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 UTOBIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 SIR JOHN BOWRING 
 
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 fTHACA. N. Y. 
 
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 VICTOR EMANUEL 
 
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AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS 
 
 SIE JOHI^ BOWEII^G. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Illustrated with Maps and Diagrams. Demy 8vo, cloth, price 16s. 
 
 The sketches contained in this volume are based upon Notes made during 
 the course of several tours through the provinces of Mysore and Coorg. In- 
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 sources as could be comprised within moderate limits. 
 
 " An admirable and exhaustive geograijliical, political, and industrial survey." 
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 a special concern in that portion of our Indian Empire." — Post. 
 
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 lating to countries whose welfare ia intimately connected with our own." Daily 
 
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Cornell University 
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A UTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF Sir John Bojvring. 
 
 WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR 
 
 LEWIN B. BOWRING. 
 
 Henry S. King & Co., London. 
 
 1877. 
 

 A' G o / <^L^ ^ 
 
 The 7'ights of trmislation and of reproduction are r 
 
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 '-Xj 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 While arranging the papers of the late Sir John Bowring, 
 I discovered a great number of autobiographical notes and 
 recollections in his handwriting, which he had apparently 
 intended some day to put into a connected shape. The 
 majority of these fragments were composed about the year 
 1861, after his return from the East, but many were written 
 when he was in China, w^hile others again, relating to inci- 
 dents in his earlier life, and to persons with whom he was 
 then brought into contact, were recorded at the time. Un- 
 fortunately, these reminiscences were never collated nor 
 revised by the writer, neither did he leave any instructions 
 regarding their publication. 
 
 Although therefore, the following pages comprise 
 the more memorable experiences of a very varied life, 
 and may be deemed worthy of preservation, they do 
 not constitute a continuous or complete memoir ; and 
 while the task of eliminating doubtful matter has been 
 comparatively easy, I feel that no one but the writer 
 himself could have supplied what is defective, or have 
 elucidated more fully those portions of his recollections 
 which may seem to need more elaborate explanation. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 In tlie brief account of his life whicli I have prefixed, I 
 have said but little regarding his political opinions, and 
 still less about his views on religious subjects, because with 
 many of them T do not sympathise, and because he has 
 sufficiently indicated what they were in his notes. 
 
 L. B. B. 
 
 ToRQUAT, May 1877. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Early Eecollections — 
 
 My Grandfather, 
 My Grandmother, 
 My Father, 
 My Mother, 
 St Leonard's Parish, . 
 George's Meeting-House, 
 Unitarian Ministers, . 
 Dr Lant Carpenter, 
 
 Commercial Experiences — 
 Early Life as a Merchant, . 
 
 Literary Reminiscences — 
 Literary Productions, 
 W. Hazlitt, 
 
 The Westminster Review — 
 Establishment of the Review, 
 Jeremy Bentham, 
 H. Soiithern, 
 
 Writers in the Westmmsler, 
 James Mill, 
 
 General T. P. Thompson, . 
 C. Barker, .... 
 W. J. Fox, ... 
 
 Electioneering Experiences, 
 
 Parliamentary Recollections, 
 
 Free Trade Recollections, 
 
 
 Page 
 
 n Bowring, 
 
 1 
 
 Page 
 
 
 31 Workmen, 
 
 43 
 
 32 School Life, . 
 
 44 
 
 33 Moreton Characters, 
 
 49 
 
 34 Dartmoor, 
 
 51 
 
 36 Youthful Aspirations, . 
 
 52 
 
 37 Polemical Controversy, . 
 
 53 
 
 39 First Launch in Life, 
 
 54 
 
 42 
 
 
 55 Successful Crcesuses, 
 
 58 
 
 60 
 
 G. Dyer, 
 
 62 
 
 61 
 
 T.Hood, 
 
 63 
 
 65 
 
 Southwood Smith, . 
 
 74 
 
 65 
 
 A. Fonblanque, 
 
 75 
 
 66 
 
 J. A. Roebuck, 
 
 75 
 
 67 
 
 W.Ellis, 
 
 76 
 
 68 
 
 J.Hogg, . . . 
 
 76 
 
 70 
 
 J. and C. Austin, . 
 
 77 
 
 72 
 
 W. Watson, . 
 
 77 
 
 73 
 
 
 . 78 
 . 82 
 . 88 
 
 Languages, 
 Adventures, 
 
 91 
 
Vlll 
 
 
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Countries Visited — 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Spain, .... 98 
 
 Egypt, . 
 
 Portugal, 
 
 
 
 
 Ill 
 
 Syria, 
 
 Russia, 
 
 
 
 
 117 
 
 Prussia, . 
 
 Finland, 
 
 
 
 
 125 
 
 Isle of Man, . 
 
 Sweden, 
 
 
 
 
 129 
 
 Singapore — Penang, 
 
 France, 
 
 
 
 
 132 
 
 China, 
 
 Holland, 
 
 
 
 
 148 
 
 British India, 
 
 Denmark, 
 
 
 
 
 153 
 
 Ceylon, . 
 
 Belgium, 
 
 
 
 
 156 
 
 Java, 
 
 Tuscany, 
 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 Siam, 
 
 Eome, 
 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 Philippines, . 
 
 Italy, . 
 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 
 Sketches op Various Celebrities— 
 
 
 Louis Philippe, . . 258 
 
 Thomas Moore, 
 
 Leopold I., . 
 
 
 265 
 
 Mrs Opie, 
 
 George Canning, 
 
 
 281 
 
 Mrs Barbauld, 
 
 Lord Palmerston, 
 
 
 288 
 
 Elizabeth Benger, . 
 
 Duke of Wellington, 
 
 
 290 
 
 Helen M. Williams, 
 
 Lord Melbourne, 
 
 
 293 
 
 T. N. Talfourd, 
 
 Lord Brougham, 
 
 
 294 
 
 Coleridge, Southey, and 
 
 Lord Hardinge, . 
 
 
 296 
 
 worth. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, 
 
 
 296 
 
 N. T. Carrington, . 
 
 Eichard Cobden, 
 
 
 300 
 
 Dr Wolcot, . 
 
 C. P. Thomson, . 
 
 
 301 
 
 Alexander Humboldt, 
 
 Talleyrand, 
 
 
 303 
 
 Niebuhr and Schlegel, 
 
 La Fayette, 
 
 
 305 
 
 Bunsen, . 
 
 Barry O'Meara, . 
 
 
 306 
 
 Lamartine, 
 
 Dumouriez, 
 
 
 307 
 
 Madame de Stael, . 
 
 Ldon Faucher, 
 
 
 310 
 
 M. A. Jullien, 
 
 Aries Dufour, 
 
 
 312 
 
 F. E. Franzen, 
 
 D'Argenson, 
 
 
 314 
 
 H. M. Karamzin, . 
 
 Fournier Pescay, 
 
 
 315 
 
 Adelung, 
 
 Count Porro, 
 
 
 316 
 
 H. C. Cras and Meyer, 
 
 N. Piccolo, 
 
 
 317 
 
 Conde Jose Antonio, 
 
 Fossombroni, 
 
 
 318 
 
 St Simonians, 
 
 Mina, . 
 
 
 319 
 
 Eev. E. Aspland, . 
 
 Echeverria, 
 
 
 322 
 
 Rev. T. Belsham, . 
 
 Coray, 
 
 
 323 
 
 Abbe Gregoire, 
 
 Hassan al D'Ghies, 
 
 
 323 
 
 RAm Mohun Eoy, . 
 
 Dehk Ferencz, . 
 
 
 326 
 
 Mezzofanti, 
 
 Jeremy Bentham, 
 
 
 337 
 
 Langles, 
 
 Lord Byron, 
 
 
 344 
 
 J. Milford, . 
 
 Sir Walter £ 
 
 jcott, 
 
 
 
 347 
 
 Lord Erskine, 
 
 Words- 
 
A BEIEF lEMOIE Of SIE JOHN BOWEING. 
 
 Sir John Bowring was born on the I7tli of October 1792, 
 and died on the 23rd of November 1872, having just com- 
 pleted his 80th year. His father, Charles Bowring, was the 
 descendant of a Devonshire family, which had for many 
 generations been engaged in the woollen trade, and his 
 mother, Sarah Jane Ann Lane, was a daughter of the Rev. 
 Thomas Lane, Vicar of St Ives, who, on the maternal side, 
 was descended from Sir Andrew Henley, and claimed 
 kindred with William of Wykeham. Sir John Bo wring's 
 ancestors formerly held a small property called Bowrings- 
 leigh, near Kingsbridge, and a deed is extant showing that 
 in 1379 it was in the possession of one John Bouryng, 
 from whose descendants it passed eventually by purchase, 
 in the feign of William HI., into the hands of the Ilbert 
 family, who still possess it. 
 
 A branch of the Bowring family settled in Chulmleigh, 
 where Sir John Bowring's grandfather's great-grandfather, 
 named John, possessed a small estate, which he sold in order 
 to enter the woollen trade, at that time a profitable pursuit 
 in the west of England, much followed by Dissenters. He 
 struck tokens in 1670, in his own name, the coins having a 
 device on them showing his craft. On his death, his widow 
 had the intention of repurchasing his landed property, but on 
 
^ A BEIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 Monmouth's landing, having concealed all her money and 
 plate in silver vessels, which she hid among the wool, her 
 hoard was discovered, and her house ransacked by the 
 soldiery, who carried off also two of her apprentices. 
 
 Her son John was a schoolmaster, and wrote a great 
 many indifferent verses, some of which show violent 
 animosity to the Jacobites, and great exultation at the 
 victory of the Duke of Cumberland over the rebels. His 
 son Benjamin carried on the pursuits of his forefathers, as did 
 his grandson John. The latter was a man of great independ- 
 ence of character, and deeply imbued with religious senti- 
 ments, which he endeavoured to impress on his grandson, 
 the subject of this memoir, in early childhood. In some of 
 his letters he condemns in strong terms the attitude assumed 
 by the English Ministry towards America, and in others 
 expresses his sympathy with the efforts made in Pennsyl- 
 vania and in England to bring about the abolition of slavery. 
 On the former subject, he thus expresses himself in a letter 
 to his cousin, dated 1st August 1778. "After the most 
 deliberate consideration of the nature of the quarrel between 
 us, I freely own it appears to me that they are right and 
 we wrong, nor is there anything I more ardently wish for 
 relative to our national concerns than a thorough change 
 both of men and manners in the British Cabinet. Yet, as 
 an Englishman, I by no means wish to see my country van- 
 quished by the arms of France. That some more able and 
 upright Ministry than those my country is now curst with 
 may, by providence, be raised up in the place of the present, 
 is more than my most fervent wish. Should I live to see my 
 country once more friendly united with America, and the 
 pride of France effectually humbled, it would afford me 
 such real pleasure as true patriots only could feel, though 
 too great for the pen of eloquence fully to express." Again, 
 in another letter, he observes, " it appears to me indisputable 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 3 
 
 that we had no right, as it possibly may to you that we had 
 a right, to tax America. Just in the same manner as this 
 claim appears right in your eyes, I suppose it did formerly 
 to King James, that he had an indisputable right to tax his 
 subjects, nor can I see how the man (supposing him to act 
 consistently) that blames the Americans but must in like 
 manner disapprove of the glorious Revolution. I would by 
 no means suppose you admit the conclusion drawn from the 
 above argument, yet I own I cannot see how it can fairly 
 be contradicted." 
 
 The precepts early instilled into John Bowring's mind 
 by his grandfather tended much to form his character, and 
 when at a later period he devoted his energies to carry 
 out the principles inculcated by Jeremy Bentliam, the Queen 
 Square Place philosopher found a willing hearer in one who 
 in childhood had been trained to an intense love of liberty 
 and independence of opinion. The religious germs in his 
 character, which formed a marked feature of it through 
 life, were implanted by his grandfather at an impression- 
 able age, and were developed under the teaching of Dr 
 Lant Carpenter, who was an intimate friend of his family. 
 In his earlier letters, written when he was twelve or thirteen 
 years old, there prevails a strong religious feeling, tinged 
 with a somewhat didactic and moralizing tone, which seems 
 strangely at variance with the natural buoyancy of youth. 
 Reflections on death, and juvenile verses on the shortness 
 of life and its sorrows, are interspersed freely in these pro- 
 ductions, while even in his later years such thoughts con- 
 stantly sprang up, and acted as a counterpoise to his zest 
 for new impressions. So strong indeed were these sentiments 
 in his mind, that had not destiny opened out to him a far 
 different field, it is probable that his natural inclination 
 would have led him to become a Dissenting Minister. 
 
 On leaving school, he entered a merchant's office at 
 
4 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 Exeter, and during the ensuing four years laid the founda- 
 tion of his linguistic attainments. He learned French 
 from a refugee priest, Italian from itinerant venders of 
 harometers and mathematical instruments, while Spanish 
 and Portuguese, German and Dutch, were acquired with the 
 aid of some of his mercantile friends. The six languages 
 mentioned were those which he afterwards spoke with ease 
 and fluency, but having the quick ear and ready apprehension 
 which constitute the linguist, he soon found himself able to 
 converse with facility in the native tongue of any country 
 which he visited. He had a fair acquaintance with Danish 
 and Swedish, and acquu^ed a book-knowledge of Eussian, 
 Servian, Polish, and Bohemian, which enabled him to trans- 
 late the productions of writers in those languages. He 
 studied Magyar also with some success ; at a later period 
 learnt a little Arabic during his journeys in the East, and, 
 when an old man, mastered a good deal of that difficult 
 language Chinese, to which he devoted much attention. Al- 
 though he was rather a linguist than a philologist, he wrote 
 many articles on some of the less known tongues of Europe. 
 In 1811 he proceeded to London, as a clerk in the office 
 of Milford and Co. This firm carried on extensive trans- 
 actions with Spain, and the head of the house, recognising 
 his ability, sent him in 1813 to the Peninsula, where his busi- 
 ness habits and acquaintance with Spanish, made his services 
 very valuable. He readily adapted himself to the ways of the 
 people, mixed much in society, and formed friendships with 
 many of the leading patriots of the time. His main occu- 
 pation was receiving consignments for the use of the English 
 Commissariat, but the conclusion of hostilities brought him 
 back to England at the close of 1814. The next year he 
 went to Lisbon, to effect an adjustment of his claims for 
 supplies furnished to the army, and on his return set up in 
 business on his own account. 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 5 
 
 In 1816 he married Maria, daughter of Mr Samuel Lewin 
 of Hackney, and during the vicissitudes of forty-two years, 
 in which were blended, as in most human lives, much of 
 happiness and much of sorrow, his wife, by her noble cha- 
 racter and equanimity under heavy trials, proved herself a 
 worthy partner, rejoicing in his successes and strengthening 
 him in his reverses. 
 
 In 1819-20 he travelled extensively on the Continent on 
 commercial business, visiting Spain, France, Belgium, Hol- 
 land, Russia, and Sweden. During this long absence he 
 formed the acquaintance in Spain of many well known 
 liberals ; in France he gained the friendship of Abbe 
 Gregoire (Bishop of Blois), Laroche, Thierry, Cuvier, 
 Humboldt, and other prominent politicians and learned 
 men ; while elsewhere he met many illustrious literary 
 characters, with whom during several years he main- 
 tained an active correspondence. At Paris he was 
 charmed with the perfect equality which prevailed among 
 literati of all ranks, and observed in one of his letters, 
 " It will be the height of my ambition to do something 
 which many connect my name with the literature of the 
 age." The tendency which he now began to exhibit to 
 deviate from the career which he had originally chosen, and 
 to enter upon the literary field, was no doubt detrimentoi 
 to the successful prosecution of commercial pursuits, but the 
 attraction w^as too powerful to be resisted, and immediately 
 after his return from Russia in 1820, he published a small 
 work called " Specimens of the Russian Poets." The trans- 
 lations in this volume are on the whole felicitous and truth- 
 ful, and the book, having the merit of novelty, obtained 
 sufficient success to encourage him in rendering into English 
 the productions of writers in the cognate Slavonic tongues. 
 
 In 1821, having been entrusted by Milford and Co. with 
 a power of attorney to prefer certain claims of theirs against 
 
b A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRIXG. 
 
 the Spanish Government, he again proceeded to the Penin- 
 sula, stopping at Paris, where he made the acipaintance of 
 the Duhe of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe, who re- 
 ceived him with marked kindness. At this time intrigues 
 Avere on foot to bring the Duke to the front, but he was far 
 too astute to reveal his secret designs, knowing how closely 
 he was watched by the elder branch of the Bourbons. Mr 
 Bo wring writes, " several of the leading liberals here 
 have requested me to urge the Duke to mingle more with 
 the liberal party, and to become the rallying point of the 
 friends of liberty. I had been made acquainted with a 
 scheme now at work for changing the government, which 
 everybody says will not last. The Duke said, ' I know my 
 strength. The crown has been offered to me again and 
 again, but I will only take it when I ascertain that it is the 
 general wish of the nation. I am sure the present state of 
 things cannot and will not last. I am the object of repeated 
 — of daily repeated insults, in the belief that I will bear 
 them, but they do not know that I may stretch out my 
 hand, and possess the superiority whenever I set my strength 
 in motion.' " 
 
 In his letters written from Spain at this time, Mr 
 Bowring gives graphic accounts of a terrible epidemic of 
 fever which prevailed throughout Catalonia and in the south- 
 ern provinces, and which on several occasions led to his 
 undergoing the duress vile of quarantine in its most repul- 
 sive shape. In Barcelona 18,000 persons are said to have 
 perished, and many towns were nearly depopulated by the 
 disease. 
 
 In 1822, he was again in Paris, where he was the object 
 of attentions on the part of the Duke of Orleans, Lafayette, 
 and various prominent members of the anti-Bourbon section 
 of politicians, but his expedition terminated disastrously, for 
 on his arrival at Calais he was arrested, and thrown into 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 7 
 
 prison at Boulogne, where he was confined six weeks, and 
 was only released on the urgent demand of Mr Canning that 
 he should either be formally tried or set free. The ostens- 
 ible charge against him was that he was concerned, together 
 with Colonels Fabvier, Dentzel, and other noted French 
 liberals, in endeavouring to effect the escape from prison of 
 the four Serjeants of Rochelle, who were executed for con- 
 spiracy. An account of this episode will be found in his 
 notice of France, but there can be little doubt that his 
 imprisonment was owing to his known sympathy with the 
 advanced reformers who were engaged in undermining the 
 throne of the Bourbons, and who regarded with jealous eyes 
 the intimacy which subsisted between the Orleans family 
 and the English radical party. On his release, he was pro- 
 hibited from ever re-entering France, and in fact he did 
 not again visit that country till he came as the bearer 
 of a congratulatory letter from the citizens of London to 
 the Parisians on the events of the three glorious days of 
 July 1830. 
 
 On his return to England he threw himself heart and soul 
 into literary pursuits, his principal writings being transla- 
 tions from Spanish and Dutch, a second volume of Russian 
 Anthology, "Matins and Vespers," which obtained an exten- 
 sive circulation, and an English version of Chamisso's 
 charming German tale, " Peter Schlemihl." 
 
 About the year 1821 he had been introduced to Jeremy 
 Bentham, who conceived in 1824 the idea of starting the 
 Westminster Review as an organ for making known the 
 views of the so-called philosophical radicals, and advanced 
 nearly £4000 towards its establishment. Many of the 
 articles published in this magazine showed consummate 
 ability, and as a means of ventilating the doctrines of the 
 advanced liberals the Review was of great use, but, notwith- 
 standing that it commanded the services of such men as the 
 
8 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 two Mills, George Grote, and other well-known writers, it 
 never proved a good financial speculation. Mr Bowring 
 was joint-editor with Mr H. Southern, and wrote the politi- 
 cal articles, contributing, however, also interesting papers 
 on the Eunes of Finland, on the Frisian and Dutch tongues, 
 on Magyar poetry, and other literary subjects. 
 
 In 1827 he published a little volume called "Servian 
 Anthology," perhaps the best of all his translations, in 
 which the wild beauty of the Servian ballads is faithfully 
 rendered into English. He also brought out a selection from 
 the poems of Polish writers, but his devotion to literature 
 prevented his concentrating his mind on business, and he 
 consequently met with commercial disasters, which induced 
 him to seek for employment under Government. This was 
 not, however, entirely a new idea, for he had been recom- 
 mended in 1821 to the Portuguese Minister of Justice by 
 Bentham, who, writing of him, said : — " Avez vous besoin, 
 vous autres Portugais, d'un homme qui est propre a tout, 
 pourvu que cela ait rapport au genre humain 1 II est actif, 
 infatigable au plus haut degr^ : meilleur coeur n'a jamais 
 exists, et n' existera jamais. Vous m' avez appell^ citoyen 
 du monde, et je le suis, mais je ne le suis pas plus que lui. 
 On ne risque pas en donnant des ^loges a cet homme la ; 
 il a autant d' amis qu' il a de connaissances." Bentham 's 
 affection and regard for his favourite disciple were unchang- 
 ing, and it was probably owing to his good offices that 
 Bowring's name was laid before Government for employ- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1828, a Finance Committee of the House of Commons 
 recommended his appointment as a commissioner for reform- 
 ing the system of keeping the public accounts, and Mr J. 
 C. Herries, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, accordingly 
 nominated him, but the Duke of Wellington, who took 
 umbrage to his radical opinions, insisted on removing his 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 9 
 
 name from the commission. He was, however, deputed to 
 Holland to examine the method pursued by the financial 
 department in that country, and prepared a report, the first 
 of a long series on the public accounts of various European 
 states. These papers are models of perspicuity, showing 
 considerable power in grasping facts, and in arranging them 
 lucidly and intelligibly. 
 
 In 1829, he received from the University of Groningen, in 
 Holland, the diploma of LL.D., a title by which he was 
 subsequently generally known. The document runs as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Eectob et Senatus Academic Groningan^ 
 ViRO Eruditissimo Joanni Bowbing. 
 Quam opinionem de eximia tua eruditione fama apud bos excitaverat, 
 earn tuus in hanc urbem adventus non tantum confirmavit, verum etiam 
 auxit. Cujus rei ut te certiorem redderemus, simulque palam osten- 
 deremua. unius cujusque, etiam exteri, de re literaria, meritit suum apud 
 nos constare honorem. Te, vir eruditissime ! Philosophise Theoreticae 
 Magistrum et Literarum Humaniarum Doctorem Honoris causa creavimus. 
 Ergo Diploma, quod hos honores manifestet, legitimo modo conscriptum 
 et confirmatnm, cum his Uteris ad te mittimus, sperantes fore, ut hoc 
 nostrse de te opinionis documentum tibi non ingratum sit. Coeterum 
 vale, vir eruditissime! Tibique persuasum habe, te a nemine quam a 
 nobis pluris asstimare posse. 
 
