ?
plishing the Count-out, so that Lord R. Montagu had
Besides, there was his conscience. This got on to another matter, and was uttering this sen-
�THE DANISH SUCCESSION.
41
HIS ATTEMPT TO CHANGE
The cause of this emotion was the citation such a Document as the Protocol of June 2,
, ,• 1
by Lord Bobebt Montage of the answer I850The Protocol of August, 1850 (which was
given by Lord Palmebston on the 20th of
March, 1851, namely, that “ Her Majesty s the completion of the Draft dated June,
Government had studiously and systemati 1850), did indeed appear in the list of Docu
cally held themselves aloof from taking any ments to be moved for. But then, when the
share in these negociations,” namely, nego Treaty itself had become a matter of past
ciations having for their object the altera history, and the whole case as regards the
Succession had been so ingeniously swamped
tion of the “ Succession to the Crown ot
Denmark.” After having done so he pro in an interminable correspondence about the
duced a Document, read it, and held it . up internal affairs of Schleswig-Holstein, this
to the House, stating that it was the original could cause no alarm to Lord Palmebston.
notes of a Protocol of a Conference held at The only thing he had to dread was the con
the Poreion Office in Downing-street, and viction of falsehood, brought home to him by
presided over by Lord Palmebston, for the his denial, of March 1851, being connected
alteration of the Danish Succession, dated with the existence of that Protocol.
Had the Memoir contained the remotest
June 2, 1850, that is to say nine months
reference to the one or to the other, the
before the occasion on which he had answered
a question, by denying that the English Go Speech of Lord B. Montagu would never
vernment had participated in any such nego have been made. Eor either a House would
not have been made, or it would have been
ciations.
counted out as soon as he rose. A CountThe Parliament or the Nation might be out can indeed only be managed by the con
little capable of appreciating the operation currence of the leaders of both parties. But
itself. But there could have been no am the Opposition was in this case as . much
biguity in the minds of either, respecting this concerned as the Government, or indeed
monstrous falsehood on the part of the more so, as it was the signature of Lord
Minister; and it was easy for the meanest Malmesbuby and not of Lord Palmebston
capacity to infer from that falsehood, the that was appended to the Treaty of the 8th
nature of the transaction. A Count-out was
of May, 1852.
immediately had recourse to, as the only
The two incidents, whilst they establish
means by which Lord Palmebston could that Lord Palmebston had a conscience,
escape from having to rise and give an connect that conscience with his secret ser
answer, which must have been a humiliating vices to Bussia. They contain in themselves
confession, or a ridiculous excuse.
the whole history of the Danish case, and
But again this confession—for the Count- show whence it emanated, by what means it
out amounted to a confession—was only was executed, and whom it w-as to benefit.
brought about by a surprise, to which no We publish in another column a Despatch
successor can now be exposed. This.Danish which will corroborate these words to the
Debate had been promoted and carried into letter. That Despatch, signed Palmebston,
effect through the efforts of the. Eoreign goes beyond the Treaty of May, 1852, whilst
Affairs Committees. A Deputation from dated not only before the question referred
them had waited upon the leading members to, but even before the Protocol—namely,
of both Houses of Parliament, and a Memoir February 19, 1850.
by them had been largely distributed, and
The Protocol and the subsequent Treaty
extensively read. When Lord Palmebston only effected such an alteration in the Suc
was in possession of this Document he had cession as removed obstacles in the way of
the notes for his reply ; and doubtless had the ultimate heirship of Bussia; and this is
thereupon prepared one which would have covered under the assumption of keeping
been triumphant, as in the case of his reply her out. But the prior Despatch of Lord
in the Don Pacieico Debate, to . Sir James Palmebston addressed to the Danish Go
Gbaham, who had sent him, the night before, vernment, is a simple proposal of handing
the notes of his Speech. But somehow, in over to her at once both Denmark and the
the Memoir of the Eoreign Affairs Com Duchies by a testamentary act of the King.
mittees, all mention had been omitted of his The name of the Duke of Olbenbvbg is,
answer of March 30, 1851, and the Memoir indeed, inserted. But the Duke of Olbenwas likewise unconscious of the existence of bubg is only a tenant at will of Bussia, who
is the real Proprietor of the Grand Duchy,
tence, ■when he was stopped: 4< It is a still more ex and he is, besides, a Junior Member of the
traordinary discovery, that the abolition of the Zea;
Regia should also have been due to the Noble Viscount.” House of Russia. It was only because of
�42
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
the resistance of the King, that there was
any necessity for having recourse to the
London Protocol, the Warsaw Protocol, and
the London Treaty. That is to say, to those
Negotiations from which the English Go
vernment had kept carefully aloof.
In the case of Denmark, we have every
other case. Lord Palmerston did not yield
Bussia his services in simple gaiety of heart;
there must have been constraint used; such
constraint must have equally determined
every act of his Stewardship, and weighed
upon every moment of his life. “ The key
that opens one box, opens every box ; and
there is no other key that opens any box.
That key is Treason.” Such was the de
scription of the state of England given in
1842 by Sir Francis Burdett.
We have said that the death of Lord Pal
merston will become no loss to Bussia. We
may even go further, and say, it may be a
great gain to her. It may be in her mind
to cause the apparent policy of England to
alter in an important respect, wherein the
line hitherto apparently assumed by Lord
Palmerston might have been a great incon
venience, whether as keeping him at the head
of affairs, or removing him thence.
Whilst Lord Palmerston’s success and
security depended upon his being considered
the enemy and antagonist of Bussia, his
fame and reputation have been made out of
that antagonism.
*
This enmity to her was
accounted for by his being the “ Friend of
Poland,” and the “ Friend of Turkey.” Now
that Poland is gone, and that the competing
supply of grain from the Western States of
America has been arrested, Turkey has to be
considered by the Bussian Government. Con
sidered, not in the sense of projects of ag
grandisement to be carried out, but dangers
to be averted. What signify her Danish
Treaties, what signifies her domination in
Europe, what signifies her advance in Cen
tral Asia and on the Amo or, unless the old
Ottoman Lion be bridled ? To insert the
bit her own arm is utterly powerless. With
Lord Palmerston, the “ friend of Turkey,”
it was possible to combine a War of Collu
sion, and to bring the Armies of Europe on
the soil of Turkey, to save her, Bussia, from
destruction. That game cannot be played
twice. The Turks will not forget in a hurry
the lesson they have learned. If, then, she
be under the necessity of having recourse to
exterior aid to break down that growing
prosperity of the Ottoman Empire, which of
itself, and without external movement, must
cause her resources to fail and her strength
to decay, it must be in the guise of enemies
and not of friends that she must draw again
the Armies of Europe on the Ottoman soil.
And then, as distinctly foreshown by her, in
her communications with the Porte during
the last Collusive War, she will step in as
Mediator and Protector. Here we touch the
pivot, upon which must revolve the events of
the future. For a project of this nature
Lord Palmerston was wholly disqualified by
his antecedents.
Nor can we omit, on such an occasion, to
commemorate the change effected in the
material condition of the great majority of
the human race during the last thirty-five
years. This change, which has diminished
the value of labour and of life, lias been
effected by a double process, the first the
shutting up of the sources of supply of those
articles of first necessity on the sale of which
Bussia depends; the second, the continual
state of dread of war and convulsion;
whence, increase of charges — that is, of
taxes. The charges of government (inde
pendent of interest of debt) have been mul
tiplied in England nearly threefold. France
*
is not better off, whilst in Italy the aug
mentation bears in the same proportion on
the whole amount of the taxes.f Such is
the fine we have paid for neglecting our
affairs, for had the method, followed of neces
sity in the smallest matters, been observed in
the gravest, that system which we owe to
the introduction of the name of Lord Pal
merston into the list of Lord Grev’s cabi
net, and which was immediately followed by
the betrayal of Poland, could never have
commenced to run its course.
There is, however, one consideration of an
opposite character. There is one point on
* In 1835 these amounted to 15,884,6487.; in 1860,
to 38,322,5927., exclusive of 3,800,0007. for the China
War.—See Free Press for July, 1865, p. 58.
f Taking the middle term of the increase between
1835 and the present year at 10,000,0007., we shall
have the sum expended of 300,000,0007. This is to
prove a permanent charge at the present increased rate,
that is 20,000,0007., which would represent a redeem
able charge, at 5 per cent., of 400,000,0007. This does
not include the extra charges of actual warfare, whether
as paid by England or other countries. The cost to
England of Lord Palmerston cannot, therefore, be set
down at much less than a thousand millions sterling.
When he commenced, and before the Reform Bill, the
country was in the way of reducing Expenditure. He
is, therefore, an enormous loss, and the lamentations
that have been printed upon his death may be thus
fully accounted far. The interest of the Press is ex
* “ We could, scarcely keep him decently civil to the actly the reverse of that of the Nation, its importance
Russian Ambassador,” said Lord Brougham, on the and prosperity depends on the amount of expenditure;
that is to say, on the News which gives rise to it.
Affairs of Poland.
�HIS PROPOSAL OF THE DUKE OF OLDENBURG FOR DENMARK.
which the mind may rest without’trouble,
and from which even hope may arise. It is
that the death of Lord Palmebston has pre
ceded that of the Queen. The Queen, while
yet in the enjoyment of her faculties and
power, now at length relieved and emanci
*
pated, may exert herself, and not without
effect, in discharging those anxious duties
which even at this hour have only to be dis-,
charged with a discriminating knowledge of
individuals, and a just appreciation of circum
stances, to redeem the State from the perils
which threaten it.
PROPOSAL BY LORD PALMERSTON
IN 1850 OF THE DUKE OF OLDEN
BURG FOR DENMARK.
The Despatch on Denmark referred to in
the Article on the death of Lord Palmeb
ston requires, for its bearing to be under
stood, that it be known, or rather remem
bered, that the Treaty of 1852, and the nego
tiations which led to it, are placed before the
world as if originating with the King of
Denmabk. This Despatch shows that the
terms of the Treaty conveying this impression
are deceptive and false, and that the proposal
for altering the Succession originated with
Lord Palmebston.
The Despatch is not written in reply to
any proposition from the Danish Govern
ment. It is not an interchange of commu
nications on the subject with other Powers.
It is an original proposition from the English
Minister, made absolutely and vehemently.
The instruction is “ to press strongly on the
Danish Government.” This is at a moment
when a war of the most exhausting and ex
asperating character was being carried on
between Denmark and the Duchies, and in
which the English Government had under
taken to arbitrate.
The particular alteration of the Succession
which Lord Palmerston undertakes to force
on the Danish Government disappears from
view from that time (the King of Denmark
having refused to accept of it) until quite
recently. After a lapse of fifteen years, and
after all the course of these negotiations, con
vulsions, partitions, wars, and occupations has
been run through, does it come out again, as
the proposal of Russia. At the Conference
of London in June, 18G4, Russia announced
that she had resigned her claims in favour of
the Grand-Duke of Oldenburg. On the
19th of February, 1850, Lord Palmerston
pressed strongly on the Danish Government
43
the choice of the son of the Grand-Duke of
Oldenburg as the successor to the Crown
of Denmark, as the means of settling a
matter in which there was nothing to settle,
beyond pretensions of the Emperor of
Russia.
It will be seen in this Despatch that Lord
Palmerston speaks as being in the confi
dence of the Emperor of Russia, for he says
that he would renounce his claims in favour
of the Prince of Oldenburg, “ if that Prince
were to succeed to the Crown of Denmark f
and “ might not be equally disposed to do so
in any other case.” It is a repetition, even
to the selection of the terms, of the language
he used in reference to Greece in 1830, which
led Sir R. Peel to ask whose Representative
he was, and in whose interest he acted.
That Lord Palmerston was in this case
coercing Denmark at the instigation of
Russia, appears not merely from this Docu
ment, but also from the declaration of
the President of the Council, Lord Lans
downe, who in 1850 innocently explained
to the House of Lords the reciprocal posi
tion of the two Governments of England
and Russia in regard to these very affairs.
He said, “ The most intimate communications
with respect to everything that occurs affect
ing the Powers of the North, and more particularly affecting them at this moment, are
constantly taking place between the Russian
and the British Governments, we availing
OURSELVES OE THE SUGGESTIONS OE RUSSIA,
and Russia expressing her confidence and re
liance in our views, and advising other Powers
to follow the course and adopt the sentiments
SUGGESTED BY US.”
That Denmark needed coercing appears
not only in the words, “ press strongly on the
Danish Government,” but also in the refer
ence to the Danish King’s “ personal feel
ings,” which are to be overridden because
“ this is a matter which affects great European
interests P
From the statement of Lord Lansdowne,
it may be supposed that the Colleagues of
Lord Palmerston were at the time cognisant
of these transactions, that this Despatch was
written after deliberation in Council, and
that the decision was taken with the consent,
as it could only be executed by the authority
of the Queen. In this case Lord Pal
merston might have influenced the judgment
of his Colleagues and the Queen, but he
would not have been secretly coercing a
Foreign Power in the name of England, and
* “ The noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs compromising his country and Sovereign to a
has passed by the Crown and put himself in the place course with which both were unacquainted.
of the Crown.”—Lord John Russell, Feb. 3, 1852.
This inference would, however, be incorrect.
�44
HISTORY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
The explanation of the words of Lord Lans the Succession to the Crown of Denmark ?”
is to be found in a subsequent confi his answer had to be made conformable to
dence made to him, to prepare him for the the engagement that lie had taken towards
speech he had to deliver. That the Queen the Queen in the previous August; the
and his Colleagues were, at the time that this terms of which were conveyed by Lord J.
Despatch was written, and long afterwards, Russell to the House at the same time that
kept in ignorance of its existence, is put he read the Memorandum, and are these.
beyond question by two incidents. The one, “ I have taken a copy of the Memorandum
the answer given by Lord Palmerston in of the Queen ; and will not fail to attend
the March of the following year in the House to the directions it contains.”
of Commons ; the other, the Memorandum of
the Queen read by Lord John Russell in
THE PROPOSITION OF 1850.
February, 1852. In March, 1851, Lord
LORD PALMERSTON TO SIR H. WYNNE.
Palmerston said “ that Her Majesty’s Go
Foreign Office, Feb. 19, 1850.
vernment had stitdiously and systematically
Sir,—I have to instruct you to press strongly on
kept themselves aloof from any negotia the Danish Government the great importance of settling
without delay the question as to the succession to the
tions, &c.”
Crown
is the key to the
The terms here selected are most remark of the of Denmark, which between Denmarkwhole
questions pending
and
able, and could only have been fallen upon Germany.
under some strong necessity. What that If the Danish Government could so settle the
necessity could be does not appear from any succession to the Danish Crown as to insure the
known circumstances belonging to the month continuance of the sovereignty of Denmark, and of both
of March, 1851. But when, in February, the Duchies in one and the same person, it is manifest
questions connected with the fu
1852, the Queen’s Memorandum appeared, that all the other and organisation of the Duchies
ture government
and when it became known that the date of would become of secondary importance, and the so
that document was August, 1850, then that lution of them would be rendered much more easy.
necessity at once appears. It was that of As long as there is a likelihood that in conse
which now exists
concealing from the Queen what he was doing quence of the difference Denmark and the between
the Law of Succession in
Law of
in Denmark.
Succession in Holstein, Holstein will, after the ter
The occasion of the Memorandum was the mination of the present reign in Demark, be sepa
discovery made by the Queen that Lord rated from the Danish Crown, and become a purely
German Duchy, so
Germans strive to
Palmerston had been obtaining her sanc the utmost to attachlong will thepossible to Holstein
as firmly as
tion to measures she did not comprehend, as large a portion as possible of the Duchy of Schles
from the indistinct manner in which he had wig, in order that some portion of Schleswig may
stated them ; that he had arbitrarily altered on the dismemberment of the Danish monarchy,
or modified measures to which her sanction follow the fortunes of Holstein, and become essen
there
had been given ; further, that she was not tially aGerman; and as long aasresult, shall be fore
seen likelihood of such
so long will
kept informed of what passed between him the Danish party at Copenhagen not only strive to
make the separation between Schleswig and Holstein
and foreign Ministers.
The event which preceded the Memo as complete and firm as possible, even to the injury
material
Duchies, but so
randum, and upon which consequently it of thewill they interests of the two escape from the
long
also endeavour to
bore, was the Assemblage of a Conference in plain meaning of the basis adopted by the prelimi
the Foreign Office in Downing-street to alter nary Treaty for the final arrangement of these
the Succession to the Crown of Denmark. matters, and try to connect Schleswig with Denmark
intimately
closely as possible.
The Queen did not confine herself to mere as But if once and continuance of the political union
the
words. She announced the intention of ex between both Duchies and Denmark were secured
pelling the Minister. Of course the execution by a settlement of the Crown of Denmark in favour
of that threat at that moment would have of some Prince who would equally succeed to Hol
disturbed an operation at once of the greatest stein and to Schleswig, then motives for such con
flicting
magnitude and the greatest delicacy. No parties endeavours would cease, and the contending
would become more reasonable and more
less than the escape from Russia of that likely to concur in seme equitable arrangement.
European Crown on which she had almost Her Majesty’s Government have hitherto purposely
closed her grasp, might have been the result. declined to make any suggestion in regard to a matter
considerations peculiarly
The threat of dismissal was contingent, for which involves so manyHis Danish Majesty’s per
regarding Denmark and
its execution, on the engagement of the sonal feelings; but nevertheless, as this is a matter
Minister to change his conduct. It was of which affects also great European interests, you should con
course implied that he should renounce his fidentially ask the Danish Minister whether any, and if any,
felt
D
projects. So that at the moment that he what objections are Dukeby the King of as enmark to
choose the son of the
of Oldenburg successor to
rose to answer the question suddenly put to the Crown of Denmark.
him in March, 1851, “ Are you disturbing There seem to be many circumstances which
downe
�THE DENIAL OF
would point out that Prince as an eligible choice for
such a purpose. He would, it is understood, succeed
equally to Holstein, and of course also to Schleswig,
and the private possessions of the House of Olden
burg would enable him to make arrangements which
would provide eventual compensation to other parties
for any disappointment which such an arrangement
might produce for them.
The Imperial family of Russia would, as is well
known, have claims upon certain portions of Hol
stein in the event of the extinction of the male line in
Denmark, and it is understood that the Emperor of
Russia would be disposed to renounce those claims
in favour of the Prince of Oldenburg, if that Prince
were to succeed to the Crown of Denmark-, whereas the
Emperor might not be equally disposed to do so in any
other case. Her Majesty’s Government have heard
that the King of Denmark rather inclines to settle
the Danish Crown upon a younger son of the King
of Sweden, and Her Majesty’s Government would
be glad to be confidentially informed whether this is
so, and what are supposed to be the relative advan
tages which would arise from such a choice, as com
pared with the choice of the Prince of Oldenburg,
both as regards the feelings of the Danes and as re
gards the facilities which such a choice would give
for the present settlement of pending questions, and
for keeping the Danish Monarchy together for the
future.
I am, &c.,
Palmerston.
*
1851.
45
THE DENIAL OE 1851.
House of Commons, March 20, 1851.
Mr. Urquhart “ begged then to ask, further,
whether in this correspondence there had been any
negotiation as to the succession to the Crown of
Denmark, or in respect to the succession in the
Duchies?”
Viscount Palmerston: “A good deal had passed
in regard to these points, that was to say, in regard
to the succession to the Crown of Denmark; and, as con
nected with that, in regard to the arrangements for
the order of succession in Schleswig and Holstein. But
Her Majesty's Government had studiously and sys
tematically held themselves aloof from taking any share in
these negotiations. Her Majesty’s Government have
confined themselves strictly to the Mediation which
they undertook, which was a Mediation for the pur
pose of bringing about a restoration of peace between
Denmark and the German Confederation.”*
* Hansard. See also the Free Press for July 3,1861,
* Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Denmark,
p. 87.
1850-53, pp. 1, 2, presented to Parliament 1864.
�Appendix
No. 1.
Sayings and Doings of Sir John
Bowring.
MEMOIR OE THE ST. PANCRAS EOREIGN AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE.
to this country. On the 23rd of November,
1859, he read a paper before the Society of
Arts on “ China and its relations to British
Commerce.” In acknowleding a vote of
thanks, he accounted for the Canton Mas
sacre as follows:—
Sir John Bowring, presiding at a meet
“ The honour of the British Flag was confided to me,
ing for Financial Reform and Free Trade, and I certainly had a strong opinion that where such
vast interests were concerned, where such multitudes
at Exeter, January 20, said:—
of human beings looked to that flag as their pro
tection, it did not become me to deliver up a single in
dividual who believed himself to be protected by that
flag to that Commissioner, who, at that period, was
decapitating six hundred or seven hundred human
beings a day. I do say that if I had done what I was
told I ought to have done, I should have allowed these
men to be victimised by the tender mercies of that cruel
tyrant who has poured out more human blood on the
scaffold than any man that ever existed in human
history. I do repeat that if I had delivered up
these Chinese, who, under the British flag, believed
they were entitled to my protection, and had waited
for instructions from home before I menaced Com
Sir John Bowring is notorious chiefly as missioner Yeh for a violation of the Treaty, I should
Superintendent of Trade in China. Could the have had no bed of repose, and I do not believe that
any Englishman in my position would have acted
Chinese look on his face as on that of a friend ? differently ”*
“ He believed that the Divine Being, when He
made the Zodiac,' when He gave the different lands
different powers and different productions, taught
and wrote in letters of light this as a beneficent
Christian law: ‘ What they have in excess, let them
give to you; and what you have in excess, give to
them in payment.’ (Applause.) It was the duty of
all nations to aid, serve, and bless their neighbours,
for all were bound together in the common links of
brotherhood. Each should look on the face of a
foreigner as on the face of a friend—prosperity and
peace would then stand upon foundations which
would never be shaken. (Cheers.)”*
He interfered with their Government, and,
Here are three grounds of defence brought
when they objected, he bombarded their City
of Canton. Governor Yeh has given to the forward:—
1. That the bombardment of Canton was
world the impressions thus created among
undertaken in defence of the British flag.
his countrymen.
2. That this bombardment was necessary,
“The Englishmen, this race of dogs and bears,
unpolite, and destitute of proper manners in society, in order to protect certain Chinese, namely,
who, like wolves and tigers, are greedy, intemperate, the crew of the lorcha Arrow.
bloodthirsty, and beastly, and human and divine
3. That none of these men were delivered
justice despising, incessantly wander from one place
to another, and settle like a swarm of carcase-crows, to the “ cruel tyrant” Governor Yeh.
Every one of these statements is false.'
have come forward from their infernal dwellings to
us ; they treat our heavenly imperial throne with con
1. The lorcha Arrow had no right to use
tempt, and took, in a moment when our troops were the British flag, consequently the honour of
not prepared for it, possession of our fortifications,
burnt the houses and shops of our merchants, and that flag could not be tarnished by the dis
regard of it by the Chinese Government.
carried on their hellish malice to the utmost.”f
The speech given above is not the first that For this the authority is Sir John Bowring
Sir John Bowring has made since his return himself. He wrote to Sir Harry Smith
* Financial Reformer, February, 1865.
f Free Press, vol. iv., p. 284.
* Journal of the Society of Arts, 25th of November,
1859.
�THE FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION AND SIR JOHN BOWRING.
47
Parkes a few days before the bombardment, avowal therein contained that the men were
given up to the Chinese, demonstrates that
namely, on the 11th October, 1856.
“ It appears, on examination, that the Arrow had no consideration for their safety had even
no right to hoist the British flag.”*
entered the minds of Sir John Bowring and
Nevertheless, on the 14th, Sir John Bow Sir H. S. Parkes.
ring- wrote to Governor Yeh :—
It was not the men who were wanted, but
“ There is no doubt that the lorcha Arrow lawfully the quarrel.
*
bore the British flag.”f
In his speech at the Society of Arts, how
On this General Thompson remarked, in
a letter to the Sheffield Eoreign Affairs Com ever, Sir John Bowring did not state the
points we have just refuted, he only insinuated
mittee, April 4, 1857:—
“ Diplomacy has had the character of being tor them. He carefully avoided positively saying
tuous and insincere; but it is the first time it ever either that the crew of the Arrow had a right
began by saying, ‘ We lied, and we knew we lied.’
to his protection, or that he did not give
Mr. Stapleton, Secretary to Mr. Canning, them up to the Chinese.
emerged from his long retirement, to brand
We have been led to this subject by the
this transaction with the infamy it deserved, connection which Sir John Bowring has
saying:—
established between himself and the Liver
“ They (the British authorities) drew the sword, pool Einancial .Reform Association. It was
and the justification which they put forth was an at a meeting convened to hear an address
acknowledged lie.Ӥ
from a Member of their Council that he made
2. The Bombardment could not have been the speech of which an extract is given at the
necessary for the protection of the men, since commencement of this Memoir.
they were all given up before the Bombard
The Liverpool Einancial Reform Associa
ment. A full account of the matter is to be tion has for seventeen years demanded a re
found in the letters of Sir H. S. Parkes in the turn to one of the ancient customs by which
Blue Book. Sir John Bowring is secure in the Government was controlled, namely, the
the ignorance of his hearers of the contents of directness of taxation. Nay, more, though this
this Blue Book. The Chinese sent back ten has been specially proposed as a necessary part
men who were innocent. Had the object been of freedom of trade, as it undoubtedly is, the
to protect British subjects, Sir H. S. Parkes still more important object of obtaining good
would have kept them, and demanded the other government has not been lost sight of, and it
two. He sent them back again, and asked for has been very clearly explained that if the
the twelve. The twelve were then sent. If people had to pay their taxes directly, they
force was allowable, this was the time to exer would not pay for the piratical proceedings
cise it, by retaining the men. They were sent which, from Central America to China, have
back I The statement would be incredible in late years covered with infamy the British
were it not made by the person incriminated. name.
