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but now fallen into a very poor condition, and generally occupied by a very humble class of people.

In the corridor last mentioned, we found a bronze east taken from the face of Napoleon after death. The features are sharp and angular, although the outline of the face is that with which every one almost is familiar. From one side of this gallery we were led into the grand hall and magnificent staircase, which exceeds any thing I have ever seen or imagined. There is a similar entrance from the opposite gallery, so that you can approach from either side. This hall is 73 feet high, and in space 79 feet by 50. The proportions are on a noble scale, and every thing is in keeping with the grand plan. The floor is black and white, and the walls are of variously coloured scagliola, inlaid with a transparent kind of spar, and highly polished, so that one might mistake it for some precious kind of stone. To relieve the great expanse of the walls, which would otherwise meet the eye with a tame effect, parts are raised in such a manner as to appear panelled. A spacious gallery runs round three sides of this hall, supported by bronze figures; and on one side, in the lower hall, stands a superb table of porphyry. The ceiling is white, richly gilt; and under the dome is a row of windows, each divided from the other by a figure (of which there are twelve), the upper half being of bronze, and the lower part terminating in a gilt scroll. The figures appear to support the dome on their heads. The effect of this at night, when brilliantly illuminated, must be very grand : we were told that there are a hundred lights in the hall and staircase, besides a row of jets outside the windows in the roof, which pour in a flood of softened light like brilliant stars, I should suppose.

We were now taken up the grand staircase, which branches off on each side; that on the right leading to the private apartments of the duchess, and the left taking us to the public rooms. The gallery is very spacious, with a massive balustrade running round, the effect heightened by beautiful pillars of grey marble, of immense height. The doors opening out on the gallery are all panelled with mirror-glass; and by one of these, on the right hand, we were conducted through a small room purposely fitted up as a stove-room, for heating plates, &c., adjoining the grand dining-room. The latter is a beautiful apartment indeed, and evinces more than any thing the exquisite taste of the proprietor of this princely mansion. I think the length was 80 feet by 50; but I may mistake in this. The floor is of inlaid oak, highly polished; the walls are white, with an elegant gilt scroll. At each end, the room is contracted, forming a recess, supported with massive pillars of white, fluted with gold; at the upper end is the sideboard for the display of plate-all above and behind it being of mirrorglass, which will reflect not only the plate but the company. The ceiling is superbly decorated, being divided into compartments of white, and richly ornamented with gold; from the centre depends one large chandelier, lacquered with gold. There are two fireplaces, of richly carved white marble, and opposite to them a window, the only one in the room, looking to the front of the house. The dining-room was used, for the first time, last year, on the occasion of the Queen and Prince Albert visiting the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. The entertainment was laid here, and a splendid one it would be, I have no doubt. Unknown to her Majesty, the band of the Guards was concealed somewhere about the gallery, and when she had entered, struck up the national anthem; this appeared to gratify the royal visiters not a little. A small, curiously-formed chamber or ante-room, leads from the dining-room to the grand saloon, the largest apartment in the house, being 124 feet long, by 33 feet in the centre, where it widens, contracting to 24 feet at each end. The floor is polished oak, the walls a sort of cream colour, and the furniture crimson velvet and gold. In the centre stands a semicircular sofa, at least 20 feet long, covered with crimson velvet, the back high, and covered with the same rich material; a sort of broad ledge or finish, of white marble, runs all the way along the top, and terminates in an elegant scroll and figure at each end. The ceiling is lofty, and is in the same style as that of the staircase; windows of ground glass, surmounted by a sort of oblong pediment supported by fanciful pillars of gilt. On each side of the fire-place there is a splendid paint ing by Murillo-one representing the Prodigal Son, and the other the Angels appearing to Abraham.

There are various portraits in the room, all more or less interesting, most of them by the old masters. The windows in the side of this room look towards St James's, and that at the end looks into the Park, and commands a view of Westminster Abbey. The use of this beautiful room was kindly given by the Duchess of Sutherland, a year or two ago, to some of the most distinguished musical performers in London, who combined their respective talents in aid of the Polish refugees. The saloon was fitted up as a concertroom, and had the effect of drawing a crowded audience, for the opportunity of seeing the interior of Stafford House was itself a powerful attraction. The state drawing-rooms lead off from the saloon; but neither these nor the private apartments were shown. We had no reason to complain, however; we had seen enough to impress us with gratified wonder at the exquisite taste and refined ingenuity which have been displayed by the duke in the fitting up of this splendid mansion. In descending the stairs, we found on the wall opposite a series of mirrors: this, we were

told, is the grand door of entrance leading from the|
outer lobby; so that, when this splendid door is thrown
open, the staircase is seen from the lobby. These glass
panels, we were told, were fitted up at the cost of
L.700. So much, dear Jane, for the "sight" of
Stafford House, than which I could scarcely wish you
a greater treat; but, until such time as you can ac-
complish this, I hope you will rest contented with this
gossiping description from your affectionate aunt.

PROVISION AGAINST THE EVIL DAY.

ONE remarkable feature of the social condition of this
country, is that, while the upper classes have real and
well-secured funds to depend upon in all contingencies,
and while the middle classes have generally business
funds not to be exhausted in a short time, and by life-
assurance can and to a great extent do secure their
widows and orphans against want, the working-classes
in general live from hand to mouth, not only making
no provision for those they may leave behind them,
but scarcely assured of having the means of putting
over a week's sickness, without being obliged to have
recourse to some humiliating expedient. This is a
deplorable state of things; for, while the competitive
system lasts, he who is always on the verge of depen-
dence is necessarily the slave of those to whom he
looks for succour. A right condition of the working-
classes would, we apprehend, include the idea of their
being perfectly self-dependent.

To this end it seems absolutely necessary that they
should husband their gains in such a manner as to
enable them to provide against the usual evils of life.
Their gains are either sufficient for this purpose, or
they are not if they are, it is an obvious duty that
they should be used for that amongst other purposes;
if not, then the predicament of the working-classes is
in some way wrong, and should be amended. As
suredly, while this large portion of the community
has to look to the middle and upper classes for suc-
cour in every kind of distress, to however small an
extent that succour may be required, in so far do
they forfeit their independence and suffer a moral
deterioration. They ought to be enabled, by the cor-
rectness of their views on these points, and by the
amount of their gains, to ensure themselves against
every casualty, even the temporary failure of employ-
ment. All who are acquainted with the doctrine of
probabilities, know that to ensure against even that
last peculiar casualty would be merely a matter of
calculation, and easily practicable if a sufficiently large
number were to unite."

Passing in the mean time from the general question, let us consider the means which at present exist to enable working-men to provide against the evils of their lot. We once showed (No. 357) by what simple means a union of working-men could provide themselves and their families with medicines and medical attendance, thereby rendering themselves quite independent of infirmaries and dispensaries-institutions which, though necessary in the present state of society, and creditable to the good feelings of the wealthier classes, are in reality a degradation to the classes benefited by them. Let us now see by what means an association of working-men could provide that each, during sickness, should have an independent means of support, and also enjoy an income when the days for toil are past.

It is well known that institutions for these objects
have long existed under the name of Friendly or
Benefit Societies. A disposition to enter into and sup-
port such societies may be said to be general amongst
the labouring portion of the community; yet not by
any means so general as could be wished, while it is
equally to be lamented that many of the societies
which do exist, are founded upon no certain calcula-
tions, so that their permanence cannot be depended
on, and many of their members must be disappointed
of the object they have in view.