 " Scripsimus Groningas pridie Kal : Feb : MDCCCXXIX. 
 " Senatus Acad : Groning : nomine 
 
 G. WOLTEES, Redor MagnificAis. 
 J. ten Brink, Sen : Acad : h. t. ab actis. 
 
 In addition to this diploma he received during his life more 
 than thirty other certificates of honorary association from 
 various learned societies and institutions in different parts 
 of Europe. 
 
 In the month of April 1830 he paid a visit to Abbotsford, 
 of which he gives the following account : — 
 
 " I could not resist the fascination of Sir Walter's repeated invitations, 
 and nothing could exceed the kindness with which he has welcomed me. 
 
10 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 I found him writing for the " Waverley Novels," but he locked up his 
 manuscript, and has devoted to me every moment of his time. He has 
 led me over his grounds, talking of all possible things— his discourse rich, 
 racy, and delightful, though he has been a little overwhelmed by the news 
 of the sudden death of a ward of his (Lady Northampton) the mother of 
 eight young children. 
 
 " His style of living here is far more expensive than T imagined. It is 
 a sort of baronial abode, the servants being numerous, the house splendid, 
 and the rooms decorated with rich works of art and remnants of antiquity, 
 contributions from every part of the world. In one is his bust by 
 Chantrey (of whom he told me some anecdotes — of his ecstasy when he 
 caught a huge fish in the Tweed, &c.), and the famous silver cup filled 
 with human bones, sent him by Byron. He showed me his grandfather's 
 picture, with his long beard, which he had vowed never to shave till the 
 Stuarts were restored; and, a propos of this, he mentioned some delicious 
 conversations with the present king, who insisted on knowing what Sir 
 Walter would have done had the Pretender appeared in his time. He 
 said that the king always called Charles the Pretender, while he (W. S.) 
 always called him the Prince. He gave me many curious particulars of 
 his early history, and said he had forgotten nothing that had occurred to 
 him since he was three years old. He told me many interesting things 
 respecting his novels, and the personages in them, his interviews with 
 the late queen, the Princess Charlotte, Burns, Byron, and others. More 
 eloquent men I have known, I think, but I never knew any one so 
 attractive. The variety of his conversation is stupendous, while it over- 
 flows with the most agreeable anecdotes, and almost every person who 
 has figured in modern times has in some way or other been connected 
 with him. His manner of talking is without the smallest pretence, and 
 is gentle and humorous. His eye has a constant play upon it and around 
 it. His dress is that of a substantial farmer — a short green coat with 
 steel buttons, striped waistcoat and pantaloons, and he put on light gaiters 
 when we sallied forth." 
 
 In this year Dr Bowring published a volume called 
 " Poetry of the Magyars," a work not without merit as an 
 attempt to popularize a language which is both difficult and 
 unique, but the public were rather tired of translations from 
 little known tongues, and the following amusing squib upon 
 it appeared in Fraser's Magazine. 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 1 1 
 
 " Te Pikl-e Megge. " The Pious Maiden. 
 
 Hogy, wogy, Pogy ! Holy little Polly ! 
 
 Xupumai trtzaaa bnikttm.- Love sought me but I tricked him. 
 
 Pogy, wogy, hogy ! Polly little holy ! 
 
 Bsduro plgvbz cttnsttm You thought of me, 'I've nicked him.' 
 
 Wogy, hogy, Pogy ! Little holy Polly ! 
 
 Mlesrz vbqu5gp fvikttm." Pm not to be your victim." 
 
 The French Revolution in July of this year, which led to 
 the dethronement of the Bourbon dynasty and the elevation 
 to power of the astute Louis Philippe, took Dr Bowring to 
 Paris, to offer to the French the congratulations of the people 
 of London, and for some time he indulged the hope that the 
 citizen King would lead the van of the Liberal party, but 
 the newly-made sovereign was not long in showing his 
 monarchical tendencies, and in adopting a line of policy 
 nearly as arbitrary as that of his predecessors. He ceased 
 to take Dr Bowring into his confidence, and speedily 
 alienated the affections of all his old friends among the 
 advanced reformers. 
 
 Dr Bowring warmly interested himself in the declaration 
 of independence by Belgium, and was the medium of intro- 
 ducing M. Sylvain Van de Weyer to the political world in 
 England, but his sentiments on this subject gave great 
 offence to his Dutch friends, who accused him of ingratitude, 
 and stigmatized his partizanship as betraying ignorance of 
 the facts. In a letter to his old acquaintance, William de 
 Clercq, he thus refers to the question: — "I have some claim 
 on the candour, at all events on the just judgment, of Hol- 
 landers. When they have been wronged, what pen has ever 
 been so prompt as mine in their defence 1 Has any living 
 stranffer laboured as I have laboured to obtain for their indi- 
 vidual virtues and national literature the homage which is 
 so justly their due ? ^'' '''" * I have never altered my 
 tone nor changed my language in this matter. In a thou- 
 
12 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 sand conversations on every appropriate occasion, in articles 
 in the newspapers and in reviews, in correspondence and in 
 books, I have always preached from one text on this sub- 
 ject, and always developed one commentary, that the union 
 of Batavia and Belgium was fraudulent and foolish — a blind 
 sacrifice of the interests of both — that time, far from pro- 
 ducing sympathy, was daily sowing stronger and stronger 
 antipathy — that a rupture, either by consent or violence, was 
 inevitable, and that such a rupture would bring with it 
 many advantages to both. * * * The simple, the all- 
 important fact is this, that a real union was impossible. 
 Language, literature, religion, manners, historical recollec- 
 tions, political associations, everything proclaimed its im- 
 practicability. It was a most unhappy wedlock, and neces- 
 sity (would it had been the calm controversy of friends, 
 and not the bitter animosity of foes) necessity has forced a 
 divorce. What becomes the duty of tlie friends of both ? 
 To teach a speedy forgetfulness of the days of bloodshed — to 
 establish those relations of peace and good neighbourhood, of 
 friendly, social, and commercial interest, which will add far 
 more than political amalgamation can do, or has ever done. 
 In a word, to bring about a benevolent rivalry, unchecked 
 by those discords and discussions which were the natural con- 
 sequence of the false position into which you were thrown." 
 In 1831 Dr Bowring was associated with Sir H. Parnell 
 in the duty of examining and i-eporting on the public 
 accounts of France, a task which was so satisfactorily per- 
 formed that he was appointed secretary to the commission 
 for inspecting the accounts of the United Kingdom. All 
 the French authorities spoke in the highest terms of the 
 report on the finances of France, and the Lords of the 
 Treasury signified their approbation of the talent and 
 labour which it exhibited. He was shortly afterwards 
 appointed one of the Commissioners for discussing the com- 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 13 
 
 mercial relations between England and France, his colleague 
 being Mr George Villiers (afterwards Lord Clarendon), with 
 whom he maintained for many years a close intimacy, in 
 which the latter invariably evinced the greatest kindness 
 and good-feeling towards him. The negotiations, however, 
 as will appear elsewhere, proved nearly abortive, and it was 
 not till the time of Napoleon III. that a satisfactory com- 
 mercial treaty was effected by the exertions of Mr. Cobden. 
 
 While eno-aeed in this undertaking he visited the cele- 
 brated Lafayette, of whom he gives the following descrip- 
 tion : — • 
 
 "Lageange, ith November, 1832. 
 
 " I came here for a day or two, and send you a word from a spot so 
 illustrious and attractive. I am contrasting my recollections of Abbots- 
 ford with those of Lagrange. There was a great man, surrounded by a 
 thousand interesting things picked out of history and romance, and 
 charming conversation, but the whole a little damaged by aristocratical 
 vanities. Here is the representative of one of the oldest noble families of 
 France, who will have no title but General — who, with a large fortune, 
 has no powdered and liveried lackies, no parade of carriages and horses, 
 no armorial bearings thrust for^vard at every step, but every conceivable 
 comfort, abundant attendance, simple but excellent fare, and a family of 
 four generations around him, all looking up to him, the patriarch of all, 
 with an affection so generous and confiding, with an admiration so single 
 and high-minded as to create a very atmosphere of love. And the good 
 old man, benign and gentle as a beautiful sunset, who could believe him 
 to be the hero of two worlds — the bosom-friend of Washington, Franklin, 
 and Jefferson — the pole-star of three revolutions — the standard to which 
 every nation has rushed when any dawning hope of liberty has kindled 
 enthusiasm for him whom all men deem its seer 1 The chateau is many 
 centuries old, in the centre of a beautiful park, and is entered through a 
 hue archway covered with ivy, which owes its existence to Charles James 
 Fox, of whom the General speaks in language of admiring recollection. 
 When all the guests have assembled, the gentlemen escort the ladies to the 
 breakfast-room below, down a stone staircase, over which are suspended a 
 number of flags, to each of which a story of fame is attached — flags telling 
 the tale of the first and second revolutions of France — that of America — 
 that of Poland, &c. Breakfast over, I went with the General to his farm, 
 
14 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 looked at his seven hundred and fifty merino sheep, his Cashmere goats, his 
 Baltimore pigs (the only pigs I ever saw in France, where they give the 
 name of pigs to snouted greyhounds), his aviaries, his grand turkeys, his 
 covvs and horses, and dairies, of which he is very proud. Lafayette is lame, 
 as Walter Scott was, and, like him, hangs heavily upon the arm on which 
 he leans, and this — the sense of his presence — is a very agreeable sensation." 
 
 On 6th June 1832 liis revered friend. Jeremy Bentham 
 died in his arms, making him his executor, and leaving to his 
 care for publication all his manuscripts, which Dr Bowring 
 edited in a work comprising twenty-three volumes, to which 
 was attached a biography of the renowned jurist. Whether 
 from the recondite nature of many of the productions in 
 this collection, or from the circumstance that Bentham's 
 writings were far in advance of the age, the publication did 
 not attain extensive popularity — in fact the philosopher's 
 dogmas, as dressed up by Dumont, appear to have com- 
 manded more attention in France than did the originals in 
 England. Bentham's singular disposal of his body by his 
 will is well known, and he is still to be seen, dressed in 
 his usual clothes, in University College, London. 
 
 When the Eeform Bill was passed, Dr Bowring presented 
 himself for election at Blackburn, but though enthusiastically 
 received by the mass of the people, he was rejected by the 
 electors, his opponents beating him by several votes."" On 
 looking back at the electioneering contests of that time, one 
 cannot help wondering at the vehement invective and 
 imsparing abuse which were freely bandied about. Every 
 kind of gibe, jest, satire, and insinuation was brought into 
 play at Blackburn, nor was the hostility to Dr Bowring 
 confined to words, for a large stone was thrown into his bed- 
 room, which passed close to his head. His friends, however, 
 on their side, manifested their regard by presenting his wife 
 with a handsome service of plate. 
 
 * The Poll stood as follows :— Fielding, 376 ; Turner, 346 : Bowring, 334. 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 15 
 
 Defeated in the political arena, he resumed his commercial 
 negotiations in France, where he received a cordial welcome 
 from all the authorities wherever he went. His letters of 
 this period contain much curious information on the state 
 of affairs in that country. Letter-writing was to him one 
 of the greatest charms of life, and he persevered in it to the 
 very last. 
 
 From France he proceeded in 1833 to Belgium, where an 
 incautious speech of his at the Hotel de Ville at Brussels 
 elicited a reprimand from Lord Palmerston, who deemed it 
 injudicious on the part of one entrusted with official negotia- 
 tions. The particular phrase to v^hich exception was taken, 
 but which he disclaimed, was, " que le peuple Anglais n'etait 
 pour rien dans la conduite de la diplomatie," but, in sub- 
 mitting his explanation to Lord Palmerston, he observed that 
 the British minister (Sir Robert Adair) persisted in regarding 
 Belgium as a conquered country, which the Holy Alliance 
 had a right to dispose of, treating the revolution of 1830 as 
 rebellion, and deeming it the duty of England to do every- 
 thing by coercion. He thus alludes to the attacks made on 
 him by The Times on this occasion : — " I hnoiv their cor- 
 respondent wrote of me and my speech in the most favour- 
 able terms, and I have now their letter to him, saying, 
 ' We don't agree in your opinion of Dr B,, and you must 
 express our opinion and not yours ! ' But he says he will 
 not do this. He will be silent about me, but will not write 
 dishonestly." It would appear from the corresjDondence 
 that Messrs Barnes & Murray, two of the proprietors of the 
 Times, wrote in friendly terms ; but a third called Dr Bow- 
 ring a visionary, and said that if he were to be well spoken 
 of, the Belgian correspondent (Mr TurnbuU) must not speak 
 of him at all. 
 
 In 1834 he published a work called " Bentham's 
 Deontology," that is, the knowledge of what is right or 
 
16 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 proper, as especially applied to the subject of morals, or 
 that part of the field of action which is not the object of 
 public legislation. This collection of maxims was in pre- 
 paration for the press when the earthly labours of the 
 ocjtogenarian philosopher were near their end. It attracted 
 some attention in France, though one of the Paris news- 
 papers, Le Messager, observed that it only added one 
 more to the many sophisms with which the moral and 
 political world was already inundated. In the same year 
 Dr Bowring wrote a pleasing little book called " Minor 
 Morals," in which an attempt was made to set forth the 
 above principles in a series of conversational tales adapted 
 to the capacities of youth. This production was illustrated 
 by Cruikshank, and was well spoken of. 
 
 In the month of June Dr Bowringj returned to Endand 
 with the ordonnances issued by the French Government, 
 removing the prohibition on several articles of British 
 exports, such as cotton-twist, lace, iron cables, Eussian hides, 
 rum, &c., but such difficulties had been thrown in the way 
 of the English Commissioners that Mr C. P. Thomson, who 
 had succeeded Mr Villiers, did not hesitate to stigmatise 
 M. Thiers as a charlatan for having violated promises made 
 under his own hand. 
 
 Later in the year, Dr Bowring proceeded to the wine- 
 producing departments of France, visiting Champagne, 
 Burgundy, and Languedoc, and mentions in his letters that 
 wine was so abundant that year (1834) that in some places 
 it did not fetch a halfpenny a bottle, or ten shillino-s a 
 hogshead, and that any one would give a hogshead of wine 
 for an empty hogshead ; that is to say, if people brought 
 two hogsheads, they might fill and carry away one, on con- 
 dition that they left the other. 
 
 In 1835, after standing unsuccessfully a second time for 
 Blackburn, he was elected member for Kilmarnock, but it 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRTNG. 17 
 
 does not appear that his first speech in the House of 
 Commons attracted attention, and before he had any oppor- 
 tunity of becoming better known, the Tory r^^gime came to 
 an end, by the resignation of Sir Eobert Peel, on 8th April, 
 the Whio-s beina; again in the ascendant. This led to his 
 being deputed to visit the manufacturing districts of 
 Switzerland, and, in 1836, Italy. Regarding the former, 
 he writes, "By a system of free-trade, Switzerland has 
 overcome every natural difficulty, and created for herself a 
 real superiority over the protected manufactures of all the 
 surrounding nations." He was struck by the general 
 prosperity and the financial and trading prospects of the 
 people ; but, on the other hand, his visit to Italy, although 
 he was most courteously received by the Grand Duke of 
 Tuscany, appears to have been premature, and nearly barren 
 of results. 
 
 The death of King William IV. in 1837 led to a fresh 
 general election, when he was unseated for Kilmarnock, his 
 opponent being Mr Cokiuhoun. He attributed his defeat 
 to the combined influence of the Kirk, the Lairds, and the 
 Tories ; but the true cause might perhaps have been found 
 in the fickleness of his democratic supporters. Shortly 
 afterwards he proceeded again to Italy, and thence to Egypt 
 and Syria. Of his adventures and experiences in these 
 oriental countries, some account will be found in this 
 volume. He conceived, and certainly not without ample 
 grounds, a great admiration for the ability and shrewdness 
 of Mehemet Ali, the celebrated Viceroy of Egypt, and 
 objected to the policy of England which enforced the 
 dependence of that ruler on the Sublime Porte. The 
 vicissitudes of sovereignty in oriental countries, where 
 despotism universally prevails, are not to be regulated by 
 principles which may be salutary in civilised states, and the 
 several attempts made by the British Government to uphold 
 
18 A BKIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 the tottering sovereignty of the Sultan, to the prejudice of 
 feudatories wlio might have proved useful allies to us, have 
 alienated the regard of those who looked to England for 
 help, and have failed to maintain the integrity of Turkish 
 dominion. The obstacles thrown in the way of Mehemet All's 
 founding a strong Arabian kingdom, including Syria, which 
 he had virtually conquered, have tended to perpetuate 
 anarchy and misrule from the Black Sea to the Persian 
 Gulf. Mehemet Ali sought the friendship of England, but 
 was repulsed, and the consequence was that France obtained 
 for many years the ascendancy in Egypt. Apprehensions 
 regarding Eussian aggressions, well or ill founded, served to 
 throw a veil over and obscure the real interests of England, 
 which would have been best secured by supporting Mehemet 
 Ali, and allowing him to consolidate his authority over 
 the kingdom of Syria. Dr Bowring took great interest in 
 the Eastern Question, and wrote several articles on it in the 
 Morning Chronicle, in which he argued that Mehemet Ali 
 was in possession of Syria, that it was granted to him by 
 the convention of Kutayah, and that the attempt to dis- 
 possess him would lead to the disturbance of peace, while 
 there was no reason to believe that the Syrians had any 
 affection for Osmanli rule. 
 
 In 1839 Dr Bowring attended, at Manchester, a crowded 
 anti-Corn Law meeting, the proceedings at which laid the 
 foundation of the famous league which subsequently, under 
 the championship of Cobden, Bright, and other leaders, broke 
 down with irresistible force, the barriers which stood in the 
 way of free-trade. The evil effects of the prevailing restric- 
 tions were brought prominently to Dr Bowring's notice in 
 the same year, Avhen, in pursuance of instructions from his 
 government, he proceeded to Prussia with a view to inducing 
 that country to modify her tariff on English manufactures. 
 He was at once met with the objection that so long as the 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 19 
 
 English Corn Laws imposed a proliibitive tariff on foreign 
 grain, it was useless to ask Grermany to relax her heavy 
 duties on English goods. 
 
 The conviction that the abolition of the obnoxious corn 
 laws was an imperative measure, rekindled in him the 
 desire to re-enter Parliament, his exclusion from which had 
 been a great disappointment to him. He accordingly stood 
 for Kirkcaldy, where he was defeated, but was some months 
 afterwards (in 1841) elected for Bolton, which he repre- 
 sented till 1849. His friends at Kirkcaldy, being desirous 
 to recognise the value of his labours in the cause of free- 
 trade, and for the amelioration of the condition of the work- 
 ing classes, presented to him a handsome silver salver. 
 Similar tokens of esteem were offered to him by the people 
 of Kilmarnock, and by the Maltese, whose claim to have a 
 voice in the administration of their island he had advocated 
 in Parliament. The Manxmen also testified their acknow- 
 ledgment of his friendly offices in effecting their release from 
 ancient feudal customs by a like mark of their gratitude. 
 
 While member for Bolton, he embarked all his fortune in 
 ironworks in Glamorganshire, an enterprise which, though 
 at the outset promising to be highly remunerative, proved 
 eventually to be most disastrous. In 1847, the depression in 
 the iron-trade caused him great anxiety, as the balance-sheet 
 of his company showed a considerable loss on the business of 
 the year. In 1 848, however, he looked forward confidently to 
 the restoration of prosperity, and with that buoyancy of 
 disposition which characterised him, and enabled him to 
 rise up again after temporary depression, he took great 
 pleasure in witnessing the successful progress in life of his 
 sons. Later in the year he began to be seriously alarmed 
 at the state of affliirs, and consequently applied for and 
 obtained, through Lord Palmerston's friendship, the appoint- 
 ment of Consul at Canton. 
 
20 A BRIEF MEMOIK OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 A critical period in our relations with China had just 
 arrived, for although the Chinese government had hitherto 
 evaded the condition that the gates of Canton should be 
 opened to foreigners, it had been understood on both sides 
 that the privilege should be conceded in April 1849. Dr 
 Bowring entered upon his duties in the hope that the local 
 mandarins would at least receive him officially within the 
 city, and that the way would thus be paved for the entrance 
 eventually of all Europeans, but he miscalculated the ob- 
 stinacy of the Chinese, who treated him with the same con- 
 tumely as they had treated his predecessors. Sen, the 
 Governor-General, wrote offensive letters, declining an inter- 
 view inside the walls on the plea that the people were 
 strongly averse to the desired concession, and that he could 
 not control their excitement. Dr Bowring, in his numerous 
 letters, bears testimony to the good feeling exhibited towards 
 him by the Cantonese wherever he went, and proves that 
 the opposition presented arose solely from the obduracy of 
 the Mandarins and their repugnance to foreigners. Cooped 
 up in the prison-house of the Canton factories, debarred 
 from all access to the higher officials, far removed from the 
 political and literary world, and restricted to the dull routine 
 of purely consular duties, he realized in all its sadness the 
 truth of the poet's saying, " Better fifty years of Europe 
 than a cycle of Cathay," and found his position almost unen- 
 durable. He mixed much with the people, however, and 
 gave in his letters curious and interesting details of their 
 religious and social life, their occupations and amusements, 
 their usages and their superstitions. 
 
 From his age and experience the new consul was not per- 
 haps well fitted to serve in a subordinate capacity, nor was 
 he entirely in accord with the Plenipotentiary, Sir Georo-e 
 Bonham, as to the proper course of action to pursue. The 
 consul wished to enforce treaty obligations which had been 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 21 
 
 persistently ignored by the Chinese, and practically aban- 
 doned by ourselves up to the time of his assuming office, 
 while the plenipotentiary was quite willing to let matters 
 remain as before, and did not wish to have his serenity 
 disturbed by any dispute with the Mandarins which might 
 compel him to take active measures. Seu was, of course, 
 on his part, ill disposed to allow the consul to introduce an 
 innovation which the English plenipotentiary was content 
 to leave in abeyance, and was shrewd enough to perceive 
 that if he gave way to the demands of the former, all the 
 opprobrium of abandoning the old system of exclusiveness, 
 which maintained the power of the mandarins, would fall 
 upon himself. In this disagreement lay the germs of the 
 subsequent war. 
 
 In April 1852, Dr Bowring received temporary charge of 
 the office of plenipotentiary from Sir George Bonham, and 
 on the latter returning in February 1853, applied for 
 leave of absence for a year, visiting on his way home the 
 island of Java, of which some account will be found in his 
 EecoUections. In 1854 he was appointed to succeed Sir 
 George, and was knighted by the Queen before his depar- 
 ture. Immediately after his return to Hong Kong, the war 
 with Eussia broke out, and he proceeded at once with the 
 Admiral, Sir James Stirling, to the north of China, the 
 admiral hoping to intercept the fleet under the command of 
 the Eussian Admiral Poutiateen. The latter had, however, 
 received prior intelligence of the outbreak of hostilities, and 
 had disappeared with his fleet long before the English men- 
 of-war arrived ofl" Chusan. 
 