Sir H. S. Parkes wrote, October 22,
It is therefore with extreme concern that
1856
we learn that this Association, by a vote of
“ As to the surrender of the men, his Excellency
offered early this morning to give up ten of them, thanks to Sir John Bowring for his speech
but twelve having been seized, I declined to receive a at Exeter, has renounced its principles and
smaller number. He thenforwarded the twelve, but not abdicated its character.
in the manner required in my letter of the 8th, and
Sir John Bowring did not act in China
demanded that I should at once return two of them,
He did not in
without any ‘ proper officer’ being deputed to conduct of his own mere motion.
with me the necessary examination. 1 again declined vent the Massacre at Canton. He acted on
to receive them on these conditions, or in any other orders from home. The first despatch an
manner than that described in my letter of the 8th, nouncing that hostilities had taken place, or
and THE MEN WERE AGAIN TAKEN AWAY. Finally,
were expected, reached London January 3,
no apology of any kind has been tendered.”||
3. The men were all delivered up to the 1857.t
On the 23rd January, 1857, Sir Michael
Chinese.
This is clear from the letter just quoted. Seymour wrote:—
At some future time we shall probably be
“ In about a month I may begin to look for the
told that, after all, the men were sent back
to the British authorities. Considering the
* The diplomatic history of the Canton Massacre will
facility of speech shown by Sir John Bow be found in the Free Press for September 28, 1859,
ring, it is remarkable that this statement pages 90-1, beginning with the words in the second
was not made in the Blue Book. The frank column of p. 90, “ On the 3rd of March, 1855,” and
Canton Papers, p. 10.
J Free Press, vol. iv., p. 287.
|| Canton Papers, p. 32.
f Ibid, p. 89.
§ Ibid, p. 217.
ending in the first column of p. 91, with the words,
“ Commerce, Christianity, and civilisation.”
f Papers relating to the proceedings of Her Majesty’s
Forces at Canton, p. 19.
�48
THE FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION AND MR. URQUHART.
arrival of some of my expected steamers and gun Exchequer visited Liverpool.
*
boats.
These gunboats and steamers had to go
round the Cape of Good Hope.
On the 3rd February, 1857, in the debate
on the Address, Mr. Disraeli said : —
“ The question of China appears to be in the same
category as that of Persia; and I cannot resist the
conviction that what has taken place in China has
not been in consequence of the alleged protest, but
is, in fact, in consequence of instructions received from
home some considerable time ago. If that be the
case, I think the time has arrived when this House
would not be doing its duty unless it earnestly con
sidered whether it has any means for checking and
controlling a system, which, if pursued, will be one,
in my mind, fatal to the interests of this country.”
Lord Palmerston replied:—
“ Now, as to Persia and China, the right honour
able Gentleman (Mr. Disraeli) says, the course of
events there appeared to be the result of some system
predetermined by the Government at home. Undoubtedly
it was.”
Sir John Bowring was therefore selected
for this work. But that work is not confined
to foreign parts. In destroying, by his
patronage, one of the very few organisations
of resistance at home, he is equally useful to
his employers. He claims, indeed, to be a
veteran reformer. The following extract
from the Foreign Office List for 1863 shows
that he is a veteran placeman:
Bowring, Sir John, Knt., was nominated by the
Government to proceed to the Low Countries, in
1828, to examine into the manner of keeping the
public accounts. Was engaged in a similar mission
to France, in 1830, with the late Sir Henry Par
nell (afterwards Lord Congleton). Served in 1831
with Mr. Villiers (now Earl of Clarendon), as
Commercial Commissioner in France, to arrange the
basis of a Treaty of Commerce with that country.
Unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in 1832 and
1835. Was appointed one of His Majesty’s Com
missioners for inquiring into the state of registers of
births, deaths, and marriages, not being parochial
registers, in England and Wales, September, 13,
1836. Was returned M.P. for Kilmarnock in 1835,
and for Bolton in 1841 and 1847. Was appointed
Consul in the city of Canton, in the province of
Kwangtung, January 10, 1849; acted as Her Ma
jesty’s Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent
of British Trade in China from April, 1852, till
February, 1853; was appointed to that post Decem
ber 24, 1853, and Governor and Commander in and
over the colony of Hong Kong, January 10, 1854
Retired upon a superannuation allowance, July 17,
1859, and was awarded a special allowance, by a
Treasury Minute, dated August 17, 1859. Is a
Knight of the Order of Christ of Portugal. Was
accredited to the King of the Netherlands, and to
the Emperor of the French by King Kamehameha
of the Hawaian Islands, in 1862.
An address
from the Financial Beform Association was
read to him, in which he was roundly taken
to task for reducing the Income Tax,
and was exhorted to retrace his steps,
and abolish indirect taxation. The reply of
Mr. Gladstone was that he would not
discuss the subject unless the reader of the
address would guarantee him a majority in
the House of Commons infavour of his views.
The Association had to be looked to—like
Buenos Ayres—and it has been looked to
accordingly. The same gentleman who read
the lecture to Mr. Gladstone, and who is
one of the most respected, earnest, and ener
getic citizens of Liverpool, is the same who
at Exeter has been prevailed on to associate
his name with that of Sir John Bowring.
Signed by order of the Committee and on
their behalf,
C. D. Collet, Chairman.
C. F. Jones, Secretary.
March 31, 1865.
No. 2.
The Financial Reform Associa
tion and Mr. Urquhart.
[From the Free Press of June 7, 1865.]
The Financial Reformer for May, 1865,
contained the following remarks on the Me
moir of the St. Pancras Foreign Affairs Com
mittee on Sir John Bowring, which was in
serted in the last number of this paper :—
“ Renunciation and abdication Extraordi
nary.—The London Free Press, the organ of Mr.
David Urquhart, has made a most remarkable dis
covery, one which may even match with the revela
tion that Lord Palmerston, being totally cleaned
out of land and fortune, by losses at a gaming-house,
was then and there, or shortly afterwards, pounced
upon by the Princess Lieven with'a bribe of 30,000/.,
and became thenceforth, what the Free Press believes
him still, viz. the bond slave and tool of Russia,
working everywhere, even when fighting against her,
as in the Crimea, in furtherance of Russian aggran
disement. The discovery is, that, albeit we have
hitherto done good service in advocating direct tax
ation as the means of securing both economical go
vernment and freedom of trade, the Financial Re
form Association has now, ‘ by a vote of thanks to
Sir John Bowring for his speech at Exeter, re
nounced its principles, and abdicated its character! ’
And all on account of Sir John’s 1 sayings and dpings’
How this unfortunate conjuncture of in China! There, it seems, Sir John only ‘ acted on
Patriot and Placeman has been brought orders from home-,’ and now he has been called from
his retirement to emmesh us in Palmerstonian toils!
about, can only be inferred.
patronage, says Mr. C. D.
Some months ago the Chancellor of the ‘In destroying, hy his of the St. ’Pancras Foreign
Collet, as Chairman
Affairs Committee, ‘ one of the very few organisa
* Further Papers, p. 32.
�THE FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION AND THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEES. 49
tions of resistance at home, he (Sir John to wit)
is equally useful to his employers. But the vote of
thanks is not the ovAy-premiss on which this most
astute of plot finders and logicians founds his con
clusions that our principles are gone, and our cha
racter lost beyond redemption. After stating that,
some months ago, we presented an address to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, he winds up with
this awfully mysterious, and tremendously impres
sive announcement: ‘ The Association had to be
looked to—like Buenos Ayres—and it has been
looked to accordingly. The same gentleman who
read the lecture to Ms. Gladstone, and who is one
of the most respected, earnest, and energetic citizens
of Liverpool, is the same who, at Exeter, has been
prevailed on to associate his name with that of
Sir John Bowring.’ Where shall we hide ourselves,
or what will become of us, when the detective who
can spy, or smell mischief through half a dozen
millstones, discovers that we have been ‘ looked to’ a
second time by Sir John, acting, no doubt, as the
agent of Lord Palmerston, in furtherance of some
deep scheme, or villanous machination of the
Emperor of all the Russias? Those Urquhartine
or Collettian phantoms hight ‘ Foreign Affairs
Committees, have their eyes upon us, and our
betrayers. One proof of this is afforded by
the St. Pancras manifesto, and we have another
in private letters addressed by a deputy-secretary of
the Bolton Committee to some of our best friends
there, calling upon them to protest against our
‘ connextion with Sir John Bowring, formally mem
ber of ’ Bolton; and to ask us how we can reconcile
the ‘ bombarment' of Canton with the objects we have
in view? We really don’t see the necessity for any
such reconciliation, or by what species of reasoning,
other than Urqhartine, a vote of thanks for a
capital free trade speech can be twisted into an ap
proval of said ‘ bombarment.' We know not ‘ we77zer’we
shall be forgiven if we recommend a tolerable know
ledge of the art of spelling as a desirable qualifica
tion for the secretary of a ‘ Foreign Affairs Com
mittee but we venture to submit the recommenda
tion, notwithstanding.”
that the Government which succeeded that of
which Lord Palmerston was a member, did,
through one of its departments, make a com
munication to him, in the presence of wit
nesses, of a charge of bribery against Lord
Palmerston, intending him to publish it,
which he refused to do.
In confirmation of the above, we add the
answer given by Mr. Urquhart to the ques
tion of the Newcastle Foreign Affairs Com
mittee, when they asked him why he had
suppressed the charge, which answer appears
in the course of a correspondence between
that Committee and the Financial Reform
Association in 1855. \
“ Q. Why did you decline ?
“ A. Because my charges against Lord Palmer
ston bore upon his acts, and I could have nothing
to do with a matter such as this. Not only did I
decline making use of the information so tendered,
but during these thirteen years, I have never men
tioned the incident, until recently called upon to
state whether such and such a thing had taken place.
I must add that the matter had not for us the im
portance which it seems to have now for you.”
In a subsequent letter to the Chairman of
the Newcastle Committee, dated January 16,
1856, Mr. Urquhart says :—
“ As to your question respecting my belief in the
same (the charge), I have difficulty in giving an
answer. I rejected the evidence when tendered to
me at the time, and therefore I have no means of
knowing on what it rests. It could not awaken in
terest in my mind, because it proved to me nothing
new. All I can now say is this: that I am per
suaded of there being grounds for the charge, by the
falsehood of Mr. McGregor, and by the reserve of
Mr. Gladstone, especially when taken in conjunc
tion with the fact that no legal proceedings have
been taken, either by Lord Palmerston or by
As a correspondence is now pending in Hart.”
reference to this article, we abstain from re
marking upon it, further than to say, that it
is not true that the Free Press has put for
ward the allegations against Lord Palmer
ston referred to. With two exceptions, the
Free Press, as published in London at pre
sent, and for the last nine years, does not
contain a line upon the subject. One of
these exceptions is an article quoted in 1858
from the Birmingham Journal on the ap
pointment of Lord Clanricarde * The
other is a reprint in the same year of an
article from the Free Press, as published
at Sheffield nearly three years before, en
titled “ The Bright Imposture.” f
We are authorised by Mr. Urquhart to
state, that it is not true that he is the ori
ginator of any such allegations. That so far
from such being the case, he has used his
influence to prevent the story from being
spread or dwelt upon. Bat that it is true
* Vol. VI. p. 16.
f Vol. VI. p. 208.
The sum alleged to have been given was
not 30,000Z., as stated in the Reformer, but
20,000Z. We propose in our next number
to reproduce the former correspondence on
this subject with the Financial Reform Asso
ciation.
No. 3.
The Financial Reform Associa
tion and the Foreign Affairs
Committees.
[From the Free Press of October 4, 1865.]
No answer has been received from the Pre
sident of the Financial Reform Association
to the letter already published in this journal '
from the St. Pancras Committee. But the
following notice appeared, as if addressed to •
a correspondent, in its organ, the Financial
Reformer:—
E
�50
LETTER FROM MR. CRAWSHAY TO MR. HOLLAND.
“ NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.
' as a mercenary? Or do you mean that having once
“ Mr. C. D. Collet.—This gentleman must excuse us received your money, he ought not now to speak when
for declining to discuss withhim the questions to which in his judgment you are betraying the cause in the
he has devoted upwards of twenty-three columns of furtherance of which he served you? I know nothing,
his paper, in the shape of a letter signed by another Sir, of Mr. Collet’s dealings with your Association.
person, and seven columns more in the form of a I do know of his dealings with ours. I know, and
leader. We are.content to let his absurdly illogical you know, of his labours in connexion with “ The
assumption,—that the Association has ‘renounced Association for the Repeal of the Tax on News
its principles and abdicated its character’ by accept papers and the Excise on Paper ”
ing the co-operation of Sir John Bowring, in fur
Mr. Collet’s public life has been a life of sacrifice.
therance of free-trade principles,—go for what it is Mr. Collet has given to his country everything that
worth, which must be just nothing in the estimation he had to give. Because he had not fortune to give
of all rational beings. And as to the rest of his mi you have insulted him.
nutely laboured lucubrations, epistolary or editorial,
But there is something more in question here. A
touching the alleged bribery of Lord Palmerston, personal insult to Mr. Collet is your mode of deal
and the'opinions of Mr. Porter, Mr. McGregor, ing with an official communication from one of our
Mr. David Urquhart, or anybody else thereanent, Committees, addressed to the Liverpool Financial
we attach to them equal value, and nothing more. Reform Association through yourself as Chairman.
We wish him, and his leader, and the mythical You thus insult us at the same time. You besides
‘ Committees on Foreign Affairs,’ joy of all the call us “ mythical.” Now, sir, in judging of the
mares’ nests they have discovered, and doubt not claims of any voluntary association, such as ours or
that there are many more in store for their fertile yours, to be treated, on the one hand, with respect, or
and somewhat diseased imaginations. But as to dis on the other hand with contempt as an imposture,
cussing their merits with a gentleman who writes I think you cannot complain, if I propose as the
under a feigned signature, in order that he may quote grounds of such judgment, not the numbers, or the
largely from a pamphlet of his own composition, for wealth, or the station of the individuals composing
which he was handsomely paid by the Association, such an association; not even the sacrifices of time,
and who, moreover, holds himself at liberty to quote of money, health, and of feelings, that such indi
from private letters never intended for publication, viduals may have made; but simply and solely the
we should deem it worse than useless to enter into positive results that such an association may have
any controversy with such a disputant, even if there attained. Taking my stand on this, out of many
were no matters of importance pressing upon our circumstances in the ten years history of the Foreign «
attention and absorbing our space.”—Financial Re Affairs Associations, I will mention two only; the
former, August, 1865.
production of the unmutilated Afghan despatches,
and the
of this
from going to
Upon this the following letter was ad war with abstinencelast year. countrythe former cace
Germany
As to
dressed to the President:—
I refer you to Mr. Hadfield, Mr. 7 - p, and
Mr. Crawshay to Mr. Holland.
Kaye the historian; as to the latter,
Mr. Kinglake and Mr. Osborne.
Haughton Castle, Hexham, September 9, 1865.
All that we claim is industry in diffusing infor
Sir,—Having seen the paragraph in the Financial
Tieformer of August 1, addressed to Mr. Collet, mation on these subjects. To those best able to
under the head of “ Notices to Correspondents,” I speak, we refer you as to the value and the effect of
consider it my duty as one of the members of the our efforts. And in case you should make such in
“ Committees on Foreign Affairs,” mentioned in the quiries, I beg particularly that you will couple Mr.
same paragraph, to protest against the conduct of Urquhart’s name with the Committees. But I
the Liverpool Financial Reform Association in thus have no expectation that you will take such a
wantcnly insulting a body of men who have at course. The Liverpool Financial Reform Associa
tempted much, and have accomplished something, tion had at one time an appreciation of the selfevident truth, that a nation which did not con
for the common good.
As to Mr. Collet himself, falsely and calum- trol what are called its “ Foreign Affairs,” could by
niously accused of writing under a feigned signature no possibility control its finances. This was evinced
in order that he might quote largely from a pamphlet by your denunciation of “ Permanent Embassies,”
of his own composition for which he. had been hand and the publication of Mr. Collet’s pamphlet “ Black
somely paid, &c. &c., I must first speak. The sig Mail to Russia.” But now that the Association is
!
nature to the documents which you have received is ready to open its arms to the unscrupulous instrunot a feigned one. Mr. Jones is the Secretary of ment in the commission of the crimes by which a
the Committee which addressed you. The quota “ Permanent Embassy” was forced upon China, and
tions are not from the pamphlet “ Black Mail to has nothing but insult for the men who have stood
Russia,” a pamphlet issued by the Liverpool Finan in the gap against the principal contriver of these
cial Reform Association, but from another pamphlet, and other similar crimes, I feel but too well assured
called “ The Substance of Black Mail to Russia,” as that my protest against your conduct may indeed
stated in the letter of the Committee. But suppose be of use to others, but can be ot no possible use to
the original pamphlet had been quoted, what could you, and that nothing can now save the Liverpool
be the object of alleging that Mr. Collet had been Financial Reform Association from concluding its
“ handsomely paid” by your Association for writing history without having attained any one of the
it ? Is this pamphlet not to be quoted because your objects to attain which it was established.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Association paid for it ? Is this not a reason on the
George Crawshay.
contrary why it should be quoted as expressing
your views? But it was not quoted. What is this,
The President of the Liverpool Financial Reform
sir, but -the invention of irrelevant circumstances for Association.
the purpose of personal insult as a means of escape
To the above letter no answer has, we
from the discussion of important matters?
Is it your object to hold up Mr. Collet to scorn understand, been received.
THE END,
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Materials for the true history of Lord Palmerston
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Urquhart, David
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 50 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from the Free Press, from May to November, 1865. Contents: 1. Case of alleged bribary. 2. Introduction to the Foreign Office. 3. Connexion with the Princess Lieven. 4. Career of fifty-eight years. 5. Parallel case of Chateaubriand - minister of France and agent of Russia. 6. Connivance of Sir Robert Peel. 7. Public and private crimes. 8. Prostration of public character and authority. 9. Character as displayed in the change of the succession to Denmark. 10. Correspondence respecting Sir John Bowring. - Appendix. Pages badly faded at edges.
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Robert Hardwicke
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1866
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G5574
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Government
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Materials for the true history of Lord Palmerston), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
3rd Viscount Palmerston
Conway Tracts
Great Britain-Politics and Government-19th Century
Henry John Temple
-
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�THE LATE FBISCffi CONSORT, AT SHE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851.
NOW ERECTED AT KENNINGTON PARK.
MODEL COTTAGES FOR WORKING MEN, DESIGNED UPON THE OPEN STAIRCASE PJSINCIP&E, BY HENRY ROHAftTS, ESQ., F.&A.
PLATE
{See Page 30.)
1.
m
�OVERCROWDING;
THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
LONDON:
LONGMANS,
GREEN
18 6 6
AND
CO.
�PRINTED BY
WATERLOW AND SONS, CARPENTERS’ HALL,
LONDON WALL.
�OVERCROWDING;
THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
One of the most momentous, and one of the most pressing
questions of our age is this of how to find healthful, pure,
and comfortable dwelling-house accommodation for the in
dustrial classes of the community. The distinct and specific
object of the present publication is to bring the general his
tory and various practical bearings of that question n-nder
comprehensive review, within as narrow a scope, in as con
secutive a form, and with as much completeness of detail
as, within reasonable limits, is possible.
The importance of the subject is beginning to be acknow
ledged on all hands. The most illustrious princes, the most
influential statesmen, and the most laborious philanthropists
of our time, have not only had their attention called to it,
but have brought to its consideration their deepest solicitude
—to its exposition and enforcement, their highest eloquence.
It is a question in which the late lamented Prince Consort
took an anxious and practical interest—a fact which, of itself,
might be accepted as a proof of its urgency; for Prince Albert
did not patronise philanthropy as one of the pet amuse
ments of the day, or devote himself to the investigation of
its many problems as fields for curious speculation or dilletanti
research. Into his studies of topics of this nature he brought
�4
OVERCROWDING ;
the true and earnest spirit of a wise beneficence—a benefi
cence in which the calm and judicial sense of the philosopher
was ever in the service of a right Christian devotion to the
welfare of mankind.
Since Prince Albert took the step which may be almost
said to have given birth to one of the most glorious social
reformations ever initiated, and to which reference will
again, in due course, have to be made, the importance of the
question has increased in a degree which may, without any
exaggeration, be described as appalling. And the importance
of the question must necessarily increase with the increase
of our population, and with the increase of the material ad
vantages with which our country is being so liberally blessed.
This question involves the prime conditions of the physical
health, the moral purity, the social order, and the political
honour of the community ; it comprises the leading terms
on which the welfare of the individual, as also that of the
State, can be secured.
It must not be forgotten, however, that a general and ear
nest public interest in the question will be absolutely neces
sary to the carrying out of this great reform. To help to
create that public interest is the aim of the present writer.
The patronage of a prince, an occasional speech in the House
of Lords or the House of Commons, an experimental effort
here and there to oope with a mightily abounding evil, will
be, however noble in themselves, mournfully inadequate to
the demands of the case. Until the whole body of the peo
ple, the rich and the poor, the small and the great, shall be
brought to see its interest and to feel its duty in this mat
ter, abuses and corruptions will accumulate until they explode
in catastrophe. Truths are wrapped up in this question
which the people themselves must learn, before the question
can be considered to be solved. Ignorance of those troths
will be fatal, not only to the efforts made to achieve reform,
but, what is worse, to the very people in whose behalf the
reform is attempted. And even information will be of little
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
5
service, in such an enterprise as this, unless it is backed by
conscience and vitalised by faith. Indeed, it is as true in the
actual providence of life, as it is in the code of Divine Jus
tice, that with an increase of knowledge comes an increase
of responsibility; and that ignorance is never punished so
severely for its sins, as intelligence is for its sins. “That ser
vant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.”
Now, the connection between the health and the virtue of
a community and its sanitary condition has been demon
strated in facts innumerable. The science of this question
is as positive as any which comes within the range of human
study. The principal lessons of sanitary science, moreover,
are not only acknowledged by the faculty—they are, to a
greater or a less degree, comprehended by every but the
lowest class of society. But do we practice what we know ?
Do we live according to the light which has been given us ?
Are we not, on the contrary, fully conscious of the humili
ating fact that, whilst our information has increased, the evils
of which we have through that information become cogni
sant have increased also ? Although the state of education
in England was never anything like so high and satisfactory
as at the present moment, it is to be feared that, through the
stolid selfishness of the rich, and the selfish stolidity of the
poor, the sanitary condition of England was never, in some
momentous respects, so bad as now. Notwithstanding those
enterprises a rapid historical survey of which will be found
in these pages, it yet remains true that the necessity for
overcrowding is being forced upon the London poor at a rate
more rapid than that at which improved accommodation is
being provided for them. It cannot be denied that the drain
age of the metropolis is, as a system, more complete than at
any former period; yet we get only a very partial benefit from
�6
OVERCROWDING J
this fact, owing to the manner in which the people are
huddled together, without the sweet purifications of fresh air,
or the scarcely less necessary refreshment of heaven’s light;
compelled to breath diffused death, and existing under wellknown conditions of inevitable emaciation, probable pestilence,
and all but certain moral as well as physical degeneracy.
Wise men learn the truth and obey it. Fools learn only
by experience ; and the experimental fruits of insanitary sins
are so subtle in their development, and so occasional in the
more startling calamities that mark their growth, that fools,
■without the aid of wise men, will never learn the truth at all.
The wise men, however, have compared the phenomena of
health and of disease until they have mastered the chief laws
by which the relations of health and d isease are regulated. And
now the science of the subject is clear. Alas, that only gigantic
public calamities should have the power of enforcing its
lessons upon us ! Alas, that men who are wise enough to build
up a science of health, should be fools enough to neglect
their own prescriptions until disaster comes upon them in
furious desolation, to prove that truth is sacred and may not
with impunity be profaned, and that God’s laws are sup
ported by the omnipotence of His own dread justice, whose
chastisements fall on all by whom they are outraged and
defied!
An old proverb says, that “ self preservation is the first
law of nature.” If we look at life in its larger relations and
more general manifestations, apart from the accidents that
startle our deepest instincts into their boldest action, and
those occasional moods of the soul when the sense of practical
responsibility seems to acquire the intensity of religious
enthusiasm, it is to be feared that the proverb finds but par
tial illustration in the habits of mankind. How few of us
live day by day according to the laws of life ! How little do
conservative considerations obtain in the physical customs
and personal indulgences of even the most enlightened mem
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
7
bers of our community ! How recklessly do we mix poison
with our food, and death with our drinks ! How shamelessly
do we trample on the divinely ordained canons of health
which have been made known to us ! But, in no case is the
instinct which prompts to self-preservation more atrociously
or systematically ignored than in the matter of the construc
tion, the situation, and the material administration of our
dwelling-houses. In relation to thousands upon thousands of
our fellow countrymen our elaborate economy of civilisation
is but an artistic aggravation of the native barbarities of the
race. Why do men build houses at all ? W hy do they not
encamp on the open heath, in the beautiful meadows, on the
hill-side, heaven’s sun shining upon them, and the stars their
faithful night-watchers ? The answer might be furnished by
a fool, and it would be a foolish answer. A house, we say,
is a memorial of family association, a temple for all homely
adorations, a device for the protection of social delicacy, a
shelter from the stormy blast and the treacherous air, a pro
tection against fatal fogs and the pestilential vapours that
rise from the diseased earth. Such is the pretence of civili
sation. Now, in multitudes of instances, what is the fact ?