We cannot sufficiently impress upon all who have
to do with friendly societies, that, if these have not
been founded on calculations, and calculations of a
proper kind, no good is to be expected of them.
Supposing a friendly society to contemplate a weekly
aliment in sickness and an annuity in old age, the
points to be ascertained for its right foundation, are-
first, what is the amount of time per annum in the
ensuing life of each member, which may be expected,
from the average of a vast number of like cases, to
be spent by him in sickness?-and, second, how many
out of each set at a certain age, may be expected
to survive sixty, and for how long? A wide range
of experience makes it possible to calculate these
things with some degree of precision.
triotic body, the Highland Society of Scotland, ob-
tained returns from a great number of friendly
societies, from which tables were compiled for the
purpose of showing the true probability of sickness
and mortality amongst the working-classes. It is
now acknowledged that, from the imperfection of the
returns, these tables give too favourable a view of the
case, and would be an unsafe basis to ground upon in
practice. Yet we may enter a little into them for the
sake of illustration. It appeared that, between twenty
and thirty years of age, a man has the chance of being
a little more than half a week per annum indienosed.

That pa

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For each year there is an exact amount-as, for in-
stance, at the age of twenty-eight, he has the chance of
being just about six-tenths (0-603) of a week sick; but
we need not here specify so closely. Between thirty
and forty, the probable annual duration of sickness
is a little higher, or about two-thirds of a week over-
head (strictly from 0-621 to 0-758 parts of a week).
At forty-six, his chance is a-week per annum.
fifty-seven, it rises to two weeks. A man's whole
chance of sickness, from his twenty-first to his six-
tieth year, inclusive, is nearly forty-two weeks. Above
that period of life, the days of disability multiply fast.
At seventy, he is nearly eleven weeks out of the fifty-
two seriously unwell.

At

Since the Highland Society made these observations, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge has exerted itself in a similar way, and a theoretical table has been compiled by Mr Edmonds. We shall present the results of all the three investigations of 100 persons living at certain intervals of age :— in a tabular form, showing the proportion of sick out

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In these three tables there is, it will be observed, a considerable difference. We may mention, that some societies in Edinburgh have found their experience of sickness exceed the Highland Society rate by, at an average, 87 per cent.; a result which we find accounted for in a very intelligible way by a report of the Edinburgh Compositors' Society. In the societies from which the Highland Society obtained returns, the extension of relief was considered as a kind of charity, and applications were therefore only made in extreme cases. But in the societies in question, the pension during sickness is regarded as a right, and therefore freely taken.

A few years ago, some interesting observations were made with respect to the large body of men employed as artisans and labourers in the dockyards at Woolwich, Chatham, Portsmouth, &c. In the three years included in the observations, 1831, 2, and 3, there was that general uniformity of result which tends to give confidence in the arrangements made in consequence of such inquiries. We shall give the results for 1831 and 2, as the number of men was nearly the same in those years, namely, 2079 and 2002. The cases of diseases in the two years were, respectively, 697 and 888; of hurts, 357 and 325; the total days of sickness, respectively, 15,072 and 14,225. If we might be justified in taking this body of working-men as a criterion, it would appear that, in the year, every 1 man in 6 of this class is seriously hurt, and that 2 in 5 fall ill. Each man is liable to have an attack of illness, either spontaneous or caused by external injury, every two years; and at an average each disease lasts 14 days. When we see these painful contingencies presented in so distinct and certain a form, the necessity of providing against them becomes strikingly apparent.

Amongst the East India Company's labourers in London-men selected at first as sound and strong, but working and also dwelling in somewhat unfavourable circumstances, in the centre of a crowded cityit was found, by a calculation made a few years ago, that, between the ages of 20 and 30, there were sick 1.36 per cent.; between 30 and 40, 1:38; between 40 and 50, 1-46; between 50 and 60, 1·91; being a less rapid advance of sickness with advancing age than has been observed in other cases.

From the difference observed in these and other cases, it would appear necessary, in forming a friendly or benefit society, to look to data adapted to the special class who are to form it.

What, in a general view, are the proper principles for forming a benefit or friendly society, which shall include a provision for both sickness and old age? It is clear, in the first place, from what we have seen, that the contributions of the various members should have a respect to their different ages. We may have an idea of a benefit society in its simplest form, if we suppose a hundred men, of exactly 33 years of age, to associate, and make such a payment at first as may be sure to afford each man that shall fall sick during the ensuing year one shilling a-day during the term of his sickness. Taking (for the sake of illustration) the Scottish tables, we find that, amongst such a body of men, there will be about 66 weeks of illness in the course of the year. This, multiplied by 7, gives the whole sum required, L.23, 2s., or a little more than 4s. 6d. each, which, less by a small sum for interest, will accordingly be the entry-money of each man. A society of individuals of different ages, each paying the sum which would in like manner be found proper to his age, would be quite as und in principle as one on the above simple scheme. It is only a step further to equalise each man's annual payments over the whole period during which he undertakes to be a paying member.

We shall suppose that the superannuation allowance or pension is contemplated as commencing at 60 years of age. It is necessary to consult tables of mortality, in order to ascertain how many may be expected to reach that age, and how long each of these has a chance of surviving it. We have so recently treated of tables of mortality (under the article Rates for

Life Assurance, in No. 505), that we shall not say much on this subject. The table presented by the Highland Society, as proper for friendly societies, is a mean of the Northampton, Carlisle, and Swedish tables, and may be regarded as tolerably safe for both life-assurance and annuity schemes. It shows, that of 1005 persons of 21 years of age, no fewer than 528 reach the age of 60, 336 that of 70, and 127 that of 80; thus making it evident how absurd it is for a

in the savings' banks, in which case they obtain for it (considering the half-yearly payment of interest) about L.3, 17s. 6d. yearly.

one who resorts to such a society makes an advance
in a true moral condition, and gives incalculable
strength to his position in life, and the peace of his
own mind.

Shrovetide sport is kept up with so much energy as at the village of Scone, near Perth, in Scotland. The men of the parish assemble at the cross, the married on one side and the bachelors on the other; a ball is

The revels of Shrovetide were of a very miscellaneous order-some being innocent, and others, we grieve to say, much the reverse. We shall first advert to those of an innocent character. The chief of these seems to have been foot-ball, which was conducted with great spirit, the old looking delightedly at the feats of the young. At Alnwick, the ball is thrown to the populace from the walls of the castle. The apprentices of London, all of whom were let loose working man to think that he has an extremely small SHROVE-TUESDAY may occur on any day between the from serious occupation on this day, enjoyed the sport 2d of February and the 8th of March, being the day in Finsbury Fields. The sport continues to be pracchance of growing old, so as to need a provision. Another point for consideration is the rate at which antecedent to that commencing Lent. [In the present tised with great vigour at the villages of Kingston the funds of the society may be improved. In most year it falls on the 8th of February.] Throughout and Teddington, in the vicinity of London, where the content with taking advantage of the privilege which times, to preface the solemnity and sober living of windows to protect them from the balls. But we are cases, we believe, it is best for such societies to rest Christian Europe, it has been customary, from early people have to put hurdles and bushes over their the forty days of Lent with one, two, or more days of unlimited merriment, sport, feasting, and playing of practical jokes, as if men were anxious to season themselves for what they felt to be a period of dullness, by thing cheerful. In Rome, as is well known, this merry giving themselves the disgust of satiety with every prologue to Lent is called the Carnival, meaning the ensuing forty days. In England, the same period is styled Shrove-tide, from its being customary, in an be shriced, or shroce, at that time. They also had the early age, for the people to confess their sins, and Tuesday, while Ash-Wednesday was the title of the name of Collop-Monday for the day before Shrovefirst day of Lent. In Scotland, where no religious observance of this season has been in use for centuries, Shrove-Tuesday is slightly known as St Fasten's Eve from a custom all over England of dining on collops Collop-Monday, it may be remarked, got its name (steaks of salted meat) and eggs on that day. The boys on that day went about in bands, singing,