 The state of affairs at this time at Shanghai, and in the 
 Kiangsoo province, of which Nanking is the capital, was most 
 alarming, the whole country being overrun by marauding 
 parties of Taipings, who had successfully resisted the imperial 
 authorities and seized Nanking itself. Shanghai also was 
 
22 A BEIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 held by a gang of unkempt rabble, the leader of whom had 
 been, it was said, a horseboy at Canton, and trade was 
 consequently nearly at a standstill. The Taiping insurrec- 
 tion was so formidable, that Sir John Bowring determined 
 to send a mission to Chinkiangfoo and Nanking to inquire 
 into the resources and desio-ns of the rebels, for whom con- 
 siderable sympathy had been excited in England, under a 
 mistaken idea that they had adopted a pure form of Christi- 
 anity. The report brought back by the officers delegated 
 by him demonstrated that the whole Taiping system was a 
 gigantic imposture, but this document was never published, 
 and it was not till many years afterwards that the fraud was 
 fully exposed, and the Taiping power annihilated by Colonel 
 Gordon. 
 
 Meanwhile trade languished, and owing to the inability 
 of the Taoutai of Shanghai to collect the imperial clues, 
 smuggling was largely carried on, and Sir John Bowring's 
 endeavours to put a stop to such proceedings gave him not 
 a little unpopularity. An arrangement was made by him, 
 with the concurrence of the United States Minister, that a 
 European Inspector should be appointed to collect tempo- 
 rarily the export duties payable to the Chinese government, 
 a plan which was readily accepted by the Taoutai or native 
 collectors of customs, but which was not very palatable at 
 first to some of the merchants who, taking advantage of the 
 prevailing disorder, had previously ignored the payments 
 due under treaty on the plea of non-protection. 
 
 On his return in August 1854 to Hong Kong, Sir John 
 Bowring was much mortified to find that the Home govern- 
 ment, acting under the advice of the Crown lawyers, had 
 ordered the restoration to the parties by whom they were 
 given, of the bonds for payment of arrear duties, which 
 some of the merchants had executed and handed over to 
 the consul. Adverting to this much disputed question. Sir 
 
A BEIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 23 
 
 John Bowring writes in one of his letters, " These unhappy 
 Chinese, out of whose hands we took the collection of duties, 
 and would not allow their officers to remain in charge, had 
 never any doubts of getting their dues, and every encourage- 
 ment and protection was given by them to goods shipped 
 at Shanghai, which of course they would have stopped, and 
 compelled to be sent to other ports, had they dreamed that 
 repudiation was contemplated." It may perhaps be thought 
 that he had too lofty an idea of his plenipotentiary powers, 
 and that he ought not to have given any opinion on the 
 merits of the dispute without first ascertaining the views of 
 the Home government, but, in explanation of his proceed- 
 ings, he stated that he had discussed the matter with Lord 
 Clarendon before leaving England, and he added, " I only 
 gave an opinion that the Consular Courts should be opened 
 to the enquiry as to whether the duties were due, and upon 
 this action of mine, the merchants (who, as I have reason 
 to believe, had obtained an opinion from the legal authorities 
 here that they had a bad case, and who, moreover, saw that 
 all the American houses had shrunk from the enquiry of the 
 Consular Court which had been opened, and had solicited 
 the United States Minister to arbitrate amicably, and 
 pledged themselves to accept his decision), the merchants 
 applied to me also to arbitrate, and I most unwillingly under- 
 took the task, and was engaged in the investigations when 
 the mandate of the government came, to which I submitted, 
 and did nothing but release the merchants from the arbitra- 
 tion bonds." Whatever may be thought of the time or 
 manner in which he expressed his sentiments, there can be 
 little doubt of the justice of Sir John Bowling's view of the 
 transactions mentioned. 
 
 In 1855 he concluded a treaty with Siam, which was a 
 most successful effort of diplomacy, and was remarkable 
 alike for the promptitude and sagacity with which it was 
 
24 A BRIEF MEMOIE OF SIR JOHK BOWRING. 
 
 carried out. Being to all intents and purposes purely a com- 
 mercial treaty, it liad a better chance of being durable than 
 most conventions with oriental powers, who are only too 
 ready to break through diplomatic engagements whenever 
 it may suit their convenience. The treaty opened a wide 
 field to commercial enterprise in a country which had pre- 
 viously been almost wholly inaccessible to western nations. 
 The happy termination of this undertaking, for which he 
 received but scanty thanks, was a great solace to him for 
 the unmerited obloquy he had suffered in connection with 
 the question of the arrear-duties at Shanghai, and for a 
 fruitless attempt made by him to gain access to the court 
 of Peking, a proceeding which was rather sharply criticised 
 by the Home Government. 
 
 In pursuance of instructions from England, he was con- 
 templating, in conjunction Avith the American and French 
 ministers, another visit to tlie Gulf of Pecheli, when the 
 outrage on the Lorcha " Arrow " by the Canton authorities, 
 in October 1856, involved him in hostilities with the Chinese 
 Government. Most unprejudiced persons will admit that 
 it was an error to allow the British flag to be abused by 
 unscrupulous Chinese traders, and it is evident that the 
 vessel in question had no right to carry it, the term of 
 registry having expired. The dispute was in fact regarded 
 as a means to an end, that end being the free admission 
 of foreigners to the city of Canton, and although Yeh's 
 conduct was defiant throughout, and his resolute determina- 
 tion not to hold intercourse with high European officials at 
 his Yamun exhibited a lamentable perversity, it is a sub- 
 ject of regret that a better cause of quarrel was not found 
 than the " Arrow " affair. Sir John Bowring's justifi- 
 cation of his view that the expiry of the license did not 
 authorize the violence perpetrated by the Canton authorities 
 was — 1. That they did not know of its expiry, and never 
 
A BPaEF MEMOIR OP SIR JOHN BOWRING. 25 
 
 alluded to the circumstance. Had they done so the consul 
 was the referee under the treaty, and a complaint of abuse of 
 the English flag would have met with prompt enquiry. 2. 
 Looking at their intentions by their acts, he considered that 
 there was a distinct purpose to violate the privileges of 
 the British flag. 3. The surrender of men, who believed 
 that they were entitled to the protection of that flag, to so 
 blood-thirsty a man as Yeh, would have been unpardonable. 
 4. The case of the " Arrow " was but one of a succession of 
 outrages for which no redress had been given. 5. The ex- 
 piry of the license and the failure to renew it placed the 
 ship under colonial jurisdiction, the Chinese having no title 
 whatever to interfere with her, except through the consulate. 
 The ship's papers, whether in order or not, were deposited 
 there, and if the Chinese had acted according to the condi- 
 tions of the treaty, and put themselves in communication 
 with the consul, there would have been no collision. The 
 papers granted were of undoubted validity against any but 
 British authority — the authority which alone granted, and 
 which alone was entitled to withdraw protection. Lord 
 Clarendon, in writing to Sir John Bowring on the debates 
 in Parliament regarding the dispute, though pointing out 
 the weakness of the case as to the expiry of the licence, ob- 
 served :■ — " I think you have been most unjustly treated, and 
 that, in defiance of reason and common sense, the whole 
 blame of events, which could not have been foreseen, and 
 which had got beyond your control, was cast upon you." 
 
 In January 1857, the colony of Hong Kong was startled 
 by a diabolical attempt to poison the residents by putting 
 arsenic in the bread consumed by them. Not one of the 
 Governor's family escaped, and his wife's constitution was 
 so fatally undermined that she was obliged in the ensuing 
 year to leave for England, where she died soon after her 
 arrival. When hostilities broke out, a price was placed by 
 
26 A BEIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 the Mandarins on Sir John Bowring's head, but he was of 
 too fearless a temperament to be disturbed by the announce- 
 ment. 
 
 Lord Elgin, on his return from Calcutta, whither he had 
 at first proceeded on hearing of the Indian Mutiny, was 
 constrained to adopt Sir John Bowring's views that the 
 reduction of Canton was a necessary preliminary to 
 an expedition to Pecheli, which latter the home Govern- 
 ment had deemed of primary importance, and the place 
 was carried with little loss or difficulty. The ambassador, 
 however, tried the fatal experiment of a mixed Anglo- 
 Chinese government, contrary to Sir John Bowring's re- 
 commendation, the result of such a dual administration 
 being naturally to produce mutual distrust and clashing of 
 authority, the Mandarins still exercising an amount of juris- 
 diction which led the Court of Peking to infer that the bar- 
 barians had not really conquered the city, and encouraged it 
 in resisting Lord Elgin's treaty demands. Sir John Bowring 
 rightly opined that Canton should have been held by the 
 European military authorities pending the result of the 
 negotiations in the north of China, and that a strong, wise, 
 and just government of this kind would have produced the 
 best impression on the minds of the people, and have restored 
 confidence and trade. 
 
 The year 1858, besides diplomatic and domestic anxieties, 
 was fruitful in local squabbles which disturbed the peace of 
 Hong Kong, and towards its close Sir John Bowring pro- 
 ceeded to Manila on a visit to the Philippine Islands, of 
 which he published an account the next year. He returned 
 to China in January 1859, and in the month of May re- 
 signed his office, after more than nine years' service in the 
 East, being nearly worn out by incessant care and anxiety. 
 On his way home he was shipwrecked in the Red Sea, but 
 reached England in safety. 
 
A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 27 
 
 The remainder of his life was not characterised by any 
 incidents of a striking nature, but he was never unoccupied. 
 Besides concluding several commercial treaties between the 
 Siamese and Hawaiian courts and various European states, 
 he was an active member of the British Association, the 
 Social Science Association, the Devonshire Association, and 
 other institutions, often contributing papers to their pro- 
 ceedings, and taking a prominent part in their discussions. 
 He wrote many articles in periodical magazines, as well as 
 fugitive pieces of poetry, and constantly gave lectures on 
 oriental topics, and the social questions of the day. The 
 subjects which specially interested him were prison labour, 
 the metric system, religious progress, universal suffrage, 
 national accountancy, and various statistical matters, his 
 publications of this nature evincing wide information, and, 
 generally speaking, correct and sound views. 
 
 In 1860 he married Deborah, daughter of the late 
 Thomas Castle of Clifton, his second union contributing 
 much to the comfort and serenity which attended his latter 
 days. 
 
 In the last year of his life (1872) he was still physically 
 strong, while his mental faculties seemed to be quite unim- 
 paired. In the summer, at the meeting of the British 
 Association at Brighton, he delivered an eloquent and effec- 
 tive speech, welcoming the Japanese ambassadors, in re- 
 •sponse to a sudden call from the President of the Geo- 
 graphical Section. Two months before his death, at the 
 Plymouth meeting of the Social Science Congress, he spoke 
 two or three times a day at some length ; while at a 
 temperance meeting, held on the same occasion, he addressed. 
 an assemblage of 3000 persons with all the energy of a 
 young man, making the platform shake with his earnest 
 action. He celebrated his eightieth birthday surrounded 
 by his family, when he expressed great pleasure at having 
 
28 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BO WRING. 
 
 received from Hungary some Grcrman stanzas congratulating 
 him on havino- attained so great an age. But the silver cord 
 was soon broken. In the middle of November he purposed 
 to proceed to London, but feeling indisposed, postponed his 
 departure, then became worse, and finally took to his bed, 
 from which he never again rose. It is a singular fact that, 
 after a long life crowded with so many incidents and strange 
 adventures, he enjoyed the privilege of dying where he was 
 born, his eventful career closing at Exeter, almost within a 
 stone's throw of the house where he first saw light. 
 
 In his private life he was the most afi'ectionate of 
 husbands and fathers, and the firmest of friends. He 
 never varied in his regard for his early associates, and in 
 his own family his name was always mentioned with love 
 and sympathy. In society, which he greatly relished, he 
 was a most agreeable companion, having a fund of informa- 
 tion and anecdote, while his genial and buoyant nature 
 made him a general favourite. As an old man, his serene 
 demeanour testified that, notwithstanding the assaults of 
 time and the vicissitudes of a chequered life, in which there 
 had been many and rapid alternations of joy and sorrow, 
 his existence had been on the whole a happy one. 
 
 L. B. B. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 SIE JOIIiN^ BOWElI^a 
 
EAKLY RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 MY GRANDFATHER. 
 
 My grandfather's house was adjacent to my father's, and 
 when I was a very little fellow I was accustomed to crawl 
 up the steps which led from our house to the court in front 
 of his domicile. Kneeling at his feet, I said my morning 
 prayers, and many a sweet and kind counsel fell from his 
 lips. Well do I remember the emphasis with which he 
 repeated to me hymns and passages of poetry, which left an 
 indelible impression upon a somewhat susceptible mind. 
 One passage comes back to my thoughts as vividly as when 
 I heard it more than three-score years ago : — " To be good 
 is to be happy. Angels are happier than men, because they 
 are better. Guilt is the source of sorrow. It is a liend — 
 the avenging fiend which follows us behind with whips and 
 stings. The good know none of this, but rest content in 
 peace of mind, and find the height of all their heaven in 
 goodness." I thought this eminently sublime, and it took 
 me as far into the cloud-land of imagination as my young 
 intellect was capable of proceeding. 
 
 My grandfather was a man of strong political feeling, 
 being deemed no better in those days than a Jacobin by 
 politicians and a heretic by churchmen. The truth is that 
 the old Puritan blood, inherited from a long line of ancestors, 
 flowed strongly in his veins, and a traditional reverence for 
 the Commonwealth was evidenced by a fine mezzotint print 
 of Oliver Cromwell, which hung in his parlour. He took a 
 strong part with the Americans in their war of independence. 
 
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was hustled by the illiberal Tories of the day, and was, I 
 have heard, burnt in effigy in the cathedral yard at the time 
 of the Birmingham riots, when Dr Priestley was compelled 
 to flee his native land. Many prisoners from America were, 
 at the time of our hostilities, confined at Exeter, and my 
 grandfather was much persecuted for the attentions he 
 showed them, and for his attempts to alleviate their suf- 
 ferings. When John Adams was in England, he, with his 
 wife (who, by the way, was a connection of our family), ''" 
 visited my grandfather at Exeter as a mark of his respect 
 and regard. 
 
 My grandfather's business was that of a fuller, who pre- 
 pared woollen goods for foreign markets, and especially for 
 that of China, the monopoly of which was in the hands of 
 the East India Company. He had a considerable library. 
 The regular arrival of the Gentleman's Magazine was in 
 those days a great event, and a long series of volumes, from 
 its very commencement, occupied no small space on the 
 library shelves, being to him and to me a field of constantly 
 instructive and amusing reference. I breakfasted with him 
 daily, sitting on a trivette (tripod) kept in a state of beauti- 
 ful brightness, with a game-cock in the centre, a great object 
 of childish admii-ation. 
 
 MY GRANDMOTHER. 
 
 My grandmother had a great passion for flowers, and I 
 have very distinct recollections of the fierce war she made 
 upon snails, slugs, and other invaders of her beautiful 
 flower-beds. Every Sunday morning, when I was a child, 
 she led me up the steps of her garden, and never failed to 
 adorn me with a nosegay of the gayest produce of her 
 
 * Abigail Adams was the daughter of the Eev. William Smith and Elizabeth 
 Quiucy. She married Mr Adams in 1764. Her elder sister, Mary, married 
 in 1762 Eichard Cranch, who became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
 in Massachusetts. He was a cousin of Sir John Bowring's gi-andfather. 
 
MY FATHER. 33 
 
 floral cares, to be exhibited in my button-bole to the whole 
 congregation at church. Of her anemones and ranunculuses 
 slie was particularly proud, and not the semblance of a weed 
 or a blade of grass was visible in the plots of ground where 
 these roots had been planted. The tulips, too, were among 
 the grandees of the place, and she used to point out to me 
 with no small complacency the varieties of their stripes and 
 the richness of their colours. My father, her only son, was 
 her pride and glory, and to me, his eldest born, she trans- 
 feixed her warm aflfections. I was in the habit of admiring 
 the very sweet expression of her small mouth — handsome in 
 her old age — and she would then tell me tales of the 
 admiration she had inspired in her youth, and what a 
 pretty girl she was when my grandfather fell in love with 
 her. The vanity, the coquetry of the maiden, is not quite 
 extinguished in the heart of the matron, and very winning 
 indeed was the smile and the toss of the chin which 
 accompanied the words " Ah, John ! had you seen me when 
 I was young ! " Her father's name was Hutchings, her 
 mother's Gifford. The latter was of the same family as 
 Sir Robert Gilford, Attorney- General in George the Third's 
 time, and raised to the peerage. His father was a hop 
 merchant in Exeter, and I think it was in his place of 
 business that I saw Lord Nelson, either returning to, or 
 coming from Plymouth. He looked to me the shattered 
 fragment of a diminutive man. He wore several decorations 
 and a large cocked Lat. There was the empty sleeve of his 
 right arm, and a patch upon his eye, but withal a sort of 
 mysterious greatness about him. Nelsonem tantum vide. 
 
 MY FATHER. 
 
 Of all the men I ever knew, I think my father possessed 
 the sweetest temper, and on only two occasions have I ever 
 seen it ruffled. Once, when I w^as a child, and gathered a 
 
 c 
 
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 handsome peony, wliicli flowered at the entrance of the 
 garden, and of which he was very proud. I gave it to my 
 sister Margaret, of whom he was singularly fond, but I 
 incurred his transient displeasure. The other outbreak was 
 more serious. When a little boy, I was beaten and misused 
 by a big fellow, named Ben Hutton, the son of a drunken 
 old fellow, who was in my father's employ, and my father 
 was passing in the street when he saw me maltreated. He 
 pounced upon the injurer with the fierceness of a tiger, and 
 gave him a very severe dressing. My father, though a 
 sound and thoughtful liberal, took little share in party 
 politics, and when the Municipal Eeform Bill passed, refused 
 an offer of the citizens of Exeter to be the first Liberal 
 mayor. His great enjoyment was reading his favourite 
 author, Shakspeare, and it would have been difficult to quote 
 a passage, either in the plays or poems, of which he could 
 not immediately cite the place where it was to be found. 
 Philip Quarles' " Emblems " was also much appreciated by 
 him, and he kept an early edition in his bureau, ornamented 
 with cuts, which now and then the children were allowed to 
 see. I remember my father's extreme delight when Sir 
 Walter Scott invited me to Abbotsford, an honour which he 
 deemed of the highest order, and the anxious inquiries which 
 he made as to every particular of that, to me, so interesting 
 a meeting. 
 
 MY MOTHER. 
 
 My mother was one of the most excellent of women. 
 She was, with many brothers and sisters, left an orphan, 
 her father and mother having been carried off by a pestilen- 
 tial disease at St. Ives, in Cornwall, where he was the 
 rector. My father met her by accident at the Exeter 
 theatre, and their married life was one of great felicity, 
 though her later years were troubled with that mortal disease 
 
MY MOTHEE. 35 
 
 to which she fell a victim. I write this in the Bay of 
 Pecheli, on the anniversary of her death, which took place 
 on the 2 4th October 1828. I was at Leeuwarclen, in Friesland 
 when I heard that her end was approaching, and I hastened 
 home, merely to see her pale emaciated countenance in the 
 black coffin where her body was deposited. Everything 
 looked awfully desolate. I went into the room, removed the 
 cover of the coffin, where lay the cold clay of her I had loved 
 so tenderly, and whose exhibition of affection for me had 
 been the daily delight and cheerful duty of her life. Two 
 of my children had been the consolation of her declining 
 days. They stood by me and wept, for they had learned to 
 love her. Winter was coming on, and few flowers were to 
 be found, but I rushed into the garden, gathered such as I 
 could collect, with holly branches and evergreens, and with 
 those I surrounded the corpse and then closed the coffin over 
 it. She had extraordinary aptitude for mental arithmetic, 
 and kept the house accounts in admirable order. Up to 
 the time of her death, my father's affairs went on pros- 
 perously, and she bore her part with great propriety, but 
 her health was always feeble, and her looks were those of a 
 confirmed invalid. Nothing, however, paralysed her indus- 
 try, or interfered with her excellent and economical manage- 
 ment of household affixirs. Education and affection made 
 her devout, and the Bible was a source of habitual enjoy- 
 ment to her, but her religion was unostentatious and silent, 
 though on all becoming occasions lessons of virtue and wis- 
 dom were conveyed to her children. She used no other 
 discipline than that of kind reproof, and in her presence I 
 knew not the emotion of fear or awe. All her influences 
 were gentle and patient.""' 
 
 * Her father left three sons and three daughters. One of the former entered 
 the naval service, and was a favourite of Lord CoUingwood, who addressed to 
 him a charming letter on the duties of a midshipman, which is preserved in 
 the Admiral's memoirs. 
 
36 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ST. LEONARD S PARISH. 
 
 In the parish where I was born, and at the time when I 
 was born in it, there was neither doctor nor lawyer, clergy- 
 man nor publican, tax-gatherer nor soldier. There was 
 little disease to be cured by the physician, no squabbling to 
 provide for the attorney, little vice to be reproved by the 
 clergyman, no pothouse or tavern to encourage drunkenness, 
 no riots to be suppressed, and there being no paupers, there 
 were no poor-rates to be collected. I have seen great 
 changes in that happy spot. The population of St. Leo- 
 nard's on the southern outskirts of the ancient and loyal city 
 of Exeter — "Semper jidelis" is its motto — has become 
 multitudinous. With the bills of mortality and the cata- 
 logues of diseases, there is no want of medical practitioners. 
 Barristers and solicitors have erected their talking and 
 scribbling mills, to which the accustomed grist has been 
 brought by the litigious portion of the community. Divines, 
 both orthodox and heterodox, have found materials for their 
 pvilpits and their prayers, and parish squabbles have not 
 been wanting to give their gay variety to the local history. 
 Many a licence has been granted to beer-shops and public- 
 houses, whence many a drunkard now reels homeward after 
 the setting of the sun. The quarterly visitant, demanding 
 house taxes and parish taxes, and water rates, and lighting 
 and paving rates, is now the unwelcome but never-failing 
 disturber of the domestic serenity. I saw a large barrack, 
 even while George the Third was king, and the noise of the 
 drum became a daily, and the thunder of artillery not an 
 unusual, invader of the sweet silence of the scenery. There 
 was, indeed, a church remarkable for its beauty, its tower 
 hidden under masses of green ivy, through which the out- 
 lines of some Gothic arched windows could be imperfectly 
 traced, but the clergyman who served in it was no iuhabi- 
 
GEORGE S MEETING HOUSE. 37 
 
 tant of the parish. There was one great squire, the head of 
 the Baring family, the member for the city, whose ancestors 
 sleep in the churchyard under the shadows of some magni- 
 ficent elms. There were a few seats occupied by country 
 gentlemen, and a few tuckers engaged in the preparation of 
 woollens — mostly for the markets of China. Of these (a 
 portion of the representatives of the protected staple trade 
 of the capital of Devonshire, the once renowned Exonia) not 
 a fragment is now left. The coal-mines and the steam 
 machinery of central and northern England have crushed 
 the ancient industry of the West. The chapel of St. Leo- 
 nard's was destroyed by the violent spirit of innovation. 
 Well do I remember how often rambling artists- committed 
 to paper the transitory beauty of the edifice, with which 
 many traditions were associated in my memory, particularly 
 one of a lady who lived in a cave which had been formed 
 out of a bank close to the chapel, where it was said she con- 
 soled herself for a long life of sorrow by the devout per- 
 formance of religious rites in the ivy-covered chapel, whose 
 very altar was darkened by the leaves which excluded the 
 light from the windows, and gave to the whole edifice a 
 damp and gloomy character. Within a stone's throw of the 
 chapel was a little stream, which ran into a shallow recep- 
 tacle called Parker's Well, the water of which was thought 
 to possess medicinal and even miraculous virtues, especially 
 for eye diseases, and I have often in my childhood seen the 
 afilicted seeking relief from its supposed excellences. 
 