A house is but a den of depravity, a haunt of indecencies
which in the open air would be intolerable even to those who
are doomed to the endurance of them, a nest of pestilence, a
sepulchre into which living corpses are thrown in heaps, and
under the very eye of society are left to putrify before disso
lution has commenced its work, at once the citadel of fever
and the sanctuary of famine, where a torpid revelry in ghastly
indelicacies is almost the only sign that human conscience
and human consciousness are not altogether extinct. If “ self
preservation were the first law of nature,” what poor wretch
would seek a dwelling in these abodes of death ? And, if it
should be said that the poor are helpless and must be pitied
in their misery, if self-preservation were really the first law
of nature, would, not the wealthy and the well-to-do at once
�8
OVERCROWDING ;
set about the correction of an evil which is pregnant with
peril as with shame to them ? Would they not take care
that the “ fever nests ” which have been built close to their
own mansions should be destroyed ? Would they not recog
nise their common interest in the welfare and the health of
their neighbours ? Would they not, knowing as they do that
pestilence does not confine its desolations to the scenes where
it has its birth, but assails the miscellaneous throng with a
most undiscriminating ferocity, seek, by purifying the whole
locality in which they reside, to protect themselves against
its ravages ? They would, if selfishness were not a blind
and a perverted passion within them. As the miser starves to
death rather than spend the gold he worships on the means
of life; so, too often, does society cherish the spirit of a
wicked and delusive self-security rather than make the little
sacrifice necessary to its own health and happiness.
It is a melancholy fact on which to reflect, but it is a fact,
that our wonderful material progress as a nation is the great
cause of the dangers which press upon us, and to the removal
of which it is the aim of the writer, in his own way, to con
tribute. When an enterprising- individual advances from
poverty to opulence, he mostly improves himself in all the
departments of his own personal being, and in all the asso
ciations of his life as he goes along. He will adapt himself
to his changing circumstances with an elasticity and tact
than which there is in human nature scarcely anything more
extraordinary or more admirable. His providential capacity
improves with his improving fortunes, so that dignity sits
easily upon him, and his new responsibilities find him pre
pared to sustain and discharge them. It is not always so,
however. Some men get rich who display no faculty for the
rational enjoyment or the honourable dispensation of their
wealth. They are always in a muddle. Their poor relations
are kept about them in a squalid condition, a disgrace to
themselves and a nuisance to the neighbourhood. Their
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
9
rooms are just as small as in the old time ; the only difference
being that they are now inconveniently crowded with incon
gruous furniture. All the actual embarrassments of life are
unchanged. There has been no development of the method
and plan of existence corresponding with the development
of its means and resources. Our metropolitan community
has, it must be confessed, shown very much of this spirit of
improvidence in its recent amazing progress. Its wealth has
increased enormously; so has its population. But it has not
applied its increase of wealth to the task of providing im
proved accommodation to its rapidly and awfully accumulating
numbers. Thus its comforts have diminished as its means of
providing them have augmented. It has vigorously com
menced repairing the mischief at one end, but this only
increases the confusion and humiliation at the other. We have
proceeded to the enlargement of our shops and warehouses,
and to the improvement of our facilities for locomotion; but
this has resulted in a formidable contraction of the area allotted
to the necessarily resident population. Our public improve
ments, in fact, have been carried out without prescience, true
economy, or a pretence to harmony and completeness. We
have yielded to the pressure first of one exigency and then
of another; and thus, whilst we have been working out an
incumbent reform in this direction, we have actually been
aggravating a threatening abuse in that.
At last, however, the special and supreme evil with which
we are called upon to grapple is distinctly recognised. That
evil is overcrowding. The measures which have been already
adopted to meet that evil we will now proceed briefly to sketch.
Sanitary science, in its remedial applications, may be said
to have gained no attention in this country until the visita
tion of the cholera in the year 1832. It is quite true that
men like John Howard, Dr. Chalmers, and some others, had
occasionally, and with much earnestness, warned the public
of the frightfully unhealthy conditions under which the poor
�10
OVERCROWDING J
in'large towns were obliged to live, but these individual voices
were unheeded; and even the ravages of pestilence excited
more morbid consternation than enlightened solicitude. In
1834, Mr. Sidney Smirke published his “ Suggestions for
the Architectural improvement of the Western part of Lon
don,” in which the claims of the poorer parts of the popula
tion to better household accommodation were warmly and
pathetically insisted upon. In 1837 a violent epidemic of
typhus fever broke out in the eastern districts of the metro
polis, and the Poor Law Commissioners appointed Dr.
Southwood Smith, the father of sanitary reform in this
country, to undertake an investigation into the general con
dition of that part of London, whilst similar investigations
in other parts of the metropolis were entrusted to Dr. Neil
Arnott and Dr. Kay (now Sir J. T. Kay Shuttleworth). The
results of these inquiries led to the formation, in 1839, of
the “ Health of Towns Association,” the object of which was
to devise and to execute remedial measures for the horrible
unhealthiness of the towns which had been brought to light.
In the following year, on the motion of Mr. Slaney, a com
mittee of the House of Commons was appointed to further
extend these inquiries. The Bishop of London, at the same
period, earnestly pressed the question on the consideration of
the House of Lords. In 1842, the Poor Law Board pub
lished the “ Deport of an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition
of the Labouring Population,” which Lord Stanley has de
clared has been from that day to the present the text-book
of sanitary research.
The year, 1842, was a very important year in the history
of this question. Then was the Royal Commission appointed,
consisting, among others, of the Duke of Buccleugh and the
late Duke of Newcastle, for inquiring into the state of
the large towns and populous districts; and it may be here
mentioned that the final clause of the instructions given to
this Commission directed inquiry to be made “ as to how far
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
11
the condition of the poorer classes of the people, and the
salubrity and safety of their dwellings may be promoted by
the amendment of the laws, regulations and usages.” That
Commission published two Reports, one in 1844, and another
in 1845 ", and those Reports distinctly trace to the condition of
the houses of the labouring classes the main cause of the
excessive sickness and mortality which had been disclosed in
the returns of the Registrar-General; and had further
distinctly traced to certain definite conditions in and about
those houses the constantly recurring epidemics which, at
that time, swept away one half of the children while they
were as yet in their childhood, destroyed by fever the heads
of families in the prime of life, and deprived the whole of
the labouring part of the population of more than one-third
of the natural term of existence. The Reports of this Com
mission, combined with the increased public interest which
had been excited in the subject, led to the adoption of several
important legislative measures, amongst which we may par
ticularly mention the Public Health Act of 1848, and the
Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts of the
same year—acts which have been subsequently amended—the
two latter in 1855, and again in 1860, and the former in
1858. In 1851, also, an Act was passed to enable parishes
or boroughs containing not fewer than .10,000 inhabitants,
either to build new houses or to adapt old ones, with a view
to provide better lodgings for the labouring classes; power was
also granted to raise money and to defray the attendant ex
penses out of the poor rates, such houses being made, as far
as possible, self-supporting. In the same year, 1851, an Act
was passed for regulating Common Lodging Houses—a Bill
the operations of which were, in 1853, made compulsory, and
by which certain important conditions of cleanliness, proper
ventilation, and the avoidance of overcrowding, as well as the
separation of the sexes, were enforced. Another very useful
measure, “ The Labourer’s Dwelling Act,” for promoting the
building of dwelling-houses for the labouring classes, and
�12
OVERCROWDING
providing for the registration of joint-stock companies formed
for that purpose, was passed in 1855.
The tendency of all these enactments was good, and the
principle on which they were based was a sound one. It is
clearly within the province of the legislature to enforce upon
landlords and tenants the observance of sanitary regulations.
Restraints are put upon, and responsibilities are attached to,
the sale of poisons; and the neglect of the fundamental laws
of sanitary science is nothing less than the diffusion of fatal
poison throughout the neighbourhood in which it obtains.
A dwelling-house which contained no provision for ventila
tion and for the carrying away of the refuse of its occupants,
might have inscribed over its portals, “ All die who enter
here; ” and, surely, if that condition of residence were made
known, the State would be bound to protect society against
the issue. We do not permit a butcher to sell putrid meat,
even though the purchaser should buy it with his eyes open.
The frankness of the bargain is no mitigation of its crimi
nality. Why, then, should a landlord be allowed to let his
houses in a state absolutely incompatible with the health of
the tenant ? The plea of liberty is no more available to bim
than to the chemist in relation to the sale of poisons, or to
the butcher in relation to the sale of -putrid meat. And, as
suicide is, in every well-organised society, punished as a
crime, there is really no reason why the gross neglect of all
the primary conditions of health should be left in the enjoy
ment of a mischievous impunity. As Mr. Roberts has shrewdly
and sensibly observed in one of the many useful pamphlets
he has published on this question, “ The class who have not
the power of protecting themselves, and who suffer so greatly
from the consequences of that inability, may justly expect .
at the hands of Government the same immunity in regard
to their dwellings which the public at large are entitled to
in regard to the falsification of weights, and the unwhole
some condition of staple articles of food.” And, indeed, this
argument from analogy may be. carried much further, and
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
13
may be applied to the tenant as strongly and as severely
as it is applied to the landlord. The man who, from igno
rance, indifference, or insane disregard to the conditions of
physical health, settles down in a fever nest, has the same
claim to be protected against himself as the man who should
✓ obstinately refuse to take food, or, under some wild impulse,
should seize a razor with the intention of cutting his own
throat. In other words, just as the chemist who carelessly
dispenses poison is legally guilty of the consequences of his
act, even to the extent of manslaughter, so the landlord, who
permits his property to become a habitation of pestilence,
should be held legally guilty of the consequences; and as the
man who wickedly stands in the way of death is amenable to
the law for his folly, so should the occupant of a foul house
be held accountable for the great sin of which he is guilty.
Indeed, between the careless chemist and the neglectful land
lord on the one hand, or between the would-be suicide and the
dirty tenant on the other, there is this difference, all of which
is, in both cases, greatly in favour of the former. The evil
effects of poison administered in mistake, or swallowed with a
view to self-destruction, are confined to the individual; whilst
the man who, by his foul habits, creates impure air, breeds
diseases which are contagious. He scatters death and desola
tion broadcast. The mischief he does is public, not personal.
He is liable himself to become the victim of his own vices;
but in falling he does but augment the malignant force, and
enlarge the empire of the evil to which he has succumbed.
In enforcing the observance of certain broad, plain, and
essential principles of sanitary economy upon the community,
therefore, the Government has but discharged its most legiti
mate obligations, and fulfilled one of the very first purposes
of its existence. Government is an arrangement primarily
for the protection of the life of its subjects; and uncleanli
ness is just as murderous in its effects, and just as obviously
within the scope of social responsibility, as playing with vast
quantities of gunpowder, or the dispensation of unwholesome
food.
�14
OVERCROWDING
It is worthy of being remembered, however, that so far
Government has found itself unable to deal with one branch of
the evil. In all those Acts to which allusion has been made
there is no distinct provision against overcrowding. The
legislature has insisted on certain most manifest and most
important conditions of health—such, for example, as the
thorough drainage of the subsoil, the abolition of the cesspool,
and the substitution of the watercloset, involving what may
be described as the regular and complete drainage of the
house internally, and at least a minimum supply of fresh air
and pure water. In the Common Lodging Houses Act
(which, as has been said, is a compulsory measure, but which
has been in many large towns, through the indolence of the
authorities, grievously neglected), the evil of overcrowding
was recognised, and safeguards against it were introduced,
by the restriction put upon the numbers accommodated in the
establishment for the better regulation of which the Act was
passed. The great developments of the evil of overcrowding,
however, do not take place in the common lodging-houses.
They are to be found in private dwellings, into which Govern
ment inspectors do not penetrate. There they rage unchecked;
and all the other sanitary improvements which have been
introduced into the districts where such houses abound, are
rendered comparatively useless by the prevalence of the
special evil under consideration. The Medical Officer of
Health in the City of London has frankly admitted that this
is the case. He says—(l Without doubt, overcrowding is the
worst of all the unwholesome influences with which you have
to deal, and until it is corrected you will never be secure from
those outbursts of disease which appear to set your sanitary
measures at defiance.” In a report made by the Assistant
Commissioner of Police on the condition of single rooms
occupied by families in the metropolis, without the precincts
of the city authorities, the following emphatic declaration to
the same effect may be found :—“ It is evident that all the
evils which the Acts for regulating common lodging-houses
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
15
were intended to remedy still exist, almost without abatement,
in single rooms occupied by families, single rooms so occupied
being exempt from the operation of the Act.” Ventilation
is absolutely necessary to healthful existence under all cir
cumstances ; but no structural provision for ventilation,
howsoever perfect, can counteract the contamination of the
air consequent on overcrowding. It must be admitted that
the ventilation of the private rooms where families live
huddled together is exceedingly inadequate to start with;
whilst, if it were faultless, it could involve no security of pure
air under existing conditions. It is calculated that not less
than 500 cubic feet of air are necessary to the due and
healthful sustenance of each individual, and that even that
supply requires to be thoroughly changed once in the hour.
The Lodging House Act requires an allowance of 700 cubic
feet for each inmate. Police constables lodged in a station
or section-house are allowed 450 cubic feet per person. Miss
Nightingale, in her Notes on the Sanitary Condition of
Hospitals, says—“ In solid built hospitals the progress of the
cases will betray any curtailment of space much below 1,500
cubic feet. In Paris 1,700, and in London 2,000, and even
2,500 cubic feet, are now thought advisable.” These esti
mates are, of course, exceptional, and, as a standard of what
is necessary in common life, would be deemed altogether
impracticable. But, at any rate, they serve to show the direct
and momentous relation there is between health and fresh
air; and, if that relation really exists at all, it is obvious that
thousands and thousands of the tenements occupied by the
families of the working classes of London are utterly unfit for
the uses to which they are devoted.
The worst phase of the subject, however, remains to be
stated. It might be argued on abstract political grounds,
that the Government is bound to prevent the lives of the
people from being sacrificed to the unhealthy conditions of
existence complained of; but, supposing that proposition is
granted, the question arises as to what Government is to do
�16
OVERCROWDING J
in the matter. The fact is, the evil is of such magnitude
that the legislature is totally incompetent to deal with it.
There are those who, influenced by a benign concern in the
physical welfare of the poor, would urge upon the legislature
the duty of preventing those great public improvements by
which the industrial orders are being gradually driven into
an ever-contracting area. With such we cannot agree. In
the general view of things, and in the long run, society will
gain more by the public improvements referred to than it
loses in the inconveniences, terrible though they be, incident
upon their adoption. Commercial enterprise is, in itself, a
good; and the commercial growth of the nation is a prodi
gious benefit, for which every wise and thoughtful man will
be grateful to Providence. And that growth has its con
ditions, which are just as evident and just as positive as are
the conditions of health. To attempt to curb the cotti-mcroial
and material progress of the country by legislative enact
ments, in the interest of the domestic and social convenience
or welfare of a particular class in the community, would be a
short-sighted policy indeed. But even if New Oxford Street
and Victoria Street, Westminster, had never been made; if the
Metropolitan Railway system had been arbitrarily restrained;
if the proposed new law-courts should be abandoned; the
great difficulty under consideration would not be met. In
deed, we may go so far as to say that if a temporary stop
could be put to the increase of the population, the worst
elements of the difficulty would still remain to be dealt with;
and those elements would be beyond the physical resources
and the political responsibility of the State. Let it be granted
that the legislature should institute a general inspection of
private dwelling-houses, and rigidly enforce therein the
clearly ascertained laws of physical health, still, what would
be the result ? Simply that thousands and thousands of the
population would be turned out into the common streets, and
left without any homes at all. Bad as is the existing state
of affairs, therefore, the arbitrary application to it of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
17
merely primitive or disciplinary bearings of our sanitary laws
would be its aggravation rather than its cure.
The full weight of this argument cannot be too minutely
elucidated or too emphatically urged. We will suppose, for
a moment, that the sanitary policy of the Government is
made much more stringent .than it has been; and that Her
Majesty’s Commissioners are sent forth through the length
and breadth of the metropolis with distinct instructions—
first, to condemn to destruction all houses unfit to be the
habitations of men; and, secondly, to turn out of each house
all persons beyond the number which it will properly and
healthfully accommodate. The effect of the former course
would be enormous and appalling. In an admirable paper
read by Dr. Druitt, at the ordinary general meeting of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, February 20th, 1860, on
“ the Construction and Management of Human Habitations,
considered in relation to the Public Health,” we find the
following sentences, the perfect truthfulness of which is not
to be called in question
“ It appears absolutely necessary
to utterly remove the old, dilapidated, dark, squalid, damp
tenements which cover a large area of this metropolis. Prac
tically speaking they are perfectly incurable, and they serve
only as a nursery of an enfeebled and sensual population.
There are houses close by this from which disease is never
absent j the soil is sodden with damp and riddled with drains
and cesspools; the walls damp and saturated with the exhala
tions of years ; the wood, decayed and spongy, full of'vermin,
never looking clean, and, from its porosity, refusing to dry if
washed. Such houses are utterly hopeless ; and it is evident
that it would be a boon to humanity if the districts where
they prevail could be razed to the ground, the surface exca
vated, and then covered with dwellings which would admit
the light and air and encourage cleanliness.” Now, it so
happens that these vast masses of property, which a strict
sanitary commission would assuredly condemn, are packed
from floor to ceiling with human beings, one half of whom
2
�18
OVERCROWDING
at least would, by that same commission, be cleared out, even
if the property itself were tolerable. What good would this
be ? Before these harsh, though just, proceedings can be re
commended, provision must be made for the better accommo
dation of the population disturbed by them; and that is a
task which, on no sound principle of political economy,
Government should be permitted to undertake. The prac
tical conclusion is, therefore, that the legislature, in the
measures enumerated above, has done very nearly all that it
can under existing circumstances attempt. Let us now see
what voluntary philanthropy and free commercial enterprise
have done towards meeting this stupendous and matchless
evil of overcrowding.
Passing by the labours of the “ Health of Towns Associa
tion,” and the“ Metropolitan Sanitary Association,” as being,
however important and beneficial in themselves, not strictly
within the scope of the present publication, we may pay some
what close attention to the efforts of two societies the useful
ness of which must not be measured by the pecuniary success
which has attended some of their operations. Rather, per
haps, might it be said that as pioneers their experience is
likely to be of much benefit to associations which have since
been formed. By the experiments which they have made,
and the results which have attended them, we have at last
made good progress towards the discovery. of what are the
only conditions on which this great social and sanitary re
form can be carried out.
The “ Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings
•of the Industrious Classes ” was formed in 1842; and two
years later “ The Society for Improving the Condition of the
Labouring Classes,” with a more comprehensive programme,
set itself to pretty much .the same sort of practical work. Por
the present we will trace the operations of the former of these
societies. The exact nature of the objects which it was esta
blished to promote, and of the means it adopted for the ac
complishment of those objects, may, perhaps, be best gathered
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
19
from the first report of the directors to the shareholders, read
at the meeting held at the London Tavern, on the 6th of
March, 1846—no less than four years having been spent in
surmounting preliminary difficulties, and bringing the scat
tered and floating elements of the enterprise into cohesion,
consistency, and working order. That report is as follows :—
The attention, of the public and legislature has been lately much
directed to the sanitary condition of large towns and populous
districts. Investigations into this subject have been made, partly
by individuals, and partly by commissioners appointed under the
Crown; and the result of their labours is the collection of a body
of evidence, perhaps unequalled in extent and value, for the guid
ance alike of legislation and of private exertion.
One of the main subjects of all these inquiries is the condition of
the dwellings occupied by the poorer classes; and the evidence
establishes two facts with regard to these dwellings; first, that
they are in general extremely wretched, many of them wholly unfit
for the habitation of human beings j and, secondly, that the tenants
of these miserable houses pay an exorbitant rent foi‘ them.
The founders of this association, impressed by the evidence ad
duced of the deplorable physical and moral evils directly traceable
to these wretched dwellings, conceived the plan of attempting some
improvement in the general construction of the poor man’s house,
and some addition to its convenience and comfort. They did not,
indeed, imagine that it would be possible for any private body of
men to provide suitable habitations for all the poor, even of the
metropolis ; but they thought that it might be practicable, by the
combination of capital, science, and skill, to erect more healthy
and more convenient houses for the labourer and artizan ; and to
offer such improved dwellings to these and similar classes, at no
higher rent than they pay for the inferior and unhealthy houses
which they at present occupy.
It appeared, further, to the association, that if it were practicable
to present some examples of houses well built, well drained, and
well supplied with air, water, and light, and to -offer these dwellings
at no greater charge than is at present demanded and obtained for
houses in which no provision whatever is made, or even attempted,
for the supply of any one of these essential requisites of health, clean
liness, and comfort, a public service would be rendered beyond the
mere erection of so many better constructed houses; that the in
fluence of this example could scarcely fail to be beneficial; that,
especially, it might help to rendei’ it no longer easy for the land
lord to obtain an amount of rent for houses of the latter description
which ought to suffice for those of the former; and that it might
�20
OVERCROWDING ;
thus indirectly tend to raise the general standard of accommodation
and comfort required in all houses of this class.
It was no part of the plan of the association to attempt to assist
the poor by offering them any gift, or doing anything for them in
the shape of charity; experience having shown that while the means
afforded by charity for the removal of extensive and permanent
evils are always inadequate, because always too limited and too
transient, her gifts in such cases do not really benefit the recipients;
but, on the contrary, have a tendency to injure and corrupt them,
by lessening their self-reliance and destroying their self-respect.
The proposal of the association was, therefore, that the industrious
man should pay the full value for his house ; but that for the sum
he pays he should possess a salubrious and commodious dwelling,
instead of one in which cleanliness and comfort can find no place ;
in which he can neither maintain his own strength, nor bring up
his family in health ; but must constantly spend a large portion of
his hard-earned wages in the relief of sickness.
The plan proposed by the association for the accomplishment of
their object was to raise the necessary capital by shares, and to ob
tain a charter from the Crown, limiting the liability of the share
holder to the amount of his individual subscription. On submitting
their object and plan to the Government, Sir Robert Peel and Lord
Lincoln, after some consideration, expressed their entire approba
tion of it, thought it likely to accomplish much good, and advised
the granting of the charter by the Crown.
It was stated to the Government that, while on the one hand
the essential principle of the association is that of self-support, and
that the founders of it must regard their scheme as a failure, if it
does not return a fair profit on the capital employed, yet that, on
the other hand, it was not their design to set on foot a money
getting speculation ; that their object, though not charitable in the
common acceptation of the term, was philanthropic and national,
and that it was their desire that the profits, after the payment of a
moderate rate of interest, instead of going to increase the amount
of the dividend, should be applied to the extension of the plan.
The Government approving of this principle, the main provisions
of the charter, now in possession of the association, have been
framed in accordance with it, and are as follows : —
The limitation of the liability of the shareholdei’ to the
amount of his individual subscription.
Dividend not to exceed £5 per cent, per annum.
£25,000 capital to be subscribed before commencing works,
and £10 per cent, thereon paid up.
The capital may be increased with consent of two-third
parts in number and value of the shareholders and sanction of
the Board of Trade.
The charter bears date the 16th October, 1845
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
21
Now, we have here a most enlightened appreciation of the
moral and financial grounds on which alone an enterprise of
this kind can be legitimately and healthily conducted. The
utter futility of attempting to render charitable aid to a com
munity like that of the working orders of the metropolis in
the matter of their household accommodation, is just as obvious
now as it was then; and all the experience which has been
gained on the subject confirms the principle that this mighty
reform must be brought within the grasp and under the
control of recognised commercial laws before it will have
anything like a chance of receiving that general support from
the trade and the public, without which it must remain little
better than an amiable chimera or a benevolent dream.
The perusal of the successive reports of the “ Metropolitan
Association,” read in the light of this incontrovertible propo
sition, has, perhaps, rather a discouraging effect. In every
respect but the financial the society seems to have worked
prosperously enough. The sanitary results were uniformly
splendid. The precise advantages aimed at were obtained
with a uniformity absolutely startling. The association
observed the following sanitary conditions with great strict
ness in all its building operations :—
1. The thorough drainage of the subsoiPof the site.
2. The free admission of air and light to every inhabited
room.
3. The abolition of the cesspool, and the substitution of the
water-closet, involving complete house-drainage.
4. An abundant supply of water; and,
5. Means for the immediate removal, by means of dust
shafts, of all solid house refuse not capable of suspension in
water, or of being carried off by water.*
Now, the first experiment made by the Metropolitan Asso
ciation was in the Metropolitan Buildings, Old St. Pancras
Road, which consist of 110 tenements, 20 of which have two
* See “Results of Sanitary Improvement,” by Southwood Smith, M.D.
Knight and J. Cassell, 1853.
C.
�22
OVERCROWDING J
rooms each, and 90 three rooms, and every one of which has
attached to it a scullery, provided with a sink, a supply of
water at high pressure at the rate of forty gallons per day; a
dust-shaft, accessible from the scullery, and a separate watercloset. Other sets of buildings have been erected, or appro
priated by the society; as, in Albert Street, Mile End New
Town, and Pelham Street, and Pleasant Row, Mile End.
Branch associations have been formed in various provincial
towns, and lodging-houses and dormitories established. Into
all the details of these experiments, however, it is not neces
sary that we should here enter. At present, we wish simply
to present the reader with the sanitary results of the enter
prise, as tested more particularly by the “Metropolitan
Buildings ; ” and in doing so, we find it impossible to render
the statement either more brief, lucid, or impressive than as
it appears in the report of Southwood Smith already referred
to. We, therefore, append his analysis just as it stands :—
The results of the experiment with reference to its great object,
the protection of health and the diminution of preventible sickness
and mortality, are now to be stated.