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thrown up, and they play from two o'clock till sunset. A person who witnessed the sport in the latter part was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, ran with it till overtaken by one of the oppofrom those on the opposite side who seized him, he ran site party; and then, if he could shake himself loose wrested from him by the other party, but no party on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was was allowed to kick it. The object of the married men was to hang it, that is, to put it three times into a small hole on the moor, which was the dool, or limit, on the one hand: that of the bachelors was to drown the limit on the other: the party who could effect it, or dip it three times in a deep place in the river, either of these objects won the game; if neither won,

illustrated by the actual arrangements of one of apThe scheme of a right benefit society may be further proved character, which happens to be well known to We allude to the Edinburgh School of Arts' farewell to flesh-no such food being used during the of the last century, thus describes it :-"The game Friendly Society, established about thirteen years ago. This society, although originating with certain of the members of and friends to the School of Arts (a species of mechanics' institution, and taking its name), is not otherwise connected with that institution, but is open to all persons, male and female, residing in Edinburgh. It has three separate funds or schemes-namely, a Sickness Fund, Deferred Annuity Fund, and a Life Assurance Fund. One share of the sickness fund entitles the member during sickness to 10s. a-week for 52 weeks, 7s. 6d. a-week for other 52 weeks, and 58. a-week for all future period of sickness until the age of 60 or 65, according to the age of superannuation fixed at entry; and thereafter his contributions cease, and he enters to the enjoyment of the Deferred Annuity Fund, one share of which entitles the member to an annuity of L.8 a-year, commencing at the age of 60 or 65, as fixed at his entry. One share of the Life Assurance Fund is a sum of L.10 payable at the member's death. In this case, as in the others, the contributions cease at the age of

60 or 65.

The rates are calculated from the Highland Society's sickness table, increased by 50 per cent., which in this case may be considered as sufficient (seeing that only sound healthy men are admitted), and a mortality table compounded of the Northampton, Carlisle, and Swedish, assuming the rate of interest at 4 per cent. accumulated yearly; and the only charges for management are 2s. 6d. entry-money to each fund, and 1s. a-year payable by each member of each fund. The following is an example of the payments required for one share in all the three funds; namelyPayments to Cease at the age of SIXTY.

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So that a person of the age of 25, for an entry-money of 7s. 6d., and a payment of 2s. 2d. a-month until the age of 65-or L.I, 5s. 9d. a-year-may secure an allowance of 10s. a-week during sickness for 52 weeks -78. 6d. a-week for other 52 weeks and 5s. a-week during the whole remaining period of sickness, until the age of 65, an annuity of L.8 a-year during life after 65, and a sum of L.10 at death.

Or, for 48. 4d. a-month, or L.2, 11s. 6d. a-year, double

of these allowances.

At an examination of the society's transactions and funds in December 1840, it was found that, after twelve years of business, when the deaths of unfree members, or persons who died in the first year of membership, were deducted, the mortality was within that allowed for by the tables, and that all the three funds were in a good condition, each showing a surplus over what was necessary to make good the claims to which it was liable, when the value of the future contributions was taken into account against the value of the promised benefits.

This society numbers 250 members, which is far below what might be expected in so large a city, even

or Fastren's E'en.

"Shrove-tide is nigh at hand,
And I am come a-shroving;
Pray, dame, something,
An apple or a dumpling,
Or a piece of truckle cheese
Of your own making,

Or a piece of pancake."

On this day it is a regular practice of the boys at
Eton to write Latin verses, in all kinds of metres, in
praise of Bacchus, and fix them to the college doors.
Perhaps this is a vestige of a supposed connexion
between the Christian festivals of this season with the
Gentile rejoicings and festivities of the same period of
the year in honour of the god of wine.

the ball was cut into equal parts at sunset. In the course of the play, there was usually some violence between the parties; but it is a proverb in this part of the country, that'A' is fair at the ba' o' Scone."'" A similar foot-ball play took place at Inveresk in the county of Edinburgh.

Taylor, the Water Poet, alludes to the custom of a fellow carrying about "an ensign made of a piece of a baker's mawkin fixed upon a broom-staff," and making orations of nonsense to the people. Perhaps this custom may have been of a similar nature and design to one practised in France on Ash-Wednesday. The people there "carry an effigy, similar to our Guy Faukes, round the adjacent villages, and collect money Shrove-Tuesday has been from time immemorial in for his funeral, as this day, according to their creed, England a day of unusual merriment, feasting, and is the burial of good living. After sundry absurd sport. "Welcome, merry Shrove-tide!" sings gentle mummeries, the corpse is deposited in the earth." Master Silence. At an early period of the day, the In the latter part of the last century, a curious cus bells were set a-ringing, generally by the people them-tom of a similar nature still survived in Kent. A selves, and it was from that time till a late hour in group of girls engaged themselves at one part of a the evening held allowable to indulge in an unlimited village in burning an uncouth image, which they preparing and devouring of pancakes. So conspicuous called a holly boy, and which they had stolen from the was this fare on the occasion, that the day was some- boys; while the boys were to be found in another part times called Pancake Day. Shakspeare makes his of the village burning a like effigy, which they called clown in "All's Well that Ends Well" speak of some- the ivy girl, and which they had stolen from the girls; thing being "as fit as a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday." the ceremony being in both cases accompanied by It will be recollected that the parishioners of the loud huzzas. These are fashions, we humbly opine, Vicar of Wakefield "religiously ate pancakes at smacking of a very early and probably pagan origin. Shrove-tide." Hear also our quaint old friend, the At Bromfield, in Cumberland, there used to be a still Water Poet-"Shrove-Tuesday, at whose entrance more remarkable custom. The scholars of the free in the morning all the whole kingdom is inquiet, but school of that parish assumed a right, from old use and by that time the clock strikes eleven, which (by the wont, to bar out the master, and keep him out for three help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, days. During the period of this expulsion, the doors there is a bell rung called Pancake Bell, the sound were strongly barricaded within; and the boys, who whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and defended it like a besieged city, were armed in general forgetful either of manners or humanity. Then there with guns made of the hollow twigs of the elder, is a thing called wheaten flour, which the cooks do or bore-tree. The master, meanwhile, made various mingle with water, eggs, spice, and other tragical, efforts, by force and stratagem, to regain his lost magical enchantments, and then they put it by little authority. If he succeeded, heavy tasks were imposed, and little into a frying-pan of boiling suet, where it and the business of the school was resumed and submakes a confused dismal hissing (like the Lernian mitted to; but it more commonly happened that all snakes in the reeds of Acheron), until at last, by the his efforts were unavailing. In this case, after three skill of the cook, it is transformed into the form of a days' siege, terms of capitulation were proposed by flip-jack, called a pancake, which ominous incantation the master and accepted by the boys. The terms the ignorant people do devour very greedily." It is curi- always included permission to enjoy a full allowance ous to learn from old Hakluyt, that pancakes were also of Shrovetide sports. eaten in Russia at this time. A poem published in 1634,* thus speaks of the custom in England :

"It was the day whereon the rich and poor
Are chiefly feasted with the self-same dish;
When every paunch, till it can hold no more,
Is fritter-filled as well as heart can wish;
And every man and maid do take their turn,
And toss their pancakes up for fear they burn;
And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound,
To see the pancakes fall upon the ground."

making every allowance for other existing means of It was customary to present the first pancake to the the Newarks whom they can catch, and this as long

provision.