 George's meeting house. 
 
 Our place of worship was called " George's Meeting 
 House." The congregation had migrated from a chapel 
 built in the reign of King James, and thence bearing his 
 name, to the new church to which their loyalty gave the 
 name of the reigning sovereign, George. Exeter had been 
 
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 for generations the seat of fierce religious controversy, and 
 the place of gathering of many a dissenting synod. It has 
 the honour too of being associated with noble efforts for 
 establishing the right and proclaiming the duty of private 
 judgment. It was there that Mr James Pierce attacked the 
 doctrine of the Trinity in the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. Among the objects of interest connected with 
 George's Meeting House was a marble tablet in the vestry, 
 commemorating the fact that after his death the bigoted 
 Church of England clergyman of the parish in which he 
 lived, died, and was buried, had denied a "just memorial 
 on his tomb." This was the parish of St. Leonard's, 
 and I had often looked with some sentiments of pride on 
 the massive stone monument bearing the words, " Mr James 
 Pierce's tomb." It was surrounded by iron rails, and used 
 to be covered with flowers of the wild convolvulus, growing 
 over and half hiding the briars below. Two simple things 
 in the meeting-house always attracted my attention. In 
 the very centre was a large brass chandelier, looking always 
 bright, suspended by a twisted rod of iron from the centre, 
 in the midst of which were two letters, S. S., wrought in 
 gilded work, most mysteriously intertwined, so as to be read 
 either backwards or forwards, commemorating the initials of 
 the name of the donor, Sarah Stokes, who, to my youthful 
 thought, was thus elevated into regions of immortal fame, 
 and seemed ever looking down from the entangled glory 
 upon the congregation below. Then there was a clock — a 
 broad-faced clock — the movements of whose minute-hand 
 it was my comfort and amusement to watch when the ser- 
 mon was particularly dull, or when my thoughts had nothing 
 else to do. Upon that white field, with its figures that 
 never moved, and its pointers that were always moving, one 
 most visibly and the other invisibly, how often did my 
 thoughts repose. The two hands were the images of know- 
 
UNITARIAN MINISTERS. 39 
 
 ledge and faitli. The progress of one I could trace from 
 " tick to tick " — of the other I only felt that it moved, but 
 could convince myself that it had moved if, for a few 
 minutes only, I turned my eye away. Over the clock was 
 a golden sun half emerging, but I never knew whether it 
 was intended to exhibit the rising or the setting of the 
 luminary. Opposite this was the scythe of Death, gilded 
 too. I well recollect my affliction when, one Sunday, I 
 discovered that the blade of the scythe had fallen, and 
 nothing was left but the handle. That blade was never 
 restored. I think I made some effort to obtain its restora 
 tion, but its fall was an appropriate lesson, and had its be- 
 coming moral. 
 
 In that meeting-house I well remember my grandfather's 
 venerable form, his tall person, and white hairs. He stood 
 (for from the beginning to the end of the service he never 
 sat down^ behind one of the square fluted pillars, upon a 
 peg of which his hat was hung, a model of devout attention 
 and an image of serene piety. 
 
 UNITARIAN MINISTERS. 
 
 There were no less than three ministers who served 
 that congregation. There was Mr James Manning, 
 an Arian, who was the most popular with the poor, 
 whom he often visited, and always addressed in sweet 
 words and gentle manner. There was Mr Timothy 
 Kenrick, a courageous Unitarian, who was the chosen one 
 of the more intellectual and inquiring ; and there was Mr 
 Joseph Butland, from whom I do not remember ever to 
 have heard a doctrinal sermon, but who was a great mathe- 
 matician, a laborious student, a lover and observer of 
 nature, and an amiable and excellent man. His mode of 
 life and manner of dress were alike simple. It was said, 
 and I believe it is true, that his supper consisted of a far- 
 
40 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 thing's worth of periwinkles (wrinkles is the Devonshire 
 name), on which he fed himself with a pin. Certainly I 
 have often seen the wrinkle-girl at his door in the evening, 
 and I know from my own experience that she was in the 
 habit of selliDg a small tea-cupful of her ware for a farthing. 
 I was fond of Mr Butland, who taught me how to avoid 
 the sharp winds in my walks by walking as much as pos- 
 sible with the wind. His style of preaching, though some- 
 times quaint, was often practical and eloquent, and there is 
 a passage in a sermon he published on the death of Mrs 
 Elizabeth Rowe, which runs for nearly a page into excellent 
 blank verse. I could repeat it from memory. It runs — 
 " Not long ago thou wast what I am now — one of the 
 actors in this passing scene. To all thy woes I lent a 
 pitying ear," — and so it ran on in natural flowing harmOny. 
 Yet the latter end of the good man's life was disturbed by 
 the introduction of an organ into the meeting-house. It 
 led to a rupture with the congregation, and even as a hearer, 
 I believe, he never attended when the pipes were called into 
 play. I have seen him glide in to unite with the rest in 
 partaking of the Lord's Supper, and I think, when it was 
 known he was to attend, the pealing organ was locked into 
 silence. His household afiairs were managed by his wife, 
 a quiet, taciturn, good woman, who had been his servant, 
 and who, reverencing him as her " lord and master," pro- 
 vided for all, and more than all, his daily wants, never 
 intruding upon those tranquil studies to which his hours 
 were devoted. Mr Kenrick was of a more ambitious 
 nature. He was a Welshman, and on a visit to a Welsh 
 friend died of apoplexy in the prime of life. I remember 
 that the bigotry of the time attributed his death to a divine 
 judgment upon his heresies ; but not long afterwards, when 
 a very orthodox minister of a very intolerant congregation 
 committed suicide, nobody ventured to discover in that 
 
UNITARIAN MINISTERS. 41 
 
 providence the outstretching of the hand of heaven. Mr 
 Kenrick's style was rational, dry, and cold. He reasoned 
 well, and encouraged freedom of thought by precept and 
 example. His eldest son, John, has won for himself a high 
 reputation as a classical scholar, and well deserves the 
 reputation he has won. Mr Kenrick's first wife died soon 
 after giving birth to his youngest son George, who after- 
 wards married my eldest sister Margaret, who died in 1824. 
 Mr Timothy Kenrick's second wife was the sister, and the 
 very image of the Eev. Thomas Belsham, the successor of 
 Theophilus Lindsay in Essex Street Chapel, London. Mr 
 Kenrick's conversation was most acceptable to my grand- 
 father, at whose house he invariably spent his Friday even- 
 ings, talking of the politics and the religious controversies 
 of the times, topics on which, in those days, it was not 
 always safe to talk, for Exeter was one of the chosen seats 
 of bigotry and intolerance, and to burn Socinians in efligy, 
 and to insult Jacobins in the public streets, was no uncommon 
 amusement of the inhabitants of that episcopal city. Mr 
 Manning was intellectually superior to his colleagues. He 
 was the immediate successor of Micaiah Towgood, and pub- 
 lished, if I mistake not, a biography of that excellent man. 
 He also translated Zollikoffer's sermons. There was always 
 a sort of rivalry between him and Mr Kenrick, and if he 
 had been as zealous for the propagation of Arianism as Mr 
 Kenrick was for the diifusion of Unitarianism, I hardly 
 know how the congregation could have held together. Arian- 
 ism, however, was much on the decline, and Mr Manning 
 quietly submitted to its gradual extinction. I do not 
 balieve he cared much about the matter, or would risk the 
 iTupopularity to which polemic zeal might have exposed 
 liim. 
 
42 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 DR LANT CARPENTER. 
 
 On the death of Mr Kenrick, Lant Carpenter, after- 
 wards made an LL.D. by the University of Glasgow, 
 was chosen to succeed him. He was exceedingly and 
 deservedly beloved by the congregation, and to the 
 young catechumens (a very grand name, which conveyed 
 to all of us some notions of dignity) was an object 
 of the highest reverence, almost of worship. I owe 
 to Dr Carpenter a boundless debt. He developed much 
 that lay hidden in my nature, and was one of the most 
 virtuous and religious of men, being and doing all that he 
 taught others to be and do. There was at times a precision 
 and attention to the minutest things that seemed narrow- 
 minded, as if great things and small things were of the 
 same importance, and deserving the same amount of care, 
 caution, and concern. Nor could he always understand or 
 pass by little aberrations of thoughts and feelings which, in 
 his extreme susceptibility, he fancied might lead astray. On 
 one occasion he called on me to narrate, in my own words, the 
 Scripture account of our Saviour's interview with the woman 
 of Samaria. At the point where, availing herself of the presence 
 of so high an authority for the solution of a question fiercely 
 disputed between Jews and Samaritans, I inserted the 
 phrase " impelled by a natural curiosity," I was reproved 
 for the introduction of a something not to be found in the 
 gospel narrative. So, on another occasion, when I was 
 certain that I had a more thorough knowledge of the subject 
 under examination than my comjDetitors, the prize was given 
 to me for a verbal accuracy quite compatible with inferior 
 acquaintance with the whole, and I felt greatly aggrieved, 
 and treasured up the memory of the wrong. These were 
 small defects in a character which I shall always contemplate 
 with grateful affection. How he laboured — how lovingly, 
 
WORKMEN. 43 
 
 liow untiredly lie laboured for the improvement of his 
 pupils — how lucidly he taught, how practically ! As re- 
 garded the young people of his congregation, it was all 
 gratuitous service. He lectured, he catechized, he exhibited 
 experiments in chemistry, electricity, and galvanism — he 
 taught us geography, astronomy, and the vise of the globes, 
 and wrote a book of Scripture geography, principally for our 
 instruction. For many a year I deemed him the wisest 
 and greatest of men, as he assuredly was one of the best. 
 Others had the title of Doctor — there were Doctors of 
 Divinity, Law, and Medicine, but he was the Doctor, far 
 above all, and to dispute his authority or to doubt his 
 judgment, would have appeared to me almost sacrilegious. 
 
 WORKMEN. 
 
 I remember well the groups of workmen in my grand- 
 father's employ. There was a surly foreman of the name of 
 Simmonds, who was thought wise because he was taciturn. 
 There was an old fellow of extremely diminutive stature, 
 whom the others called " The Pixie," and who was the 
 object of the daily jeers and jests of his fellows. He was 
 rather given to tippling, and I remember on one occasion, 
 when he refused to make up a quarrel over the ale-pots, an 
 inscription was written on the Avails of one of the workshops, 
 far above the pixie's reach, — on such a date "Pixie Soper 
 refused beer," which remained a record of his infirmity for 
 many a year. There was an apprentice called Jack Kelly, 
 who was always lost . in arithmetical and mathematical 
 abstractions. A sprightly sexagenarian was the genial 
 spirit of the place, and was habitually called " Young Omer," 
 his real name being Oram. He had a stupid sort of a son, 
 who bore the designation of " Daddy Omer," by contrast. 
 The great event of the year was the jollity of Christmas eve, 
 when the great logs were burnt, and the ale and bread and 
 
44 AUTOBIOGHAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 cheese went round with jokes, tales, and songs.. There was 
 one in particular, of which the burden was — 
 
 " St George he was for England, St Denis was for France, 
 Sing ' Honi soit qui mal y pense.' " 
 
 which was sung with immense emphasis in chorus, thus — 
 
 " 0-nai so-ait Kwai mal why pence." 
 
 These are recollections of a state of things which has 
 passed away. In my youth a great proportion of the 
 working people at Exeter were engaged in the woollen 
 trade. They wore green serge aprons with scarlet strings. 
 There was an influential guild, whose magnates met in an 
 ancient building in the main street of the city, called the 
 Tuckers' Hall. Time was when the merchants, fullers, 
 tuckers, weavers, dyers, pressmen, and packers of Exeter 
 held the representation of the city in their hands, 
 
 SCHOOL LIFE. 
 
 I was sent to school at Moreton-Hampstead, then one of 
 the rudest spots in Devonshire, the joke being that it was 
 made out of the rubbish that was left when the rest of 
 the world was created. There were then no roads pass- 
 able by wheel-carriages of any sort, and everything was 
 conveyed to and from Exeter on crooJcs — bent branches 
 of trees which were fastened to pack-saddles — seated 
 on one of which I departed from home. The school- 
 master's name was Bransby — James H. Bransby. He was 
 the son of an instrument-maker at Ipswich, I think, and, 
 being dissatisfied with the orthodox faith of his fathers, 
 deserted to the Unitarians, and was educated by Mr T: 
 Kenrick in an academy of divinity established in Exeter. 
 He was not a very wise, nor a very honest man, but had in 
 him some dry humour, some knowledge of old books, some 
 amusing stories, and was of what was called an affectionate 
 
SCHOOL LIFE. 45 
 
 nature. I recollect the first sermon lie preached to his 
 country congregation at Moreton-Hampstead. The text 
 was " Fulfil ye my joy." He represented himself as bound 
 to his hearers till death — bound by inseparable links. 
 Afterwards a larger salary was offered to him at Dudley, 
 which, naturally enough, he accepted, but how bitterly was 
 he reproached by the Moretonians. The "fulfil ye my 
 joy" sermon, with all its protestations, all remembered, all 
 recorded (for they had been most flattering to the pride of 
 the rural flock) was flung at his head, and cast into his 
 teeth. Poor man ! he did not inspire his pupils with much 
 respect, for they found out that he could tell little fibs and 
 do little dishonesties. He was accustomed to accompany 
 his scholars in their country walks. On one occasion he 
 tumbled over a stone, and told us he had hurt his shin and 
 must go home, but that we were to continue our walk, and 
 return by the same road. With the common perverseness 
 and disobedient spirit of boys, we determined to go home 
 by a difi'erent road ; and lo ! at about a mile or two from 
 the town, on the opposite side from that by which we had 
 gone out, we suddenly stumbled upon our master, seated on 
 a stile, with the young lady he was courting, and reading 
 love-poetry to his "mistress' eye-brow." The words we 
 heard were — 
 
 " Humid seal of soft affection, 
 Love's first snow-drop — virgin kiss ! " 
 
 He had not the courage to reprove or punish us, and we 
 had among us some wicked wits, who would certainly have 
 given him a Eoland for his Oliver. On another occasion, 
 however, he did punish us, and that also was connected 
 with the history of his lady-love. Her name was Isaac, and 
 she was the daughter of a Welsh Baptist minister who kept 
 bees, wrote a book about them, drank nothing but mead or 
 metheglin made from his own hives, and rejoiced greatly in 
 
46 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 a pun of his own making — that lie ruled over one of the 
 most ancient nations of the world, the Hivites, proudly 
 referring to the Bible for his authority. Mr Bransby was 
 passionately in love with his fair one, and sometimes sadly 
 neglected the duties of the school, in order that he might 
 enjoy her company, for she lived in an adjacent street. Our 
 evening lessons were frequently left withou.t superintendence. 
 Our schoolroom was over a cellar, in which w^as a pump, 
 and one evening, when our tutor had run away to pay his 
 devoirs to his chosen one, it was determined that all the 
 school should retreat to the cellar, that the two lowest stairs 
 should be sawn away, and the cellar then be filled with 
 water from the pump, while the heroes were to keep them- 
 selves dry on a heap of coals that lay in a corner. In due 
 time the master came home, found the schoolroom empty, 
 wandered over the house, where he discovered nobody, and 
 at last, hearing some noise (intentionally made) in the 
 cellar, came down in a great rage, himself and the lighted 
 candle (soon extinguished) falling into the water. While 
 he was splashing about in the dark, the lads managed as 
 best they could to make their way up the stairs. The joke 
 was too good a joke to be repudiated, as everybody in the 
 school was concerned in it, and openly avowed it, and I 
 believe there was not one who would not have suffered the 
 penalty over and over again for the enjoyment of the fun, 
 so we all submitted cheerfully to our castigation. 
 
 My schoolmaster afterwards committed a forgery, hid him- 
 self in Wales, where he became the editor of a country 
 newspaper, and died in obscurity. But I owed him some- 
 thing. He had some knowledge, more taste, and was full 
 of pleasant anecdote. He gave me encouragement, and set 
 my cheeks glowing when he told me I had written a very 
 good line when he gave me "death" as the theme. It was — 
 "Monarchs must die as well as meaner men." 
 
SCHOOL LIFE. 47 
 
 But, to say the truth, it was stolen property, for there was 
 a picture in an old book — I believe it was Drelincourt on 
 "Death," at the foot of which was this inscription "the 
 philosopher tells the king that in the grave, monarchs and 
 meaner men were all alike." However, mine was truer, 
 and makes a tolerable line of poetry. I sometimes attempted 
 a little poetry then. There was a boy who excited much 
 envy and jealousy. His name was Moore. He entered 
 the army, turned out a sad profligate, and was killed or 
 died in very early life. A subject was given out, it was 
 " orchard robbing," and he read a poem he said he had 
 written, beginning — 
 
 " A boy ascends the tree, 
 To steal another's pears, 
 And thinks no one will see. 
 And if they do — who cares ?" 
 
 The boy's heroism, and the poet's verses were equally 
 applauded, and Moore was the hero of the hour ; but, alas ! 
 the following day the poem was discovered printed, and 
 Moore's reputation was suddenly lowered, notwithstanding 
 his solemn averment that he had written a poem on apple- 
 stealing, and had, by mistake, confounded his composition 
 with the printed and lauded poem. 
 
 I have some distressing recollections of school-life. One 
 of my masters was a man named Tucker, and I remember 
 his fascinating my father by exhibiting a picture of the 
 " Haven Banks " at Exeter. He was a drunken good-for- 
 nothing fellow, but was himself the son of a schoolmaster, 
 and wrote a fine hand. He was an accomplished flourisher 
 of swans, and eagles, and angel's heads and wings, with 
 which he adorned the first pages of our writing and 
 cyphering books ; and of his exploits in this part of the 
 field he was very proud, as I learned to my shame and 
 sorrow. Well do I recollect the schoolroom, on whose walls 
 
48 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 lie had inscribed in big black letters, "Let emulation 
 prevail." There was only one boy about whom I cared a 
 rush, and his name was Edward Pearce. He was fond of 
 drawing, as was I, but he was incomparably my superior, 
 and I looked at his work as something unapproachable. He 
 loved his books too, was gentle in manner, and kind to me, 
 his junior, asking me to his uncle's hoiise to see his pictures. 
 I had a new arithmetic book, on the title-page of which 
 Tucker had exhibited one of his finest specimens of orna- 
 mental penmanship. He was delighted with his work, and 
 so was I, its possessor. I was hanging over it with a pen 
 full of ink in my hand, when a large drop fell from the pen, 
 blotting and obscuring the glories of the artist. He was in 
 a desperate rage, and determined to visit me with condign 
 punishment. I believe I had never been punished before — 
 certainly never whipped, but I was conducted into the 
 cellar, my trousers pulled down, and Edmund Pearce (my 
 friend) was sent for, the birch was put into his hand, and 
 he was ordered to lay it on severely, which he did. It was 
 one of the bitterest moments of my life. To be so punished 
 for what was at worst but a little carelessness, to be punished 
 by the hands of him whom, out of the circle of my family, 
 1 loved best in the world ! I thought at the moment 
 " Edmund will not floff me, or if he flo^ me, I shall come 
 off with a slight visitation. I could not flog him. No ! T 
 would die first." From that hour I hated the master, from 
 that hour my feelings towards Edmund Pearce became 
 frozen (I believe he was afterwards frozen to death on 
 Dartmoor), and the early lesson of human faithlessness was 
 engraved on my heart. As to Tucker, had the opportunity 
 been in the way, the will was not wanting to inflict upon 
 him summary vengeance. It was perhaps well for him and 
 for me that we never met in a solitary place after I grew 
 strong enough to revenge a wrong of which I retained so 
 
MORETON CHARACTERS. 49 
 
 bitter a memory. New scenes brought other thoughts, and 
 I mention the matter as an additional evidence of the ill- 
 digested plans of education, and an example of the ill-judging 
 and improper instruments to which, in the last century, the 
 formation of character was confided. 
 
 We were only eight boarders at Moreton, but were as 
 mischievous as any eighty or eight hundred could be ; and 
 the little respect in which we held Mr Bransby left our 
 wicked propensities full play. A cane lay on his desk for 
 flogging the boys, which we cut up into small pieces, and it 
 was fine fun to see what an impotent instrument of punish- 
 ment he held when he took it up, intending to lay it on the 
 shoulders of one of us sinners. On one occasion, the boys 
 made an excursion to a place called Sentry Field, where, to 
 the great annoyance of the inhabitants of the town, they 
 filled up a well with stones, so that no water could be drawn. 
 At another time, one of the boys fired small cannons into the 
 bedroom of an opposite neighbour, filling the family with 
 alarm ; and it was no unusual thing to put gunpowder into 
 the snufi'ers, which exploded when they were used. Once, 
 when our master neglected his school for his lady-love, 
 whom the boys pleasantly called Miss Saucer-eyes, they 
 blackened all the desks with ink, and told the tutor they 
 had gone into mourning for his absence. They disturbed 
 him at night by their racket, and always pretended to be 
 asleep when he entered the bedroom, attributing the noise 
 to cats and rats. 
 
 MORETON CHARACTERS. 
 