In the year 1850, the comparative mortality of the residents in
the Metropolitan Buildings, both adults and infants, was so small,
that it was generally concluded that the result was accidental.
In the year 1851, this comparative low rate of mortality con
tinued, though the actual mortality was highei' than in the former
year.
In the subsequent year the mortality again became nearly the
same as in 1850.
The following are the exact results :—
In 1850, the total population in the Metropolitan Buildings, Old
Pancras Road, was 560, and the deaths were 7, being at the rate
of 12 and a half in 1,000 of the living.
In 1851, the total population was 600, and the deaths were 9,
being at the rate of 15 in the 1,000.
In 1852, the total population was 680, and the deaths were 9,
being at the rate of 13 and a fraction in the 1,000. The average
mortality of the three years in tfcese buildings has been 13-6 per
1,000.
But taking together the whole of the establishments of the
association, which had now come into full occupancy, the total
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
23
population for the year ending March, 1853, amounted to 1,343.
Out of this number there were, during that year, 10 deaths, being
at the rate of 7 and a fraction iu the 1,000.
If this mortality is compared with the mortality of the metro
polis generally, and with the mortality of one of its worst districts,
the following results are obtained :—
The deaths in the whole of the metropolis, during the same
year (1852), reached the proportion of 22 and a fraction in the
1,000 ; consequently, the total mortality in London generally,
taking together all classes, rich and poor, was proportionally more
than three times greater than the mortality in these establishments.
On a comparison of the infant mortality in these dwellings with
that of the metropolis generally, the results present a still more
striking contrast. Of the total population in the establishments of
the association (1,343), 490 were children under ten years of age.
Among these there occurred 5 deaths, being in the proportion of
10 in the 1,000. In the same year the infant mortality in the
whole of London reached the rate of 46 in the 1,000 ; consequently,
the infant mortality in the establishments of the association has
been little more than one-fifth of that in London generally.
This low rate of mortality, the comparative absence of sickness,
and the general state of well-being implied in the two former con
ditions, will appear the more remarkable when compared with the
mortality in one of the worst districts of the metropolis.
In the Notting Hill division of Kensington Parish, there is a
place called the “Potteries,” which is wholly destitute of the
sanitary provisions secured to the improved dwellings. Until
recently it had no drainage, and even now there is little that is
effectual. It has no supply of water, no means for the removal of
filth, and the houses are dirty, damp, and miserable beyond
description or belief.
According to the Census of 1851, the population of the Potteries
was 1,263 ; and the number of children at that time living, under
ten years of age, was 384. As the population of this place is not
migratory, but quite stationary, it may be assumed to be pretty
much the same in 1853 as it was in 1851. At all events, it may
be considered as sufficiently so, to afford the means of comparing
its mortality for that year with the mortality of the Metropolitan
Buildings.
From the returns of the Registrar-General, it appears that during
the year ending the 31st March, 1853, the total deaths in the
Potteries, from all causes, amounted to 51. In the Metropolitan
Buildings the deaths were 10 ; so that with a smaller population
(80 less), the deaths were 41 in excess. In the Potteries the deaths
from all causes, under ten years of age, were 42 ; in the Metro
politan Buildings they were 5, being an excess of infant mortality
�24
OVERCROWDING ;
in the Potteries of 37. In the Potteries, the proportion of deaths
per cent, to the population was 4-03, or 40 in the 1,000 ; in the
Metropolitan Buildings it was -74, or 7 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 33 in the 1,000. In the Potteries, the
proportion of deaths per cent., under ten years of age to the popu
lation under ten years of age, was 10’9, or 109 in the 1,000 ; in
the Metropolitan Buildings it was 1’0, or 10 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 99 in the l,(W)0. In the Potteries the
proportion per cent, of deaths from zymotic diseases, under ten
years of age, to the population, was 5'2, or 52 in the 1,000 ; in
the Metropolitan Buildings it was '82, or 8 in the 1,000, being an
excess in the Potteries of 44 in the 1,000.
If the deaths in the whole of the metropolis had been at the
same rate as in the Potteries, there would have died in London, in
that year, 94,950 persons, whereas the actual deaths were 54,213 ;
that is, there would have been a loss of upwards of 40,000 lives ;
and if the whole of the metropolis had been as healthy as the
Metropolitan Buildings, Old Pancras Hoad, on an average of the
three years, there would have been an annual saving of about
23,000 lives.
Nothing could possibly be more conclusive or more encou
raging than this, proving, as it does, that in improving the
dwelling-house accommodation of the people, we are really
not only improving their physical health but prolonging their
lives.
The experience of the Society for improving the Condition
of the Labouring Classes is equally stimulating. As we have
said, this society commenced its operations in 1844; and
besides encouraging the establishment by the working classes
of field gardens, and the cultivation of small allotments of
land, it has also contributed largely to the movement to the
claims of which this pamphlet is dedicated. The beneficial
effect of its labours on the life and health of its constituents
has been remarkable. We may find room for just one ex
ample, for which we are again indebted to Dr. Southwood
Smith. It is that afforded by the history of Lambeth
Square, which, before the society in question took it in hand,
was just as unhealthy as those Kensington Potteries to which
reference has before been made : —
Lambeth Square is situated in the Waterloo Hoad district of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
25
parish of Lambeth. Tt consists of 37 eight-roomed houses which
let at about £28 a-year, and are chiefly occupied by the foremen
of large establishments, and the more skilled and highly-paid class
of artizans. In outward appearance, and in their general aspect
within, these houses are very superior to the ordinary abodes of
the same class in other parts of the metropolis, and present no
obvious cause of peculiar unhealthiness.
According to the last census this square contains a population
of 434 souls. Among this number on a house-to-house examina
tion, it was found that in one year (1851) there had occurred 80
attacks of zymotic* and other diseases, and 24 deaths ; that is,
nearly one person in every five had been laid up with sickness,
which had proved fatal in the proportion of between 50 and 60 in
1,000.
When built about twenty years ago these houses had been fitted
up with untrapped closets, communicating with flat-bottomed brick
drains, then in universal use. A number of the drains passed
directly under the houses ; they were wholly unprovided with any
regular water supply for cleansing ; consequently, instead of carry
ing away the ordure, they retained it within the houses; and the
emanations arising from the stagnant mass of putrefying matter,
were carried back into the houses, through the open closets, in a
proportion increasing with the obstruction in the drains.
At the beginning of 1852, a new system of drainage was ap
plied to the whole square. Water-closets were substituted for
cesspools, and stoneware pipes for brick drains, and the apparatus
was provided with an adequate supply of water.
By these improvements the houses were placed in the same
sanitary condition essentially as the society’s dwellings. The
result on the health of the inhabitants was strikingly similar,
On a re-examination of this property in November of the present
year (1853) it was found that the mortality had been reduced
from 55 in 1,000, to 13 in 1,000.
This point, however, is now universally conceded; and the
question which remains for solution is simply how the con
ditions of sanitary improvement may be rendered available to
the great mass of the community. And relative to that
question, the experience of the two associations referred to has
* From a Greek word, signifying to ferment. The term is employed meta
phorically, as if this class of diseases were produced and propagated by a kind
of fermentation. In these pages it is used merely for the sake of shortness to
include the entire class of preventible diseases.
�26
OVERCROWDING
furnished valuable information, by the light of which their
successors will doubtless attain more satisfactory results.
Let us deal with the “ Metropolitan Association” first. Some
circumstances which tend to explain the small rate of profit
realised by this association should not in fairness be forgotten.
The preliminary expenses were heavy; the Royal Charter
having been obtained at an outlay of not less than £1,430Moreover, the plan of some of the buildings, more especially
in the adoption of internal staircases, instead of external gal
leries, for giving access to the various tenements, by which
they are liable to house-duty, is a disadvantage to which no
future experiments are likely to be exposed. Then, the
society’s capital is invested in undertakings of various kinds,
some of which are much less remunerative than others; and
thus the average dividend is greatly reduced. In nineteen
years—i.e. from 1846 to 1865—the “ Metropolitan Associa
tion for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes”
expended close upon £92,000 on ten ranges of buildings, in
which accommodation was provided for 420 families and 362
single men. On new buildings, giving accommodation to 371
families, the expenditure was £68,947. Is. 5d.
On this
outlay, a net return was in 1865 obtained, of £3,507.15s. 4d.;
being at the rate of upwards of 5 per cent. On an expenditure
of £5,471.18s. 7d. on old houses, the net return the same year
was £277. 11s. lid., or at the rate of upwards of 5 per cent.
The returns from the lodging-houses and dormitories for single
men were not so satisfactory, amounting only in the gross
to Ilf per cent., from which the expenses of management
must be deducted before the balance available for dividend
can be calculated. The profits from the Dwellings for Families having therefore to be applied to the payment of dividend
on unproductive capital amounting to £18,398. 11s. 5d.,
absorbed by preliminary expenses and Single Men’s Dwellings,
the dividend for the year 1864-5, was at the rate of only 3|
per cent, upon the whole of the capital.
It is curious that whilst the sanitary results attained by
the “ Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
27
Classes ” should have been so perfectly analogous to those
attained by the “ Metropolitan Association,” a corresponding
analogy in the financial results of the operations of the two
societies should be apparent. After an experiment of eight
years, the Labourer’s Friend Society, on a total expenditure
of £35,143. 13s. 3d., in 1852, realised a net return of
£1,385. 3s. 4d., being at the rate of about 4 per cent.
From the twentieth report of the society presented at the
annual meeting held at Willis’s Booms on the 28th of June,
1864, under the presidency of the indefatigable chairman of
the committee, the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.Gr., we gather that
the gross profits realised on the nine establishments worked
by the society, costing a total sum of £37,485. 8s., were
£1,775. 3s. 4|d., or about 4| per cent., from which sum the
working expenses of the society must be deducted. The
accounts of this society, however, are not presented in a
very distinct manner to the public; and it is possible that
our estimate of profit may be not quite accurate. Be that
as it may, we believe it will be found to be rather above
than below the mark; and the latest absolute results cannot
be greatly in excess of those realised by the “ Metropolitan
Association.”
What these two societies are actually doing towards minis
tering to the home comforts of the working classes of London
may be very briefly set forth. The “ Metropolitan Associa
tion ” has, under its management, ten establishments, as
follows :—Albert Street, affording accommodation for sixty
families; Albert Cottages, accommodating thirty-three
families; Albion Buildings, accommodating twenty-four
families ; Ingestre Buildings, accommodating sixty families;
Nelson Square, providing homes for 110 families; Pancras
Square, containing 110 tenements; Pleasant Bow, accommo
dating nine families; Queen’s Place, accommodating ten
families; Albert Chambers, offering dormitory accommoda
tion for 234 single men; and Soho Chambers, offering
similar accommodation for 128 single men. Here, there is
household accommodation, healthy, comfortable, decent, and
�28
OVERCROWDING J
distinctly within the means of the industrious and provident
mechanic, for 420 families ; and lodging accommodation for
362 single men. The business, considered as a business, is an
immense one; and the amount of physical convenience,
domestic comfort, and moral advantage represented by it is
hardly calculable. The Society for Improving the Condition
of the Labouring Classes have now eight establishments,
besides a warehouse in Portpool Lane, the resources of which
are as follows:—Hatton Garden, lodgings for fifty-four
single men; Charles Street, Drury Lane, lodgings for eightytwo single men ; George Street, St. Giles’s, lodgings for 104
single men; Portpool Lane, household accommodation for
twenty families, and lodgings for sixty-four single women;
Streatham Street, household accommodation for fifty-four
families; Wild Court, single room accommodation for 106
families; Tyndall’s Buildings, single room accommodation for
eighty-seven families, and lodgings for forty single men ; and
Clark’s Buildings, Bloomsbury, single room accommodation
for eighty-two families. Here there is household accommoda
tion for seventy-four families; single room accommodation
for 275 families, and lodgings for 280 single men, and for
sixty-four single women. On the whole, the order of persons
accommodated is somewhat inferior to that for which the
“Metropolitan Association” makes provision; but the
attention to cleanliness and ventilation is not less strict, and
the sanitary results are, as we have seen, equally gratifying.
It would not be right, in this survey—necessarily summary
in its character—to pass over, without observation, the efforts
of the St. James’s Sanitary Association, presided over by the
Bishop of Lincoln; the Marylebone Association; the Lambeth
Association, which has derived great advantage from the co
operation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which H.B.H.
the Prince of Wales is the holder of a considerable number of
shares, and which provides accommodation for thirty-two
families; the “ Strand Buildings Company,” of which Viscount
Ingestre is chairman, which accommodates twenty-five
families, in Eagle Court, opposite Somerset House, and pays
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
29
a dividend at the rate of 4| per cent., all having the same
object in view. Nor must the labours of certain private
individuals be forgotten. In Bethnal Green, Miss Burdett
Coutts, at an expenditure of nearly <£10,000, entirely defrayed
by herself, has had erected a pile of buildings 172 feet in
length, and four storeys high, for the accommodation of fiftytwo families. W. E. Hilliard, Esq., of Gray’s Inn, has
rebuilt an entire street near the Shadwell Station, on the
Blackwall Bailway, taking as his model the late Prince
Consort’s Exhibition Cottages (which we reserve for special
consideration shortly). His plan comprises accommodation
for 112 families in blocks of four tenements each, each family
having three rooms, together with wash-house, coal-house,
water-closet, &c. The total cost of this experiment was
£13,643 ; and we have been informed that they pay a profit
of close upon 7 per cent, per annum. Mr. John Newson,
again, has constructed five piles of family dwellings on his own
account, situate respectively in Grosvenor Mews ; Bull Head
Court, Snow Hill; Bull Inn Chambers, Holborn; and
Grosvenor Market. In these dwellings he provides superior
domestic accommodation for 125 families, at an outlay of
£13,200; the net return upon which he estimates at 5^ per
cent. The lodging-house established at Camden Town, in
1854, by Messrs. Pickford and Co., by which sixty men are
accommodated, is a well-managed institution, which works
not unprofitably.
The late Prince Consort’s model dwellings for the working
classes may be now taken into consideration. We have
slightly neglected the chronology of the movement which we
have endeavoured to trace in not having noticed them earlier;
but our reasons for the deviation will be obvious when the
special architectural features it will be our duty to point out
come up for consideration. His Royal Highness always
manifested the deepest and most earnest interest in this
subject, and he himself informed the world “ his feelings were
warmly shared by Her Majesty the Queen.”
The Commissioners for the Great Exhibition held in Hyde
�30
OVERCROWDING ;
Park in J 851, in answer to an application made to them,
decided “ that a model lodging-house does not come within
the design of the Exhibition.” Thereupon the applicants
addressed a memorial to the Priu.ce Consort, who expressed
the most lively interest in the subject, and further indicated
his desire that the contemplated houses should be erected on
his own account. At a great sacrifice and personal trouble,
His Royal Highness secured the consent of four Grovern m on t
departments to the erection of the houses in the cavalry
barrack-yard, opposite to the Exhibition. The buildings were
raised, and they were visited and inspected by upwards of
250,000 persons. In their general arrangement the buildings
were adapted for the occupation of four families of the class
of manufacturing and mechanical operatives. They consist of
two floors with four dwellings on each floor. Each tenement
consists of three bed-rooms, living-room, lobby, scullery
water-closet, sink, dust-bin, &c.
These dwellings,* raised under the immediate care of
the Prince Consort, constitute the model of the larger number
of blocks which have been since erected. The superlative
advantages which they present may be easily enumerated,
and will be appreciated at a glance. The most prominent
peculiarity of the design is the receding and protected
central open staircase, communicating with the external
gallery. By this staircase, in conjunction with the fire-proof
floors and the flat roof, two or three very important results
are secured. In the first place, a great security in case of
fire is provided. Secondly, the perfect independence of each
tenant is secured, free even from the dull monotony and
comparative publicity of the common corridor. Then, lastly,
by virtue of this independence of each dwelling, the building
becomes exempt from the house duty.
The “Albert Cottages,” as they were called, consisted of
four tenements, two on each floor ; but it was one special
aim of His Royal Highness to have them constructed on
such a plan as would admit of the addition of a third or a
* See frontispiece.
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
31
fourth storey, without any other alteration than the requisite in
crease in the strength of the walls. Each tenement contained
—first, a living-room, having a superficial area of about 150
feet; secondly, a scullery, fitted up with a sink, a coal-bin, a
plate rack, a meat safe, and a dust shaft; thirdly, three
sleeping apartments, each with separate access, and window
into the open air, and two with a fireplace and, finally,
a water-closet, fitted up with a Staffordshire glazed basin, and
supplied with water from a' slate cistern on the roof. The
ordinary cost of a tenement of this character would be, it was
estimated by His Royal Highness, from £110 to £120, and
if let for 4s. a-week, after deducting ground-rent and taxes,
a net return upon the outlay of about 7 per cent, would be
realised. In this estimate, however, it must be borne in mind,
that no deductions are allowed for architect’s fees, working
expenses, or wear and tear—elements in the calculation, the
oversight of which must be held to modify the strictly com
mercial value of the rate of profit specified.
Notwithstanding this, however, it is due to the fame
of this great and good Prince to record the fact that, in the
history of the most beneficent movement of modern times,
he provided a sound and practical model of the work which
was required to be done; and, by his success, and the popular
attention which he was instrumental in drawing to the
subject, he raised it above the category of mere dreamy
speculations or spasmodic and eccentric philanthropies, and
invested it at once with the attraction of a practicable, and
the authority of an incumbent social reform.
The next stage in the progress of the cause thus hallowed
and brought within purely utilitarian conditions, is one which
may be fairly called a development of the idea and the plan
of the Exhibition Model Houses; we refer to Langbourn
Buildings, erected by Mr. Aiderman Waterlow. In entering
upon his large and costly experiment, Mr. Waterlow had
a very distinct perception of the supreme requirements
of the enterprise; and it was his special aim to afford to
Capitalists, as well as to philanthropic people, a demonstration
�32
OVERCROWDING ;
of the possibility of building healthy houses, containing
adequate accommodation, for the working classes on conditions
that would be commercially remunerative. Prince Albert’s
own words embodied that phase of the problem on the mas
tery of which the entire solution depended :—“ Unless we
can get 7 or 8 per cent., we shall not succeed in inducing
builders to invest their capital in such houses.” Mr. Waterlow, moreover, brought to the consideration of the subject in
its general aspects, rather the common sense of a man of the
world, than the pedantic and really morbid views into which
professional philanthropy is too apt to degenerate. By this
we mean that he saw the wisdom of allowing to the class for
whom he was about to provide as much credit for good taste
and social sensitiveness as possible. He, therefore, aimed to
give each dwelling the highest attainable individuality of
character; he resolved to appeal, in the fullest way open to him,
to the self-respect of his tenants ; he, therefore, avoided all
assumption of patronage; he made no pretence, either in the
style of the buildings themselves, or in the circumstances of
their erection, of being a dispenser of charity; and he
judiciously resolved to make no sacrifice of internal comfort
and decency for the sake of external ornament.
A patient and anxious consideration of the whole subject
led to the conclusion that the following were among the
most important points which required consideration :—
I. A ground plan easily adaptable to any plot of ground,
capable of repetition to any extent, and presenting in the
elevation a pleasing and attractive appearance.
II. Suites of rooms at different rents so planned as to secure
the greatest economy of space, materials, and labour, in
the erection of the building, and at the same time pro
vide for the exclusive use of each family, within the
external door of the lettings, every essential requisite of
domestic convenience.
III. The construction of a flat roof capable of being used as a
drying and recreation ground, so as to leave as much
space as possible available for building.
IV. Planning the positions of the doors, windows, and fire
places, with reference to a suitable arrangement of the
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
33
furniture of the apartments, and the placing of proper
fireplaces, cupboards, shelves, &c., in every room.
V. An efficient system of drainage and ventilation.
VI. Making the joinery as near as possible to an uniform size
and pattern, so that machinery might be brought to bear
in economizing its manufacture to a considerable extent.
VII. The discovery and adaptation of a new material com
bining the properties of strength and durability, adapt
ability, attractiveness of appearance, and cheapness, in an
eminent degree.
VIII. The combination of these advantages in buildings
which, when let at fair rentals, would produce a good
return on the outlay incurred in their erection.
IX. The selection of a locality where the ground rent would
not be excessive, although the tenants would be suffi
ciently near their work to enable them to take their
meals at home.
Mr. Waterlow was able, to an extent on which he is en
titled. to earnest congratulations, to carry out most of these
objects in the buildings which are so intimately associated
with his name. He secured a lease for ninety-nine years of
a plot of ground, situate in the most populous part of Fins
bury. To make way for the noble structure which he has
erected on this ground, he had to clear away a number of the
most wretched habitations imaginable. In his selection of a
site, he was thus fortunate; for he not only substituted
healthy and decent dwellings for hovels which were scarcely
fit for the accommodation of pigs, but he did this in a crowded
neighbourhood, and in close proximity to the scenes of the
labour of those who might be expected to become his tenants.
The locality is within a quarter-of-an-hour’s walk of the Bank
of England. It has another great advantage which should
not be passed over. The property of which it forms a part
will very shortly revert to Her Majesty’s Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, on the expiration of a long lease. The
estate is to a great extent covered with houses of the most
miserable character; and the great success of the experi
ment will, it is to be hoped, encourage the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, on receiving the estate, to stipulate or provide
3
�34
OVERCROWDING ;
for an extensive improvement of the dwellings for the in
dustrial classes on a plan similar to that which has answered
so well. Every tenement which Mr. Waterlow has built is
complete in itself. Nothing is for the common use of the
inhabitants but staircase, balcony, and roof. Every domestic
office and • convenience is provided for each household sepa
rately. At a rent of 5s. or 6s. 6d. per week, therefore, a
complete and comfortable, as well as a thoroughly salubrious
home may be here obtained.
The enumeration of the “ important points ” held in view
which we have already quoted, as well as the following
description of the plan of the buildings and the nature of the
structure and general arrangements, are transferred from
the pages of an interesting little pamphlet by Mr. J.
Aldous Mays, which was written when the first block
of “Langbourn Buildings” was opened to public inspection
and criticism. This pamphlet is now out of print. After
saying that the buildings were designed and erected by
Mr. Matthew Allen, of Tabernacle Walk, Finsbury, the
writer proceeds:—“ The general plan* of a single block may
be described as a parallelogram, having a frontage of 56 feet
by a depth of 44 feet, divided into four sections by a party
wall in the centre and the two passages (EE) in the middle
of each wing. The two centre sections are set back about
3 feet from the line of frontage, for the purpose of giving
space for a balcony of that width on each of the upper floors.
Each section comprises one suite of rooms, to which access
is obtained from the passages (EE) leading (on all the upper
floors) direct from the balcony (G)- The balconies are
reached by a fireproof staircase having a semi-elliptical
form, the entrances to which are shown on the elevation by
the two doorways in the centre of the building. This stair
case is continued to and gives access to the roof. The larger
lettings, consisting of three rooms and a washhouse, occupy
the end sections of the building. E 0 is the entrance door,
B is a living-room provided with a range having an oven and
See Plates 2 and 3.
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
35
boiler. Leading out of the living room is the washhouse or
scullery (ft) which contains in every case what may be called
the accessories of the dwelling,—water cistern, sink, a small
fireplace, washing copper, dust shoot, water-closet, &c. It is
expected that the fireplace in the washhouse will conduce
greatly to the comfort of the living room in the summer time,
c is a comfortable bedroom having a fireplace; a capacious
cupboard (H) is arranged in the party wall between this
room and the entrance lobby, and over the latter is a useful
receptacle for the stowage of bulky objects. Passing out
towards the front parlour ([)), is a series of shelves having
an artificial stone bottom and back, intended by its proximity
to the living room to serve as a cupboard for provisions, &c.
[J is a spacious handsome parlour having two windows ; the
fireplace is placed a little out of the centre of the room, so as
to leave a convenient space in which to put an additional bed
in cases where this would be required to be used as a bed
room. On the other side of the fireplace is a sideboard and
cupboard.
“ The centre sections, comprising the smaller lettings,
consist of two rooms and a washhouse, &c. The washhouse
A and the living room B are exactly similar to those in the
larger letting. The bedroom C can be conveniently con
verted into a parlour by arranging a set of curtains across
the recess at the back of the room, and thus dividing the part
where the bed would be placed from the rest of the apart
ment. WWW represent the windows. The plan is the
same on each side of the party walls, and every floor or flat is
a repetition of the other. Close to the ceilings of all the
rooms a ventilator is placed which communicates with air
shafts running through the centres of the chimney stacks.
The air is thus constantly rarified, and a system of natural
ventilation is produced. Besides this, it will be seen that by
setting open the windows a current of external air can be at
once passed through every room in the direction of the dotted
lines. The lower panes of the windows are filled in with
�36
OVERCROWDING
ornamental ground glass, so that no window blinds are neces
sary. The windows are constructed on a somewhat novel
principle, being made to open outwards like ordinary French
casements, but the two lower panes are not made to open, so
that the danger of children falling out, as well as the disad
vantages of the ordinary window sashes, are avoided. All
the rooms are 8ft. 9in. in height. The other dimensions are
figured on the plan, and need not be repeated here. Drain
age is effected by means of 4-in. stoneware pipes passing
frGm the top of the building, down the corners of the wash
houses, directly to the common sewer. The dust shaft carries
the dust to covered receptacles at the base of the building,
and each shoot is provided with an iron cover so as to prevent
the return of dust and effluvia. The dust shafts are also con
tinued to the top of the building, and act as ventilators to
the dust bins. The greater part of the rooms, especially the
living rooms, have scarcely any external walls, so that they
will be always warm and dry. All the rooms are plastered and
papered, and the washhouses are plastered and coloured. Every
tenant has his apartments completely to himself, and nothing
is used in common except the roof as a drying and recreation
ground. By extending the area of the building three or four
feet in every direction the size of the rooms could be easily in
creased, and suites of rooms obtained well adapted to the
requirements of any class of the community. With the view
of judging of the happy effect that a row of these buildings
would produce, the visitor is requested to stand a hundred
yards away from the building and imagine the pleasing
appearance of a street having several buildings like this on
each side of the way. The party walls on the roofs might
be dispensed with in cases where several blocks are built
side by side, and the roofs thus connected together would
form a most agreeable private promenade. The contrast
that these buildings present to the wretched tenements by
which they are surrounded is in every way encouraging.