We would hope that the present paper will be of some little service in calling the attention of the working-classes to the benefits which they have it in their power to confer upon themselves by means of rightly constituted benefit societies. To make themselves independent during sickness and old age, and to ensure that their wives and children shall have something to look to in the event of their decease what objects of a merely this-world kind can be nobler! It costs money and a little restraint on immediate desires to accomplish these ends, but it does not cost, upon a right system, nearly so much as might be supposed; and though it were to cost more, would it not be worth while? We verily believe that the working-classes are not generally informed as to the principles of benefit societies, or they would take much more extensive advantage of them than they do. Every

greatest slut or lie-a-bed of the party," which com-
monly falls to the dog's share at last, for no one will
to the latter custom in a couplet placed opposite
own it their due."+ Some allusion is probably made
Shrove-Tuesday in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1677:

"Pancakes are eat by greedy gut,

And Hob and Madge run for the slut."
In the time of Elizabeth, it was a practice at Eton
for the cook to fasten a pancake to a crow upon the
school door; and, till a recent period, the under-clerk
at Westminster School was accustomed on this morn-
ing to enter in solemn wise, preceded by the beadle
and other officers, and throw a pancake over the screen
which divides the forms of the upper from those of
the under scholars.

Pasquil's Palinodia. † Notes to Tusser Redivivas, 1744

Of a similar jocular character is a custom kept up at Leicester. There is in this ancient town an open space called the Newarks, of a cross form, accessible by three gates, and surrounded by tall buildings. In the afternoon of Shrove-Tuesday, three men take possession of this place, armed with waggon whips, and each attended by another man carrying a bell. These fellows, who are called Whipping Toms, claim a right to flog every body entering or passing through as the attendant bellman can keep ringing his bell. The amusement consists in surrounding the bellman and silencing his bell, for during the cessation of service of some hazard, and requires the combined ringing the whipper is powerless: this, however, is a address and activity of the young men who take part in the frolic. As soon, however, as a Whipping Tom finds his companion silenced, and subject to the laugh of the spectators, he hurries with his attendant bell to the rescue, and the scene becomes one of considerable mirth and animation, and many daring attempts are made to capture the succouring bell and increase their amusement on the one hand, and to liberate the captured bell and get both whips into action on the

Morning Chronicle, March 10, 1791. + Gentleman's Magazine, 1779. Hutchison's History of Cumberland.

other. By the three outlets from the place escape is easy; in a nook called Little London, if you can attain it, you are entitled to sanctuary. The bustle, activity, and address, elicited by the whole affair, and the merriment of the spectators as bells are captured or luckless wights subjected to whipping, render it an afternoon of great excitement, which the young especially talk of for months before and after.*

We have now to advert to some of the sports of this day, which cannot be considered as of an innocent character. The chief and most conspicuous of these was the practice of throwing at cocks. It seems to have been universal in England a century ago, and perhaps still lingers in some of those places which William Howitt calls nooks of the country, where modern refinements have not yet penetrated in great strength. It will be recollected that Hogarth makes this sport the first subject in his series of pictures entitled the Four Stages of Cruelty. The poor animal was tied to a stake by a short cord, and the unthinking men and boys, who were to throw at it, took their station at the distance of about twenty yards. Where the cock belonged to some one disposed to make it a matter of business, twopence was paid for three shies at it, the missile used being a broomstick. The sport was continued till the poor creature was killed outright by the blows. Such tumult and outrage attended this inhuman sport a century ago, that, according to a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, it was sometimes dangerous to be near the place where it was practised. Hens were also the subjects of popular amusement at this festival. It was customary in Cornwall to take any one which had not laid eggs before Shrove-Tuesday, and lay it on a barn-floor to be thrashed to death. A man hit at her with a flail; and if he succeeded in killing her therewith, he got her for his pains. It was customary for a fellow to get a hen tied to his back, with some horse-bells hung beside it. A number of other fellows, blindfolded, with boughs in their hand, followed him by the sound of the bells, endeavouring to get a stroke at the bird. This gave occasion to much merriment, for sometimes the man was hit instead of the hen, and sometimes the assailants hit each other instead of either. At the conclusion, the hen was boiled with bacon, and added to the usual pancake feast. Cock-fights were also common on this day. Strange to say, they were in many instances the sanctioned sport of public schools, the master receiving on the occasion a small tax from the boys under the name of a cock-penny. Perhaps this last practice took its rise in the circumstance of the master supplying the cocks, which seems to have been the custom in some places in a remote age. Such cock-fights regularly took place on Fasten's E'en in many parts of Scotland till the middle of the eighteenth century, the master presiding at the battle, and enjoying the perquisite of all the runaway cocks, which were technically called fugies. The greatest of our alarmists must surely allow that in some small particulars we have improved upon the customs of our forefathers. Latterly, an idea seems to have prevailed that the cocks martyred upon Shrove-Tuesday were typical, from the identity of their name in Latin (Galli), of our great national enemies the French. And we can easily imagine some country justices being led by this notion to encourage the sport, thinking that every shy taken at the unfortunate cock was fostering a salutary hatred of the French in the breasts of those who were

yet perhaps to fight their country's battles. There was even a supposition, to which Hearne the antiquary gave some countenance, that the practice took its rise at the time when Henry V. was pursuing his wars in France, being designed to show that the English could as easily overthrow the Galli of their own species as the Galli of the farm-yard. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1737, suggests that perhaps we find a trace of this notion in the architectural

conceit placed over the portal of Blenheim House, where a monstrous lion is seen tearing to pieces a harmless cock. And he adds a just sentiment with regard to the Shrovetide cock-throwings, supposing them to have the above object in view-""Tis a low mean expression of our rage, even in time of war." But the idea of a reference to the French is totally inadmissible, when we find that the custom existed long before the commencement of our wars with France. Another popular notion is, that it took its rise in consequence of a very early incident in our history. "When the Danes were masters of England, and lorded it over the nations of the island, the inhabitants of a certain great city, grown weary of their slavery, had formed a secret conspiracy to murder their masters in one bloody night, and twelve men had undertaken to enter the house by stratagem, and, seizing the arms, surprise the guard which kept it; and at which time, their fellows, upon a signal given, were to come out of their houses and murder all opposers: but when they were putting it in execution, the unusual crowing and fluttering of the cocks about the place they attempted to enter at, discovered their design; upon which the Danes became so enraged, that they doubled their cruelty, and used them with more severity than ever. Soon after they were forced from the Danish yoke, and to revenge themselves upon the cocks, for the misfortune they involved them in, instituted this custom of knocking them on the head on Shrove-Tuesday, the day on which it happened. This sport, though at first only practised in one city, in process of time be

Hone's Year Book, 539.

came a national divertisement, and has continued ever since the Danes first lost the island." Such is the story told, it seems, by an old German author named Cranenstein, who writes of the customs observed by Christian nations.* We need scarcely remark that it seems insufficient to account for a sport of so peculiar a nature and so universal.

The other Shrovetide observances were chiefly of a local nature. The old plays make us aware of a license which the London prentices took on this occasion to assail houses of dubious repute, and cart the unfortunate inmates through the city. This seems to have been done partly under favour of a privilege which the common people assumed at this time of breaking down doors for sport, and of which we have perhaps some remains, in a practice which still exists in some remote districts, of throwing broken crockery and other rubbish at doors. In Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, if not in other counties, the latter practice is called Lent Crocking. The boys go round in small parties, headed by a leader, "who goes up and knocks at the door, leaving his followers behind him, armed with a good stock of potsherds-the collected relics of the washing-pans, jugs, dishes, and plates, that have become the victims of concussion in the hands of unlucky or careless housewives for the past year. When the door is opened, the hero, who is perhaps a farmer's boy, with a pair of black eyes sparkling under the tattered brim of his brown milking-hat, hangs down his head, and, with one corner of his mouth turned up into an irrepressible smile, pronounces the following lines :

I be come a-shrovin,
Vor a little pankiak,

A bit o' bread o' your biakin;

Or a little truckle cheese o' your own miakin. If you'll gie me a little I'll ax no more,

cient; and any person who shall absent himself, without being permitted to do so by the agent, or who shall remain away from the settlement for a longer time than such permission shall authorise, will be considered as having forfeited his location. 8thly, An assignment, or attempt to assign any ticket or location, will also be considered as a forfeiture of all right in the locatee or the assignee; or if it shall appear that the locatee has previously obtained a grant of land from government, his new location shall be forfeited. 9thly, In all cases of abandonment of location, the located land will be considered immediately open for new location or sale. 10thly, As it is not the intention of the government to offer the settlers any assistance, further than the free grant of land, and the opening of the road, applicants are specially desired to consider for themselves, whether or not they have the means of maintaining themselves and their families until crops can be raised from the ground.