 Moreton, like most small towns, had its celebrities. There 
 was a man who mended our shoes, who bore the illustrious 
 name of Ptolemy. The tonsor who cut our hair was always 
 called " Dip my head, sir ! " that being the form of ejacu- 
 lation with which he interlarded his discourse. There 
 
 D 
 
50 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was an old woman who lived in a hut filthier than 
 herself, with no end of cats around her, in whose skins, 
 and those of hares and rabbits, she traded, and whose 
 hovel, holding our noses, we sometimes visited. One day 
 she asked us what was o'clock, and offended us (as we 
 were all Presbyterians) by answering, " Aye, yours is a 
 Presbyterian clock ! " meaning, of course, that it was not to 
 be trusted, but I doubt if the beldame ever went to church. 
 Had she done so, the congregation would assuredly have 
 soon taken flight. Cats prowled about her garden, occupied 
 her cottage, and were carried about in her arms. They 
 shared all she had in her of tenderness and kindness. 
 Could a creature so hideous ever have loved 1 I never heard 
 that she had an acquaintance, still less a friend, and her 
 domicile was at some distance from the road, and far away 
 from other dwellings. ^ Among the characters was the Welsh 
 Baptist minister, father of Miss Saucer-eyes, whom we used 
 to call Parson Jacob Isaac, or Farmer Isaac Jacob, the King 
 of the Hivites. He used to say that he ruled over a very 
 irritable and ungrateful community, who often stung him 
 in recompense for his care and kindness, and whom I have 
 often seen him approach, shrouded under the protection of 
 a heavy black veil, and wearing thick leather gloves. His 
 scheme consisted in stealing the honey without destroying 
 the bees, and I understood that the whole secret of his 
 management was traceable to his intimate alliance with 
 the sovereign queens. By his influence behind the throne, 
 he contrived to direct the policy (whether or not he won the 
 affections) of the whole Hivite nation. I remember well 
 the indignation of our teacher when one of his conOTearation 
 asked him if Miss Saucer-eyes (she had large bright eyes) 
 were well. He blushed like a peony and exclaimed " For 
 shame ! " but the Moreton-Hampstead rustics were not dis- 
 tinguished for refinement, and a joke was not the less 
 appreciated because it was coarse. 
 
DARTMOOR. 5 1 
 
 DARTMOOR. 
 
 Those were most happy days. Our rambles were de- 
 lightful. We were accustomed to trace the hill streams 
 to their very source, to scramble over the rocks, and to 
 visit the waterfalls, of which one — Becky Fall — has much 
 local celebrity. We went to the hamlets and villages that 
 skirt the dreary Dartmoor, upon whose verge Moreton 
 (whence the name Moor-town) stands. The last house in 
 the town was a small inn bearing a sign, on one side of 
 which was written— 
 
 " Before the moor you strive to pass, 
 Take here a good refreshing glass." 
 
 And on the other — 
 
 " Now the moor you're safely over. 
 Drink, your spirits to recover." 
 
 The moor was, indeed, in winter a most dreary and desolate 
 place, on which people were not unfrequently frozen to death 
 when they lost their way in the midst of its pathless snows. 
 There were, besides, numerous cromlechs and other Druidical 
 remains, rude fortifications, both British and Roman, amonof 
 which I recollect Cranbrook Castle, a circle of stones, 
 forming a vast encampment on a very elevated spot, down 
 whose steep banks the most beautiful wood scenery descends 
 to the Teign below. The rivers which take their rise in the 
 forest of Dartmoor glide or hurry through the most lovely 
 varieties of mountain and valley, their clear streams, bright 
 and musical, bordered with flowers and filled with fish. 
 But to trace them in their windings in the light-hearted 
 days of healthful, joyous boyhood, that was indeed a bliss, 
 and I felt — how often ! — all that I afterwards read in the 
 finest passages of the "Excursion" or " Childe Harold." 
 At the top of one of the Dartmoor tors, Avas a church whose 
 curate told me his congregation was sometimes the clerk 
 
52 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 alone, and sometimes the clerk and a wandering butterfly. 
 It was at the time when the admission of the Catholics to 
 civil rights was fiercely debated, and somehow or other the 
 topic was introduced into our conversation. As the simple- 
 hearted parson poured out the most extraordinary vitupera- 
 tions upon the Papists, talking of them with as much horror 
 and repugnance as if they were all incarnate fiends, I 
 quietly asked him, " Have you ever known a Roman Catho- 
 lic ? " On which the good man vehemently answered, " 
 Lord, sir ! No ! God forbid ! " Yet he was not tormented 
 like the unfortunate madman who, having been in his time 
 one of the most passionate opponents of the Catholics, fancied 
 that his right leg — his favourite leg — had become a Papist, 
 and was tormented from morning to night by the thought 
 of its disagreeable adjacency, availing himself of all possible 
 contrivances to keep it, as he said, at a distance, and invari- 
 ably putting it out of bed before he composed himself to 
 sleep. 
 
 YOUTHFUL ASPIRATIONS. 
 
 It was a longing desire of my boyhood to be trained to 
 what is called the ministry, but I never gave open ex- 
 pression to my wish, and never even hinted it to my father 
 or to any of my friends. It seemed too lofty an ambition, 
 and I felt as if it would be impertinent and presumptuous 
 to indulge in such aspirations. I cannot now unravel the 
 thoughts which intruded between my desire and disappoint- 
 ment. I sometimes fancied that it would be suggested to 
 me, or planned for me, and with what delight should I have 
 welcomed the proposal ! The utterance of a single word 
 would have changed the whole course of my existence. 
 Instead of a life of vicissitude, I should probably have spent 
 the years of mortal existence in silent monotony — instead 
 of wandering over the wide earth and the still wider seas, I 
 should have been located in a narrow sphere, and associated 
 
POLEMICAL CONTROVERSY. 53 
 
 with tlie scenery of the fields and the streams of some 
 country town — instead of intercourse with multitudinous 
 man, with those who have moved in and moved the great 
 events of our time, my acquaintances would not have 
 stretched beyond the narrow circle of family and household 
 friends — instead of occupying myself with the concerns of 
 the world, I should have had charge of a country congrega- 
 tion — and instead of launching (ever too rashly) into the 
 literature of remote nations, it would have been my pride 
 and my duty to solve theological problems, and to find 
 acceptance in the columns of a provincial newspaper (for 
 the itch of writing was upon me from my very boyhood) 
 would have been a great gratification. I had perhaps 
 hardly defined to myself what a dissenting minister was, or 
 ought to be, but in the circle where I moved, he was an 
 object of boundless reverence, his visits were anticipated 
 with awe, and sometimes with apprehension, and always 
 recollected among the memorabilia worthiest of note. Then, 
 he was the principal actor in the most impressive family 
 scenes — he gave their names to the children when life 
 began, he spoke the eulogiums of the dead when life was 
 ended, he counselled, encouraged, reproved all from the 
 pulpit, and was entitled to speak as no one else spoke in the 
 household. He knew most of hidden things, most of 
 heaven, hell, and God, and had little to do with the working, 
 every-day world. It was indeed a great thing to be a 
 minister of the Gospel, too great a thing for me, and so I 
 glided into other studies and pursuits, still looking back 
 upon that to which I felt I was not worthy to be called. 
 
 POLEMICAL CONTROVERSY. 
 
 I was engaged for years in a fierce polemic struggle with 
 a cousin, whose talents I was taught to hold in high 
 respect. He was afterwards a successful Chancery barris- 
 
54 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ter, but died young. As to the results of the religious 
 controversy, they were exactly what they ordinarily are. 
 Neither made any advances towards the conversion of the 
 other. We became angry, each despising his adversary for 
 being blind and deaf to the counter-arguments which eacli 
 deemed irresistible. How stupid that you do not under- 
 stand this reasoning ! How intolerable that you will not 
 acknowledge that fact ! But every boy is a miniature man, 
 little quarrels are but the type of great ones, and too many 
 a controversy has been, I fear, rather instrumental in devel- 
 oping impatience, ignorance, intolerance, and evil passions, 
 than in furthering the progress of truth and charity. 
 
 riRST LAUNCH IN LIFE. 
 
 On leaving school, I was placed in a house whose princi- 
 pal partner, Mr Eobert Kennaway, was engaged at the 
 same time in the wine and spirit and the Manchester trade. 
 He was very kind to me, lent me books, and assisted me 
 in acquiring the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian languages. 
 French I learnt from an emigrant named Coupe. I was 
 greatly aided in the study of Italian by the emigrants 
 who then visited England in great numbers, selling baro- 
 meters and other instruments. A merchant of the name of 
 Churchill helped me to acquire German and Dutch. In 
 those days the Exeter merchants were mostly travelled men, 
 with a practical knowledge of other tongues, and the Quay 
 at Exeter was crowded with the ships of all nations, carrying 
 away the staple produce of the county, which consisted of 
 a great variety of woollen goods, baize, serges, druggets and 
 many others. The tenters' grounds, called rack-fields by the 
 fullers, displayed all the colours of the rainbow, but not a 
 vestige is now left of things that were. My father was one 
 of the last representatives of the ancient woollen trade of 
 Exeter, and saw its final decay and departure to the north. 
 
COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 EARLY LIFE AS A MERCHANT. 
 
 In June 1811, I was settled in London as a clerk in a 
 merchant's counting-hioiise. I had not many friends, but 
 such as I had received me with singular kindness. I cannot 
 forget the hospitable attentions I found under the roof of 
 Mr and Mrs Parkes, who were then, from a situation of great 
 worldly depression, gradually rising in wealth and pros- 
 perity. I looked upon Mr Parkes with great respect, for 
 he was an author, and a popular one. All literary objects 
 I was disposed to venerate, and though Mr Parkes over- 
 estimated his own powers, and was too fond of appearing 
 to be acquainted with matters of which he was ignorant, 
 yet his calm sound sense, and the industrious habits of his 
 mind, made him a valuable friend and a judicious counsellor. 
 I owe him much, but will give an instance ad docendum 
 of his weakness. He was engaged in a controversy as to 
 the greater or less safety of employing oil in sugar-refining, 
 and wrote a pamphlet — clever enough but ill-tempered — 
 which was full of Latin quotations, furnished him by some 
 too busy friend. They had nothing to do with the matter 
 in dispute, and were personal, but they had a classical air. 
 Now Mr Parkes could not understand, far less apply them, 
 and when accused of calling in auxiliaries to his help, he 
 never had the courage to desist from taking all the credit 
 of the quotations to himself, and though he would not tell 
 a falsehood about the matter, he always insisted that he 
 had all the books quoted in his library, that he could point 
 out every passage, and that he had learned Latin at school. 
 
56 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 He had a great passion for literary distinctions. It was his 
 ruling passion, in truth, and his industry and intrepidity in 
 hunting them out, his delight in obtaining, and his un- 
 subdued ardour when he failed to obtain them, altered in 
 my mind very greatly the estimate T had formed of their 
 value. I have received many such honours, and if they 
 have an interest, it is because they were not obtained by 
 canvas or by self-esteem. 
 
 My commercial history may be shortly told. I went to 
 Spain in my twenty-first year, where I had sometimes ten 
 or a dozen vessels consigned to me, in several ports, at the 
 same time. I lived for some months at Bordeaux. I after- 
 wards went to Lisbon, in order to obtain a settlement of 
 the claim I had upon the British Commissariat for supplies 
 furnished through me to the English army. Never was a 
 war conducted with more improvidence and disregard to 
 economy than that of the Peninsula. Everything was 
 bought at extravagant prices, and the want of ready money 
 had thrown British pecuniary reputation into such distrust 
 that large fortunes were made by the purchase, at an 
 enormous discount, of the promissory notes of our Commis- 
 sariat officers ; 60 to 80 per cent, less was not a uncommon 
 depreciation. The exchange upon London was immensely 
 disadvantageous to the British government, and instead of 
 providing money by drafts on the Treasury, supplies of 
 hard cash had been sent out. Probably more than half the 
 expenses of the war might have been saved to the public. Our 
 army was at the mercy of contractors, jobbers, speculators 
 in exchange, and a thousand classes of adventurers, native 
 and foreign. Almost everything being bought at most 
 extravagant rates, this added to the enormous increase of 
 prices which increased demand always produces. There 
 was the additional augmentation, justified by supposed risk 
 as to ultimate payment, and certainty of delay in the exami- 
 
EARLY LIFE AS A MERCHANT. 57 
 
 nation and settlement of accounts. It was some of tliese 
 accounts in arrear whose payment I was sent to claim, and 
 the payment was enforced by me. I was not satisfied with 
 the estimate formed of the value of my services to my 
 principals, and the consequence was a separation. I had 
 acquired a small property, amounting, I think, to about 
 £1500, and was about to engage in some trading adventures 
 with a Bordeaux house,' which would have taken me to the 
 Mauritius, but the project was finally abandoned, and I 
 became a merchant on my own account. My capital was 
 too little, and I was too adventurous. I stumbled, rose 
 again, and found a partner. Stronger than I, he was too 
 weak to support me, so we tottered together. Released, 
 and after some years' experience and much travel, I found 
 capital and strength — too much strength, for it crushed me. 
 I have passed through all the vicissitudes of the uncertain 
 career of commerce. At one time I had realized about 
 £40,000, a sum that ought to have satisfied my ambition. 
 Not once, but twice in my life, I have been possessor of 
 this more than competency, and twice I have lost more than 
 I possessed. I abandoned commerce, for which, in some 
 respects at all events, I was not unfitted. I had a thorough 
 knowledge of accounts, and have, I hope, turned that know- 
 ledge to the public benefit by my successful efforts to 
 reform our national system of book-keeping. I had a 
 knowledge of languages, superior to that of most of the 
 merchants in the Eoyal Exchange. The causes of my failure 
 I can now calmly estimate and thoroughly understand. I 
 had too much confidence in unworthy men, and was alto- 
 gether of too adventurous and speculative a nature. Had 
 I been associated with persons of a less sanguine character, 
 and possessing qualities in which I was deficient, I should 
 probably have ended my commercial career in much pros- 
 perity and opulence. Perhaps, through much suffering, it 
 
58 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was good for me to be placed in another part of tlie field of 
 activity. I had buoyant spirits, which supported me like 
 life-buoys on the ocean of adversity. Shipwrecked, I was 
 not wholly lost, and the very waves that rolled over me seemed 
 to freshen and strengthen me for new exertions. Besides, 
 I had made many friends, and faithful friends they have 
 proved themselves. 
 
 SUCCESSFUL CRCESUSES. 
 
 Many of the men who have been most fortunate, as it is 
 deemed — I mean those who have amassed the largest sums 
 of money — have generally succeeded by the persevering 
 application of some very simple principle, which they have 
 established as the general rule of their proceedings. Eicardo 
 said that he had made his money by observing that people in 
 general exaggerated the importance of events. If, therefore, 
 dealing as he dealt in the stocks, there was reason for a 
 small advance, he bought, because he was certain the 
 unreasonable advance would enable him to realise ; so, when 
 stocks were falling, he sold, in the conviction that alarm and 
 panic would produce a decline not warranted by circum- 
 stances. Morrison told me that he owed all his prosperity 
 to the discovery that the great art of mercantile traffic was 
 to find out sellers rather than buyers ; that if you bought 
 cheap, and satisfied yourself with only a fair profit, buyers — 
 the best sort of buyers, those who have money to buy — would 
 come of themselves. He said he found houses engaged with 
 a most expensive machinery, sending travellers about in all 
 directions to seek orders, and to effect sales, while he 
 employed travellers to buy instead of to sell, and, if they 
 bought well, there was no fear of his effecting advantageous 
 sales. So, uniting this theory with another, that small 
 profits and quick returns are more profitable in the long run 
 than long credits with great gains, he established one of the 
 
EARLY LIFE AS A MERCHANT. 59 
 
 largest and most lucrative concerns that has ever existed in 
 London, and was entitled to a name which T have often 
 heard applied to him, "The Napoleon of shopkeepers." 
 Hudson had his theory too, and a very simple and sensible 
 one. He saw how unnecessarily expensive was the 
 machinery of railway management — that the same staif 
 and plant, generally very costly, while directing only one 
 railway concern, might, with a small additional charge, be 
 applied to many. Hence, fusions and absorptions, and 
 junctions and unions — the personnel improved in quality by 
 the selection of the most efficient, and the material econo- 
 mised by a great extension of its employment. 
 
LITERAEY REMINISCENCES. 
 
 LITERARY PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 My first literary production printed was a short skit I wrote 
 when Wordsworth first obtained a government appointment, 
 on the recommendation of Lord Lonsdale : — 
 
 " When favour's golden hook is baited, 
 
 How swiftly patriot zeal relaxes ; 
 In silent state see Wordsworth seated, 
 
 Commissioner of stamps and taxes. 
 Wordsworth, most artless among bards, 
 
 Who talked of Milton and of freedom, 
 Scorned service purchased by awards. 
 
 And pitied those who chanced to need 'em. 
 Some poets are but men, 'tis said ; 
 
 The question may be well disputed. 
 If they can eat corruption's bread, 
 
 And still continue unpolluted." 
 
 I should have added — 
 
 " And can the lesson taught the child 
 From God's authority — the Bible ; 
 Who touches pitch must be defiled, 
 Become an actionable libel ? " 
 
 This was printed in the Examiner, then edited by Leigh 
 Hunt, whose personal acquaintance I made in Horsemonger 
 Lane Jail, to which he and his brother John were committed 
 for two years, for having said, in answer to some foolish 
 verses, written by " Laura Matilda," in which all the graces 
 were attributed to the Prince Eegent, that this paragon of 
 graces was "a fat gentleman of forty," the libel being that 
 such an averment tended to the degradation of the sovereign 
 
WILLIAM HAZLITT. 61 
 
 authority in the opinion of his liege subjects. Upon such 
 basis stood the monarchy in those persecuting, or, in milder 
 terms, prosecuting days. It was then that William Hone, 
 arraigned before Lord EUenborough for his libellous and 
 profane publications — very popular they were — drove the 
 judge into a towering passion, by referring to the tolerant 
 spirit of his father Bishop Law. "It is as false as hell," 
 was the passionate and undignified retort of the man in 
 ermine. 
 
 I have published between forty and fifty volumes — in 
 every case with some pecuniary profit — and several pamphlets 
 less known of course — one on the absurdities of the 
 Quarantine Laws, another on my arrest by the Bourbons in 
 1822, two in Spanish, of which one was on the slave trade, 
 in reply to O'Gavan, an Havana deputy to the Cortes, while 
 the other was a translation from Clarkson's tract on the 
 opinions of the early Christians in reference to war. I was 
 liberally paid as editor of the Westmmster Review, for which 
 Jeremy Bentham originally provided the funds, and in 
 which I wrote a great many articles. I also contributed 
 largely to the London Magazine, in which Elia (Charles 
 Lamb), William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Charles Elton, and 
 many other well-known names were writers. 
 
 WILLIAM HAZLITT. 
 
 What anecdotes cross my mind, illustrative of the 
 character of each ! Hazlitt was a dirty fellow, and seldom 
 washed his hands. When playing at whist with Lamb, the 
 latter said to him in his stammering way, "Haz-Haz- 
 Haz-1-l-it ! if dirt were trumps, what hands you'd hold ! " 
 Hazlitt occupied the house in Bentham's garden, where 
 Milton lived while secretary to Cromwell, and a great 
 plague he was while he inhabited it. He never paid 
 any rent, and wherever there was any white paint to write 
 
62 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 upon, lie covered it with his superscriptions. The philo- 
 sopher was much perplexed by his pertinacity in not 
 quitting the abode upon notice being given, but (probably 
 persuaded by Leigh Hunt, who owed many favours to 
 Bentham) he was at last induced to surrender a domicile 
 which he had so comfortably and cheaply held. I have 
 some recollection that the garden in which Milton's house is 
 is somewhere referred to by the blind bard, but my memory 
 fails me as to the locality of the description. I remember 
 the old sage, when he passed before it, pointing out to his 
 guests the inscription, " Sacred to Milton, Prince of Poets," 
 which Hazlitt had caused to be engraved on a stone, and, 
 lifting up the stick with which he always walked, and which 
 he called Dobbin, raising it over the shoulders of his 
 companion, saying, " down on your marrow-bones." 
 
 , GEORGE DYER. 
 
 George Dyer, the author of the " History of Cambridge," 
 and of "Poetics," in which are one or two of the best hymns 
 in our language, was a frequent subject of Lamb's jests, 
 though he loved the old man dearly. Dyer was the most 
 absent person I have ever known. He was once seen in 
 Fleet Street without his stockings, and he took off his inex- 
 pressibles to give them to a poor man who was wretchedly 
 clad. At a party he took up a coal-scuttle instead of his 
 hat, and its contents fell into his neck and down- his back. 
 He once walked during his reveries into the New River, 
 and, as Lamb said, was "fished out" by his sister with 
 her parasol. I was requested once to ask George Dyer 
 to write a sonnet for a lady, and to take care that it 
 consisted oi fourteen lines. He told me he had been very 
 careful about it, but, on counting it, there were only thirteen. 
 I have seen him at his own table put his fingers into the 
 mustard-pot, mistaking it for the sugar-basin. When I 
 
THOMAS HOOD. 63 
 
 went to Russia, he ■urged me to present to the Emperor 
 Alexander a copy of his letters on the English Constitution. 
 It was splendidly bound for the occasion, and I told him he 
 must write a proper inscription. He made a flaming 
 dedication to the Emperor Joseph ! I happened to look at 
 the title-page, and discovered his mistake. When the book 
 was sent to him, he pasted over the erroneous page, and 
 rewrote the inscription, but the word Joseph was most 
 visible through the paper, and the amendment was sadly 
 botched and bungled. The emperor sent him no ring, as 
 he did to me. 
 
 THOMAS HOOD. 
 
 I was acquainted with the editors of several of the 
 annuals, in most of which I was in the habit of writing. 
 With Thomas Hood, the conductor of The Gem, I was more 
 specially allied. He had attained gi'eat celebrity from his 
 "Eugene Aram," and his "Bridge of Sighs," every verse of 
 which is a touching picture, and greater still, from his 
 " Song of the Shirt." The anti-Corn Law League was 
 desirous of making him their poet-laureate by engaging him 
 in their service, and I invited Cobden, Bright, and some 
 others of the leaders of that formidable body to meet Hood 
 at my table, but his death put an end to any such arrange- 
 ment. Poor fellow ! From his death-bed he sent me an 
 engraving of his bust, with his autograph at the foot. He 
 once addressed me in the following lines : — 
 
 " To Bowring ! man of many tongues, 
 
 (All over tongues, like rumour). 
 This tributory verse belongs, 
 
 To paint his learned humour. 
 All kinds of gab he knows, I wis. 
 
 From Latin down to Scottish — • 
 As fluent as a parrot is. 
 
 But far more Polly-glottish. 
 
64 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 No grammar too abstruse he meets, 
 
 However dark and verby ; 
 He gossips Greek about the streets, 
 
 And often Euss — in urbe. 
 Strange tongues^whate'er you do them call. 
 
 In short, the man is able 
 To tell you what's o'clock in all 
 
 The dialects of Babel. 
 Take him on Change — in Portuguese, 
 
 The Moorish, and the Spanish, 
 Polish, Hungarian, Tyrolese, 
 
 The Swedish, or the Danish : 
 Try him with these, and fifty such. 
 
 His skill will ne'er diminish ; 
 Although you should begin in Dutch, 
 
 And end (like me) in Finnish." 
 