The lofty elevation at the front, with its spacious doorways
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
37
and. balconies, and ornamental railings, and the wide, bold
windows and arches, with their ornamental mouldings and
•sills, soon to be filled with flowers, have an imposing effect,
and compare most favourably with the aspect of the low
dirty hovels which flank the building on either side. At
the back, too, similar improvements are at once apparent.
In the place of the ordinary yard, just big enough to enclose
within its dilapidated brick walls the open water butt, beside
the reeking dust bin and privy, the eye here rests upon a
space enclosed from the street at the back by neat iron rails,
and. laid out in flower-beds and gravel paths. In the spaces
between the washhouses on each of the upper floors are
arranged landings or platforms, on which the furniture of
the occupants is landed by means of a rope, fall and pulley,
working from a beam placed across the space at the top.
This platform also serves the purpose of hiding the view of
the living rooms from the observation of persons in any of
the upper rooms; it will doubtless be used also for floricultural purposes by most of the tenants.”
It may be mentioned that the Earl of Shaftesbury visited
Langbourn Buildings shortly before they were opened, and
declared that a more cheerful and attractive home had been
there provided at a cost of <£110, than either of the Metro
politan Associations had produced at a minimum outlay of
£180 ; and that he had seen what he had been looking for
in vain for many years, viz., a clean, healthy, and desirable
home for a mechanic, erected at a price that would pay a fair
return on the money invested.
This is the distinct and special value of the experiment
in question ; and it was instantly recognised by all who had
taken any interest in the question. On the completion of
the first block a number of noblemen and gentlemen came
together for the purpose of inspecting the edifice; and the
testimony was not only unanimous as to the elegant appear
ance of the wThole, and the minute attention to comfort and
decency in the construction of each tenement, but, above all,
�38
OVERCROWDING J
as to the great importance of the point alluded to.
Lord Ebury, who occupied the chair, said :—
Thus,
He did not know whether it was too early in the day to say that
the problem was solved altogether ; but after having very attentively
perused the document which described the building, and having now
carefully inspected the building itself, he must say that, taking the
figures to be correct, and that it was capable of producing a rent
which would give a per-centage of seven or eight per cent, on the
outlay in its erection, a result had been obtained of no slight im
portance, as it solved the difficulty over which previous ex
perimentalists had stumbled, and proved that building enterprises
of that nature could be rendered commercially remunerative.
There were tides in the affairs of men—crises in the development
of all great movements. The name of a great duke who had now
passed away from us was associated with a struggle which was the
turning point of a great strife—the battle of Waterloo : so, in this
struggle, he thought they were now witnessing the victory of
Waterlow in the great battle in which they had all been striving.
Other speakers dwelt on the same point.
Langbourn Buildings,* at a cost of £9,000, provides, in
225 rooms, accommodation for eighty families; and we believe
that the highest expectations of the proprietor, as to the
satisfaction of his tenants, the constancy of their occupation,
and the commercial value of the property, have been fully
realised.
The immediate result of Mr. Aiderman Waterlow’s success
was the formation of the “ Improved Industrial Dwellings
Company, Limited,” of which Lord Stanley was the chairman.
This association is a commercial association, in the strictest
sense of the word. Although its leading members have been,
no doubt, mainly actuated by a desire to promote the public
welfare, yet the practical aim was to carry on the work which
had been so well commenced ; and, so far, the results
must be held as highly satisfactory. The society has already
undertaken five distinct enterprises in various parts of the
metropolis, as follows :—Cromwell Buildings, Bed Cross
Street, Southwark, which will accommodate 24 families ;
Tower Buildings, Wapping, which will accommodate 60 fami* See Plates 2 and 3.
�THE EVIL ANI) ITS REMEDY.
39
lies; Cobden Buildings, King’s Cross Road, Bagnigge Wells,
which will accommodate 20 families ; Stanley Buildings, Old
St. Pancras Road, 100 families ; and City Garden Row, City
Road, where 72 families will be accommodated. Presupposing
that the net return on these undertakings should average six
or seven per cent., as seems very probable, we may expect
that the Company will continue the good work, erecting new
blocks here and there as opportunity may offer, or their funds
will allow, and as the exigencies of the community may
require. It may be presumed, moreover, that with profits at
such a rate, regularly and permanently realised, there will be
no difficulty in obtaining any additional capital which may
be necessary to the carrying on of the enterprise.
We have now to notice the part taken in this great move
ment by the Corporation of the City of London. We shall
make this portion of our history as brief as possible, taking
care, however, to put the essential facts in due order before
our readers. By a resolution of the Court of Common Council
of the 23rd of October, 1851, it was determined that the
“ Finsbury Estate Surplus Fund/’ which amounted to
£42,469. 3s. should be applied to the purpose of providing
improved lodging-houses for the labouring poor. Through
inattention in some quarters, and the multiplication of little
obstacles in others, this resolution was a dead-letter for up
wards of ten years. In 1851 an Act of Parliament was
passed, called the Clerkenwell Improvement Act, authorising
the Corporation to construct the new Victoria Street, Holborn
(and we particularly refer to clauses 1 and 12 of that Act,
the former authorising the destruction of houses, and the
latter authorising the erection of improved houses in their
place). Within three months of the passing of that Act, the
Corporation evinced its sense of the moral obligaton it was
under, by voting the sum named for the purpose of erecting
the dwellings referred to, and referred it to the Improvement
Committee to carry the vote into effect. It was more than
five years before this Committee made any report to the
�40
OVERCROWDING
Court on the subject. They had, however, in the meantime,
purchased ground in Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell, as the
site for the projected building. In their report to the Cor
poration, presented at the end of the year 1856, they curiously
recommended that it would not be expedient to proceed at
present to the erection of lodging-houses on that site. In
1858 the Corporation decided that the balance of the £42,469
should be re-appropriated to the uses of the Corporation, and
indeed, that it should, along with other moneys, be applied to
the reduction of its liabilities. In a year or two, the plot of
land which had been bought by the Improvement Committee
was wanted by the Metropolitan Railway Company. In the
Act of Parliament authorising its sale, direct reference was
made to the engagements and responsibilities of the Corpo
ration on this point. Such was the situation of affairs when
Mr. Waterlow proposed and carried a resolution by which
the subject was referred again to the Improvement Com
mittee for re-investigation. The result has been a happy
one. The Corporation has become convinced of its obliga
tions ; and has handsomely discharged them. A piece of
freehold land has been purchased, at a cost of £16,000,
in the Farringdon Road, on which a magnificent pile of
buildings has been erected at a further cost of £36,000.
These buildings contain dwelling-house accommodation for
180 families. They are built exactly on the model of
Langbourn Buildings, with the exception that the external
decorations are on a somewhat grander scale: whether any real
improvement in the appearance of the edifice has been effected
by this outlay may, perhaps, be questioned. It seems, how
ever, that the Corporation could not well aim at a dividend of
more than 5 per cent.; and the cost of the outside splendour
which has been aimed at will, it so happens, just about reprcsen the difference between a dividend of 5 and one of 6 or
8 per cent. The average cost per room in Langbourn
Buildings was £40 ; in Cromwell Buildings it was £44 ; in
Tower Buildings, £41; in Bagnigge Wells, £43 ; in Old
St. Pancras Road it wras £46. In the Corporation Build
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
41
ings the average cost per room amounted to £60. We ven
ture to assert that that increased cost adds nothing to the
actual convenience, comfort, health, or happiness of the
tenants ; and, without saying a word in complaint against it,
we wish our readers to remember that the' 5 per cent, estimated
profit here is no fair argument against the soundness of the
calculations of others, that a profit of 7, 8, or 9 per cent, is
really attainable on dwellings of this class.
It now remains for us to consider what has been done in
furtherance of this great movement by the trustees of the
Peabody Fund. What that fund is, and how it came into ex
istence, every reader of this pamphlet will be already aware.
Suffice it, for the sake of the consistency of our narrative, to say
that, some three or four years since, Mr. George Peabody, an
eminent merchant of America and London, gave the munificent
sum of <£150,000 for the purpose of ameliorating the condition
of the poor of the metropolis. This sum he handed over to the
discretionary use of a committee, consisting of the American
Minister at the Court of Her Majesty, Lord Stanley, Sir James
Emerson Tennent, Mr. C. M. Lampson, and Mr. J. S. Morgan.
These gentlemen were to act as trustees of the fund on behalf
of the donor, and on behalf of those in whose interest the gift
had been so liberally bestowed. Mr. Peabody himself suggested
to this committee the desirability of applying at least a por
tion of the fund in the construction of improved dwellings
for those whom it was his especial desire to benefit.. After
delays which are greatly to be deplored, a beginning has been
made in this business. A series of dwellings has been erected
in Commercial Street, close to the Great Eastern Pailway
Station. This pile of buildings, first occupied on February
29th, 1864, consists of nine shops on the ground floor,
and fifty-seven tenements for families on the upper floors; the
rents of the latter are apportioned as follows—
7 tenements of 3 rooms each, 5s. OtZ. per week.
42
„
2
„
4 0
6
„
2
„
3 6
2
„
1
„
2 6
�42
OVERCROWDING
The experiment is one, some features of which are, we
think, not quite satisfactory. In the existing condition of
the working class population of the metropolis, the time
which has been lost is a lamentable evidence of the lack
of decision and earnestness which too frequently appears
when various minds are called upon to deal with intentions,
purposes, and resources not strictly under their own indepen
dent control. Then, it is a subject of great regret that, in
carrying out the really beneficent scheme of Mr. Peabody,
the trustees have not had a stricter regard to the commercial
conditions of the enterprise in which they have engaged.
We fear that the expenses of oversight, added to the great
original outlay, will prevent these buildings from ever be
coming remunerative. In this case, therefore, a certain
portion of the £150,000, instead of being eternally and in
creasingly reproductive capital, has been sunk; and if the
same principle shall be carried out, the Peabody Fund, instead
of being a perpetual well-spring of blessing to the poor of
London, will have very speedily embodied itself in so much
brick and mortar work, there to stand till time shall wear it
into dust. As was said by an able weekly newspaper two
years ago, in reference to this very fund—“ Spend it in charity,
and you may lodge perhaps 1,500 or 2,000 families. But
make it a great paying concern, and its example will lodge
all the poverty in London.” The trustees of this fund might
have added their incalculably influential experience to that of
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow and the Improved Industrial Dwel
lings Company, and proved that house-building on the soundest
sanitary principles for the working classes may be made a
really profitable business. On the contrary, it is to be feared
that they have, by an injudiciously lavish outlay in external
decoration and artificial novelties of design, contributed to
strengthen a too common impression that undertakings of this
nature can never become a good investment.
The common laundry, though perhaps not a very important
matter in itself, is yet, in our view, an objectionable feature
in the Peabody dwellings. The grounds of this judgment
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
43
are very simple, but we think they are very sound. In the
first place, the arrangement necessarily brings a great number
of women together from time to time ; and in the enforced
familiarity thus created, a good deal of gossip, and “chaff,”
. and irregular conversation is likely to be indulged, which
tends banefully to the breaking down of that reserve and
seclusiveness of family life which is one of the strongest
safeguards of its peace and its purity. Then, contentions for
place and precedence are almost certain sometimes to arise,
and these go far to disturb that feeling of good neighbour
ship which it is so desirable to maintain where numbers of
families are living in such .immediate proximity to one
another. Thirdly, the finest delicacies of a woman’s nature
are necessarily taxed by such an arrangement. The woman
whose linen is not quite so ample or so good as another’s,
even should she not be wounded by unpleasant observations,
will find her instinct of self-respect painfully touched, will
feel her inferiority of circumstances to involve a social penalty
which it is hard to bear. These may be esteemed trivial
disadvantages, but those who know most of human nature,
know that the mightiest spring-force of its noblest progress is
always to be found in its very finest sensibilities ; and that, in
all successful efforts for its moral improvement and elevation,
those sensibilities must be taken tenderly and faithfully into
account.
To one other exception we attach much greater importance.
The tenements in this case are made to open into that “ long,
dull, dark corridor,” of which we have previously spoken.
They are not provided each with a separate scullery and
water-closet. But at each end of the corridor there are a
lavatory and two water-closets, those at the one end being
for the use of the males, and those at the other for the use
of the females. It requires no argument to show how far
from the ideal of comfort, decency, and social purity, or
contrary to well known and recognised sanitary laws such an
arrangement as this must be. The constant meeting of
people who should be strangers at these resorts ; the gradual
�44
OVERCROWDING
undermining of all cleanly and healthful sentiments which
must be the result of it; the gross indelicacies which it will
sometimes be impossible to avoid; the extreme inconveniences
which, in cases of sickness, must be endured, are points
which will spontaneously occur to every reflecting mind, and
the condemnation of which will come straight on the heels
of their suggestion.
We have only one more fault to find. We do not sympa
thise with the judgment which denies to the occupants of
these dwellings the small luxury of papered walls. Surely,
where so much money has been lavished on external appear
ance and architectural display-, the very slight cost of a few
yards of paper might have been allowed to the principal
rooms of the tenements. A bare white-washed wall has a look
and tone of desolation which it would perhaps sound pedantic
and somewhat effeminate minutely to analyze, but the import
ance of which every person who has not lived in a prison
or a pig-sty all his days will appreciate. In the combination
of colours and the traces of design the eye not only finds a
silent pleasure, but the mind an unconscious occupation and
a salutary relief. It is not well to cherish in the hearts of
the poor the ambition of luxury, but a life utterly destitute of
luxury is cramped and depressed beyond conception. Taste
is an expensive faculty if it be pampered into absoluteness ;
but a soul without it misses the richest privilege and
keenest relish of existence. The prettily patterned paper
supplies at once the type, the conception, and the motive of
elegance to the simplest housewife, to rob her of which is, in
some sort, cruel as well as mischievous. We really can never
hope that our working classes will master the virtues, if they
are not trained to the refinements of civilization, and it
would be difficult to say how many germs of refinement there
may not be in the neat and agreeable aspect of a sitting
room ; the habitual contemplation of some artistic picture;
the cultivation of a few simple flowers—in short, in the
constant presence of something that, however simple, is sweet
and beautiful.
�TI1E EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
45
In indulging these slight criticisms on the buildings
erected by the trustees of the Peabody Fund, it is, we hope,
unnecessary to say that we have been actuated by a sincere
desire to see that money, so generously giv^n, judiciously
and usefully spent; and we are quite sure the committee have
this object so supremely at heart, that they will not consider
practical suggestions, though coming from the humblest
quarter, intrusive, impertinent, or disrespectful.*
So far, then, as to efforts already made, and the light they
throw upon the permanent conditions of this great enter
prise. That light is neither flickering nor dim. The results
arrived at are as positive and as distinct in their character as
they well could be; and, under ordinary circumstances, the
“remedy” for the “evil” we have discussed in these pages,
would be adequate to the nature of the case. Unfortunately,
however, the circumstances with which we have now to deal
are not ordinary. The work of destruction, in other words,
is being carried on in London at a much more rapid rate
than that at which we can hope to see the work of re-con
struction maintained, unless the natural course of action can
be greatly stimulated, and means in excess of those
spontaneously offered by private individuals can, on a large
scale and on a simple method, be supplied. In a former part
of this pamphlet we have spoken of the obligations of the
legislature as to those sanitary regulations of the community
on which the life and health of the population so intimately
depend. We have proved that there are preventive and
punitive functions which may be legitimately discharged by
the Government in relation to this question. But are there
no remedial measures which come within its recognised and
proper sphere of action ? If there be such, it is obvious that
every reason exists why the prompt adoption of those
* Since these paragraphs were put into type, a repoit “issued under the authority
of the trustees ” has been published, from which it appears that four other sites
have been secured in different parts of London, in addition to the one we have
referred to in Spitalfields. Atone of them, in Islington, buildings comprising
155 tenements have been erected, making together 202 tenements in occupation
at Christmas, 1865, and similar structures are to he raised at Chelsea, Bermondsey,
and iShadwell.
�46
OVERCROWDING J
measures may be fairly urged upon Parliament. Let it not
be forgotten that the State has a direct share of the re
sponsibility of the injuries which have been done to the
working classes by the development of the great railwav
schemes and other large public improvements in the
metropolis. These schemes and improvements have been
carried out with the direct sanction of Parliament. The
Earl of Derby, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and others, when
they have raised their voices in opposition to such schemes
and improvements, involving, as they must, the displacement
of hundreds and thousands of working people, have done so
in full and solemn recognition of the obligation of the legis
lature to consider what is due to those thus sorely and
ruinously inconvenienced.
That obligation exists, and it is all the heavier now that
the work of demolition has, with the sanction of Parliament
been carried on without reference to the claims of the ousted
families to have suitable accommodation provided for them by
those in whose interest that work has been undertaken. In
short, we have to deal not only with a chronic evil, but with
a special and a most gigantic difficulty.* We are called upon
to provide, not only a cure for a long established and radical
disorder, but also a relief to and a compensation for a wide
spread and appalling calamity. The task is exceptionally
pressing and arduous; and the query arises whether, in
discharging it, we may not reasonably seek exceptional aid.
This is a phase of the subject to which the attention of
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow has been directed; and our ex
pository narrative would be incomplete without some brief
reference to the steps he has taken in regard to it. On the
7th of April, 1865, he addressed a letter to the Secretary
of the Treasury, in which he enclosed a rough draft of
a proposition, which, as he thought, would form a suitable
method by which the legislature might afford to the
movement for providing the poorer and working classes of
the metropolis with proper dwelling accommodations, that
help which recent debates in both Houses had shown a desire
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
47
to extend to it, and which if it could be adopted, would, he
felt sure, greatly strengthen the hands of those who were
endeavouring to grapple with the difficulties of this im
portant question. That ‘’rough draft” was as follows:—
By the Act of 9 & 10 Vic., cap. 74, the Public Works Loan
Commissioners are empowered to lend money, in such sums, and
at such interest as they may think fit, upon the security of local
and parochial rates, for the purpose of erecting baths and wash
houses for the use of the labouring classes ; and the repayment
of the principal and interest is made a first charge upon such
structures and the profits which may arise from their use. It is
suggested that if the legislature can be induced to pass an Act
giving the Commissioners power to advance money, to a limited
extent, upon the security of the buildings which have been, or
may hereafter be, erected by persons or companies whose object is
to encourage and promote the improvement of the dwellings of
the working classes, a public benefit of almost incalculable extent
is likely to result, and that a renewed impetus would thus be
given to a movement which has of late sprung up with some
vitality, for providing decent dwelling accommodation for the
working classes of the metropolis and other large cities, where, in
consequence of the rapidly increasing population and wealth of
the country, houses and lands are constantly rising in value, so
that it is impossible for such persons to obtain dwellings at
adequate rents which afford anything like the proper extent of
accommodation in point of space, decency, health, and comfort.
It is assumed that the profit rentals likely to be derived from this
class of dwellings is insufficient of itself to induce capitalists to
invest the large sums which must necessarily be employed in order
to provide the number of houses at al]» to be compared with the
present overwhelming demand, a demand which has been in
creasing with the population year by year, and now rendered
imperatively urgent on every ground, in consequence of the great
havoc and destruction of small houses which has of late been caused
by the construction of railways and other public improvements;
and, further, that the possibility of obtaining a higher rate of
interest than at present derived is likely to attract the investment
of capital in large amounts, and to develop still further schemes
which are already partially successful in remedying the evils
complained of.
The following notes as to the plan upon which such proposed
advances might be made, are offered in the hope of eliciting sug
gestions and opinions rather than as defining a particular scheme.
I. That an Act of Parliament should be passed in the present
session to enable the Public Works Loan Commissioners to grant
loans upon mortgage of lands, houses, and premises, which are now,
�48
OVERCROWDING J
or may hereafter be, applied to the use and occupation of the Work
ing classes, upon the same or a similar principle to that upon
which advances are now made for the carrying out of various mu
nicipal public works, such as the maintenance of fisheries, collieries,
mines, and highways, and the erection of gaols, lunatic asylums,
workhouses, baths and washhouses, &c., where the security for the
repayment of the principal and interest of the loan consists in a
charge upon the tolls and dues, or upon the local or county rates,
or upon the profits of the baths, &c., as the case may be. The
repayment of the principal and interest being secured in this case
by a first charge upon the rents and profits arising from the occu
pation of the tenements, and upon the premises comprising the
mortgage.
II. That no loan shall exceed in amount three-fifths of the value
of the property to be so mortgaged ; the value to be determined
by the Commissioners.
III. That the whole amount of such loan shall, within two
years of the grant thereof, be applied to the satisfaction of the
Commissioners in and towards the erection of other additional
dwellings or tenements for the occupation of the industrial
classes.
IV. That the interest co be paid to the Commissioners on
account of such loans shall be 3| per centum per annum.
V. That the principal and interest thereon shall be repaid to
the Commissioners by thirty-five equal annual payments, the
amounts of which shall be agreed upon at the time of the granting
of the loan.
VI. That the mortgage shall empower the Commissioners
periodically to inspect the mortgaged dwellings (or those erected
by means of the loan) with the view to ascertain whether they are
kept and maintained in proper repair, and also whether they are
occupied solely by person^ of the class intended to be benefited
by the proposed Act.
VII. That, in the event of the foregoing requirements not
being complied with at any time, the Commissioners may, by
giving notice to the mortgagors, call in the balance of the loan
then remaining unpaid, with interest to the date of its payment;
and that the Commissioners may sell the property failing the re
payment of the loan or compliance with their order after three
months’ further notice.
Mr. Waterlow requested Mr. F. Peel to bring these
suggestions to the notice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and to enquire whether he would be willing to receive a
deputation on the subject, adding that “ he should be glad if
an appointment could possibly be made either before or at
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
49
any early date after the Easter vacation, as if it should be
found that the Government might probably be induced to
adopt the project, he thought a very large sum would
at once be embarked in the erection of Improved Dwellings
both in London and in the suburbs in connection with the
workmen’s trains.” On the 15th of May following Mr. F.
Peel replied to this letter as follows :—
Treasury Chambers,
15th May, 1865.
Sir,—I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her
Majesty’s Treasury to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 7th
April, on the subject of a proposed loan from the Public Works’ Loan
Commissioners to a society of persons interested in the improvement
of the dwellings of the labouring classes in the metropolis, and I
am to acquaint you that their Lordships doubt whether they would
be justified in holding out the expectation of public aid for a
purpose such as that described, except to such bodies (all other
conditions being satisfactorily adjusted) as might so limit their rate
of profit as to distinguish their case from that of ordinary com
mercial enterprise.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow,
F. Peel.
Carpenters’ Hall, London Wall.
On the 24th of the same month Mr. Waterlow wrote again
to the Treasury, as follows :—
Carpenters’ Hall, London, E.C.,
24^ May, 1865.
Sir,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 15th hist., marked 7465 U, in reply to my application
to the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking
if he would receive a deputation on the subject of a draft scheme
then enclosed, which proposed that the Public Works Loan Com
missioners should be empowered to grant Loans under certain
restrictions for the purpose of encouraging and assisting the
erection of suitable dwellings for the working classes, throughout
the country as well as in the metropolis.
I now beg to enclose for my Lords’ consideration a copy of the draft
scheme to which I have adverted, and would respectfully beg to
draw their attention to the line which I have marked in pencil, to
the effect that the scheme is put forward in its present shape with
a view to elicit the expression of opinion and discussion upon its
merits, rather than as defining, in a final measure, the exact
4
�50
OVERCROWDING ;
terms and conditions under which the proposed advances should be
made.
Speaking for myself and for the Company of which I am the
Deputy Chairman, I had always contemplated that there should
be astipulation as to the amount of profit to be derived by persons
seeking to avail themselves of the assistance of Government in any
such projects as have been referred to; and I beg to submit to their
lordships that the maximum rate of profit to be derived by com
panies or persons from investments in property, in connection with
which a Government loan shall be subsisting, ought not to be less than
£5 per cent, per annum. The object should, I think, be to fix the
rate of interest on the one hand so low as to preclude objection,
on the ground that the public funds were being employed for pur
poses of private profit, and on the other sufficiently high to induce
capitalists to embark in enterprises of this nature.
There are many considerations which might be brought to their
Lordships’ notice, in support of this rate being adopted, but I will
confine myself by calling attention to the fact, that the ordinary
net returns from investments on house property are from 7i to 10
per cent., and I would respectfully submit that there can be no
reasonable objection to the Government assisting persons who are
desirous of placing the working classes in a better position, and
who would be content with less than they could certainly obtain
upon ordinary investments of that class.