Government agents have been appointed at the northern and southern extremities of the settlement, and further information may be obtained on application to Mr John Telfer, Owen's Sound, and Mr James M'Nabb, Garrafraxa. R. B. SULLIVAN, Commissioner Crown Lands."

The letter of reply to our correspondent, dated "Emigrant Office, Montreal, 9th October 1841," is as fol

lows:

here, placed your letter (dated 23d August) in my hands, "Sir-The gentlemen composing the Emigrant Society in reply to a considerable portion of which I have

deemed it not amiss, for your information and that of your farming acquaintance, to send the annexed printed notice. Land may be had on the same principle at the Kennebec and Lambton settlements, in the lower part of the province, by the intending settler applying, on his arrival at Quebec, to A. C. Buchanan, Esq., Chief Emigration Agent.

If you don't gie me nothin, I'll rottle your door." Sometimes he gets a bit of bread and cheese, and at some houses he is told to be gone; when he calls up Healthy settlers, who are steady, industrious, and ecohis followers to send their missiles in a rattling broad-nomical, cannot fail in rapidly improving their condiside against the door."+ It is rather remarkable that, tion in this truly fine country. Farmers, farm-labourers, in Prussia, and perhaps other parts of central Europe, coopers, joiners, blacksmiths, brickmakers, bricklayers, the throwing of broken crockery at doors is a regular stone-masons, plasterers, and common carpenters, genepractice at marriages. Lord Malmesbury, who in 1791 rally succeed well in this country. It would be well to married a princess of that country as proxy for the bring out all your tools. All intending settlers should Duke of York, tells us, that the morning after the endeavour to reach here on or before the 1st of June, ceremonial, a great heap of such rubbish was found at especially agriculturists; and I consider it highly imher royal highness's door. prudent of any man to quit his native country without feeling confident that he has sufficient means to support his family at least two or three months after his arrival NOTICE TO AN HUMBLE CLASS OF here. By you and your friends calling at my office on

EMIGRANTS.

your arrival, it will be to me a pleasurable duty to afford A CORRESPONDENT who was desirous of receiving some twenty-seven years' experience) is calculated to render you all such information as I humbly conceive (from distinct information on the subject of Canadian emigra- essential service. It is a matter of course, that those tion, which unfortunately we had it not in our power who can bring most money and property, are, with good to afford, lately made application to the Emigration management, likely to prosper most rapidly; you, as Agent at Montreal, and has been favoured with a reply an industrious joiner, will doubtless do well in this counreply is written on the back of a printed document, upon easy terms of payment, which, no doubt, I can which he has placed in our hands to make public. The try, especially by having at the same time from fifty to one hundred acres of good land, in an eligible situation, which we present first. It is entitled" Notice to per- put you in the way of obtaining though the first insons desirous of settling at the Owen's Sound Settle-stalment (especially should there be a few acres cleared ment, situated in the upper part of the province of and a small hut upon it) is generally expected to be Canada," and is dated "Crown Lands' Office, 1st No-paid about the time of taking possession of it. It may vember 1840." be necessary for me to observe, that no kind of emigrants receive government aid in being forwarded to work, except such as are totally destitute, with large

"Notice is hereby given, that a road through the crown land from the north-west angle of the township of Garrafraxa to Owen's Sound, upon Lake Huron, is opening at the expense of government. Lots of fifty acres of land each will be laid out on each side of the road.

Settlers who have never obtained a grant of land from government, may obtain a lot of fifty acres on the following conditions:

1st, They are to make application to the commissioner of crown lands, or to the agent on the ground, whenever they shall be ready to become resident on the tract to be granted. 24, Upon giving a satisfactory account of their means of providing for themselves, until a crop can be raised from the ground, they will receive a ticket from the commissioner at the Crown Lands' Office, entitling them to locate the land. 3dly, Upon application to the agent in the first place, he will forward a statement to the Crown Lands' Office, of the applicant's age, family, and means of settlement, upon which, if approved, authority for location will issue. 4thly, The tickets issued will be useless to any but the applicants, and unless presented to the agent within one month from the date, they will not be received by him. Any person who shall receive a ticket, and who shall not proceed to the settlement within one month; or who, having been placed upon land there, shall abandon it, will be considered as having lost all claim to receive land. 5thly, Settlers will be required to clear, and place once under crop, one-third of the land located, and to reside on the land until this settlement-duty is performed; and after one-third of the grant shall have been cleared and under crop, the settler shall be entitled to his patent, free of expense. 6thly, The settlement-duty the ticket. 7thly, Settlers who are under the necessity of is required to be done within four years from the date of being temporarily absent from their locations, will apply to the resident agent, stating the length of their intended absence, and the reason for it, which will be entered on the agent's book, if the reason for absence seems suffi

* Sir W. Ellis's Edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities.
Hone's Year Book, 1599.

families.

Improved farms can be purchased on favourable terms. Practical British farmers, with some means, always succeed remarkably well here: by prudence and perseverance, their capital increases rapidly. For the general good of your friends and the public, should you see fit to make it known, I deem it proper to observe, that men engaged in the silk, cotton, or woollen manufactures, such as weavers, spinners, printers, dyers, &C., will at this time find no employment here in their respective callings, and are obliged to betake themselves to the task of the day-labourer, and cannot at all times during the season be certain of obtaining that employment; and but few of these classes that have reached forty or forty-five years of age become expert labourers, and when they settle on land, the process of clearing is slowly and unskilfuly executed, and poverty, as their lot, is scarcely to be avoided. I have the honour to be, &c., JAMES ALLISON, General Emigration Agent, Montreal."

DULL TALKERS.

Some praters are so full of their own gabble, and so fond of their own discord, that they would not suspend their eternal monotonies to hear the wit of Sheridan or the point of Swift; one might as well attempt to stop the saw of a task-working stone-cutter by the melodies of an Æolian harp. Others, again, there are who hide that ignorance in silent gravity that these expose by silly talk, but they are so coldly correct, and so methodically dull, that any attempt to raise the slumbering sparks of genius by means of such instruments, would be compound of the two former, and possessing many of is a third class, forming a great majority, being a heavy to stir up a languishing fire with a poker of ice. There the properties peculiar to each; thus, they have just ignorance enough to talk amongst fools, and just sense enough to be silent amongst wits. But they have no vivacity in themselves, nor relish for it in another-to attempt to keep up the ball of conversation with such partners, would be to play a game of fives against a bed of feathers.-Lacon.

HOOD'S COMIC ANNUAL.