 Hood never took a prominent part in conversation, but 
 what he said was always pointed, and his puns were most 
 pungent and biting, and always appropriate. 
 
THE "WESTMINSTER REVIEW." 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OP THE "WESTMINSTER EEVIEW." 
 
 The Westminster Revieiv was the first attempt, and a 
 thoroughly successful one, on the part of a body of men 
 known as "the philosophical radicals" to find a voice. 
 That voice spoke loudly, and its echoes formed an era in 
 the history of political progress. " Blackwood'' s Magazine " 
 at once recognised the advent of a new power. Of the 
 writers in it almost all have obtained honourable distinction. 
 It was universally acknowledged that Radicalism had its 
 historians, philosophers, and poets, and that they brought 
 their full contributions into the treasury of letters. The 
 Westminster Review has frequently shifted hands, but it 
 still retains an honourable place in the literary world. Many 
 of its teachings have become laws, and it took the lead in 
 the questions of free-trade, popular education, codification, 
 reforms in the administration of justice, the poor laws, tlie 
 representation of the people, usury, colonial government, 
 and many other evidences of progress. If universal suffrage, 
 shortened parliaments, and the ballot are among matters in 
 abeyance, they are only suspended for a time, and the same 
 processes of reasoning, the same tide of tendency which has 
 driven forward the successful issue of some of these ques- 
 tions will bring round the consummation of all. The 
 leaven is in the meal, and the whole lump will be leavened. 
 
 JEREMY BENTHAM. 
 
 In the very centre of the group of persons who originated 
 the Westminster Review stands the grand figure of Jeremy 
 
66 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLEOTIONS. 
 
 Bentham. Though closely resembling Franklin, his face 
 expresses a profounder wisdom and a more marked benevo- 
 lence than the bust of the American printer. Mingled with 
 a serene contemplative cast, there is something of playful 
 humour in the countenance. The high forehead is wrinkled, 
 but is without sternness, and is contemplative but compla- 
 cent. The neatly-combed long white hair hangs over the 
 neck, but moves at every breath. Shnplex munditiis best 
 describes his garments. When he walks there is a restless 
 activity in his gait, as if his thoughts were, " Let me walk 
 fast, for there is work to do, and the walking is but to fit 
 me better for the work." 
 
 The first steps taken were in communication with Long- 
 mans & Co. When the negociations had reached what 
 seemed a conclusion, the proprietors of the Edinhurgh 
 Review objected to the arrangement, as the starting of the 
 Westminster was likely to be prejudicial to the interests of 
 the Edinhurgh, whose interests the Longmans represented 
 in London. This led to a correspondence with Baldwins, 
 to whom the publication of the Westminster was finally 
 committed, and it launched with the printing of two thou- 
 sand copies, Avhich were rapidly sold, and another edition 
 of one thousand copies followed. The funds were furnished 
 \)j Bentham, the editors being Henry Southern, who had 
 charge of the literary department, while the political was 
 committed to my care, the money being confided to me. 
 
 H. SOUTHERN. 
 
 Southern was a very clever man. He was a son of a bar- 
 ber at York, but his precocious talent recommended him -to 
 some opulent patrons, by whom he was sent to Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, where though he did not specially distinguish 
 himself, he made many friends, among whom was Charles 
 Barker, brother-in-law of Perronet Thompson, and who was 
 
WRITERS IN THE "WESTMINSTER." 67 
 
 afterwards associated with him in his literary undertakings 
 ■ — the Retrospective Revievj especially and the Westminster. 
 I afterwards recommended Southern to Lord Clarendon, 
 who, being in search of a private secretary, found in him all • 
 the devotion and ability he desired, and recommended him 
 particularly to Lord Palmerston, from whom he received 
 sundry diplomatic appointments, among them that of 
 Minister Plenipotentiary to the Argentine Piepublic, and 
 that to the Brazils. Southern's sense of honour was so 
 blind that I had the greatest difficulty in extorting from 
 him the repayment of a hundred pounds, due to his tailor, 
 the non-payment of which would have prevented his leaving 
 England for Madrid, where Lord Clarendon had nominated 
 him for the secretaryship. He laughed at the idea of its 
 being a debt of honour, and asked me whether he was the 
 first gentleman who did not j)ay his debts. 
 
 WRITERS IN THE " WESTMINSTER." 
 
 The Westminster Review created a great sensation, both 
 in the political and the literary world. The field had been 
 almost monopolised by the blue and yellow of the whigs, 
 and by the graver grey of the Tories, but the Eadicals had 
 no quarterly representative. Blackwood hailed their 
 appearance in the field as evidence of discord in the Liberal 
 camp, and certainly the Whigs were not spared in the ex- 
 ceedingly pungent articles which emanated from the pens 
 of James Mill, William Johnson Fox, George Grote, Eoe- 
 buck, and many others who came forward in the van. But 
 it certainly was a discovery that in the Eadical field men of 
 the highest order of intellect were earnest labourers — that 
 
 o 
 
 historians of the first class, eminent poets, several of the 
 wisest and the wittiest of our literary men, political econo- 
 mists of the highest authority, statisticians, men well known 
 in the arena of public life, came forward to represent that 
 
68 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 great and growing class which belonged to neither section 
 of the British aristocracy, and whose standard took the 
 emphatic device, " The greatest good of the greatest 
 number." 
 
 JAMES MILL. 
 
 The biography of James Mill has not, I believe, been 
 written. He was the son of a farmer who was a tenant of 
 Sir John Stuart, who made the earliest experiments in re- 
 moving great trees, and whose exploits were recorded in the 
 Quarterly Review by Sir Walter Scott, who followed his 
 example at Abbotsford, which he found bare of wood, and 
 surrounded with woodland scenery. The now distin- 
 guished John Stuart Mill had his name from his grand- 
 father's connection with the Stuart property. His father 
 came to London, made the acquaintance of David Ei- 
 cardo, and through him was introduced to Bentham, who 
 was wont to say, "I begot Ricardo, and Ricardo begot 
 Mill." Mill and his family lived with the philosopher at 
 Ford Abbey, in Devonshire, a place which the latter had 
 rented for several years. He was occupied with his '"' His- 
 tory of British India," and wrote several articles in the 
 " Encyclopaedia Britannica " on politics and political 
 economy, which gave him great reputation as an acute rea- 
 soner and an original thinker. It was, however, from Ben- 
 tham's mind that his own was impregnated, but he must be 
 considered as Bentham's best interpreter. Dumont, indeed, 
 has popularized Bentham on the Continent, though his style 
 was less incisive and condensed, and thence, perhaps, more 
 acceptable. Mill's book on India, in which he endeavoured 
 to demonstrate, and by many has been thought to demon- 
 strate successfully, that the remoteness of an observer from 
 the scenes he describes is likely to produce a less prejudiced 
 and partial, and a more general and accurate estimate, led 
 
JAMES MILL. 69 
 
 to his appointment to one of the most influential positions 
 in the administration of British India, that of Examiner, in 
 which he was associated with Peacock, the author of 
 " Headlong Hall," and M'CuUoch, and afterwards with his 
 own son, John Stuart Mill. As to the Examiners all impor- 
 tant despatches were referred, and as all the answers to those 
 despatches were prepared by them for the approval of the 
 Court of Directors, the Examiners were really the rulers of 
 India, and among them James Mill undoubtedly exercised 
 the supreme authority. He was the great gun of the West- 
 minster Review. His object was to crush aristocratical 
 influence, whether Whig or Tory, and he saw little distinc- 
 tion between the tactics of either party. Both were equally 
 moved by a passion for place and power, both seemed to 
 claim an hereditary right to govern, and both concurred in 
 the policy of absolutely excluding the middle classes and 
 the people from any influence in the Legislature, excepting 
 so far as that influence could be made to serve their own 
 purposes. Mill marked out the strong demarcation by 
 which the subject many were separated from the ruling few 
 — and asserted that the two factions were disposed only to 
 grant such reforms as they could turn to their own account, 
 but that the great interests of the people were opposed to the 
 views of the aristocratical sections. In every part of the field 
 of Government he showed how the greater interests were 
 sacrificed to the lesser — Parliamentary representation, with 
 its rotten boroughs and narrow boundaries — corn-laws and 
 monopolies, which enabled Lords of the Upper House and 
 Lords of the land and their colleagues in both Houses, to 
 pillage the people — the army and the navy, the church and 
 the state, all made the pasturage for the privileged orders — 
 offices without responsibility — appointments without deserv- 
 iugs, covering; the whole area of administration. When the 
 pressure from without forced concessions from the Govern- 
 
70 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ment, there was heard the cry, so often repeated, of 
 " Finality," or " Rest and be thankful," and that cry is still 
 uttered from high places. 
 
 GENERAL T. P. THOMPSON. 
 
 Thomas Perronet Thompson was one of my most honoured 
 and beloved friends. No one is more alive than myself to 
 the peculiarities of his character, but his slight defects, 
 which were the cause of his exclusion from Parliament, 
 were as nothing compared with his moral and intellectual 
 excellences, and ought not to have been weighed in the 
 balance against the good services he rendered to the cause 
 of reform, and especially in the field of Free Trade. His 
 father was Thomas Thompson, a banker at Hull, who was, 
 I believe, the first Wesleyan Methodist who ever obtained 
 a seat in Parliament. Perronet received his education at 
 Cambridge, and was a favourite of Dr Isaac Milner, one of 
 the celebrities of his day, and the object of great admiration 
 on the part of young Thompson. When a youth he went 
 to sea as a midshipman, afterwards entered the army, and 
 was made a prisoner at Buenos Ayres, while under the 
 command of that general Avliose name may be looked for in 
 the enigma — 
 
 " My first is an emblem of purity ; 
 My second of security ; 
 
 My whole is a name 'twere a sin and a shame 
 To hand down to futurity." 
 
 In consequence of the intimacy of the Thompsons with Mr 
 Wilberforce, and of their known abhorrence of negro slavery, 
 Perronet, then a lieutenant, was appointed to the Governor- 
 ship of Sierra Leone. I have heard it said that his sympa- 
 thies with the black population were so strong that, in 
 any question between an African and a European, he was 
 sure to decide in favour of the coloured man, and no doubt 
 
GENERAL T. P. THOMPSON. 71 
 
 sucli decision would generally be in the right. In the 
 House of Commons, on one occasion, much impatience was 
 exhibited during a speech of the " honourable and gallant 
 member for Hull," when he said he hoped some indulgence 
 would be accorded to so rare a personage as a living Gover- 
 nor of Sierra Leone. The appeal was quite successful, and 
 he was allowed to say his say, after a cordial laugh from 
 both sides of the House. Thompson served for some time 
 in India. An admirable Arabic scholar, he was sent up 
 the Persian Gulf in command of a troop, to act against the 
 AVahabees, a fanatical sect of Moosulmans who had captured 
 the Holy Cities (of which Ibrahim Pasha afterwards dis- 
 possessed them), whose leaders were, at the time of the 
 expedition from Bombay, holding the fortress of Eds cl 
 Kamar. Thompson was very desirous to avoid bloodshed, 
 in fact he had a strong sympathy with these reformers, who 
 lived lives of singular abstinence, and neither drank coffee 
 nor smoked tobacco, the two great and allowed indulgences 
 of Islamism. He summoned the citadel to surrender, but 
 in vain. The answer of the Wahabees was, " we will not 
 surrender, we wait the will of Allah ! " No man was better 
 read in military matters than Thompson, and Jomini's 
 writings were one of his text-books. It is said that, in 
 ordering the attack, he exclaimed, " Jomini, chapter the 
 seventeenth, I have them !" but the Wahabees knew nothing 
 of Jomini, nor of European warfare, and our soldiers on that 
 occasion met with a severe defeat. 
 
 Thompson, with his wife, returned from India by the Red 
 Sea, then a most tiresome and difficult enterprise, which they 
 were among the first to attempt. They could only slowly 
 make their way by Arab boats, and instead of reaching Suez 
 and Cairo as now, they passed by Keneh, far to the south. 
 Plis father wished to surprise him by purchasing for him, ac- 
 cording to the usages of the day, a seat in Parliament, and I 
 
72 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was charged with the negotiation. A rich Indian, named 
 Farquhar, had purchased Fonthill Abbey, to which the 
 rotten borough of Hindon was attached, with its two mem- 
 bers. The price asked for a Session was £5000. The 
 arrangement, however, was not made, and Thompson was 
 brought into the House for his native place, by the radical 
 party, at no small cost, augmented by a petition presented 
 against his return. He owed much of his reputation to the 
 " Corn Law Catechism," one of the most masterly and pun- 
 gent exposures of fallacies which ever passed the press. 
 Its circulation was great. Thompson became one of the 
 most efficient auxiliaries of the Anti- Corn-Law League, 
 Avhich, I think, somewhat under-estimated the value of his 
 services and sacrifices. He had a theory that the mathe- 
 matical laws of order might be applied to musical compo- 
 sitions, and that what is called " temperature" is a practical 
 heresy. He had a piano constructed so as to fulfil all the 
 conditions of his theory, as were the guitars he used. While 
 in Parliament, he adopted the practice of periodically ad- 
 dressing his constituents on the topics of the day. These 
 addresses form several volumes, and every page is marked 
 with the characteristics of a strong and oriainal mind. 
 
 He became the editor and proprietor of the Westminster 
 Revieiv about the period of Bentham's death. The strong 
 Anti-Catholic feeling which he inherited lingered in his 
 mind, a mind singularly stern and resolute. He lived to 
 the age of eighty-six, but his later years were spent in com- 
 parative seclusion. 
 
 CHARLES BARKER. 
 
 Charles Barker was the brother-in-law of Thompson. 
 He had been educated at Cambridge, and was H. Southern's 
 best ally. He was the critic of a large portion of the light 
 literature noticed in the Westminster. His style was free 
 
w. J. FOX. 73 
 
 and flowing, his habits most industrious, and his pen was 
 always ready. He met his death by a sad accident. 
 Having swallowed an ear of barley-corn, gathered in the 
 field, the beard stuck in his throat, inflammation ensued 
 and proved fatal. He was a man of very gentle manners, 
 highly accomplished, but little known beyond a narrow circle. 
 He had aided Southern while editing the Retrospective Re- 
 view, whose purpose was to call attention to the literature 
 of the past, and not to the literature of the present, excej^t 
 as illustrating ancient books. Barker belonged to a literary 
 and artistic family, his brother being a contributor to Punch. 
 
 w. J. FOX. 
 
 William Johnston Fox Avrote the first article in the first 
 number of the Westminster. He made his way from a 
 very low position to the distinction of M.P. for Oldham. 
 His sole resources were the profits of his pen, derived from 
 his sermons, and from his contributions to sundry periodi- 
 cals. His first anonymous or pseudonymic designation 
 was " A Norwich Weaver-boy." In his early days Norwich 
 presented a very literary atmosphere. Mrs Opie, the Tay- 
 lors, the Austins, and many distinguished persons, gave 
 eminence to the capital of Norfolk. Taylor (but he was a 
 bachelor, and of a family distinct from the Taylors and 
 Austins) was an intimate friend of Eobert South ey, a good 
 scholar, the translator of Lessing, and one of the first to call 
 attention to German literature. Edgar Taylor, the trans- 
 lator of Griesbach's New Testament, was one of our allies, 
 as was Henry Eoscoe, the son of William Roscoe of Liver- 
 pool, and the father of the still more distinguished professor 
 of our day. Fox was a man of singular eloquence. He 
 spoke seldom in the House of Commons, but when he spoke 
 was listened to with a very marked attention. His works 
 have been edited by Dr Hodgson in a Memorial edition of 
 
74 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 twelve octavo volumes. Fox was one of the best speakers 
 at the great gatherings of the Anti-Corn Law League, and 
 his Bill, introduced in 1830, for promoting the secular 
 education of the people in England and Wales, was one of 
 the most important steps taken in an unsectarian direction. 
 Of the Monthly Repository, the then representative of Uni- 
 tarian opinions, he was for several years the editor. Before 
 his death, he was disassociated from the Unitarian body, 
 and he informed me that his later creed was grounded on 
 the views of Dr Strauss. 
 
 SOUTHWOOD SMITH. 
 
 Southwood Smith, who had been a Unitarian preacher 
 and abandoned pulpit teaching for the medical profession, 
 was a frequent contributor to the Revieiv. His article on 
 the " Use of the Dead to the Living," prepared the way for 
 that reform in our legislation which provided subjects for 
 dissection from other sources than body-snatching and mur- 
 dering. He attacked successfully the theory as to the 
 contagion of plague, and exhibited the worthlessness and 
 the silliness of the quarantine laws. He also wrote much on 
 Hygiene, and was afterwards associated with the Board of 
 Health. When Bentham died, his body was delivered to 
 Dr Southwood Smith for dissection, and he delivered over 
 it (amidst a storm of thunder and lightning) a beautiful 
 lecture on the character of the great legist. The skeleton 
 of Bentham, clad in his own garments, and seated in his 
 own chair, the face being reproduced in wax, was for some 
 time in Dr Smith's keeping, and was presented by Lord 
 Brougham (to whom it never belonged, and who had not 
 the least authority for his intrusion) as a gift to the London 
 University College. I presented to the College a portrait 
 of Bentham, to the London University his bust by David, 
 and to the National Gallery of Portraits a full-length picture, 
 
ALBANY FONBLANQUE. — J. A. ROEBUCK. 75 
 
 painted when, at the age of fourteen, he obtained the ap- 
 plause of Dr Samuel Johnson for a Latin poem on the death 
 of George 11. and the advent of George TIL 
 
 ALBANY FONBLANQUE. 
 
 In Albany Fonblanque wit and wisdom were admirably 
 blended — the wisdom suggesting the wit, and the wit 
 decorating the wisdom. An article of his on Robert Mont- 
 gomery's " Satan," is singularly clever and characteristic. 
 Montgomery's real patronymic was Gomery — the son of the 
 clown of that name — but he sought to aristocratise his 
 designation, and wished to be called " The Poet Mont- 
 gomery," an ambition which gave no little offence to James 
 Montgomery, the veritable poet, whose hymns live in many 
 of our collections, and are among the best of sacred songs. 
 He stands in the first line of devotional minstrels. Fon- 
 blanque was one of Bentham's favourites, and while the 
 editor, and, I believe, the proprietor, of the Examiner, lent 
 most useful aid to the utilitarian creed. His mind was 
 very differently moulded from that of either of the LIunts, 
 whom he succeeded in the direction of the newspaper, and 
 whose pecuniary difficulties were the source of much vexa- 
 tion to their many friends. His " History of England 
 under Seven Administrations," afforded him a fine field for 
 the display of that acumen which distinguished his pen. 
 It is to be regretted that few of his witty sayings are pre- 
 served. They are as incisive and humorous as any of 
 Douglas Jerrold, and far more philosophical than the best 
 outpourings of Theodore Hook. 
 
 J. A. ROEBUCK. 
 
 John Arthur Eoebuck was an able but unmanageable man, 
 sharp, severe, but unsympathising. Bentham once said to 
 him that his temper would do him more mischief than his 
 
76 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 intellect would ever do him good. Had his caustic oratory 
 heen associated with more moderation in his expressions, 
 more communion with others, or, rather, more respect for the 
 opinions of others, his might have been a brilliant instead 
 of a chequered career. The articles he wrote in the West- 
 minster Review are all remarkable for their soundness of 
 view and clearness of expression. He brought as much 
 common sense into his writings as ever did Cobbett, and 
 far more of instruction — the result of study and reflection. 
 Jn the House of Commons his courage was admirable, and 
 he enforced respect where he could not induce sympathy or 
 co-operation. 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 William Ellis has obtained distinction and realised a 
 fortune as manager of the Mutual Marine Assurance Office. 
 His articles on subjects of political economy have all the 
 clearness of a singularly lucid mind. His publications of 
 the true principles of education, and, what is far more 
 important, his application of those principles to a large field 
 of practical instruction by the establishment of excellent 
 schools, have made him, though perhaps not extensively 
 known — for he is as modest as he is benevolent — one of the 
 most efiicient of the philanthropists of his day. When 1 
 think of the variety of talent which was brought into the 
 service of the Westminster Review, and of the influence 
 which its contributions have had in the vast arena of reform, 
 both within and without the parliamentary circle, I feel 
 pride in having been a fellow-labourer with them, and in 
 having found friends and associates with whom pleasing 
 intercourse has been preserved to my old age. 
 
 J. HOGG. 
 
 Hogg, a barrister, made many contributions to the 
 classical articles in the Review. He was a strangely 
 
JOHN AND CHARLES AUSTIN. WALTER WATSON. *ll 
 
 capricious, unmanageable creature, who prided himself, 
 and with some reason, on his erudition, but his articles had 
 not the superlative merit he ascribed to them. 
 
 JOHN AND CHARLES AUSTIN. 
 
 John Austin wrote only one article in the Review — 
 namely, on Law Eeform. It is a very remarkable produc- 
 tion. His extreme fastidiousness made him dissatisfied with 
 everything he did, and unwilling to do what he might 
 easily and satisfactorily have done ; easily, I should not 
 say, for he elaborated everything. His was a perpetual 
 "Limee labor," and the more he filed away, the more he 
 desired to file, not but that the matter was substantially 
 good, yet he always found something to be improved in the 
 form or expression. 
 
 Charles Austin contributed more frequently. He was 
 the readier, but not the abler hand, yet his success at the 
 bar was prodigious, while his brother was little known. 
 Charles, at one time, was reported to make £30,000 a-year 
 by parliamentary practice. He stood foremost among 
 orators, if oratory can be said to belong to those who plead 
 before committees on private bills. John Austin is better 
 known as the husband of Mrs Austin, who was one of the 
 distinguished family of the Taylors of Norwich — the German 
 scholar and translator, and the mother of Lady Duff Gordon, 
 who well maintained her mother's literary reputation. 
 
 WALTER WATSON. 
 
 Walter Watson, then editing the Traveller, which was 
 afterwards linked to the Glohe, a ready writer and an able 
 lawyer, was among our contributors. 
 
ELECTION EXPERIENCES.* 
 
 Few men have had. more experience than I of the various 
 incidents connected with contested elections. Personally I 
 have been engaged in seven, and have come to the conclu- 
 sion that though the ballot would not effect all the objects 
 which some of its advocates anticipate, and may not be of 
 much value where the constituencies are so large and inde- 
 pendent as not to be seduced by bribes or menaced by 
 threats, secret suffrage would, nowhere be an evil, and in 
 very many cases a positive good. The arguments against 
 it appear to be most frivolous and unphilosophical, and such 
 as only become those who desire to wield an irresponsible 
 and dangerous power. That the sober intelligence of man- 
 kind has generally adopted, it, that it is inwrouglit with 
 almost every form of representation in foreign countries — 
 to say nothing of its adoption in our own clubs and other 
 associations where a free opinion is really desired, especially 
 where the most privileged, classes are concerned, Avould seem 
 to add much weight to the teachings of observation. No one 
 knows how much suffering is inflicted on many by their 
 being compelled to violate their consciences, nor how much 
 pleasure is denied to others who, in order to avoid " trouble," 
 refuse to vote at all. Bribery has its attractions and its 
 recommendations for the bribers and the bribed — it is 
 pleasant to be able to make money by the exercise of a 
 23rivilege and the discharge of a trust ; but in the case of a 
 coerced will, there is nothing but disgrace to him who 
 employs the dishonest influence, and nothing but dissatisfac- 
 
 * Written in 1861. 
 