It should, I think, be borne in mind that great public benefit
would arise from the periodical supervision to which it is proposed
the mortgaged dwellings should be submitted so long as the Govern
ment loan was continued. No loan would be granted except upon
buildings already erected upon the best sanitary principles, and if
these buildings were constantly maintained in thorough repair, a
very low death and disease rate would prevail as a rule, which, in
districts principally occupied by the labouring classes, almost in
variably produces a low poor rate, the dwellings in question would
therefore confer a benefit in a pecuniary as well as in a moral
point of view.
I do not gather from your letter whether my Lords are now in a
position to grant loans of the kind suggested, or whether it will be
necessary to go to Parliament to obtain any further enactment on
the subject. I mention this point merely that, in the event of the
scheme proposed receiving their Lordships’ favourable consideration,
no time may be lost in bringing it into operation.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
S. H. Waterlow.
To the Right Honourable F. Peel, &c., &c.
The reply to this was eminently satisfactory. It was dated
June 14th, and was as follo-ws : —
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
51
Treasury Chambers,
]Ath June, 1865.
Sir, —In reply to your letter of 24th ultimo, relating to the question
of advances on loan from the Public Works Loan Commissioners
in aid of the improvement of the dwellings of the working classes,
I am desired by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury
to acquaint you that they consider 5 per cent, as the limit of the
profit which should be allowed, and that their Lordships will be
prepared to apply to Parliament (if that limit be thought a fair one)
to obtain powers for this purpose, either permanent or to subsist
(as to entering into fresh transactions) for a limited time,
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Mr. Aiderman Waterlow,
F. Peel.
Carpenters’ Hall,
London, E.C.
In closing this important correspondence, Mr. Waterlow
expressed his gratification at learning that the Lords Com
missioners approved of the limit of 5 per cent, and that they
were prepared to apply to Parliament for the necessary power
to grant the loans proposed. He urged, in consideration of
the extensive compulsory powers for the destruction of small
house property granted during the past and then present
sessions of Parliament, the passing of a short Bill immediately
for the necessary authority to grant the Ioans in question.
The dissolution, however, was so near at hand, and so occupied
the thoughts of every Member, that it was found utterly im
possible to enter upon any new legislative business at that
period. The new Parliament will, there can be no doubt,
be called upon to consider the matter without any delay;
and we may hope that the perfectly fair and reasonable
proposals to which the assent of the Government has
been already virtually given, will receive the cordial sanction
of the legislature.
The task which the present writer set himself is now com
pleted. It has been shown how sore and how pressing is the
need for the provision of improved and greatly extended
dwelling-house accommodation for the working classes of the
metropolis. The sanitary obligations which enter into the
question have been set forth in as clear and emphatic terms '
�52
OVEKCKOWDING J
as were available. The efforts, honourable but frightfully
inadequate, which have been already made towards meeting
this stern and urgent demand of our civilization, have been
rapidly enumerated. The results of those efforts have been,
as far as possible, gathered up and stated. The conditions
on which alone a satisfactory solution of the momentous pro
blem can be hoped for, bringing it within commercial laws,
have been demonstrated. And it has been irrefragably
shown that those conditions are not impracticable. Here,
therefore, with one or two passing observations, wo conclude.
Of course, all that has been said about London on this
important subject, is more or less true of every city, town,
village, and hamlet in the country, and it is edifying to know
that the provinces are not idle in the matter. Many of the
great landholders of the nation are beginning to show a wise
as well as benevolent interest in the domestic and home
comforts of their labourers. The splendid examples set by the
late Duke of Bedford, by the late lamented Duke of
Northumberland, and by such good landlords as Lord
Palmerston, and others who might be named, are not only
indicative of a greatly improved feeling—a deeper sense of
responsibility on the part of the employers of labour—but are
powerfully stimulating others to proceed on the same just and
enlightened principles. Several provincial associations have
been formed for the promotion of this movement, and it can
not be doubted that when the business is once fairly afloat in
London it will rapidly extend throughout the kingdom.
And there is an aspect of the case on wThich, as yet, nothing
has been herein said, but the practical force of which all
good men in general, and the large employers of labour in
particular, ought to feel. The value of man, as a helper of
his fellow-man in the occupation of life, is indefinitely
increased by everything that promotes his physical health,
his moral exaltation, and his social respectability. In other
words, to take care of the working man is, in itself, sound
economy. We have found that this is true of horses, and
cows, and sheep—of all animals that are in any way directly
�THE EVIL ANI) ITS REMEDY.
53
useful to mankind. Hence, within the past quarter of a
century, the progress which has been made in the housing of
our cattle has been enormous—infinitely in advance of that
which has taken place in the accommodation provided for
poor humanity. That such a discrepancy exists may be
somewhat shameful, yet it is easily explained. A man’s com
mercial interest in a horse is not only a problem in arithmetic,
worked with certainty and ease, but it is one in the solution
of which the horse has no personal power or responsibility.
Those very attributes of humanity which qualify it for free
dom and independence, take it beyond the reach of commercial
calculation. The worker may sell so much labour, informed
by so much intelligence and aided by so much skill, at a
certain current rate—an average market value; but the man
who buys his labour feels that on the completion of the
bargain, and the fulfilment of its terms on both sides, his
obligation to the worker ceases. And in a sense it does.
But no political economy can be complete which does not
include the fraternity of mankind. The farmer loses to the
full extent of the social degradation and domestic misery of
the labourers on his farm just as much as he loses by the
shambling laziness, the uncleansed dustiness, the panting
feebleness of his ill-fed, ill-stabled, and ill-tended horse. The
analogy does not stop here, however. The capabilities of the
horse are limited. The horse does not work his way up from
the plough to the hunting field or the race course; his
destiny is rather downwards. Man’s destiny is either
upwards or downwards, according to his character, the treat
ment he receives, and the influences that encompass him
about. The young and enthusiastic artizan, engaged to-day
in the simplest mechanical tasks, will, by to-morrow, be
either unfitted for those tasks by the ennervation of his pur
pose, the beclouding of his intellect, the despair that has
settled on his heart, or else he will be worthy of promotion
to trusts where the faculty of design may co-operate with
mere executive ability. The
is really not more interested
in the alternative thus pictured than is the master. Even if
�•54
OVERCROWDING
the man alone were interested, it would be the solemn duty
of all kind and good people to consider the circumstances on
which issues so fine and so momentous hang; and so, within
all reasonable and available limits, to regulate his lot in life
that his energies shall not be relaxed, his ambition staggered
by a hundred malignant, unnecessary obstacles, his heart
broken by griefs which the cruel improvidence of society has
cast upon him. But the master, too, thrives with his thrift;
advances with his progress; flourishes on his prosperity. As
a rule it may be affirmed that every increase made in the
labourer’s wage is sustained by a more than equal increase
in the profit made by the master out of his labour. But how
can the labourer, whose home is a mere “fever-nest,” hope
to make progress in his art ? The very air he breathes
dooms him to decrepitude. He works under the bondage of
a depression and a lassitude which nothing can shake off.
To avoid the foul odours, the jarring, discordant voices, the
ghastly, disordered aspects of his over-crowded home, he, at
night, instead of improving his mind, and bracing up his
loins for the march or the battle of life by meditation, by
study, or by the indulgence of the holy loves of home, seeks
a miserable and a defiling solace in the gin palaoe. He
is not long in reaching the horrible goal of his unhappy
career, and when he sinks into the pauper’s perdition
or the drunkard’s hell, who suffers in his fall ? His
wife and children suffer. That is something to make
the Christian weep. His wife and children become a
burden on the community. That is something to make the
ratepayer ponder. Society suffers in his lost service, his para
lyzed arm, his neglected duty, his damaged work. That is
a fact worthy of the statesman’s study. The capitalist
suffers, in his lagging enterprises, his irregular supply
of labour, his dependence on men who cannot grow up
with his affairs, his exposure to disappointment in critical
junctures, and in the perpetual confusion in which his mind
is cast through the uncertainties of the labour market, and
the ill-condition of the men on whom his reputation, his
�THE EVIL AND ITS REMEDY.
55
credit, and his fortune depend. Therefore, it is no extrava
gance to say that in this question of the improved dwelling
house accommodation of the working classes, to which the
Christian is urged by every humane consideration, and the
statesman by the highest political obligation, the rate-payer
and the capitalist have a direct, personal, pecuniary interest.
In attacking this huge task, however, we must be on our
guard against easy-looking theories, in which only one object
is aimed at, and all other most sacred conditions of heathful
society are forgotten. Among these theories, we would as
suredly place that which proposes the establishment of subur
ban colonies for the families of working people. In the
mixture of classes is to be found one of the very best securi
ties of civilization. That the railway system may be utilized
in the conveyance of working men from the scenes of their
labour, in the heart of the great city, to their homes in the
suburbs, is a hope which may be legitimately cherished, but
to lay out a whole district for houses suitable only to the
working order, would not only be a mistake in economy, but
a great moral and social calamity. It would be a mistake in
economy, for we may be quite certain that the class of trades
men who would supply these colonies, would be an inferior
class; they would be compelled to compensate themselves for
the limited range of goods required of them, and the small
sums spent by each customer, either by the poor quality of
all they sold, or else by an exorbitant rate of profit; and
every way the working classes would be the losers. Then it
would be a social calamity; for what we want more than
anything besides in this country is, not the isolation, but the
intermixture and the intercommunion of classes. When the
rich and the poor are brought into contact with one another,
both are benefited—the rich by the restraint put upon their
pride, and the breadth and elasticity imparted to their human
sentiments, and the poor by the models of dignity and ele
gance which are continually presented to them, the elevation
of their ideal of existence, the stimulus supplied to their own
aspirations, the encouragement afforded to the salutary spirit
�56
OVERCROWDING.
of social emulation, and the unconscious refinement commu
nicated to their manners, their habits of thought, and their
intercourse with one another.
There is, also, some need of caution in another direction.
Some have already been found who have been provoked to
lament the rapid progress of the metropolis in population, in
industry, and in wealth, because by the exigencies of that
progress so many poor people have been driven out of their
homes, and compelled in crowds to huddle together in places
which are altogether unfit to be the habitations of men.
There has been, no doubt, in the course of the remarkable
developments which we have recently undergone in all the
elements of material prosperity, a sad forgetfulness of the
claims of those who have been displaced to make way for
those developments. And great praise is due to Lord Derby,
Lord Shaftesbury, and others, who have tried to force on the
great traders on the progress of the community some definite
responsibility to that lower strata of the population which
has been so mercilessly and so scandalously jostled about to
give scope to their ambitious schemes. But the schemes
have, nevertheless, a beneficence of their own, the gladsome
fruits of which generations to come will enjoy. Progress has
its penalties ; but it is a gracious law. Civilization has her
cruelties; but she is, on the whole, and. in the long run, a
most chaste and charitable and catholic spirit. Thankful for
her gifts, let us do our duty, and, though the splendid car in
which she rides along may crush an idler here and a straggler
there; yea, though because we do not providently clear the
way before her, many are crushed beneath her chariot wheels,
let us be assured that the Mistress and the Idol of our age is
no Juggernaut, imposing death and desolation as tests of the
fidelity of her devotees, and demanding sacrifice as the price
of salvation; but a most mild and genial and tender-hearted
Maiden—the beautiful Benefactress of all the world.
��56
OVERCROWDING.
of social emulation, and the unconscious refinement commu
nicated to their manners, their habits of thought, and their
intercourse with one another.
There is, also, some need of caution in another direction.
Some have already been found who have been provoked to
lament the rapid progress of the metropolis in population, in
industry, and in wealth, because by the exigencies of that
progress so many poor people have been driven out of their
homes, and compelled in crowds to huddle together in places
which are altogether unfit to be the habitations of men.
There has been, no doubt, in the course of the remarkable
developments which we have recently undergone in all the
elements of material prosperity, a sad forgetfulness of the
claims of those who have been displaced to make way for
those developments. And great praise is due to Lord Derby,
Lord Shaftesbury, and others, who have tried to force on the
great traders on the progress of the community some definite
responsibility to that lower strata of the population which
has been so mercilessly and so scandalously jostled about to
give scope to their ambitious schemes. But the schemes
have, nevertheless, a beneficence of their own, the gladsome
fruits of which generations to come will enjoy. Progress has
its penalties ; but it is a gracious law. Civilization has her
cruelties; but she is, on the whole, and in the long run, a
most chaste and charitable and catholic spirit. Thankful for
her gifts, let us do our duty, and, though the splendid car in
which she rides along may crush an idler here and a straggler
there; yea, though because we do not providently clear the
way before her, many are crushed beneath her chariot wheels,
let us be assured that the Mistress and the Idol of our age is
no Juggernaut, imposing death and desolation as tests of the
fidelity of her devotees, and demanding sacrifice as the price
of salvation; but a most mild and genial and tender-hearted
Maiden—the beautiful Benefactress of all the world.
��I
���w
56'3*
GROUND PLAN OF A SINGLE BLOCK OF THE IMPROVED DWELLINGS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES.
��
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Overcrowding: the evil and its remedy
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 56 p. : ill. (3 plates, 2 folded, including frontispiece plan) ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Plate 1 illustrating Henry Robarts model cottages. Plates 2 & 3 Langbourn Buildings.
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1866
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Housing
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[Unknown]
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Conway Tracts
Housing
Langbourn Buildings - London
Overcrowding (Housing)
Working Classes
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Text
REMARKS
UPON THE
EDUCATION OF DEAF MUTES:
DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINES
OF THE
SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
BOARD OF STATE CHARITIES,
AND IN
REPLY TO THE CHARGES OF THE REV. COLLINS STONE,
Principal of the American Asylum
at
Hartford.
BOSTON:
WALKER, FULLER & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1866.
�Wright & Potter, Prs., 4 Spring Lane, Boston.
�On reading the last Report of the Principal of the American
Asylum for Mutes, it seemed to me that I ought to criticize it
publicly, first, in the hope of promoting the true interest of deaf
mutes, by calling attention to the subject of their education; second,
in order to defend my colleagues of the Massachusetts Board of
State Charities from some discreditable imputations; third, to set
forth the real doctrines contained in their Second Report; and lastly,
to exculpate myself from certain charges of inconsistency, and
insinuations of selfish purposes.
I thought to do this in a newspaper article ; but my interest in the
subject, or my inability to condense the matter, made it impossible.
When the manuscript was finished, it was laid aside ; and the pur
pose of publishing it half abandoned.
A recent event has confirmed my first purpose; but leaves not
the time to recast the article. This must explain the tardiness of
its appearance, and its being written in the third person.
SAMUEL G. HOWE.
Boston, October 21st, 1866.
��REMARKS
UPON THE
*
EDUCATION OE DEAF MUTES.
The American Asylum, for the Education and
Instruction of Deaf Mutes, at Hartford, is the oldest
establishment of the kind in the United States, and
the only one in New England. It has been of
incalculable benefit to the deaf mutes of all the
country.
It enjoys, and it deserves public confi
dence and esteem. It enjoys moreover the monop
oly of educating the public beneficiaries of all the
New England States; a monopoly of which it
seems to be very tenacious.
Its Annual Reports are widely circulated; and
are considered as valuable and reliable. They are
read and regarded as entirely sound by most
persons interested in the education of deaf mutes.
The Institution is strictly conservative. Its
Directors are men of high character, pure motives,
and eminent gravity. Its system of instruction,
adopted fifty years ago, is still adhered to, with
few changes; and all proposals to modify it are
stoutly resisted.
�6
If pressed, they are repelled with sensitiveness,
and sometimes with asperity; as though they were
considered impertinent interference; and yet any
citizen of Massachusetts, at least, has a right to
press thbm, because about half the pupils of the
school are beneficiaries of this State.
The late lamented Horace Mann, Secretary of
the Massachusetts Board of Education, proposed a
great modification of the system of instruction;
and brought powerful arguments and stubborn
facts to the support of his views. But he failed
to effect any material change. The Asylum yielded
a little for a time, under his vigorous attacks, but
swung back to its old moorings; and, held fast
by the anchor of conservatism, breasts the tide of
progressive ideas which sweep by it.
In France, Dr. Blanchet, connected with the
Imperial Institution for Deaf Mutes, has long been
advocating still greater changes in the system of
educating these unfortunates. His views are inge
nious and plausible, and have found considerable
favor.
The Minister of Public Instruction, in a very
able Circular to the Prefects of all the Departments
in France, recommended Dr. Blanchet’s plan to
their favorable notice several years ago.
Some Departments and Municipalities have voted
money, and made arrangements for testing the
practicability of the proposed plan. It has been
�7
in operation in some parts of France and of Russia.
It is radical in its nature., and points to a partial
abandonment of central Institutions, and the
instruction of mutes in their several towns.
This plan seems to us impractical in its full
extent; but it certainly has very valuable features,
and deserves notice and trial. We shall watch the
experiment in France with great interest, and we
wish Dr. Blanchet all the success which his zeal
and enterprise merit.
Meantime, the Massachusetts Board of State
Charities, part of whose duty it is to visit the
Hartford school and look after the interests of the
beneficiaries placed there by the State, suggested,
in its Second Annual Report, some important
changes in the system of instructing and educating
our deaf mutes, which, if carried out, would result
in their being educated at home instead of being
sent to Connecticut.
This seems to alarm the Hartford school; and
the Principal devotes almost the whole of his last
Report to what purports to be an answer to the
suggestions of the Board.
He seems fairly roused; but not so much to the
importance of the principles in question, as of
defending the practices of the Hartford school, and
of preserving the patronage of Massachusetts. He
has at least two qualifications, which, as Byron
�8
says, always make a writer interesting, to wit,
"wrath and partiality.”
His zeal leads him, not only to overlook facts
and reasonings, but, unconsciously perhaps, to be
uncourteous to the Board, and disrespectful to the
Chairman, upon whom he makes a personal attack.
He seems to think that if he can convict him of
inconsistency, and show that he is ignorant of the
best manner of educating mutes, the matter will be
put to rest. He therefore avoids discussion of
principles, and his Beport is mainly an argumentum
ad liominem. As such, it would not call for a
public reply, because the public do not care whether
the Principal or the Chairman of the Board is right
in his theories. But our people do desire to have
our deaf mutes educated in the best manner;
though do not often have the means of knowing
much about it. The present, therefore, seems to be a
good opportunity of drawing their attention to it;
and, as most of them are rather attracted than
repelled by the smack of a controversy, we shall
yield to the temptation, and without following the
example of the Principal, in regard to personalities,
we shall assail his positions, and refute his state
ments, so far as propriety and respect for an opponent
will permit. Out of such a discussion, conducted
with the desire to elicit truth, ought to come, not
any scandal to the cause of public charity, but on
the contrary, an advance of its best interests.
�9
It will be necessary, however, first to consider
some general principles which are apt to be forgot
ten in the organization of Institutions, and of
methods for educating deaf mutes, and similar
classes of defectives. We can at the same time
show the grounds upon which the Massachusetts
Board of State Charities placed its suggestions
for a change in our present system, and which called
forth the displeasure of the Principal.
The multitude of unfortunates into whose condi
tion the Board was to inquire, and over which the
law gives it general supervision, was divided into
the Dependent class, the Destructive class, and the
Criminal class.
The first comprised destitute orphans; abandoned
children; vagrant and vicious children, and youth;
the blind, the deaf and dumb; the insane, the idiots,
the confirmed drunkards, State paupers, and the
like; making nearly twenty thousand persons in
Massachusetts alone.
The general principles to be followed in the care
and direction of these unfortunates were thus set
forth:—
1st. “ That it is better to separate and diffuse the
dependent classes than to congregate them.
2d. “ That we ought to avail ourselves as much as possi
ble of those remedial agencies which exist in society,—the
family, social influences, industrial occupations, and the
like.
�10
3d. “ That we should enlist not only the greatest possible
amount of popular sympathy, but the greatest number of
individuals and of families, in the care and treatment of
the dependent.
4th. “ That we should avail ourselves of responsible socie
ties and organizations which aim to reform, support, or help
any class of dependents, thus lessening the direct agency of
the State, and enlarging that of the people themselves.
5th. “ That we should build up public institutions only in
the last resort.
6th. “ That these should be kept as small as is consistent
with wise economy, and arranged so as to turn the strength
and faculties of the inmates to the best account.
7th. “That we should not retain the inmates any longer
than is manifestly for their good, irrespective of their
usefulness in the institution.”
The three last propositions seem sound, but they
are unwelcome to those who are wedded to public
institutions, and who believe in the doctrine of
teaching, improving, or supporting children and
adults in masses.
The Board says:—
“ Our people have rather a passion for institutions ; but
they have also a vague idea that great piles of brick and
mortar are essential to their existence and potency. They
want to see them at once, and in the concrete. Hence,
we sometimes have follies of the people as well as of indi
viduals—many stories high, too—and so strongly built, and
richly endowed, that they cannot be got rid of easily.”
In support of their principle the Board said:—
�11
“ The hideous evils growing out of the old system of
keeping men in prisons, shut up without separation, and
without occupation, are too well known to need mention
here ; but it is not enough considered that the chief evils
arose, not from the men being especially vicious or criminal,
but from the fact of their _being congregated so closely
together.
“ Let us see how it affects the pauper class.
“ Most of those belonging to the first division mentioned
above, to wit, those in whom dependence is inherent, and,
of course, permanent, are infirm mentally, morally, or
physically, perhaps in-all these respects. Neither can those
in the other class be in a normal and vigorous condition,
else they would not be dependent. There exists in them,
indeed, the innate disposition or capacity for recovering the
normal state, but as yet it is in abeyance. Now, out of
unsound and abnormal conditions there must, *of course,
grow certain mental and moral tendencies, which, to say the
least, are unwholesome. And it is a natural consequence,
(though disregarded in practice,) that if an individual with
these tendencies lives in close association with others like
himself, all his peculiarities and tendencies are intensified
by the intercourse. The greater the majority of unsound
persons in his community, the greater the intensification of
his abnormal tendencies. Each acts upon all; and the
characteristics of class, or caste, are rapidly developed.
Nothing is more contagious than evil.”
This principle is further illustrated by reference
to special classes as of the deaf mutes, and of the
blind.—
�12
“ The lack of an important sense not only prevents the
entire and harmonious development of mind and character,
but it tends to give morbid growth in certain directions, as
a plant checked in its direct upward growth grows askew.
It would be a waste of words to prove this, because a denial
of it would be a denial of the importance of the great senses.
“ The morbid tendencies, however, are not strong—cer
tainly not irresistible—at least with the blind. They are
educable, like all tendencies and dispositions, and by skilful
management may be turned to advantage. Certainly, how
ever, they ought to be lessened, not strengthened, by educa
tion. Now, they are lessened, and them morbid effects
corrected in each individual by intimate intercourse with
persons of sound and normal condition—that is, by general
society; while they are strengthened by associating closely
and persistently with others having the like infirmity.
“ Guidecbby this principle, we should, in providing for the
instruction and training of these persons, have the associa
tion among them as little as is possible, and counteract its
tendencies by encouraging association and intimacy with
common society. They should be kept together no more
closely and no longer than is necessary for their special
instruction; and there should be no attempts to build up
permanent asylums for them, or to favor the establishment
of communities composed wholly, or mainly, of persons
subject to a common infirmity.
“ Special educational influences, to counteract these special
morbid tendencies, should begin with the beginning of life
and continue to its end; and they should be more uniform
and persistent with mutes than with blind.
“ The constant object should be to fashion them into the
likeness of common men by subjecting them to common
�13
social influences, and to check the tendency to isolation and
to intensification of the peculiarities which grow out of
their infirmity.
“ A consideration of the principles imperfectly set forth
above, will show that when we gather mutes and blind into
institutions for the purpose of instruction, we are in danger
of sowing, with sound wheat, some tares that may bring
forth evil fruit. The mere instruction may be excellent,
but other parts of the education tend to isolate them from
common social influences, and to intensify their peculiarities,
and this is bad.”
These rather novel doctrines have attracted atten
tion among thoughtful persons. They have been
praised by high authorities; pronounced too radical
by others; and have been assailed by a few who
fear that the importance and usefulness of long
established institutions, to which they themselves
are honestly wedded for life, may be impaired if
such doctrines should be accepted.
The Board, after carefully setting forth the prin
ciples upon which all methods of treating special
classes should be based, went on to apply them to
the case of the deaf mutes of Massachusetts.
The present method is to send these unfortunates,
at the expense of the State, to Hartford, there to
reside with many others of the same class, in a
great asylum, and be kept closely together during
the most impressible years of their lives, deprived
almost entirely of family and social relations, except
�14
with each other. They have not even the advantage
of family relations with their teachers, who naturally
show their preference for domestic life over asylum
life, by dwelling in their own houses.
This arrangement, however saving of labor, and
sparing of money, violates the principle so strenu
ously urged by the Board of Charities, that defective
children should be associated together as little as is
possible; and with ordinary persons as much as is
possible.
The Board suggested that instead of this plan,
the deaf mutes of Massachusetts (who are quite
numerous enough to form one school as large as a
school ought to be,) should be educated at home,
that is, within the State. The plan did not contem
plate an asylum, but simply one or more schools, to
which mutes could go for instruction, as other chil
dren go to common schools; and during the rest of
the time be subjected to the ordinary family and
social influences,—not of a great deaf mute family,
but of common life.
The plan certainly had many important features.
The method proposed was in accordance with the
principles set forth by the Board, the soundness of
which has not been disproved. It avoided, as much
as is possible, the acknowledged evils of congregat
ing persons of common infirmity closely together.
It involved no great expense. It was in the nature
of an experiment; and could be abandoned with
�15
little loss, if it should fail. In fine, it seemed to
present a happy mean between the old system of the
Hartford school and the system urged by Blanchet,
which begins to find so much favor in France and
other European countries. It incorporated the
admitted advantages, and avoided the acknowledged
evils of each. But it also involved the loss to the
Hartford asylum of almost one-half its pupils, who
are maintained there by the State of Massachusetts.