THIS lively little work holds on in its annual career, as full of jokes as ever, the quality of the material being no way deteriorated from that of former years. In the volume which made its appearance at the beginning of 1842, we find the following clever jeu d'esprit on the practice of asking for autographs. It purports to be a letter from Mr Hood to D. A. A., Esquire, Edinburgh :

"Sir, I am much flattered by your request, and quite willing to accede to it; but, unluckily, you have omitted to inform me of the sort of thing you want. Autographs are of many kinds. Some persons chalk them on walls; others inscribe what may be called auto-lithographs, in sundry colours, on the flag-stones. Gentlemen in love delight in carving their autographs on the bark of trees; as other idle fellows are apt to hack and hew them on tavern benches and rustic seats. Amongst various modes, I have seen a shop-boy dribble his autograph from a tin of water on a dry pavement. The autographs of the Charity Boys are written on large sheets of paper, illuminated with engravings, and are technically called Pieces.' The celebrated Miss Biffin used to distribute autographs amongst her visiters, which she wrote with a pen grasped between her teeth. Another, a German Phenomenon, held the implement with his toes. The Man in the Iron Mask scratched an autograph with his fork on a silver plate, and threw it out of the window. Baron Trenck smudged one with a charred stick; and Silvio Pellico, with his fore-finger dipped in a mixture of soot and water. Lord Chesterfield wrote autographs on windows with a diamond pencil; so did Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. Draco, when Themis requested a few sentences for her album, dipped his stylus in human blood. Faust used the same fluid in the autograph he bartered with Mephistopheles. The Hebrews write their Shpargotua backwards; and some of the Orientals used to clothe them in hieroglyphics. An ancient Egyptian, if asked for his autograph, would probably have sent to the collector a picture of what Mrs Malaprop calls An Allegory on the Banks of the Nile.' Aster, the archer, volunteered an autograph, and sent it bang into Philip's right eye. Some individuals are so chary of their handwriting, as to bestow, when requested, only a mark or cross; others more liberally adorn a specimen of their penmanship with such extraneous flourishes as a cork-screw, a serpent, or a circumbendibus, not to mention such caligraphic fancies as eagles, ships, and swans. Then, again, there are what may be called Mosaic autographs, i. e. inlaid with cockle-shells, blue and white pebbles, and the like, in a little gravel walk. Our grandmothers worked their autographs in canvass samplers; and I have seen one wrought out with pins' heads on a huge white pin-cushion, as thus:- Welcome sweat Babby. Mary Jones.' When the sweetheart of Mr John Junk requested his autograph, and explained what it was, namely, a couple of lines or so, with his name to it,' he replied that he would leave it to her in his will, seeing as how it was 'done with gunpowder on his left arm.'

There have even been autographs written by proxy. For example, Doctor Dodd penned one for Lord Chesterfield; but to oblige a stranger in this way is very dangerous, considering how easily a few lines may be twisted into a rope. According to Lord Byron, the Greek girls compound autographs as apothecaries make up prescriptions, with such materials as flowers, herbs, ashes, pebbles, and bits of coal. Lord Byron himself, if asked for a specimen of his hand, would probably have sent a plaster cast of it. King George the Fourth and the Duke of York, when their autographs were requested for a keep sake, royally favoured the applicant with some of their old Latin-English exercises. With regard to my own particular practice, I have often traced an autograph with my walking-stick on the sea-sand. I also seem to remember writing one with my fore-finger on a dusty table, and am pretty sure I could do it with the smoke of a candle on the ceiling. I have seen something like a very badly scribbled autograph made by children with a thread of treacle on a slice of suet dumpling. Then, it may be done with vegetables. My little girl grew her autograph the other day in mustard and cress. Domestic servants, I have observed, are fond of scrawling autographs on a teaboard with the slopped milk; also of scratching them on a soft deal dresser, the lead of the sink, and, above all, the quicksilver side of a lookingglass-a surface, by the by, quite irresistible to any one who can write and does not bite his nails. A friend of mine possesses an autograph-REMEMBER JIM HOSKINS' -done with a red-hot poker on the back-kitchen door. This, however, is awkward to bind up. Another, but a young lady, possesses a book of autographs, filled just like a tailor's pattern book, with samples of stuff and fustian. The foregoing, sir, are but a few of the varieties; and the questions that have occurred to me in consequence of your only naming the genus, and not the species, have been innumerable. Would the gentleman like it short or long? for Doppeldickius, the learned Dutchman, wrote an autograph for a friend, which the latter published in a quarto volume. Would he prefer it in red ink, or black or suppose he had it in sympathetic, so that he could draw me out when he pleased? Would he choose it on white paper, or tinted, or embossed, or on common brown paper, like Maroncelli's? Would he like it without my name to it as somebody favoured me lately with his autograph in an anonymous letter? Would he rather it were like Guy Faukes's to Lord Monteagle (not Spring Rice), in a feigned hand? Would he relish it in the aristocratical style, i. e. partially or totally illegible? Would he like it-in case he shouldn't like it-on a slate? With such a maze to wander in, if I should not take the exact course you wish, you must blame the short and insufficient clue you have afforded me. In the mean time, as you have not forwarded to me a tree or a table—a paving-stone or a brick wall-a looking-glass or a window-a teaboard or a silver plate-a bill-stamp or a back-kitchen door-I presume to conclude that you want only a common pen-ink-and-paper autograph; and, in the absence of any particular direction for its transmission,

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ON THE DEATH OF A BOY. THE autumn leaves are fading fast, And rustling in the chilly blast; And some around us, old and grey, Have fallen sear'd, and fast as they. But weep not, weep not, theirs had been A sunny morn, a noon serene; And in the evening of their day They laid them down, and slept away. Yet, why these tears upon my cheek?These woman's yearnings wildly weak?These longings for the dear, the deadThe early rose, whose leaves are shed? No more on earth that little hand With brother's love shall clasp mine ownLike bird to a far distant land, That voice (to me so sweet) is flown.

A fibre from my heart is riven !

A life-drop from my heart is shed!
Ay! but thy spirit-that's in Heaven-
'Tis but the dust that's with the dead!
I'll gaze on yon bright star, and see
The home where thou art dwelling now-
Methinks soft wings are fanning me-
They soothe, they cool, my fever'd brow!
I'll listen to the wind's soft swell,
And fancy thine the gentle sounds;
They sigh not forth a sad farewell-
Thus in my ear the murmurs dwell,
"We'll meet where endless love abounds!"
I'll weep no more-no more I'll sigh!
I feel, dear boy, thy presence nigh;
And still, methinks, thy spirit clings
Around me in my wanderings.

ENLIGHTENED ENTERPRISE.

A. G.

A little enlightened enterprise in a single individual, comparatively obscure, often leads to great results; and therefore no man, in his efforts to begin any branch of trade, should be discouraged either because he is unknown to fame or possesses slender means of immediate success. Enterprise on a small and at first unheeded scale, is indeed the foundation of almost all great professional undertakings. We have a striking and honourable instance of this in the history of type-founding in Scotland. Exactly a century ago, types were for the first time cast in Scotland, and a trade begun in an article for which our northern kingdom is now highly celebrated. The introducer of this elegant art was Alexander Wilson, a native of St Andrews, at whose university he received a liberal education. After completing his studies, he went to London, and, while studying medicine in the British metropolis, he accidentally visited a type-foundry, where a close examination of the process convinced him that he could effect great improvements in the art. He communicated his ideas to an acquaintance, also a native of St Andrews, and they removed to that city in 1742, where they opened a foundry, at which, as already observed, the first types in Scotland, worthy of the name, were cast. Their success exceeded their most sanguine expectations, and their increasing connexion with Ireland induced them to remove the foundry to Glasgow in 1744, where it rapidly obtained a remarkable celebrity, and where Mr Wilson was so highly esteemed as a man of science, that he was appointed professor of astronomy in the university. This venerable gentleman left a family, who inherited his abilities; his grandsons now carry on most extensive foundries of types in Edinburgh, London, and Dublin; and from their own and their father's establishment have gone forth other founders, whose taste and skill have added to the glory of the profession. Young men inclined to feel daunted with obstacles may treasure these valuable facts in their remembrance.

of Dr Rush. The tree had grown upon her father's farm; and all the scenery of her youth grew up again at the mention of it. From that moment she began to recover. Another fact, of a different description, is related by the same author:-An Italian gentleman died in New York, of yellow fever. In the beginning of his illness he spoke English; in the middle, French; at the close, Italian. These anecdotes correspond in illustrating the mysterious revival of memory amid the gloom of life, and when the sun had almost set. The vivid distinctness of the recollection, at the last hour of existence, is not more remarkable than solemn.-Fraser's Magazine. [We believe that the revival of recollection near death can be accounted for physiologically: it has been stated to us, that the activity of the brain at that period, is a result of the great effort which nature makes to rally, and throw off the cause of disease. The renewed recollection of a forgotten language has been explained by phrenologists.]