ELECTION EXPERIENCES. 79 
 
 tion for the poor victim of oppression. The ballot struggle 
 can finally have only one settlement, namely, the adoption 
 of the principle. It is the quietest of reforms, it will act as 
 quickly as showers and sunshine upon the summer flowers 
 and autumnal fruits, genial and grateful, and the time will 
 come when men will wonder that a remedy so gentle should 
 have been repudiated with so much pertinacity. 
 
 My experience would show that if corruption be more 
 general among the unopulent, far grosser cases occur w^hen 
 people of some social position traffic with their electoral 
 privilege. The tales one sometimes hears from the poor of 
 their distresses and embarrassments, of their being a little 
 behind-hand with the world, of rents due, debts unpaid, and 
 threatened proceedings, are quite intelligible, but T remember 
 a case where a person of wealth called me aside, and said, 
 " I shall be frank wdth you. I have so many voters who 
 wait my bidding, but my price is an East India cadetship." 
 Cadetships I had none to give, and believe the money value 
 of such an appointment was several hundred pounds. 
 
 On two or three occasions, my supposed heterodoxy was 
 thrown into the scale against me, and was sometimes urged 
 in a somewhat amusing form. I was inquiring into my 
 chances of return for Penzance. My maternal grandfather 
 was a minister of the Church of England in that part of 
 Cornwall, and I learned that his name was very popular 
 among the people. Both he and his wife died victims of 
 their attention to the poor during a desolating epidemic. 
 An old man came to me on behalf of the Wesleyan 
 Methodists, and told me it was reported I did not believe 
 in the Trinity, and therefore I must pay double for their 
 votes. They fancied, no doubt, that they ran some addi- 
 tional risk to their souls' salvation, and were therefore 
 entitled to get some premium for the perils they incurred. 
 In one of the Clyde Burghs, a letter was shov>^n to me in 
 
80 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 wliich were these words, " we will have a religious man to 
 represent us, even if we go to hell to find him." Every- 
 thing seems allowed in the heated passions of an electoral 
 struggle. I have seen myself placarded in Scotland as an 
 atheist, an unbeliever, an unfaithful husband, and a disre- 
 putable head of a family. No small difficulties these for an 
 Englishman seeking a seat for Caledonian burghs ; but I 
 triumphed over them, and was returned by a large majority 
 over one of the leading local lairds. The seeds of slander, 
 however, produced after-fruit, and I lost my seat, I believe, 
 principally on account of my opposition to Sir Andrew 
 Agnew in his attempts to establish " the bitter observance 
 of the Sabbath," as the Examiner called it. A certain 
 Scotch member who, in committee, strenuously opposed Sir 
 Andrew's legislation in the case of a railway bill, to my 
 utter astonishment and disgust voted with him in the House. 
 He represented a constituency adjacent to mine, and on my 
 reproaching him for his desertion and double-dealing, he 
 very coolly said, " Do you suppose I would be such a fool 
 as to put my seat in danger." It is to be hoped that such 
 exhibitions are rarer now than then. 
 
 The excitement connected with popular elections has lost 
 much of its intemperance, and on the whole the expenses 
 have been considerably reduced. The scenes which took 
 place at Westminster, when the poll was kept so long open, 
 are of historical notoriety ; acts of outrage and violence, 
 particularly directed against the candidates and their 
 partizans, were quite the practice of the day. In Preston, 
 I remember that a body of bludgeon-men were brought into 
 the field to support the claims of one of the candidates. 
 When I was first defeated at Blackburn, the mob menaced 
 with destruction the houses of those who had taken a part 
 against me, and it was with some risk to myself that I 
 managed to obtain the dispersion of the infuriated crowd. 
 
ELECTION EXPERIENCES. SI 
 
 But in Cornwall, the deadening influence of the rotten 
 borough system was such that it was impossible to secure a 
 moment's attention from any auditory, the non-electors 
 deeming it no concern of theirs, and the electors making 
 the best bargain they could for themselves, or following, 
 sheep-like, the lead given them by the proprietor of the 
 borough. In Scotland, since the Eeform Bill, the con- 
 stituencies are infinitely less corrupt than in England, 
 expectations of reward for electoral services being by no 
 means universal. I was once invited to contest an Irish 
 borough, but on inquiry found that the defilements through 
 which one would be compelled to pass were of so degrading 
 a character that I withdrew from the controversy. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 We have all of us our special missions. I believe my 
 efforts were instrumental in putting a stop to the annoy- 
 ances caused by the passport system to aliens who came to 
 England, to the tyranny of the press-gang system, which 
 there was an attempt to legalize, and to flogging in the 
 army. I was censured by the Duke of Wellington for the 
 paxt I took in this last matter, but I had the satisfaction 
 afterwards of hearing from his own lips the frank and 
 honest avowal that I was right, and that the practice ought 
 to be abolished. 
 
 Of the questions which constitute what are called party 
 politics I say nothing. In these I had only to take my part 
 with the Liberal section of M.P.s, but I had the satisfaction 
 of laying the foundation of the decimal system in our coin- 
 age, and of obtaining the issue of the florin, the tenth part 
 of a pound sterling. I sought to introduce an explanatory 
 mode of designating value, namely the pound, the decime or 
 dime, the cent, and the mil, and to divide the pound into 
 one thousand mil instead of 960 farthings, but I failed. 
 It was proposed to call the cent a " Queen," but the Prince 
 Consort objected that he would not like to have the 
 Queen's name given to any coin that was not of gold, and it 
 would be impossible to alter the name of the sterling pound 
 or sovereign, a household word on the lips of the whole 
 people, and a designation derived from the highest antiquity, 
 though the value was much greater in Saxon times than now. 
 There is no name so familiar throughout the globe as the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY. 83 
 
 pound sterling. Much has been said in favour of " the poor 
 man's penny " as the integer of value, but the knowledge of 
 this coin is confined in other countries to a narrow circle 
 — at all events beyond European lands. The same may be 
 said in objecting to the adoption of the French franc, which 
 has been urged as a means of introducing a general system 
 of coinage, which, it was said, would not derange our cur- 
 rency, the value of our lOd., a decimal element, being the 
 same as that of the franc — which it is not, and could never 
 be, inasmuch as the legal tender in France is silver, and in 
 England gold, so that fluctuations in the agio would be con- 
 stantly disturbing the relative value of the precious metals. 
 As the report of the Committee of the House of Commons, 
 presented by Mr Cardwell (but written by my son Edgar), 
 recommended the adoption of the pound sterling as the 
 integer, and the opinion in its favour is supported by the 
 highest mathematical authorities, such as Sir John Herschell, 
 Professor cle Morgan and many others, there can be little 
 doubt that when, as Mr Gladstone requires, the matter has 
 been sufficiently ventilated, the thousand mil project will 
 be adopted. But we move slowly, almost always in the 
 same track, and enquiring not " quo eundem est, sed quo 
 itiir." The "stare super anttquas vias" seems almost as 
 much a law as was the foolish old declaration of the Barons 
 of Eunnymede, " nolumus leges Anglice mutari," as if the 
 business of Parliament was not mainly to be changing laws, 
 removing absurd and pernicious acts of former legislation, 
 and introducing the improvements demanded by progressive 
 civilization. 
 
 My attempts to obtain modifications of the Quarantine 
 Laws were not without success. I obtained on three occa- 
 sions Eesolutions of the House recommending a less stringent 
 administration, and had thoroughly convinced myself during 
 my residence in the Levant of the non-contagiousness of 
 
84 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 plague out of the miasmatic locality. I had travelled with 
 the Greek doctor, Hepites, who had sought to communicate 
 the plague to himself by inoculation and had failed. Clot 
 Bey told me that, though he and his assistants had carried 
 on the autopsis of hundreds of corpses dead of the plague, 
 there had been no instance of its conveying infection. 
 The Emperor of Eussia sent many criminals to Egypt, who 
 were compelled to sleep in the beds of plague-patients, but 
 not one of them caught the disorder. From Malta I ob- 
 tained a return of persons who had waited upon plague- 
 patients or manipulated the articles called susceptible 
 during nearly two centuries. The return was nil, for 
 there had not been a single instance of the communication 
 of the virus. A large quantity of cotton, impregnated 
 with pus from Fellahs who had died upon it, had 
 been sent to England and distributed among manufac- 
 turing districts — nay, so little is plague disposed to 
 spread, that I have been informed there is seldom a year 
 that plague, with its characteristics of carbuncles and 
 buboes, is absent from the London hospitals. The plague 
 has never been known to penetrate into the Fayoum, close 
 to Cairo, or to visit Upper Egypt, and though it frequently 
 accompanies the caravans bound to the Holy Cities of 
 Mecca and Medina, there is no example of its travelling 
 further east. Lord Auckland nominated a commission of 
 medical men to report whether it was desirable that he 
 should establish a sanitary cordon on the frontiers of our 
 East India possessions, but they unanimously reported in 
 the negative, and no mischief or danger has resulted in 
 consequence. 
 
 Another of my Parliamentary objects was to secure the 
 payment into the Exchequer of the gross amount of public 
 revenues from the department of receipt, and to check the 
 departments of expenditure from raising money by the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY. 85 
 
 transfer of stores or other means unauthorised by the House 
 of Commons, Seven millions sterling annually escaped the 
 notice of the supposed " guardians of the public purse." I 
 carried by a small majority a vote in the House condemna- 
 tory of the existing system. I was opposed by the Whigs, 
 but the battle was really won. To Mr Disraeli, while 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, belongs the honour of abolish- 
 ing the old and introducing the new arrangements. Lord 
 Congleton had unsuccessfully pleaded the case in his book 
 on Financial Eeform. 
 
 In my struggles for the representation I was thrice suc- 
 cessful, and four times defeated. I twice lost Blackburn 
 by only five votes. The last time it occurred on a Friday, 
 and on the following Tuesday I was returned by an immense 
 majority over the Tory, Downie of Appin and of Glencoe, 
 and the Whig, Dunlop of that ilk, the head of a very 
 influential family in Ayrshire. I was afterwards unseated 
 by Mr Colquhoun of Killermount, in consequence of my 
 pro-Catholic and anti-Sabbatical votes in the House of 
 Commons. Such was the purity of election in those days 
 in the newly enfranchised Scotch burghs that my election 
 did not cost me a farthing. I failed at Kirkcaldy, "the 
 langtoun," though I had the promise of a majority of the 
 voters, in consequence of the great but deserved local in- 
 fluence of Colonel Fergusson and his family. I might men- 
 tion that when so honourably returned for Kilmarnock, I 
 had not a single acquaintance in any one of the returning 
 burghs ; indeed, I had never set my foot in any one of 
 them, except in Rutherglen, a suburb of Glasgow, and 
 then not as a public man. I twice carried Bolton, once 
 without any expense ; on the second occasion it cost 
 me £500. 
 
 Parliamentary life, independently of the social distinction, 
 and the field of public usefulness open to those who are 
 
86 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 willing to serve the community, is very agreeable. The 
 House of Commons has been called, as it deserves to be 
 called, the best of clubs. A gentlemanly spirit prevails 
 among the members, and the authority of the Speaker, to 
 which every member pays the utmost deference and 
 promptest obedience, preserves an admiralile spirit of order, 
 which forms a remarkable contrast to what I have seen in 
 other representative assemblies. Three usages of our House 
 of Commons seem to me most influential in preserving har- 
 mony — the necessity of addressing, not the assembly, but 
 the Speaker, so that one is in a state of habitual submission, 
 as it were ; then the prohibition of all written discourse, by 
 which arrangement public business is despatched, and de- 
 bates left in the keeping of those best able to elucidate them, 
 whereas written discourses frequently repeat what has been 
 said before, and fail to answer what has been elicited in the 
 arguments brought forward in the progress of the discussion ; 
 and finally, the veto which is put upon the use of any 
 member's name, so that the sharpest observations lose much 
 of their acerbity. It is always "the Honomrable" or 
 " Eight Honourable Member for," " the worthy alderman," 
 " the gallant officer," " the learned doctor," &c. I do not 
 know whether there is as much wisdom in our Wittenagemote 
 as ought to be found there, but I am sure there is an abun- 
 dance of wit, ready and d propos. When Sir Francis Bur- 
 dett, after ratting from the Liberal cause, closed his apolo- 
 getic speech by saying, " There is nothing I so detest as the 
 cant of patriotism ; " " Mr Speaker," retorted Lord John 
 Kussell, who rose immediately, " there is one thing worse — 
 it is the recant of patriotism." When Paul Methuen en- 
 deavoured to stop the interruptions of a tipsy brewer called 
 Kearsley, the latter, amidst the roars of the House, shouted 
 " Paul ! Paul ! why persecutest thou me ? " When John 
 Walter of the Times had flitted with five others from the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY. 87 
 
 Liberal to the Tory side of the House, Dan O'ConncU 
 exclaimed. — 
 
 " And down thy steep, romantic Ashbourne ! glides 
 The Derby dilly, numbering six insides." 
 
 And while he was hesitating before he followed his leaders, 
 Dan applied to him the title of " the last rose of Summer," 
 which became his cognomen. 
 
FREE TRADE RECOLLECTIONS.* 
 
 The founder of the ZoUverein, Dr Frederick List, is dead. 
 He died by his own hand, and a mystery hangs over his 
 fate. He laboured — laboured with indomitable perseverance 
 and energy to accomplish a great object, and he accomplished 
 it. It was a triumph of mingled good and evil — good and 
 evil on a large scale. He broke down the barriers within 
 the German circle, enabled twenty-five millions of men to 
 traffic and travel without let or hindrance, overthrew all the 
 custom-houses within the limits of the commercial union, 
 created a compact national interest, and revived an almost 
 extinguished German patriotism. But, at the same time, 
 he prohibited the trade of those twenty-five millions with 
 the rest of the world, did all he could to limit their 
 exchanges to their own productions, raised a wall of brass 
 against the invasion of the cheaper and better commodities 
 of other nations, limited the field of political sympathy to 
 narrow bounds, and levelled to one monotonous system of 
 j)rotection and prohibition every commercial code within 
 the union which was marked with liberality, or distinguished 
 by low fiscal duties. 
 
 The question has often been asked whether List was 
 sincere. I doubt his sincerity. I believe he was not 
 unacquainted with the true theory of political economy, 
 and that, if strong and sinister interests had not acted 
 upon him, he would have been a free trader, and an 
 advocate of free trade. But he launched a speculative 
 
 * This ajjpears to be a fragment only. 
 
FREE TRADE. 89 
 
 theory., which, suited the interests of German manufacturers, 
 and of Prussian politicians. He was lauded, encouraged, and 
 driven forward. What was an interest at first, became a 
 prejudice. His name, his reputation, his influence were 
 associated with his system. So he wrote and wrote, and 
 was never weary of writing — first in one newspaper, then 
 in another, till he got a newspaper of his own. He was 
 rewarded by all the manufacturing interests for whom he 
 found reasons why there should be a monopoly of sale in 
 the German markets. He was flattered by all those who 
 had mourned over the scattered fragments of German 
 nationality, and were delighted to see Prussian and Saxon, 
 Bavarian and Wlirtemberger, &c., all blended in one German 
 name. But I doubt if he had any real faith in his own 
 doctrines. It is a fine thinaf, no doubt, to talk about 
 nationality, as if nationality implied or necessitated the 
 repudiation of other nationalities. It may sound well to 
 write in honour of independence — self-standing (to use his 
 own phrase) — but who, after all, is independent, who does 
 stand alone ? Be he who he may, he is a most pitiable 
 object, a mere cumberer of the ground. 
 
 It was not lonff before List's death that I discussed some 
 of his opinions with him. He was what the world calls a 
 jolly, jovial fellow, and had certainly the virtue of not 
 taking offence at pretty severe criticism. I asked him 
 pointedly, " Now, do you, can you believe what you have 
 written in favour of the protective system ?" He had not 
 the courage to avow that he did — nay, he acknowledged 
 that he could not defend it on the economical or commercial 
 ground. "My object," said he, "was political." He came 
 to England to see the downfall of the very system that he 
 was seeking to build up in Germany. His defence appeared 
 to me very hesitating and feeble — the ordinary fallacy that 
 what may be true to-day will not be true to-morrow, that 
 
90 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL KECOLLECTTONS. 
 
 v;-hat is true here may not be true elsewhere, and that 
 nothing is true without many exceptions. It is a sad sight 
 to witness the endeavour to escape from a felt and acknow- 
 ledged dilemma — acknowledged, if not in words, in evasions 
 and in retreatings. 
 
LANGUAGES. 
 
 In the study of languages for practical purposes, T have 
 found that courage in speaking is the very best means of 
 advancing. Far more is learnt by the exercise of the tongue, 
 which is necessarily active, than by that of the ear, which is 
 nearly passive. It is a common vanity for people to say 
 that they understand better than they can talk. Such cases 
 are, I believe, rare. Generally speaking, it is more easy to 
 convey one's thoughts by signs and language to others than 
 to receive their thoughts. The art of language-learning is 
 one that requires no superior capacity. There is not much 
 difference in the ages at which different children are able to 
 express their emotions, and if languages were learnt as 
 children learn them, they would be found easy of acquire- 
 ment. It is scarcely more difficult to acquire five languages 
 than one, and I have known many instances of five or more 
 languages spoken with equal purity and perfection. The 
 proof of the thorough possession of a language is that you 
 are able to think in it, and that no work of translation goes 
 on in the mind. For myself, I often dream in other 
 lan2;uao;es than English, and find that associations with 
 particular countries and particular studies do not take tlie 
 form of English phraseology ; but this of course depends 
 upon the extent to which foreign languages have been 
 employed in the daily business of life. I learnt Italian from 
 intercourse with itinerant instrument-sellers, a race of men 
 that have disappeared ; while French I picked up from a 
 refugee priest, and from seeking the company of French 
 prisoners, of whom there were many in Devonshire on parole. 
 
92 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 In my travels, I have never been very ambitious of the 
 society of my countrymen, but have always sought that of 
 the natives, and there are few men, I believe, who can bear 
 a stronger or a wider testimony to the general kindness and 
 hospitality of the human family when the means of inter- 
 course exist. My experiences of foreign lands are every- 
 where connected with the most pleasing and the most 
 grateful remembrances. 
 
ADVENTURES. 
 
 On several occasions my life has been exposed to great 
 danger. In my boyhood, I fell from a high wall in the 
 Topsham Eoad at Exeter, and was found senseless in the 
 dust by my grandfather, who was then taking his wonted 
 walk, though little able to move from an attack of palsy. 
 It was long before I was brought round. 
 
 I was once frozen in for some hours in the Gulf of 
 
 o 
 
 Bothnia, crossing from Abo to Upsala, the cold being so 
 intense that we used a hatchet to cut our bread, while the 
 brandy was frozen. I lay down under some furs, expecting 
 to die, but at length the ice around us broke, and we were 
 enabled to make a perilous way between the ice-islands that 
 were floating about. ''^ 
 
 Not long after, when returning from a dinner-party at 
 Gottenberg, the driver of the vehicle which conveyed me, 
 having imprudently indulged in the after-dinner enjoyment 
 of the bottle — a vice to which the Swedes are somewhat 
 addicted — the horse ran away with the carriage, which was 
 dashed against the postern of a bridge, and I was thrown 
 with considerable violence some yards from the vehicle on 
 the stones. Both my wrists were severely strained, but no 
 serious injury was inflicted. 
 
 Travelling from Scanderoon to Antioch on an extremely 
 beautiful and spirited Arab stallion, which had been lent me 
 by the Governor (a mark of singular attention, as the steed 
 was of great value), the large blue velvet saddle, being badly 
 
 * A detailed account of this adventure will be found further on, under the 
 head of " Sweden." 
 
94 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 girthed, annoyed the horse, and as we were ascending a 
 mountain, he sprang away from the road, among the rocks. 
 The saddle turned round, and I fell, the heels of the horse, as 
 he dashed off, just escaping my head. He left me scrambling 
 amidst brake and briar, quittepour la peur, but it was some 
 time before the animal could be secured. 
 
 In 1847, while being driven by my brother in a gig from 
 Bridgetown, in Glamorganshire, to his residence at Bow- 
 rington, in the mountains by Llynfi, we were met by two 
 Irish footpads, who presented loaded pistols to our breasts, 
 and, as we were wholly unarmed, robbed us of a leathern 
 bag in which was a sum of £1000 intended for the payment 
 of the workmen at the Bowrington Ironworks. They shot the 
 horse we were driving through the brain, the poor animal 
 falling instantaneously dead. They confessed afterwards 
 that they had made up their minds to murder, had there 
 been the slightest resistance, and we learned that they had 
 been practising at a target for several days before, while 
 one of them had been seen sharpening a large knife, which he 
 acknowledged was to have been used if the shot had failed. 
 There was some delay in getting out the bag from the other 
 things in the body of the gig, and I heard the leader utter 
 the woid Jire! the moment before I put tlie straps of the 
 leathern bag in his hand. When brought to trial, they 
 pleaded " guilty," and were sentenced to transportation for 
 life. They were both captured before night, a large part of 
 the money being found on them. The robbery took place 
 at midday, on a public road, and close to a house, from 
 which a boy saw all that occurred. 
 
 I was run away with by a racer belonging to Mr Jardine, 
 in January 1851, and was thrown to a considerable distance, 
 my coat being torn in shreds from my back. The horse sprang 
 over a wide ditch and dismounted me. I was weak from a 
 fever, which had prostrated me for some months before, and 
 
ADVENTURES. 95 
 
 was wholly unable to restrain the horse, which was excited 
 by the presence of other horses then exercising on the race- 
 course at Hong Kong. 
 
 On my way from Colombo to Galle, a native horse sprang 
 into a deep ditch dug for the protection of the cinnamon 
 grounds against cattle, and my five companions and myself, 
 with the carriage, were all tumbled into the ditch, but 
 without any grave injury, though the horse was killed, and 
 we had to pursue a journey of many miles in the sun. 
 
 In January 1857, an attempt was made to poison the 
 European residents of Hong Kong by putting arsenic in 
 the bread consumed by them. Not one death ensued at 
 the time, for uneasiness and vomiting so soon followed the 
 use of the bread, that the cry of " poisoned loaves" ran like 
 an electric shock from house to house, and immediate 
 measures were taken to get rid of the perilous stuff. Not 
 one of my family escaped, and my wife sufi"ered much. 
 