It is conceivable, therefore, that it should be
opposed, both directly and indirectly.
Accordingly, the Principal of the American
Asylum at Hartford, opposes it in his way, which
is the indirect way. He devotes almost the whole
of. his last Report to this matter. First, he makes
a false issue with the Report of the Board of Chari
ties; second, he makes a personal attack upon the
Chairman.
He raises a false issue, by devoting a large part
of his Report to the subject of teaching mutes
articulation, as if that had been urged by the Board.
He sets forth forcibly and fully the advantages of
the French method of instruction used with some
modifications at Hartford, and the disadvantages of
the German method used in the German, and
many other European schools.
If there was room to go into the matter here, it
could be shown, that, with the exception of a single
sentence, which should be qualified, all that is urged
�16
in the Report of the Board of Charities in favor of
articulation, is sound, and cannot be gainsaid. "We
quote from pp. 51-55 of their Report:—
“ The inherent differences between children who are blind
or mute and ordinary children, are not so great as to form
characteristics of a class, or to remove them from the effect
of common educational influences. We are not, therefore,
to modify these influences to suit their condition, but rather
modify their condition to suit them. We must, however,
modify our method of instruction somewhat to suit the
blind, and a great deal to suit the deaf mutes.
“ It is not the purpose, now, to speak of special instruction,
further than to say that, other things being equal, the me'hod
is best which approaches most closely the approved methods
used with ordinary children.
“ But in speaking of education in a more general sense,
that is of the influences which are brought to bear upon the
development of character, -a few words may be appropriate
upon the subject under consideration, to wit,—
“ Intensification of Peculiarities Growing' out of an
Infirmity.
“ It is to be borne in mind always, that the infirmities
which characterize these classes of mutes and blind do, in
spite of certain compensations, entail certain undesirable
consequences,'which have unfavorable effects upon body and
mind both.
“ The lack of an important sense not only prevents the
entire and harmonious development of mind and character,
but it tends to give morbid growth in certain directions, as a
plant checked in its direct upward growth grows askew.
It would be a waste of words to prove this, because a
�17
!
:
>
denial of it would be a denial of the importance of the great
senses.
“ The morbid tendencies, however, are not strong—
•certainly not irresistible—at least with the blind. They are
educable, like all tendencies and dispositions, and by skilful
management may be turned to advantage. Certainly, how
ever, they ought to be lessened, not strengthened, by educa
tion. Now, they are lessened, and their morbid effects
corrected in each individual, by intimate intercourse with
persons of sound and normal condition—that is, by general
society; while they are strengthened by associating closely
and persistently with others having the like infirmity. They,
themselves, seem to have an instinctive perception of this,
and the most delicate of them feel the morbid tendency
which may segregate them from ordinary people, and put
them in a special class. Some of them struggle "against it
in a touching manner, as the fabled nymph resisted meta
morphosis into a lower form of life.
“ They seem to cling to ordinary persons, as if fearing
segregation, and strive to conform themselves to their habits,
manners, and even appearance. They wish to look, to
act, to be, as much like others as is possible, and to be con
sidered as belonging to ordinary society, and not to a special
class.
“ It is generally supposed that this feeling, especially in
the blind, arises only from the fact that blindness and
poverty are associated together, and that poverty calls forth
contempt, lightened, in their case, by pity. But the feeling
has a deeper source. It is very strong in those of delicate
and sensitive natures, and it ought always to be respected
and encouraged. Our principle in treating them should be
that of separation and diffusion, not congregation. We are
3
�to educate them, for society of those who hear and who see;
and the earlier we begin the better.
“We violate this principle when we gather them into
institutions; but we do so in view of certain advantages of'
instruction in common, which are not to be had in any other
feasible method; as we bear with an inferior common school
rather than have none. A man of wealth might, indeed—
and if he were wise, would—allow his mute or blind child
to spend a certain time in a well-regulated institution for
like children; but it would be only a short one.
“ Guided by this principle we should, in providing for the
instruction and training of these persons, have the associa
tion among them as little as is possible, and counteract its
tendencies by encouraging association and intimacy with
common society. They should be kept together no more
closely and no longer than is necessary for their special
instruction; and there should be no attempts to build up
permanent asylums for them, or to favor the establishment
of communities composed wholly or mainly of persons
subject to a common infirmity.
“ This is far more important with the mutes than with the
blind, because of their speechlessness. Language, in its
largest sense, is the most important instrument of thought,
feeling, and emotion; and especially of social intercourse.
Blindness, in so far as it prevents knowledge of and partici
pation in the rudimentary part of language, to wit, panto
mime, or signs, gestures, and expression of features and
face, tends to isolation : but the higher and far more impor
tant part of language, speech, is fully open to them. Then
their sense of dependence strengthens their social desires;
increases their knowledge and command of speech, and
makes that compensate very nearly, if not quite, for igno
�19
rance of other parts of language. The blind, if left to
ordinary social influences, are in no danger of isolation. It
is when we bring them together in considerable numbers
that the tendency to segregation manifests itself; and this
is rather from necessity than from choice, for the social
cravings become more intense with them than with us.
“ With mutes it is not so. Speech is essential for human
development. Without it full social communion is impossi
ble ; since there can be no effectual substitute for it. The
rudimentary and lower parts of language, or pantomime, is
open to mutes; but the higher and finer part, that is,
speech, is forever closed ; and any substitute for it is, at best,
imperfect. This begets a tendency to isolation; which not
being so effectually checked during youth, as it is with the
blind, by a sense of dependence, becomes more formidable.
To be mute, therefore, implies tendency to isolation. The
blind need little special instruction; the mutes a great
deal.
“ An attempt to consider different modes of instructing
mutes would lead into a wide field of discussion ; but it may
be remarked that in the plenitude of arguments and disputes
about the comparative merit of the various systems of sign
language, it has not been enough considered that, by teach
ing a mute to articulate, we bring him to closer association
with us by using our vernacular in our way, than by teach
ing him the finger language, which can never become our
vernacular. The special method tends more to segregate
him and his fellows from ordinary society. In the first case
one party adheres to the natural and ordinary method of
speech, and the other party strives to imitate it; in the
second, both use a purely arbitrary and conventional
method.
�20
. “ The favorite motto of the adherents of the method of
dactylology betrays this fault,—
4 Lingua vicaria manus ; ’
for the very vicariousness is objectionable, and ought to be
lessened as much as is possible.
“ Without pretending to metaphysical precision, it may be
said that by means of the senses we come into conscious
relations with external nature—with men and things. Sen
sation and perception are the roots of knowledge. The
wider the circle of sensuous relations, the more rapid the
acquirement of knowledge. By action and reaction between
our internal nature and external nature, character is devel
oped. But in order that there may be harmonious and
entire development of human character, there must be the
ordinary organs of human sense : no more and no less.
“ The result, then, of the lack of any one organ of sense
must be twofold; first, limitation of the circle of sensuous
relations ; second, inharmonious development of character.
“ In the education of the deaf mutes and of the blind we
are to counteract the limitation by special instruction given
through the remaining senses ; and we are to counteract the
tendency to inharmonious development by special influences,
both social and moral.
“ Special educational influences, to counteract these special
morbid tendencies, should begin with the beginning of life
and continue to its end ; and they should be more uniform
and persistent with mutes than with the blind.
“ The constant object should be to fashion them into the
likeness of common men by subjecting them to common
social influences, and to check the tendency to isolation and
to intensification of the peculiarities which grow out of their
infirmity.
,
�21
“A consideration of the principles imperfectly set forth
above, will show that when we gather mutes and blind into
institutions for the purpose of instruction, we are in danger
of sowing, with sound wheat, some tares that may bring
forth evil fruit. The mere instruction may be excellent,
but other parts of the education tend to isolate them from
common social influences, and to intensify their peculiarities,
and this is bad.”
It will be seen that the Board does not commit
itself to the system of articulation. Nay! the Report
says expressly, (p. lviii.,) ” that while some of the
members believe that articulation should be taught,
others, without pretending to decide upon the com
parative merits of different systems of instruction,
believe that many benefits would arise from having
the wards of the State taught within her borders.
They would, therefore, suggest a plan for change
in our system of educating deaf mutes.”
In this plan, the Board do not recommend that
articulation should be taught.
This is the false issue which the Principal makes.
Next, he tries to divert attention from the reason
ing of the Board, by attacking the Chairman, and
disparaging the value of his opinion.
He singles him out by name; rudely insinu
ates that he is given to riding hobby horses, and to
changing them frequently; and that moreover he
might have some personal end to gratify; and say
ing for himself, with much complacency,—■" We are
�22
not specially sensitive in this matter, we have no
hobbies to ride, and’ no personal end whatever to
gratify ! ” (p. 38.)
Considering that the Report of the Board of
Charities alluded to the Directors and officers of the
Hartford Asylum very courteously; and admitted
that the deaf mutes of Massachusetts ” have
received fair and kind treatment at their hands, and
been taught by a corps of able and accomplished
teachers; ”* such language by one of those officers,
sanctioned by those Directors, and printed in their
Annual Report, appears uncourteous and strange,
to say the least!
Again, considering that no one charged the Rev- *
erend Principal with being sensitive, or hobby
horsical, his language certainly shows neither lack
of sensitiveness nor abundance of Christian charity;
but it does suggest the French proverb,—" gui
s’ excuse s’ accuse ; ” — ” who needlessly excuses
himself, accuses himself.”
And yet again, considering that the Reverend
Principal is not sensitive, and declares (p. 29,) that
the objections urged against the Hartford system
have been repeatedly met, to the satisfaction of
committees of the Massachusetts Legislature, it is
strange he should say, ” It may be proper to give
them a passing notice: ” stranger still, that this " passing notice ” should occupy almost the whole
of his Report.
Report, p. 57.
�23
He then proceeds, not to consider the arguments
and considerations urged against the Hartford
system, but to demolish them by lessening whatever
weight they might derive from the character of the
members of the Massachusetts Board of State
Charities, in whose Report they are found.
That Board consists of seven members, six, at
least, of whom are gentlemen of character, and some
of them eminent scholars and teachers. They all
sign the Report ; and all endorse the principles
which it advocates, and the application of those
principles to the education of mutes; although
they admit< they are not all of them, competent to
decide whether mutes should be taught articulation
or not.
But the Principal regards them as mere men of
straw, who signed what they did not understand or
believe!
He says (p. 35,) with regard to the question of
teaching articulation, "On the side of educating
mutes by signs, we find every teacher in this coun
try, and in the British Isles, with the exceptions
above named, and several of these have spent
nearly forty years in the work of practical instruc
tion; on the side of teaching articulation, we find
Dr. S. GK Howe! ”
And so with all the arguments and considera
tions urged in the Report of the Board. It is,
"Dr. Howe objects;” "Dr. Howe urges;” "Dr.
�24
Howe complains;” "Dr. Howe suggests.” Dr.
Howe is everywhere, the Board nowhere!
Having deprived the principles advanced in the
Report of whatever moral support the names of the
doctor’s colleagues might give, he next tries to
demolish whatever they might get from the name
of the doctor alone.
He quotes some of his opinions, expressed many
years ago, and shows that they differ from those
put forth in the recent Report of the Board of
Charities, and then remarks,—
“ It is pleasant to notice, that as Dr. Howe’s views with
regard to the best arrangements for deaf mutes have not
been entirely settled in the past, there is reason to hope he
may come out right yet.”
Amen! but he will never come out right, if he is
afraid of inconsistency with former opinions; or
clings to doctrines because he once professed belief
in them. The doctor indeed says, in one of his
Reports, that the result of many years’ experience
and observation, both of blind and of mutes, con
vince him that he made mistakes in organizing the
Institution for the Blind, more than thirty years
ago. There was then no school for the blind in the
country, and he copied existing establishments,
among others the asylum at Hartford, merely
modifying it to meet the special condition of the
blind.
�25
He found, in a few years, that he had incorpora
ted some fundamental errors in the plan of organi
zation ; and in his Twentieth Report he states, that
having been called upon by a committee from
another State to recommend a plan for an institution
for the blind, he did recommend one differing in
important points from the Perkins’ Institution. He
would have no "commons,” no central boarding
house,—only a school-house. He would thus avoid
the error of making them board, and lodge, and
live so much together; because he finds that it
encourages a spirit of caste, and intensifies the
peculiarities growing out of their infirmity. He
would have them associate with each other less,
and with ordinary persons more, than is now done.
He would now follow out this idea in the pro
posed school for mutes in Massachusetts. He did,
indeed, follow it out in establishing the workshop
for the blind many years ago; and the most
satisfactory results have been obtained.
There are some thirty blind persons who come
together in the morning to learn trades, and to work
at them on wages, and go away to their several
boarding places in the neighborhood.
This establishment is under the general direction
of the Institution; but the inmates (some of them
young,) are not brought together except for
instruction, or for work, and not even for work in
large numbers; because the plan is to furnish work
4
�26
at their several homes whenever it is possible.
They are thus subjected to ordinary family and social
influences, and are trained to live in and take part
with ordinary society, and not trained to become
members of a special class or caste. The establish
ment is successful; and blind persons who have
been familiar with both modes of living,—asylum
life and common life,—prefer the latter.
It would doubtless be so with mutes if the exper
iment were fairly tried; for all the reasons and con
siderations in favor of such a system apply with
even more force to them than to the blind.
The first direct charge which the Principal
brings against Dr. Howe is, that he makes "an
offensive classification ” of deaf mutes.
"We object to Dr. Howe’s placing, as' he does,
the four hundred deaf mutes of Massachusetts
among the dependent classes.” (Pep. p. 29.) And
again, (p. 30,) " This offensive classification pervades
the whole Report,” &c.
He would be blameworthy indeed who should,
eve n by careless use of language, give just cause
of offence to a class of unfortunates who need all
our sympathy and kindness. But we shall show
that by no fair construction of the Report can such
a charge be sustained; and moreover, that if the
language of the Directors of the Hartford school,
and of the Principal himself, were construed as he
�27
construes the language of the Board, then they
and he are open to the charge of very " offensive
classification.”
So far from anything " offensive ” to the mutes
pervading the Report of the Board, they are spoken
of not only respectfully, but with tender interest.
Indeed, special care even is taken to combat the
common opinion, (which is really offensive to the
mutes,) that they form a special class, and must
always do so; an opinion, by the way, which the
Reports of asylums for deaf mutes, and even
those of the Principal himself, often tend, inadver
tently, to strengthen. The Board of Charities
says, (p. 50,)
“ It may be permitted, however, to draw a further illustra
tion of the principle under consideration from some persons,
(neither vicious nor criminal,) the similarity of whose
defect or infirmity causes them to be classed together, such as
the deaf mutes and the blind. It may not be improper, at
the same time, to make some remarks and suggestions upon
the mode of treating such of these classes as are at the
charge of the State.
“ It is common to regard deaf mutes and the blind as
forming special classes, though speaking strictly no such
classes exist in nature.
“ They spring up sporadically among the people, from the
existence of abnormal conditions of parentage, which produce
a pretty equal average number of cases in every generation,
among any given population.
�28
“ They abound more in some localities and some neighbor
hoods than in others; owing, probably, to ill-assorted
marriages.
“ The important points, however, are that these abnormal
conditions of parentage are not inherent and essential ones ;
that some of them are cognizable ; that with wider diffusion
of popular knowledge more of them may be known; and
that, by avoiding them, the consequences may cease, and the
classes themselves gradually diminish and finally disappear.
“We have no deaf or blind domestic animals; and the
generations of men need not be forever burdened with blind
and deaf offspring.”
The idea which pervades the Report is, that the
mutes and the blind, if left without special instruc
tion and training, tend to fall into the class of
dependents. If this gives just cause of offence,
then must the Report of all the institutions for deaf
mutes in the country be offensive; for they do
constantly express the idea that deaf mutes must be
a burden to their friends and to society, unless they
receive special instruction.
Out of the abundance of such expression we
select a few. The directors of the Hartford school
say: ” The translation indeed of one of the inferior
orders of creation to the human species, would be
only in a degree more wonderful than we have in
several instances witnessed in our scholars.” The
Principal quotes this language approvingly, in his
able paper, in the American Annals, (p. 3.)
«
�29
Nay! he himself is especially open to the charge
of what he calls " offensive classification.”
Without meaning to be "offensive,” he often
speaks of them in a way which might give pain to
sensitive persons. For instance, he says: "We do
not believe that another human being can be found,
in savage or civilized society, whose mind is so
thoroughly imbruted with ignorance and so difficult
to reach as that of many a deaf mute who has
grown up to maturity in the darkness and neglect
consequent upon his misfortune ! ” *
In many other places he speaks of them as
entirely dependent upon society for salvation from
a low and brutish life. He does not regard them
as dependent in the sense in which ordinary chil
dren and youth are, but specially and necessarily
dependent, owing to their natural infirmity; and
shows that they can be lifted out of their ignorance
and dependence only by special means and costly
training.
Nay, more! He not only considers them as a
dependent class, but he sometimes fairly puts them
down in the dangerous class. He says, eloquently:
“ It is the darkness and gloom of his mental condition that
makes him an object of commiseration, and renders him, if
uneducated, the most pitiable of all God's creatures. This
darkness is as nearly total as can well exist in the midst of
, * Thirty-Fifth Annual Report Ohio Institution for Deaf and Dumb,
p. 9. Report of Rev. Collins Stone, Superintendent.
�30
civilized and Christian society. His palsied ear shuts out
from his soul, not only the Q melody of sweet sounds,’ but also
the most familiar facts of common life and experience.
“ He knows nothing of the history of mankind, or of the
globe on which he lives, or of the immensely important truths
connected with his immortality.
“ He is also excluded by his infirmity from intercourse
with his fellow-men. He can neither make known to them
his own wants, nor understand and conform to their wishes.
But while in this uneducated state he is a very ignorant
being, he is by no means an innocuous one. His animal
nature is fully developed. His passions are fierce and
strong, and he knows no reason for their restraint. Revenge,
lust, jealousy, may have dominion over him, without the
presence of any moral considerations to lead him to repress
their promptings. He may thus easily become an uncom
fortable and dangerous member of society ! ”
Now, if the classification of these unfortunates
among the deserving but dependent members of
society is "offensive,” what must be that of the
Reverend Principal, who puts them among the
dangerous members?
But, in reality, neither meant any offence, and
none ought to be taken. The criticism is not
worthy of the Principal, whose actions speak louder
than his words; whose devotion of his life to the
education of mutes would prove him to be their
friend, let his language be what it might; and
though he has made more " offensive classifications ”
of them than the Board has done.
�31
The Principal next makes four several charges
against Dr. Howe, in one paragraph, as follows:
First, that ” a few years ago he advocated the
plan of educating deaf mutes and blind children in
one institution, on the ground that as the blind are
intellectually superior, such a union would be
especially for the advantage of deaf mutes.” The
Principal probably had been looking at the Twelfth
Report of the Trustees of the Perkins’ Institution
for the Blind, without remarking that it stated that
Dr. Howe had been in Europe most of the year,
and did not write his usual Report. But, no matter;
he stands by the Trustees’ report, and still maintains
that blind children are usually much superior to
mutes in capacity for intellectual attainment, by
reason of the gift of hearing, which is the mother
of speech; and that it would, on this and on other
accounts, be better for a mute child to be asso
ciated, while learning the English language, with
a blind child, than with another mute child.
His position is not understood by the Principal.
He has urged that certain advantages would accrue
to deaf mutes by being associated with blind chil
dren, because they would be forced to spell their
words upon their fingers, and to form distinct sen
tences, and thus to have constant practice in the
English language.
Thinking persons know well that one of the
greatest obstacles in the way of deaf mutes learning
�32
our language is the strong tendency they have to
use pantomime.
The attempt to make them use the English lan
guage in their intercourse with each other, is like
trying to make our children speak French together.
The little mutelings won’t take pains to spell out
the words when they can flash forth their meaning
with a look or a gesture.
They won’t make the letters t-a-i-l-o-r if they
can touch their forehead, and imitate the swing of
his arm; nor h-o-r-s-e if they can crook their fore
fingers by the side of their forehead to show his
ears; nor h-o-r-s-e-m-a-n if they can set two fingers
astride the other hand. They won’t restrict them
selves to the use of letters, and words, and sentences
in their intercourse with their playmates who can
see; but they would be forced to do so with
playmates who are blind.
There is hardly a mute graduate of the Hartford
school who can spell as well as Laura Bridgman
does; and nothing gave her such marvellous accu
racy, and such copious vocabulary, except the
necessity of constantly practising the use of words
which had been so painfully taught her.
It is almost a matter of certainty that she would
not have been able to spell so well as she does if she
had been merely deaf and mute. Like other mutes
she would have been tempted by the facility of
addressing signs to the eye to neglect that patient
�33
and persistent practice which is necessary to make
a good speller.
She could see no natural signs, and therefore,
persons conversing with her were forced to spell
their words; and her answers were necessarily
made not by signs, but by letters and words.
The case was a new and anomalous one, and if
the Doctor had regarded the ” consistency ” of his
record, and followed the practice of the ” schools,”
he would have declined to undertake the charge of a
child who did not come within the rules.
The passages on which, probably, the Principal
founds his first charge, merely set forth certain
advantages of the kind of instruction which the
blind mutes must have; and its applicability in a
certain extent to the instruction of ordinary mutes.
The second charge is, that " he has since been
understood to favor their education by a .new system
of dactylology of his own invention.”
The Principal has been imposed upon by a pure
invention of somebody. But should he allow himself to be imposed upon? Such a statement was
worth publishing, or it was not. If it was, then
the Principal should first have inquired if it were
true; and a letter of inquiry would have brought the
answer by return mail that it was untrue. If it was
not worth publishing, then such a statement is
unworthy a place in a Report professing to be a
5
�34
reply to the Report of the Massachusetts Board of
State Charities.
The third charge is, that " Dr. Howe once advo
cated removing mute children from home influences
and associations at a much earlier period in life than
most teachers think judicious.”
This is true; but if the Principal had gone on
and stated the whole truth, he would have made it
appear that Dr. Howe’s heretical views were finally
adopted by the Directors of the American Asylum.
As he has failed to go into the history of the
matter, which is interesting in the history of deaf
mute education in Massachusetts, we will do so.
In the Twelfth Annual Report of the Institution
for the Blind, for 1843, occurs the following:—
“ A few words must be said with regard to the two deaf
and dumb children who joined our school about a year
since, at the early age of seven years. Being too young to be
admitted into the Asylum for the deaf mutes at Hartford, .
they were placed by their parents under our direction, with
the hope that* they might, at least, gain a knowledge of
language at an earlier period than has been usually the case
with children in their condition.
“ The success which has attended the plan of instructing
Laura, by the finger language alone, has induced the
instructor of these two deaf mutes to teach them only by
the finger process, intentionally avoiding the use of the
gesture language, taught at Institutions for the deaf and
dumb. And, thus far, the plan, as in Laura’s case, has been
satisfactory.
�35
“ It is found these children not only learn to talk rapidly
with the fingers, but are able to form a precise idea of a
sentence expressed by the finger language, which cannot
always be the case in the use of their natural, or gesture
language; and in this important particular does the manual
or finger language seems to be of greater value to the deaf
mutes than the language of gesture.
“ They have made considerable progress, not only in the
acquisition of language, but also in writing, numerical cal
culations, and in a knowledge of objects which attract their
notice.
“During the last session of our State Legislature, the
Committee on Education, appointed by that body, consulted
our Board on the subject of admitting the deaf and dumb
to enjoy the privileges of our Institution. A consideration
of this proposition was urged, and encouraged, by parents of
deaf mute children, and also by educated deaf mutes, who
were anxious to have the education of their unfortunate
brethren commenced at an earlier age than was permitted
by the regulations of the American Asylum at Hartford, and
at a school nearer than that at Hartford.
“ The trustees, acting under Dr. Howe’s advice, expressed
a willingness to receive deaf mute pupils of tender years, on
the same footing with the blind, believing that it would prove
mutually beneficial to the two classes.”
The Report goes on to say,—
“ The question, we understand, was discussed at some
length by the committee, in the presence of a deputation
from the Asylum at Hartford, who protested against the pro
posed change, and it finally resulted in the arrangement that
the regulations of that Asylum should be so altered as to
�36
authorize the admission of our State deaf mute beneficiaries
at an earlier age than heretofore ! ”
It would appear from this record that most
teachers, and doubtless the deputation from Hart
ford, disagreed with Dr. Howe’s views. Neverthe
less, in order to prevent the loss of any Massa
chusetts beneficiaries, they consented to make an ’
" injudicious ” arrangement.
At any rate, they so far adopted the plan advo
cated by Dr. Howe, as to change their conditions
of admission, and admit pupils at what the Prin
cipal calls ” an earlier period of life than most
teachers think judicious.”
Dr. Howe had long before urged that deaf mute
children should begin to learn the English lan
guage as early as possible; and in 1812 he received
some young mutes into the Institution for the
Blind, partly in order to see if they could not be
taught advantageously at an earlier age than that
fixed for admission to the Hartford asylum.
From the early days of that asylum down to
1841, their Beports state that candidates for admis
sion must be not under ten years of age nor over
thirty. In 1842 they say, " State beneficiaries must
be not under twelve nor over twenty-five; other
applicants, between ten and thirty
This was not only putting the minimum age too
low, • but making besides an odious distinction
between State beneficiaries and private pupils. It
�37
was about this time that Dr. Howe was chairman
on the part of the Massachusetts House of Repre
sentatives, of the Committee on Public Charitable
Institutions, and agitated this matter.