POPULAR DELUSIONS.

Maitland, in his "History of London," gravely informs us, that one of the projects which received great encouragement, was for the establishment of a company "to make deal-boards out of saw-dust." This is, no doubt, intended as a joke; but there is abundance of evidence to show that dozens of schemes, hardly a whit more reasonable, lived their little day, ruining hundreds ere they fell. One of them was for a wheel for perpetual motion-capital one million; another was for "encouraging the breed of horses (in England), and of improving of glebe and church lands, and repairing and rebuilding parsonage and vicarage houses." Why the clergy, who were so mainly interested in the latter clause, should have taken so much interest in the first, is only to be explained on the supposition, that the scheme was pro jected by a knot of the fox-hunting parsons once so common in England. The shares of this company were rapidly subscribed for. But the most absurd and preposterous of all, and which showed, more completely than any other, the utter madness of the people, was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled, "A combut nobody to know what it is." Were not the fact pany for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, stated by scores of credible witnesses, it would be impossible to believe that any person could have been duped by such a project. The man of genius who essayed this bold and successful inroad upon public credulity, merely stated in his prospectus that the required capital was half a million, in five thousand shares, L.100 each, deposit L.2 per share. Each subscriber, paying his deposit, would be entitled to L.100 per annum per share. How this immense profit was to be obtained, he did not condescend to inform them at that time, but promised that in a month full particulars should be duly announced, and a call made for the remaining L.98 of the subscription. Next morning, at nine o'clock, this great man opened an office in Cornhill. Crowds of people beset his door; and than one thousand shares had been subscribed for, and when he shut up, at three o'clock, he found that no less the deposits paid. He was thus, in five hours, the winner of L.2000. He was philosopher enough to be contented with his venture, and set off the same evening for the continent, and was never heard of again.-Mackay's History of Popular Delusions.

THE SUMMERS FROM 1816 TO 1841. 1816-Extremely cold and wet throughout: one of the July and August, but very fine in September, which worst harvests ever known. 1817-Very cold and wet in favoured the harvest. 1818-Intensely hot and dry; the thermometer twice at 89 degrees, and often above 80 degrees. 1819-A very fine hot summer: the month of August intensely hot: scarcely any thunder. 1820-A Some very hot days occasionally, but for the most part fine summer on the whole, and very productive. 1821cold and showery. Immense rains during harvest, which for the most part, but heavy rain at times, with much did great damage. 1822-A splendid year: hot and dry thunder. A very abundant harvest. 1823-A very cold showery summer. In July it rained every day except CAPTAIN TAYLER'S BREAKWATER. the 24th: very little thunder. 1824---Very fine and warm Various notices have lately been given in the news- throughout, but never intensely hot. The thermometer papers of this invention. It is well known that in severe stood highest September 1, and was at 79 degrees. 1825 storms on our coast, ships are not safe even in certain-Very hot almost throughout. July 18, the thermometer harbours, the sea rolling in upon them with immense stood at 90 degrees, which is the highest observation in fury; hence the plan of building breakwaters, or huge the course of all these summers. 1826---The hottest and mounds of masonry, opposite the mouths of harbours, by driest summer ever known: it began early and continued which the force of the sea is lessened. But this method late. The thermometer was twice at 88 degrees, and of protecting harbourages being excessively expensive, often at 84 degrees. 1827---Hot and dry, but not to such Captain Tayler, of the Royal Navy, has invented a breakan extremity as in the preceding summer: much thunder. water which floats, and, while answering all the purposes 1828---Immense rains, which began July 9, and continued of a solid breakwater, can be placed at perhaps a hun- almost without cessation. Large floods July 16 and 30. dredth part of the expense. His scheme is so simple and Heavy thunder-storms; bad harvest. 1829---A very cold ingenious, that it seems wonderful it was not thought of stormy summer. In September the rains were very heavy. sooner. It consists of placing in the water an obstacle In 1830-Very cold and wet, especially in June: much which will yield to the action of the waves, yet deprive thunder. 1831---Warm, gleamy, showery, and electrical. them of their violence. Here we are called on to recol- A sickly summer; great number of insects, especially lect that, when waves advance, it is not the water which house flies. 1832---Moderate for the most part, without is advancing, but the force which has been communicated much inclination either one way or the other. 1833to the water. The rolling force of the waves, then, ac- Very fine, the early part especially; an abundant harvest. cording to Captain Tayler's plan, and as far as we under- 1834---A very fine hot summer, but heavy rains at the end stand it, is to be met by a hollow framework, which of July; an early and productive harvest. 1835 --Hot receives it and brings it to a calm. If the obstacle were and dry, with some showery exceptions; another abunsolid, it would be beat to pieces; but being open, it is dant harvest. 1836---In the midland counties dry weather constantly filled with water, and this water receives the predominated. Remarkable for the almost entire destruc force into its tranquil bosom. Moored off the most iron- tion of the turnip crop by the fly. Harvest not amiss. bound coast, this species of breakwater will afford a re- 1837---A fair average of hot weather, but preceded by a treat to any number of vessels, and be the means of sav- very severe spring; harvest deficient. 1838---A cold wet ing much life and property. It is pleasing to find science summer, and a late unproductive harvest. 1839-Very thus extending her operations in the cause of humanity heavy rains, almost without cessation; the harves not and national advancement. unproductive, but much damaged. 1840---A fine warm summer, with intense heat in August: fine harvest weather; feed deficient. 1841---Fine and warm in May and June; wet and cold in July and the beginning of August; fine harvest weather at the end, and in September.-Far

MEMORY.

Dr Rush of America relates two or three very pleasing anecdotes of the freshness with which the memory preserves the rural scenery of carly life:-When the physician visited a sick woman whom he had known in childhood, she was lying in typhus fever, and all hope of her recovery was nearly over. Two little words, like a fabulous talisman, seemed to bring back her wandering thoughts. The "eagle's nest" was the brief exclamation

mer's Almanac.

LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W S. ORR, Paternoster Row.

Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.

[graphic]

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,"

'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

NUMBER 524.

ECCENTRIC MORALS.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1842.

THE natural feelings are subject to many strange aberrations and depravities. The Negro of Soudan would probably pronounce the most beautiful lady at Almack's a fright, and point for the true standard of loveliness to some overgrown black Venus, the result of ten years of maternal cramming. The African gentleman's taste would be held by some to imply that the ideas of men on these points are all matter of habit or prejudice; but this would be rather a rash way of judging. The wonder may, we think, be accounted for by supposing that the faculty giving the sense of the beautiful has been in him dormant for lack of all that could excite or train it, and that habit and prejudice have only reconciled him to an object absolutely not calculated to be agreeable to this feel ing in most men. In the same way, we conceive, some men become accustomed to swallow with a kind of relish potions which to the bulk of mankind appear, and therefore really are, bitter and nauseous. The tale told of a king of antiquity, who, by taking poison in little but gradually increasing quantities, came at last to be a mass diffusing death all around, while himself remained in good health, is, though evidently an exaggerated case, yet one generally consonant with what we know to be possible: otherwise how should Coleridge have been able to take a pint of laudanum in a day? There have even been appetites so depraved, that the mud of the streets became a treatthough, probably, in such cases, it is not the perversion of habit so much as the derangement of disease. It would not perhaps be more absurd to conclude from such instances that man had no natural election between a good joint and a lump of soil, than to suppose, because the Negroes admire ugly objects, that there is no to kalon, or absolute beautiful.

