LIFE AND MANNERS.] DEATH OF HOWARD. 345 gave to the world his second book, which he entitled "On Lazarettos," although, in fact, his remarks on the system of Quarantine fill but a small portion of its pages. In the summer of the same year, he set forth on a longer journey than any he had yet undertaken. Desiring to extend his inquiries on the subject of the plague, he purposed to travel through Russia to the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, and to return by the Barbary States. But he had proceeded no further than Cherson in Russian Tartary, when he fell ill of a malignant fever. He soon felt that the hand of death was upon him, and named a neighbouring village for a burial-place. "Give me no "monument," he said, "but lay me quietly in the earth; "place a sun-dial over my grave, and let me be forgotten." He died on the 20th of January, 1790, and was interred in the spot he had selected. A stately monument to Howard, from the chisel of Bacon, was the first ever erected in St. Paul's. But still more enduring will be the memory of the wise rules that he has written, and of the good deeds that he has wrought.* 66 The general view of our life and manners, which I have here attempted to unfold, may perhaps strike some readers as too harshly drawn. It may seem to them to gainsay the statement of our prosperity and well being at that very period with which my first chapter commenced. Yet, in truth, the two descriptions are not only reconcileable, but they closely adhere together. For although, the condition of England in the last century may seem dark and faulty when contrasted with the condition of England now, it looks bright whenever held up against *There are three biographies of Howard; by Dr. James Brown, 1823; by Hepworth Dixon, Esq., 1849; and by the Rev. J. Field, 1850; besides an excellent sketch in the Essays from the Times, 1851. Among the many writers who have followed Howard, none deserves more respectful mention than the Rev. John Clay, Chaplain of the Preston House of Correction. His Annual Reports to the Lancashire Magistrates,-above all, those of 1849, 1850, and 1851,abound with curious facts and important deductions. the other European states of the same day. And herein, from age to age, lies, as I conceive, the source of our greatest pride. It is now four hundred years since a most discerning and impartial observer, Philip de Comines, declared that in his judgment the English were superior in their rule and government, in their respect for persons and property, to any other nation that he knew.* It is true that the other nations of the eighteenth century might justly look down upon the English of the fifteenth. But meanwhile the English also had advanced, so that their relative superiority was still maintained. But let us view the case more closely. Let us compare, in a little more detail, the English as they were in the middle of the last century with other contemporary nations. If we look to the east as to Poland and Russia can any man doubt what must have been the condition of the peasantry bound by law to the soil, and bought or sold along with it? Can any man doubt that under such a system they were scarcely raised above their own cattle, either in attainments, or in the estimation of their rulers? If we look to the west- as to Portugal or Spain can it be denied that the barbarous practice of Torture still prevailed for the purpose of extorting a confession? Can it be denied that the bloody tribunal of the Inquisition was still at work to crush all development of thought all liberty of conscience? If thence we cast our eyes to France, we discover the common people weighed down by most onerous taxes, such as the GABELLE, and the higher ranks privileged against taxation by their LETTRES DE NOBLESSE. There, as in Italy and Spain, we may observe among the upper and middle classes at that time a systematic violation of the marriage VOW. We may find the degenerate heirs of historic names full of contempt for all professions but that of - devoting their whole lives to ease and pleasure in the capitals and to their villagers known only by their exactions. But let us turn from these to the dominions of by far the most enlightened King and most active reformer of his day. Let us pass to the subjects of Frederick "the Great," as his contemporaries called arms * See his Mémoires, livre v. chap. 19. LIFE AND MANNERS.] CONCLUSION. 347 him, and as on many points he was well worthy to be called. Here then we find the strictest line of demarcation maintained between nobles and plebeians; the Sovereign assuming to the latter, even when invested with high official rank, all the state of an Eastern Sultan, not giving them his hand to kiss, but only the hem of his garment. No plebeian, unless in very rare cases, could obtain promotion in the army. No plebeian, unless by special favour, could buy a nobleman's estate. Coffee, tobacco, and salt were retained as Government monopolies. Manufacturing industry was restricted within town-walls. So lately as 1774, an Edict was issued, making the export of wool a capital offence. Invalided soldiers, who could not spell but only swear, were appointed the schoolmasters. Jews were subject to an ignominious poll-tax, in common with the beasts of burthen.* If, then, we find abuses such as these with so highspirited a people as the Prussian, and with so renowned a prince as Frederick the Second, how much worse may we not suspect of other European nations, and other European monarchs of that time? If- as we may here presume to apply the solemn words if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? The main fact is-and it serves to explain in a great measure every other fact connected with this question - that in the middle of the last century, all the States on the Continent of Europe, except only Holland and some few Cantons of Switzerland, were subject to the unlimited control of Monarchical or Aristocratical power. While despotism in one or other of these forms was weighing on them, the Commons of England retained, as in the previous age, a certain, and that considerable, share in the direction of their own affairs. This was the vivifying flame of freedom which never quenched and but seldom obscured among us, nor yet, as in some foreign states, spreading to a conflagration, has made us what we are, and were from age to age. In closing, then, these seven For a fuller account of the Prussian system of government at that time, I venture to refer the reader to an Essay (mainly compiled from Dr. Preuss's volumes) in the Quarterly Review, No. cxliii. December, 1847. Decades of the History of England, I firmly adhere to the assertion, which I stated in their first page, eighteen years ago. I still say, that, on the whole, and as compared with the contemporary annals of other countries, it was a period combining happiness and glory- a period of kind rulers, and a prosperous people. They were prosperous because they had freedom, and because that freedom was restrained within ancient and appointed bulwarks; and they will cease to be prosperous, when either of these conditions shall cease to be fulfilled. June, 1854. |