It appears also that the Directors of the
asylum soon changed their views, and announced
that they would receive pupils between the ages of
eight and .twenty-five, thus admitting State benefi
ciaries four years earlier than they had before done,
and abolishing the odious distinction between them
and private pupils.
Nor have they stopped here; for in a later
Report, a committee of their Board says,—
•
z
“ The opinion is beginning to be quite prevalent, that a
longer time than six or eight years is requisite, thoroughly
to educate deaf mutes; and that the legislatures of the
States to which they belong should extend the term of their
instruction. Indeed, there is good reason for believing that
these legislatures will do this whenever the subject is fairly
laid before them. In that case, the objection to receiving
any pupils under ten which has hitherto been felt, would
be removed, and the number of pupils actually in the asylum
at any one time would be considerably increased, even if the
annual admissions should be the same as heretofore. As we
were the first to project and carry into effect the high class,
by means of which a portion of our pupils are enabled to
prosecute their studies much beyond the ordinary limit, we
ought also TO SECURE TO THE AMERICAN ASYLUM THE CREDIT
OF TAKING the first step in the opposite direction, and
thus offer the advantages of instruction to such young
�38
children as contemplate a thorough and extended course of
training.”
This report was approved and adopted by the
whole Board.
Dr. Howe urged the early instruction of mutes,
upon the ground that it was very important to
them; the Directors seem to have adopted it, first
to prevent the loss of the beneficiaries of Massa
chusetts; next, " to secure to the American Asylum
the credit of taking the first step,” &c.
Surely, we may fairly quote here the language of
the Principal respecting Dr. Howe, as more appli
cable to the Directors of his own institution, and
say, ” It is pleasant to notice that as the ” Directors’
" views with regard to the best arrangement for
deaf mutes have not been settled in the past, there
is reason to hope they may come out right yet.”
The Principal charges, fourthly, that Dr. Howe
" now takes the ground that deaf mutes should not
be gathered into institutions at all.”
We do not believe that the Principal would pur
posely misrepresent any one, and therefore do not
understand how, with the Report before him, he
could make such a statement!
That document [which the Principal treats as
Dr. Howe’s alone,] recommends a change in our sys
tem of educating the deaf mutes of Massachusetts,
�39
•
,
and gives the outline of a plan for an institution.
As this is an interesting matter to all humane peo
ple, and a very important one to deaf mutes, we
will sketch this outline.
The Governor and Council shall appoint three
commissioners for the education of deaf mutes,
who shall act without salary, [or they may be members of the Board of Education.] The commission1 ers are to select the children who are to be the
beneficiaries of the State.
This would certainly be an improvement on the
present system, for it is well known that the Gov
ernor and Council cannot attend to this work as
carefully as they would do, and as it ought to be
done. They have neither time nor means for doing
it thoroughly. Besides, it is a work for which per
sons should have some peculiar fitness. Some
applicants are unfit for State beneficiaries, and are
rejected after going to the asylum at the State’s
charge; some are not entirely deaf; some are
idiotic; some partially blind or deranged. How can
the Governor and Council examine a deaf mute
child and ascertain these things? But more often
the applicants are children of parents who have
some means, and who ought to pay part, at least,
of the cost, and so lessen the charge to the
Commonwealth.
These commissioners, after selecting candidates,
and deciding whether they should be taught wholly
�40
or only partly at the expense of the State, may
contract with any responsible society or organiza
tion of citizens of Massachusetts, who will under
take to instruct and train indigent deaf mutes
belonging to the State, upon a plan of which the
following is a vague outline. [It is understood
that responsible parties are ready to form an organ
ization, if the State should favor it.]
“ The society to provide a suitable building for school
house, and, if necessary, a workshop, and to employ com
petent teachers.
“ The commissioners to designate the beneficiaries, and to
allow the society for each one a sum not greater than that
now paid for beneficiaries at the Hartford school. Their
warrant should be, not for five years, as is now the case,
but from one year, and renewed, if, upon examination, the
pupil proved worthy.
“ The society to instruct and train these beneficiaries gra
tuitously in its school; to board the children of parents who
do not live in the neighborhood of the school in respectable
families, and pay--------- dollars and cents a week for at least
forty weeks in a year.
“ They shall, however, if possible, place but one mute in
any one family, and never more than three.
“ The commissioners should have power to require the
parents of beneficiaries to pay a certain part—say one third
or quarter—of the cost of the board of their children ; and
when they are manifestly unable to do so, then to require
the towns where they have a settlement to pay a sum not
exceeding one dollar in a week, for forty weeks in a year.
�41
•
“ The commissioners to have general supervision of the
school, and of the welfare of such wards of the Common
wealth as live more than two miles from the school.
“ The advantages of such a system would be many.
“ 1st. The care and oversight of these wards of the Com
monwealth would fall where they really belong—upon our
own citizens, a very large number of whom would come into
constant relations with them.
“ 2d. The children would be taught within the State, and
nearer to their homes ; and a large proportion of them might
live at home.
“ 3d. The relations of family and neighborhood would not
be interrupted so much, nor so long.
“ The importance of this is very great in all cases, but
especially so with those whose natural infirmity or peculiarity
tends to isolate them.
“ There are innumerable threads uniting us with society,
. and giving us the unspeakable advantages of home ,and of
familiar neighborhood, many of which are broken in the case
of thepe unfortunates; and we should strive to strengthen,
not to weaken, those that remain to them.
“ 4th. The disadvantages and evils arising out of congre
gation of great numbers of persons of like infirmity, would
be lessened and counteracted.
“ The Hartford school is already too large; and it is con
tinually growing. Living many years in such a congregation
strengthens that tendency to isolation which grows out of the
infirmity of mutism, and intensifies other morbid tendencies.
“ By the new plan all these would be lessened, and the
counteracting tendencies of common social life would be
greatly increased.
6
�42
“ The mutes would be together but five or six hours each
day. During the rest of the time, instead of being subjected
to the artificial restraint and influences of ‘ asylum life,’
which, at best, can be only a poor imitation of family life and
influences, they would be subjected to the average influences
of social life; which is the kind of life they are to live in
future, and for which, during all the tender years of youth,
they should be trained.
“ 5th. The whole establishment would be simplified.
There would be no need of a great building, with halls,
dormitories, kitchen, dining-room and the like; but only a
simple school-house, and perhaps a workshop. There would
be no need of superintendent, matron or steward, with their
corps of assistants ; no cooks, no domestics, and none of the
cumbrous machinery of a great institution.
“ 6th. Part of the burden of supporting the child would
fall where part of it (at least,) surely belongs, to wit: upon
the parents, and upon the neighborhood, and not all upon
the State. Moreover, besides lessening the cost and the
responsibility which now fall upon the State, it would divide
them among the people. The tendency of this would be to
cause our mutes to be educated more nearly as our other
children are. Every approach to this is very important to
the mutes, because it tends to prevent their social isolation,
and makes them to be regarded as members of society in full
communion.
“ A regular course of intellectual instruction would be
given in the school; but advantage might be taken of neigh
boring workshops for teaching some, if not all, the pupils
various handicrafts, as other youth are taught. This would
give a wider range of choice than can be given in the asylum,
where only a few trades are taught.
•
'
�43
'■
•
“ Arrangements might be made by which children of
farmers, who can be useful at home in summer, might come
to the school in winter.
“ Other advantages of such a change might be set forth,
besides the consideration that in a new school we might have
all the advantages of the long experience of the Hartford
school. We might avoid some of the errors which result
from its very organization which cannot be cured in one
generation ; and which, perhaps, stand in the way of intro
ducing new and improved systems of instruction.”
Now, if an establishment upon this plan is not
an institution for deaf mutes, then what constitutes
one? Is it eating in a common hall; sleeping in a
common dormitory; being subjected to daily chapel
devotions; taught a particular creed; and kept
cooped up in one building and yard? Are these
things essential to an institution? Then are not the
German universities institutions; nor our country
academies, nor our common schools, ” institutions.”
. Does not, then, this fourth sentence of the para
graph show, like the three preceding ones, that in
his excessive desire to put Dr. Howe in the wrong,
the Reverend Principal is led to misunderstand, and
then to misstate his views?
The conclusion that he does is strengthened by
the next paragraph, in which the Principal is led to
state what is utterly at variance with known facts,
and even with statements in his own Reports. He
says, (p. 35) :—
�44
“ Dr. Howe objects that our school is too large, and that
the cost is annually increasing. * * * The annual
charge is now $175. * * * The annual charge at the
Institution for the Blind is $200 per pupil, &c.”
This strange blending of truth and error gives
the reader an entirely false impression. The
annual charge at the Institution for the Blind
is more than the Principal states it to be; but no
matter—the animus of this sentence is clear; it
gives the impression that the cost at the Hartford
school is only $175 a year! Who, that is not
familiar with the financial condition of the Hartford
asylum, could fail to conclude, from reading this
statement,, that it cost much less to support pupils
there than at the Institution for the Blind, or at any
similar institution in the whole land? Whereas, the
actual cost is more than $175; probably nearer
$275 than $175 a year.
The Asylum has a fund given by the United
States government for the benefit of the mutes gen
erally, and the income of that, (and perhaps of
other funds,) probably amounted last year to over
$15,000. The Trustees, as in duty bound, appro
priate this, or part of it, to keeping down the
charges.
They do not tell us. how much; and the Report
of the Treasurer is marvellously condensed.
That document, however, show that the expenses
in 1865 were: for salaries $18,649.40; insurance
�45
and sundries, $1,314.21; total, $19,963.61. Other
expenses by the Steward, (p. 44,) $33,276.47; mak
ing in all $53,240.08 as the cost in 1865. This sum,
divided by 212, the average number of pupils,
gives over $250 a year for each. The printed
accounts are obscure, and there is apparent discre
pancy between the Steward and Treasurer,—so
that the actual cost may be a little less ; but
certainly it is far greater than an unsuspecting
reader would infer from the Report of the Principal;
and probably nearer $275 than $175.
There is another proof, that the eagerness of the
Principal to convict Dr. Howe of inconsistency,
leads him to contradict his own Report. He says,
(p. 38,) comparing the pupils of the Blind Asylum
with his own,—
“ It is comparatively difficult for blind children to travel in
public conveyances. They are exposed to constant danger,
and must always’ have. an attendant. Deaf mutes, however,
travel safely to all parts of the country
z
Here are several mistakes,—some excusable,
some not. It is excusable that the Principal should
not know that most of the pupils of the Institution
of the Blind travel to and from home on the rail
roads, without special attendants, and safely, and
that they are trained to do it. But it is not excusable
that he should publish a statement concerning them
without a little inquiry into its truth.
�46
Still less is it excusable that he should make state
ments, contradictory to others in the Report of his
own Institution. On page 72 of the very Report in
which he states that deaf mutes travel to all parts
of' the country safely, we find the following,
reprinted from former Reports:—
“ On the day of the commencement of the Vacation, an
officer of the Asylum will accompany such pupils as
are to travel upon the railroads between Hartford and Boston,
taking' care of them and their baggage, on condition that
their friends will make timely provision for their expenses on
the way, and engage to meet and receive them immediately
on the arrival of the early train at various points on the route
previously agreed on, and at the station of the Boston and
Worcester Railroad in Boston. A similar arrangement is
made on the Connecticut River Railroads, as far as to White
River Junction. No person will be sent from the Asylum to
accompany the pupils on their return; but if their fare is
paid and their trunks checked to Hartford, it will be safe to
send them in charge of the conductor.”
A critic writing in the spirit of the Principal’s
Report might be tempted to say that, when it is
desirable to make a point against Dr. Howe,
"the deaf mutes travel safely to all parts of the
country; ” but, when it is desirable to attract
pupils, the parents are assured " that an officer of
the Asylum will travel with them and take care of
them.”
�47
But the charitable conclusion is, that in his haste
and eagerness to make points against an opponent,
the Principal overlooked what careful thought
would have made him see, to wit: that blind people
are less exposed to danger in travelling than deaf
people. The former are made careful by their
infirmity, and their hearing is made acute by
practice; the latter are made careless, and they
have no hearing at all. Again, a little reflection
would have shown him, that one of the many
advantages of hearing, over sight, as a guardian
sense, arises from the fact that in the material
world warnings of danger come mainly through
the ear. This is, first, because, during half the
time, darkness prevails over the world, and then
the sentinel at the eye is off guard; but the
one at the ear listens during all the waking
hours; and, even when the body sleeps, is still half
awake; for the ear shuts no lid, as the eye does.
And second, because the eye receives no warning
unless the rays of light strike nearly from the front,
and therefore more than half the circle round us is
unguarded. But the ear gathers in sounds not
only from all around, but from above and below.
Unless the rattlesnake be in the direct path, the eye
sees him not, while the ear catches the first note of
warning, come it from where it may. The thinnest
substance stops light; but sound traverses thick
walls. Besides, sight is more voluntary,—hearing
�48
more involuntary; almost automatic indeed. Sights
are shut out easily; sounds with difficulty. You
can be blind at will; you cannot shut out all sound,
even by stopping the ears.
But be the philosophy of the matter what it
may, daily facts show that mutes and deaf per
sons are more exposed to the dangers of the
present mode of travel, and suffer more from them,
not only than blind persons, but than any class of
people whatever. We constantly hear of persons
being run over on the tracks; and in a large
proportion of cases they are deaf persons.
If the Principal will consult the records of rail
roads he will find many cases of mutes and deaf
persons being run over; but rarely one of a blind •
man being injured in that manner.
Nay! if he will look into the Reports of his own
Institution he will find evidence not only, of con
stant dread of danger from the rail cars, but acci
dents and deaths among the pupils, even, while
under the protecting and watchful care of the
Asylum.
The Thirty-Ninth Annual Report says,—
“ An accident occurred on the railroad to one of the .pupils
from Canada, in September last, which resulted in his death.
While walking carelessly along on the ends of the ties, out
side of the track, he was struck down by a passing train, and
so severely injured that he survived less than an hour. This
x
�49
is the first accident of the kind which has ever happened to
one of our pupils ; and we trust with the warning given to
them of the danger of a similar exposure, and the vigilance
which will in future be exercised on the part of those who
have the care of them, it will be the last. Several educated
deaf mutes have, within a few years, been killed while
walking on the track of railroads.
“ The practice of thus exposing themselves to almost
certain destruction cannot be too strongly reprobated, and
their friends should enjoin upon them, the importance of
discontinuing it under all circumstances.”
But the trust and the hope were vain; and vain
were the warnings and precautions, for we read in
the Fortieth Report, (p. 13,) as follows:—
“ A severe, but not fatal accident, happened to one of our
oldest pupils in July last, in consequence of incautiously
walking on the railroad track near the city. The warning
given in our last Report was unheeded, and • the result was
an injury, which will in a measure disable him for life.”
A still more shocking accident is related in the
Forty-Second Report, (p. 8) :—
“Two of the small boys, John Parker, from Massachu
setts, and Benjamin Dawson, from New Hampshire, were
killed by a train of cars as they were walking along the
railroad track. The caution given them but a few hours
before the accident was disregarded, and their intention of
being on the track but for a few moments, till they could
reach the crossing of a road, brought upon them this terrible
7
�50
calamity. While we sympathize with the afflicted friends of
these promising lads, and regret most sincerely their untimely
end, we cannot think there has been any want of care or
attention to the safety of the pupils in this particular, on
the part of the officers of the Asylum to whom their imme
diate oversight is entrusted. No rule of the establishment
has been more distinctly set. forth, more frequently or
more strictly enjoined, or more rigidly enforced, than
that which forbids the pupils going upon the track of a
railroad. Whenever an accident of the kind has happened
to a deaf mute in any part of the country, the fact has been
announced to them publicly, and they have been warned
never to indulge in a practice so unwise and so dangerous.
We trust that the lesson taught by this sad experience may
never be forgotten by the pupils, and that it may prompt
those who watch over them to still greater vigilance.”
The records of other Institutions show that dread
ful accidents have happened in consequence of the
infirmity of the pupils. As a matter of curiosity,
we have ascertained by the annual returns of all the
Railroad Companies of Massachusetts, that the
number of persons run over, and killed or injured
by the cars, during the last fifteen years, is 701.
This does not include passengers, nor persons con
nected with the trains, but only persons outside the
train, crossing the road, or walking or lying upon
the track. Of these, one is supposed to have been
injured in consequence of blindness, six of insanity,
and seventeen of deafness. Of course the supposed
cause is not always the real one; but, assuredly, if
�51
the real cause were ascertained, it would swell the
number of accidents to the deaf, much more than to
the blind; because the blindness is obvious, deaf
ness is not. Everybody in the neighborhood knows
who is blind, but not who is deaf. In the case of a
stranger, even, the corpse of a blind man would
reveal his infirmity; but deaf dead men tell no tales.
But even if they could, it might be useless for our
purpose, because if in the face of these reasons and
facts, the Principal persists in saying, even to make
a point against Dr. Howe, that "deaf mutes can
travel safely to all parts of the country,” he would
not believe otherwise even though one rose from
the dead.
Enough has been said to show that the charge of
ignorance and error which the Principal attempts
to fasten upon the Chairman of the Board of State
Charities, is laid at the wrong door.
If this were all, it would not be worth saying in
public. To aim at mere personal triumph would be
unworthy the cause and the parties. But there are
questions concerning the best modes of educating
and instructing deaf mutes which are very impor
tant to that class of unfortunates, and which would
deeply interest all intelligent and humane people if
they could be brought forward and fairly discussed.
It is the hope of causing them to be discussed
which decides us to print what has been written
above.
�52
While earnest and enthusiastic men like Blan
chet, in France, plead for the immediate modifica
tion of the old Central Institutions,- such as those
of Paris, London, and Hartford, and for teaching
mutes in common schools; and while eminent and
experienced, but conservative men, like the Abbe
Carton, in Belgium, admit that the modification of
the old system is only a question of time,—we of
of Massachusetts hold on to a system borrowed
from the old world, nearly fifty years ago, by a
legislative body not known to have been partic
ularly enlightened upon the subject of deaf mute
education.
This ought not to be; and our neglect of the
matter is not creditable to the Commonwealth. The
slightest examination would show that we have
not only failed to improve materially our method of
treating mutes, but have also failed to introduce
into it the system and order which characterize
other departments of the public service.
It would be a great mistake to say that the present
method of selecting the beneficiaries of the State is
a good one, for there is no real method about it;
and even the existing loose and imperfect practice
is left to officials who have not the time nor the
means to conduct it properly.
See how it works. A mother has a child who
cannot hear, and when he becomes eight or ten
years old she concludes, sadly, that he never will
�53
talk. She takes him to the common school, but the
teacher sends him home, saying he cannot do any
thing with him—cannot teach him. By and by she
learns that there is a school, somewhere, for such
children; and if she will go to the State House
she can find out all about it. There she is passed
civilly from one official to another, until she reaches
the gentlemanly clerk of the Secretary of State,
who concludes the child ought to be sent to Hart
ford, and he passes her over to the gentlemanly clerk
of the Governor, who kindly assists her in making
out the necessary papers, which are signed without
further examination. Neither of these gentlemen,
however, has any means of knowing whether the
applicant is a fit subject for the school, or not.
The child must then wait perhaps one month, per
haps eleven months, until the time of the annual
reception of pupils, and then be sent to Hartford;
provided that, in the meantime, the parents do not
change their purpose.
At Hartford, if the child is found to be a proper
subject, he is well cared for, and put under the
instruction of able and zealous teachers. But if,
as sometimes happens, the mutism is the result of
insanity, or of imbecility, or if the child is partially
blind, or otherwise defective, or is too feeble in
health, then he must be sent home again.
He has lost precious time; the poor parents have
been sadly taxed for the cost of the journey; the
7*
�54
State has perhaps been taxed for his clothing; and
all because it is nobody’s business to see that only
fit persons shall be selected as beneficiaries, and
sent out of the State at public charge.
Again, it is clear that parents who can afford to
pay part of the expenses of the child’s education
ought to do so. This would not only be just, but
really beneficial to them and to their child. It
would increase self-respect; attach more esteem to
the advantages of education; promote punctuality
of attendance; favor study at home, as preparatory
for school; and be in many ways advantageous,
besides being a saving of money to the State.
But it is now nobody’s business to attend to this
matter; consequently the pupils are, almost without
exception, at the entire charge of the State for their
board and instruction, and in some cases for their
clothing also.
Again, the Commonwealth sends about a hundred
pupils to the Connecticut school, but has adopted
no method for ascertaining whether her wards
are taught by a system well adapted to their
wants, nor even whether they have the full
benefit of the system, such as it is. There
is no examination, deserving the name, by any
official; and no means of knowing officially whether
the wards of the Commonwealth have been well
and properly treated, taught, and trained, during
their five or six years’ sojourn in another State.
�55
The whole thing is taken upon faith. Now, we our
selves do not lack faith in the honesty and ability
of those to whose care they are committed; but
officials should walk by light, and not by faith.
We say there is nothing deserving the name of
examination, for it would be a mistake to call the
present practice by such a name. The Governor
and Council, in their annual " progress ” among
State institutions, sometimes go out of our bor
ders, and visit the asylum at Hartford. The prac
tice is a good one, and certain good results follow;
but surely nobody will pretend that there is, or can
be, upon that occasion, anything like an examina
tion. It is merely an exhibition to a highly intel
ligent and sympathetic audience.
Then, once in a year, the Legislature appoints a
committee to look after public charitable institu
tions generally, and especially to see that they do
not spend too much money. This committee makes
a general inspection of all the charitable and penal
institutions in the State; and once a year they visit
the Connecticut asylum. They have reason to be
pleased by what they witness; and they generally
give the institution a complimentary notice in
their report. It is well known, however, that
members are not selected with a view to their
ability or fitness for judging the merits of a system
of instruction for mutes, and that their single flying
visit is only a general inspection. It is not, and
�56
cannot well be a thorough examination of the
merits of the system of instruction and of its
results. The reports of the Committee make no
such pretensions. They are complimentary, of
course, but very vague and general in their state
ments. Nevertheless, they are sometimes gravely
quoted by the Directors of the Hartford asylum, as
proofs that the friends of deaf mutes ought to be
satisfied with the excellence of their system, and of
its administration!
We assert with confidence that our Legislature
acts without sufficient light and knowledge upon this
subject. We assert, moreover, with sorrow, almost
with shame, that whenever an attempt is made to
bring about any change in the system of educat
ing our mutes, it is put down by considerations
not of wise economy but of mere money saving.
The whole matter is in the hands of the Legisla
ture, which are always full enough with other
business.
Whenever there is any likelihood of any action
looking to a removal of our beneficiaries from
Connecticut, a delegation of pupils is sent from
Hartford to exhibit their knowledge and acquire
ments. They make a strong appeal (not too
strong,) to the sympathy of the Legislature. Then
the Superintendent waits upon the Committee
of Public Charitable Institutions, and exhibits his
facts and figures. He makes a strong appeal (too
�57
strong, alas!) to the pocket-nerve of the State. He
shows that he can maintain our children, if we will
send them abroad, cheaper than we can do it at
home; and straightway the whole matter is left to
sleep for the year.
Perhaps there is no need of any change, and no
room for any improvement. Perhaps the great
march of improvement in all other branches of
instruction, affects not the method adopted at
Hartford nearly half a century ago, and followed
ever since, almost without change. Perhaps noth
ing can be borrowed for its improvement from the
opposite system adopted in the excellent schools
for mutes through the length and breadth of Ger
many,—the land of learned men and of able teach
ers. Perhaps Horace Mann was a dolt. Perhaps
the Board of State Charities is all wrong in
suggesting any changes in our present system of
educating our mutes. But there should be no
doubt about it. Either the Board of Education,
or of State Charities, or some competent persons,
should be specially charged to see,—
First, that all the unfortunate mutes in the
Commonwealth shall not only have the oppor
tunity of being educated, but be sought out and
encouraged to avail themselves of it.
Second, that the present method shall be prop
erly systematized and regulated, so that there shall
�58
be strict accountability, real examinations, and
positive knowledge about results.
Third, that any questions about change of the 1
present method shall be decided upon broad and
liberal grounds, and not by considerations of
dollars and cents.
Such a committee, if clothed with authority,
might procure such changes in the present method
as would satisfy all the friends of the deaf mutes;
or they might advise the adoption of a new one.
The Directors of the Connecticut asylum, which
has done so much for the mutes of New England,
ought not to object to any change which will pro
mote the interests of those unfortunates, even if it
should involve the loss of a monopoly which the
asylum has so long enjoyed.
If Massachusetts should deem it best to establish
a school of her own, she has mute children enough
to fill it as full as a good school need to be; or
perhaps ought to be. But even if there should be
competition for the beneficiaries of other States, it
would be animated only by generous emulation,
not as to who would take pupils cheapest, but who
would teach and train them best. Of such emula
tion, there surely would come good, and not evil.
�
Dublin Core
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Remarks upon the education of deaf mutes: in defence of the doctrines of the second annual report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities and in reply to the charges of the Rev. Collins Stone, principal of the American Asylum at Hartford
Creator
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Howe, Samuel C.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Boston; Mass.
Collation: 58 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Wright & Potter, Boston. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Please note that this pamphlet contains language and ideas that may be upsetting to readers. These reflect the time in which the pamphlet was written and the ideologies of the author.
Publisher
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Walker, Fuller & Co.
Date
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1866
Identifier
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G5190
G5689
Subject
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Education
Deafness
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Remarks upon the education of deaf mutes: in defence of the doctrines of the second annual report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities and in reply to the charges of the Rev. Collins Stone, principal of the American Asylum at Hartford), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Deaf-mutes
Deafness
Education
Muteness