So it is with almost all the finest feelings of our nature. To observe the conduct of mothers in this country, one would suppose that the protection of the infant was a principle in no instance to be broken through. An English lady seems to experience the bitterest agonies of alarm and distress, if the least danger of any kind threaten the helpless innocent that lies in her bosom. Here, at least, we would think, is a feeling which nothing on earth could corrupt or pervert. Yet, unfortunately, we know that the Spartans exposed deformed or sickly children, and that Roman parents had by their laws a right to do so; that the Mingrelians, a people who professed Christianity, were accustomed to bury their offspring alive, with the view perhaps of repressing population; and that the Chinese practise infanticide on a large scale. Such things, however, do not argue that there is no natural feeling dictating a love of and care for the young, and that all these things are only matters of custom. They only, in our opinion, show that the feeling may be weak and comparatively dormant in some nations, as we know it to be in some individuals amongst ourselves, or else may be overpowered by some principle temporarily stronger. The Mingrelians and Chinese may be amongst those nations who have no great endowment of the faculty which gives the love of children; and, in the case of the Spartans, we all know that their regard to the public interest was sufficient in them to subdue the natural feeling, even on the supposition of its being of average strength and activity. It is worthy of remark, that the vivacity of this feeling does not absolutely depend on civilisation: while the Chinese murder their infants, the Esquimaux, a much less enlightened people, are remarkable for an extreme tenderness towards them. Nor does

this feeling always rise in proportion with the respec-
tability of the lower animals: the feline and apes are
perhaps the most philoprogenitive of all creatures.
Parental and filial affection are recognised as strong
feelings amongst us, and it is difficult to imagine how
a son could ever become an indifferent object to a
father, or how a mother could ever regard the death
of one of her stately striplings as even a tolerable,
much less a pleasing, event. Yet a Roman magis-
trate would coolly condemn his son to death for a
state offence; and a Grecian mother was delighted to
receive home, stretched on his shield, the lifeless body
of the youth who had fallen fighting for his country.
Aksoukor Bourshi, the Dispenser of Fortune, as he
was called, a gallant prince of Mossul, fell a victim to
the daggers of a fanatical sect whose creed recognised
assassination as the most meritorious of all acts. The
populace seized the murderers, whom, with one excep-
tion, they tore in pieces. The mother of the assassin
who was spared, hearing of the catastrophe, expressed
the greatest joy, and dressed herself in all her finest
attire, believing her son to have been killed in what
she believed to be the best of causes. When she
learnt that the young man still lived, she blackened
her face, and cut off her long flowing hair, the eastern
signs of extreme woe. In all these cases, we see one
principle overpowering another, the latter, however,
being probably, in some of these nations, the weaker
of the two naturally.

There can, we think, be no other rational way of
accounting for those eccentricities as to morals for
which some nations have been remarkable. Lycur-
gus, as is generally known, legalised theft, and only
punished it when a blundering rogue was caught in
the fact. He was so eager to make his people intel-
lectually sharp, that this license did not seem too dear
a way of effecting the object. So also the Grecian
philosophers, in their anxiety to advance their national
interests, not only sanctioned piracy, but held it to be
laudable. The whole history of Greece is a remark-
able illustration of the power of a sentiment akin to
what we call public spirit, to extinguish the natural
emotions of the individual bosom.

Even the instinct of self-preservation, so universally active, the mainspring of human actions, has been, as we well know, overpowered by other feelings. The Hindoo devotee prostrates himself under the car of Juggernaut in a most contented and cheerful state of mind. The widow of the same nation, if left to her choice, in general would rather burn with her deceased husband than not. They think they are making a good bargain in so doing, and, firm in their faith, no qualm comes over them. The Highlander of old would gladly take the death-blow aimed at his chief, so that he could save that venerated person. Here the sacrifice was dictated by merely a habit of reverence, which made the chief's life seem preferable to his own. He contemplated no selfish advantage, but, on the contrary, made a pure sacrifice of self. Yet it was only one feeling, after all, overpowering another.

Our common notions respecting the destruction of a fellow-creature, in other circumstances than those of conflict, or for the purpose of self-defence, represent it as an act from which man instinctively revolts, and which, if it be unfortunately committed, is ever after a source of the most bitter uneasiness of feeling. We think of the murderer as haunted through life with horrible recollections, harassed by remorse, and suffering an expiatory death every day, until true death at length comes, amidst unspeakable horrors, to close a scene which no one can look on without shuddering. It is, nevertheless, true that there are large bodies of people who practise murder without the

PRICE 14d.

experience of the slightest uneasiness either at the
moment or afterwards. Such are the Thugs of India,
of whom various well-authenticated accounts have
been presented to the public within the last few years.
They are a kind of sect, or set of religionists, who
waylay and kill travellers for the sake of booty.
"There is not a Thug," says Captain Sleeman, "who
feels the slightest remorse for the murders which he
may, in the course of his vocation, have perpetrated,
or assisted in perpetrating. A Thug considers the
persons murdered precisely in the light of victims
offered up to the goddess; and he remembers them as
a priest of Jupiter remembered the oxen, and a priest
of Saturn the children, sacrificed upon their altars.
He meditates his murders without any misgiving; he
perpetrates them without any emotion of pity; and
he remembers them without any feeling of remorse.
They trouble not his dreams, nor does their recollec-
tion ever cause him any inquietude in darkness, in
solitude, or the hour of death." How are we to recon-
cile the rule, in this case, with so large and every way
so remarkable an exception? It is also to be remem-
bered that there has been such a thing as a nation of
assassins somewhat nearer to our doors than the Thugs;
and that, within Christendom, religion has often been
brought to bear either for the prompting of homicide
or its justification. When Louis D'Orleans assassi-
nated Jean Sans Peur in 1407, Jean Petit, a Norman
Cordelier monk and doctor of laws, undertook to jus-
tify the act by twelve arguments in honour of the
twelve apostles! The Smithfield fires were lighted,
and the bell of St Germain l'Auxerrois was rung, for
the supposed glory of God. John Knox "spoke mer-
rily" of the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and united
himself to the murderers, although of the general
character of that preacher there cannot be a doubt
that it included many noble points. We would have
to write volumes instead of paragraphs, if we were to
dip deeper into the annals of religious persecution;
suffice it, in one word, to say that, from beginning to
end, they show the natural feelings of humanity
obscured by the predominance of other and depraved
feelings.

The aberrations of the religious feeling itself are most extraordinary, and such as investigation would perhaps never exhaust. The first element of this feeling is unquestionably the principle of worship-and to what objects has worship been paid, from the ugly caricatures of humanity which some Asiatic nations set up as idols, to the Grecian Jupiter and Apollo, respective emblems of majesty and beauty-from the sacred cow of Egypt to the Lama of Thibet! Worship implies an object presumedly superior to the worshipper; but these objects could never be rationally held superior to those who pay or have paid them reverence. Yet they were or are sincerely, devoutly worshipped. Between the true object, an Almighty Unseen Deity, and these substitutes of ignorance and delusion, what an interval! Yet still there can be no doubt that the veneration of men has been, and is, excited by such objects.

The sense of justice and truth is not less liable to depravation. Of truth, barbarous nations have scarcely a trace; of justice, they have very little. Some semienlightened nations, as, for example, the Chinese, are scarcely any better in either respect. And even amongst the most enlightened nations, we find some odd ideas and practices. It is not assuming at all, but only stating a recognised fact, that there are scores of voters in almost every borough in England, who cannot see the least impropriety in selling their votes for a sum of money, and would be prepared to defend the act as one perfectly indifferent in all respects except with a regard to their own interest. Classes

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