 In June 1859, I left Aden in the "Alma," with my 
 daughter, and on the l'2th we heard crash, crash, CEASH. 
 The ship was wrecked. The water rushed in like a flood 
 through the ports, and there were horrible shrieks, " we are 
 lost ! we are lost ! " prayers, and invocations. The vessel 
 ' was almost on her beam-ends, and it was difficult to hold 
 on, but I endeavoured to escape through the port. There 
 was neither rope, however, nor chain, nor hand to help, nor 
 ear to hear, so I returned and tried to get to the door of the 
 saloon, but it was imder water, and out of my depth. Then 
 the sea broke in and extinguished the lights, and all was 
 darkness, the water still rising and rising, till we thought 
 there was little hope, and committed ourselves to Him who 
 wisely ruleth all. Those around us thought that nothing- 
 remained but calmly to die, but at this moment a rope 
 descended, friendly hands were stretched out, and we were 
 • dragged, one after another, through the skylight. We had 
 
96 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 nothing on but our night garments. We were helped to 
 crawl up the deck, and get over the bulwarks to the outside 
 of the ship, and were then lowered into a boat which was 
 full of water. We were rowed to a coral reef, where we 
 landed, barefooted, the coral tearing our feet like jagged 
 knives, but we were delighted to see, from the deposits of 
 the birds, that the sea did not ordinarily wash the higher 
 parts of the island. Arrangements were made to save what 
 could be saved, to organize, to arm, to bring sails for shade 
 against the burning sun, and spars, and stores, and liquids. 
 There was no water for the men, for this, brackish though 
 as it was, was kept for the women and children and the 
 sick. The men took their posts gallantly, keeping watch 
 by night, for we did not know whether the Arabs might 
 not attack us, and we could not trust the crew, who were 
 clamorous for water which we could not give, and who 
 began to break open and plunder the baggage. We con- 
 stantly bathed our heads with sea- water, and though there 
 were many sad cases of sunstroke, there was only one death, 
 that of the purser, who was killed by over-exertion and 
 anxiety the first day. An officer left for Mocha to send us 
 water, and to communicate with Her Majesty's ships of war 
 at Aden. On the fourth day the " Cyclops" appeared, and 
 well did the brave captain and crew exert themselves, con- 
 veying all the passengers to that place, where we were 
 hospitably received by Colonel Coghlan. We had some first- 
 rate men among the Indian officers, who exhibited presence 
 of mind, a calm foresight, and a disposition to make the 
 best of and to do the best in everything. 
 
 I remember on one occasion, after I had returned from a 
 Continental tour, that I received a hint from the Earl of 
 Durham, then a member of the Cabinet, that I should be 
 very cautious as to what I wrote, for my letters were among 
 
ADVENTURES. 97 
 
 those stopped in the Post-Office, and that he had seen one of 
 them on the table of the King (William IV.). We certainly 
 live in days when the tone of public morals has been greatly 
 improved. Jeremy Bentham told me that he learned from 
 Lord Shelburne that the practice of opening private letters 
 was carried on with great activity during the reign of 
 George III., as a means of government, but I expect for one 
 example of genuine light a hundred jacks -in-the-lantern would 
 lead the spy astray. The government dared not avail itself 
 fully of disclosures disgracefully reached, and always im- 
 perfectly understood. The most dangerous persons are 
 generally the most guarded, and those who talk most loudly, 
 and speculate most loosely on political or public matters, 
 are generally persons little disposed to energetic action, and 
 little suited for perilous and daring combinations. But 
 they are precisely the people to awaken the alarms and 
 anxieties of timid and distrustful governments. 
 
COUNTEIES VISITED. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 I EMBARKED for Spain in 1813 on board the "Telegraph" 
 at Plymouth. The captain (Scriven) was at the same time 
 one of the most brave and modest of men. He had, not 
 long before, attacked a large fleet convoyed by vessels of 
 much greater force than his own, and brought away no less 
 than six of the enemy's ships. I had occasion to witness 
 the coolness with which he encountered danger, for in the 
 Bay of Biscay we fell in with a man-of-war of four times 
 the force of his own. He told me there would probably 
 be a severe action, and that I must choose whether I would 
 serve with the rest on deck, or be sent below to take care of 
 the wounded. I then noticed that, though a braver crew 
 than that of the " Telegraph," who had so often been vic- 
 torious over the enemy, never existed, the men showed that 
 after all a fight at sea was no trifling affair, and almost 
 every one went to perform what the French call le petit 
 hesoin. The decks Avere cleared, and we bore down upon 
 the supposed foe, when suddenly she hoisted the Union 
 Jack, the captain informing us that he had concealed his 
 nationality in order to see whether Scriven would have the 
 impudence to attack him, as he must have been annihilated 
 or captured had he done so. There was no swagger, but 
 only an honest smile on the countenance of our hero when 
 he said it was his undoubted purpose to do his best, as he 
 had done before when he mastered a French war-ship of 
 much greater poAver than his own. 
 
 On reaching the Biscayan shore I was placed on board a 
 
SPAIN. 99 
 
 Spanish Quecliemarin (coaster), which conveyed me to 
 Deva, a pretty little village, where 1 was hospitably received 
 and entertained by the Spanish captain's family. I there 
 saw for the first time some of the beauties of southern 
 scenery, and was particularly struck by the trellised vines, 
 whose bunches of grapes hung over the arched trellise 
 which formed the entrance to the cottage. A young maiden 
 took possession of my portmanteau, and 1, on horseback, 
 followed her to the neighbouring town of Bilbao, where I 
 took up my abode at the Posada de San Nicolas. I had 
 scarcely ever till my landing in Spain spoken Castilian Avith 
 a native, and I rejoiced to find myself so much at home, as 
 I really was, in mastery of the language, in which, by the 
 way, I afterwards wrote, currente calamo, a book (published 
 at Madrid) against negro-slavery, and I enjoyed the title of 
 el Espanol Ingles. 
 
 Having been sent to Spain as the commercial agent of a 
 London merchant, a large amount of transactions was placed 
 under my guidance. I bought mj^self a tractable mule, and 
 vibrated frequently between the ports of Bilbao, St. Sebas- 
 tian, and Passages, and the River Adour (Bayonne being 
 still in the possession of the French). Numerous cargoes 
 were consigned to me in all these places, consisting princi- 
 pally of wheat and stores for the British army, the head- 
 quarters of which were then at Leraca, a Pyrenean village, 
 which I afterwards visited, crossing the Bidassoa near 
 Fuenterabia. I heard there of the extraordinary severity 
 of Lord Wellington, who punished with death the slightest 
 offence of roving or robbery committed on the Spanish 
 peasantry, such as robbing their roosts or other pecca- 
 dillos. The Due d' Angouleme accompanied him. He 
 wore pea-green trousers, and was reported, whenever a battle 
 was expected, always to find some excuse for retreating a 
 good way to the rear. 
 
100 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I had soon occasion to see war with all its attendant 
 horrors. Visiting Vittoria, I found that its fine amphi- 
 theatre was covered with cannon taken from the French. 
 I went to St. Sebastian, which I entered by the breach by 
 which our soldiers had penetrated, the fire upon them being 
 so fierce that the British regiment at first halted and hesi- 
 tated. It was indeed a dreadful spectacle. The course 
 of the stream which runs by the side of the city was 
 diverted by the multitude of corpses over which we had to 
 pass, many of which stuck between the stones of the brook. 
 Everywhere were shattered limbs and brains, tattered gar- 
 ments, and other marks of desolation, while, on entering the 
 streets, I saw the hands of dead soldiers protruding from 
 fallen houses, and grasping the soil beneath. 
 
 On visiting Madrid I made many acquaintances among 
 the distinguished men of the time — Moratin and Gorostiza, 
 the dramatists — Garrido, the satirist — Navaretto, the his- 
 torian — Mariana, the author of the " Teoria de las Cortes" 
 — Orchell, the Hebrew scholar — Mora, the political writer, 
 and a long list of less eminent authors. Most of the patriots 
 of the day I knew intimately. There was Arguelles, whom 
 they called the silver-tongued — Isturia, afterwards ambas- 
 sador at the Court of St. James — Alcalle de Galiano, who 
 did not prove a very honest politician — Count Toreno, Don 
 Francisco Martinez de la Eosa, the chronicler of Granada, 
 and Yillanueva, the Valencian scholar. Popular enthusiasm 
 was at its height, and the clubs in the Puerto del Sol 
 echoed with the speeches of impassioned orators. Eiego's 
 "Hymn," and the " Traga lo perro — Constitucion !" were 
 everywhere heard in the streets. Eiego was afterwards 
 hanged, a victim to the brutal and ungrateful Ferdinand 
 Vn., and his brother, the Canon, fled to England with the 
 widow, finding an asylum, and being well received by a 
 large circle of acquaintance. At this time I formed an 
 
SPAIN. 101 
 
 intimate friendship with General Espoz 5- Mina, which 
 continued to the end of his life, and has been prolonged in 
 that of his amiable and heroic widow. 
 
 Every town and important village had then its piedra de 
 la Constitiicion, which it was hoped would prove more 
 enduring than V arhre de la liherte in France. There was 
 much to gratify the friends of progress. Schools for popular 
 instruction were everywhere started, multitudes of news- 
 papers were published, and a free press gave the desirable 
 influence to all the master-minds of Spain. The democratic 
 constitution of 1812, which established universal male 
 suffrage, appeared a great success. Lord Holland at that 
 time wrote to me, requesting I would furnish the Edinhurgli 
 Review with an article on the Spanish position and pros- 
 pects. I did so, but it was found too Radical for the Whig 
 organ and was never inserted, so I had my labour for my 
 pains. It appeared to me that the great error committed 
 by the patriots was the attempt at centralization. The 
 preservation of the local liberties would have been most 
 welcome, but those liberties were all sacrificed. The Ara- 
 gonese would have been delighted to have heard again the 
 ancient oath which accompanied their recognition of the 
 King, " Nos que valemos cuanto vos, y podemos mas que 
 vos, OS hacemos nuestro Key y Sehor con tal que guardeis 
 nuestros fueros y privilegios — y si no, no." The Bis- 
 cay ans would have rejoiced in being again called to iiing 
 flowers into the stream, exclaiming " So long as thy course 
 is towards the sea, so long shall Biscay be free ; " and the 
 Guipuzcoans would have been proud again to sit under the 
 oak of Guernica, there to repeat the traditions of their fore- 
 fathers, there to sing again the songs of freedom, proclaiming 
 that all the inhabitants of the Bascuence provinces were 
 noble by birth, that they could not be taxed by the 
 
102 ArTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 sovereigns of Castille, and that their ports and communica- 
 tions were to be for ever free. 
 
 There is more of provinciality than of nationality in Spain, 
 and the Castilian has not superseded the local languages. 
 Catalan is universally spoken in Catalonia, Valencian in 
 Valencia, Galician in Galicia, and Euscarra or Biscayan in 
 Biscay. It is not as in France before the Revolution, when 
 only one-seventh of the population understood French, 
 whereas it is said that now there is only one-seventh of the 
 population which does not understand it, for the French 
 Biscayan, formerly used between Bayonne and the Pyrenees, 
 is dying, while the Gascon and other dialects are dead. In 
 Spain, beyond all other countries — for there is no abstract 
 Spain, as every Spaniard is prouder of his province than of 
 his country — the provincialities were the true elements of 
 freedom, and should have been carefully and cautiously 
 watched. We ourselves owe much to the pertinacity with 
 which we hold to ancestral traditions and ancestral usages. 
 
 It is difficult to say which part of Spain has most attrac- 
 tions. It is everywhere the land of romance. When I was 
 there, nationality was preserved in every shape, and French 
 costumes, French books, and French phraseology were 
 objects of detestation. No word was more offensive than 
 Gabacho, the name given to Frenchmen, and to the partizans 
 of French politics ; Pepinos, or cucumbers, was another 
 degrading appellation. 
 
 But, as it was, the government of Joseph was more 
 tolerable than that of the beloved Ferdinand, who was 
 perhaps one of the most infamous of modern princes — low, 
 sensual, mendacious, superstitious, treacherous, and malig- 
 nant. How often have I heard the chant, " Viva Fernando, 
 y vamos robando." 
 
 Cordoba is a city of which I was very fond. Moorish 
 manners have left their unmistakeable vestiges, even in the 
 
SPAIN. 103 
 
 food and costumes of the people, and Spain owes a debt to 
 the Moosulmans which she will not willingly acknowledge. 
 The cathedral of Cordoba has served alike for the heathen 
 services of the Eomans and the rites of the Islamites, and 
 now the Catholic worship has of course superseded the 
 others. At the entrance in ancient times were two majestic 
 date-palm trees — one of which was still standing — tlie 
 beauties of which have been celebrated in Arabic verse. 
 Granada and its Alhambra are better known than Cordoba 
 and its temples. 
 
 Spain is also greatly indebted to the learned Jews, the 
 catalogue of whose writings forms two large folio volumes. 
 Of the great Hidalgos of Spain — the sons of something, as ■ 
 the word implies — the dignitaries of the sangre azul, there 
 is scarcely one whose ancestry is not mingled with the 
 Hebrew races. Those races have been equally the objects 
 of persecution with the Moors, but they have not been 
 extirpated. I have often met with Jews in Spain, whose 
 religion was concealed from their Catholic neighbours, but 
 who did not hesitate to avow their faith to those they 
 deemed worthy of their confidence. They absented them- 
 selves on some plea or other during tne time when the 
 viejos cristianos are required to attend the confessional. Of 
 the two races of Jews, the Spanish and the German, I 
 believe the former are by far the more enlightened, and 
 deemed a superior race to those of northern Europe. In 
 the case of the Jews, persecution drove them from the 
 ordinary pursuits of life to money-making and usury (I 
 attach no disgraceful meaning to the word), just as our 
 Dissenters, tormented by the Test and Corporation Acts, 
 betook themselves to merchandise and manufactures, and, 
 in both cases, the results have been eminently successful. 
 The Rothschilds and Barings may attribute their present 
 opulence to the sufferings of their forefathers. 
 
104 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 The nationality, to which I have above referred, pene- 
 trated into every department of the social and personal life 
 of the Spaniard. Among the women, not one would have 
 dared to show herself in any other garments than those 
 made of the black, or very dark plnm-coloured Alej)in, with 
 the velo, mantilla, and basquina (a portion of the dress 
 attached to the waist, whence black silk cords were sus- 
 pended, which swung backwards and forwards with every 
 movement of the body). The abanico (fan), which has been 
 called the lady's weapon of war, was then, and is now, 
 never wanting as a female accompaniment. But these 
 nationalities have passed away, the ladies of Spain all seek to 
 imitate Parisian fashions, and in the colonies, as in the 
 capital, French milliners and mantua-makers make the 
 dresses of all who can afford to employ them. Men, too, 
 have adopted the froc of civilization, and the Capa y 
 JEspada, so well known to the Spanish drama, are never 
 seen. The gastronome has everywhere nearly the same 
 opinion as to what a good dinner is, or ought to be ; but I 
 hope that certain first-rate Spanish dishes will not be 
 abandoned. Fowls a la Valenciana, and Bacalas a la Biscaya 
 are much to be commended, and the province of Granada 
 could afford welcome contributions from Moorish sources. 
 
 It has been truly said that he who has thoroughly 
 mastered the pages of Don Quixote and Gil Blag will find 
 nothing new in Spain. Thisiwa.s true, but is now only partially 
 so. No doubt the gentlemanly spirit of the knight-errant 
 would be found among the high-bred Hidalgos, and there is 
 not a peasant who would fail to string like onions the 
 multitudinous proverbs with which discourse is constantly 
 interlarded. All the natural objects remain unchanged. 
 Windmills, shepherds and shepherdesses will still be found, 
 and goatherds watching their flocks. Hundreds of ancient 
 castles and edifices were destroyed by the French during 
 
SPAIN. 105 
 
 their invasion- — an invasion, by the way, which cost the 
 lives of more than a million of French, and was the real 
 cause of Napoleon's downfall. In connection with this, T 
 remember a circumstance worth recording. The Emperor 
 had invited the Portuguese minister to meet him at Bayonne, 
 with the hope of talking him over, and inducing him to 
 concur in the policy which Buonaparte wished to carry out. 
 The Lusitanian exclaimed, "Nao!" "I never heard any- 
 thing so sublime as that Nao ! " said the Emperor after 
 the conversation, and certainly it had a sublimity not akin 
 to the ridiculous, which, however, has been averred to be 
 the constant companion of the sublime. 
 
 Though Spain moves slowly forward, there is movement. 
 In my youth there were no stage-coaches, no means of con- 
 veyance, even in the caminos reales, but a silla de posta, 
 and in the by-ways mules alone were employed. I once 
 travelled with the mails from Madrid to Cadiz in a vehicle 
 without springs, lying upon straw, and arriving at the end of 
 the journey absolutely black and blue with bruises. But the 
 horses on the high roads were excellent, all cahallos enteros, 
 and I once rode two hundred miles in twenty -four hours. 
 The courier of Lord Wellington told me he had ridden 
 eighteen hundred miles in nine successive days. He was like 
 a centaur, seeming part of his horse, and he slept as soundly 
 in his saddle as if in his bed. In my long ride, on dismount- 
 ing, I fell asleep on the ground from pure fatigue, but, being 
 roused, was soon awakened by the fresh air, with which the 
 rapid motion of the steed fanned the cheeks. The horses 
 were of Arab breed, so sure-footed that I have never known 
 them stumble, and they needed neither the guidance of 
 the bridle, nor the impulse of the spur, knowing well when 
 to hasten or slacken their speed, and still better, when and 
 where to rest. 
 
 At Alcald de Honores, I was enabled to ascertain that 
 
106 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the manuscripts which Cardinal Ximenez used for the com- 
 position of his polyglot Bible still exist unmolested in the 
 library. It had long been believed that they had been 
 sold to and used by a rocket-maker. 
 
 There is no province of Spain which has not something 
 specially remarkable. The orientalism of the streets of 
 Cordoba, resembling those of Damascus and Cairo, struck 
 me much, as did the manner of life of the Cordobese. The 
 streets admit with difficulty a beast of burthen, while the 
 lanes are absolutely impassable, and are so constructed, no 
 doubt, as a protection against the heat of the sun. The 
 plain of Valencia is beautiful from its varied fertility, that 
 of Orihuela not less so, as the Spanish proverb says, 
 "Llueva o no Uueva, hay pan en Orihuela," "Let it rain, 
 or let it not, Orihuela bread has got." Castilian pride is 
 notorious. Columbus was not a Castilian, nor a Leonese, 
 but the adage is not the less frequent on Spanish lips, " A 
 Castilla y h, Leon, nuevo mundo dio Colon." The enthusiasm 
 of the Galicians for their patron saint, Santiago de 
 Compostella, equals that of the Neapolitans for their St 
 Januarius. 
 
 The language of Spain is one of the most sonorous spoken 
 by man. Castilian poetry has a peculiar rhythm called the 
 asonante, usually employed by the improvistas, who are 
 common even among the peasantry. The rhythm, as is well 
 known, is found in the closing vowels and not in the syllable. 
 Padre, for example, would be a correct asonante with sastre, 
 quiero with negro. I have known a muleteer pour out his 
 spontaneous verses in the cadence of song for half-an-hour 
 together, somewhat in this strain : — 
 
 " 0, my mule ! thou must be weary. 
 So am I, and how I wish 
 That ovir journey's toil were ended. 
 And that we had reached our inn. 
 
SPAIN. 107 
 
 There, that smiling maid, Maria, 
 
 Has a smile for me, which / 
 Will, with many a kiss repay her. 
 
 Is she not a charming prize 1 
 He who woos her, and who wins her. 
 
 Will, indeed, enjoy a hliss, 
 Far beyond a monarch's sceptre ; 
 
 Would such heavenly bliss were mino,. 
 
 The Catalan idiom is one of the favourite tongues of the Tro- 
 badores (Trouveurs — Gallice)^ and has in it some extremely 
 pretty poetry, particularly that of Ansias March. It fills 
 up the space between the dog-latin of the monks and the 
 classics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has 
 none of the guttural sounds which the Moors introduced 
 into the Castilian, nor of the nasals which are thought to 
 disfigure the Portuguese. There is in it a close resemblance 
 to, but not identity with, the Valencian, but I am not aware 
 of any Valencian poet who has obtained the same reputation 
 as March. Some modern writers, however, and among 
 them the Padre Villanueva, one of the Valencian Deputies 
 to the Cortes, have written works of some merit in their 
 native idiom. The Castilian language is seldom under- 
 stood by the peasantry of Valencia. The Biscayan is giving 
 way. It is one of the oldest of living languages, but is 
 supposed to be so diificult of acquirement that the title of 
 a certain Euscarra grammar is "El imposible vencido." 
 Evidence of its antiquity is found in the fact that modern 
 names are given to all the products of civilization, as 
 latigua (whip), candela (candle). The name of God is Jan- 
 goicoa (the J being a guttural), the Lord above ; egusquia 
 (the sun), the giver of day ; illarguia (the moon), the light of 
 the dead ; suhea (bridge), two trees across the water ; aher- 
 atza (rich), abundant in cattle, which last two words prove 
 the antiquity of the language, as modern bridges would not 
 be described by such a phrase, and we know that in olden 
 
108 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 time riches consisted in the possession of herds of oxen ; e.g., 
 pecunia, from pecns. The pkiral is formed in ac. The 
 best account of the language with which I am acquainted 
 is that given by Adelung in his " Mithridates." Thirty or 
 forty volumes have been printed in the Bascuence. I 
 endeavoured to ascertain whether there was any popular or 
 traditionary poetry, but found only one piece, which had 
 not an historical character. A man called Erro pub- 
 lished a book to prove that a certain vase bore an inscription 
 to the effect that it had been used by the priestesses for 
 worship in the temple of the sun, but it was really a modem 
 German pipkin which had dropped into a well, the words 
 on it being, '' Gott ! erbarme dein armes wiirmchen!" 
 Nothing in the extravagances of Sir Walter Scott's " Anti- 
 quary" approaches this. 
 
 The Biscayan never fails to tell you that he is, and that 
 all his countrymen are, noble, that he never allowed the 
 King of Spain to call him subject, nor gave hiiu a higher 
 title than Sehor, but national character is more strongly 
 marked in Spain than in any country with which I am 
 acquainted, though it is blended with and subordinate to 
 what is local and provincial, and a Spaniard is only national 
 when in intercourse with other nations. He is proud alike 
 of the past glories of his country, and convinced of its infi- 
 nite superiority to all other lands. I remember a muleteer, 
 with whom I was travelling on the skirts of the Pyrenees, 
 asking me to tell him something about England and France, 
 and having listened for some time, shouted " Espana ! dici- 
 endo Espana, el orbe tiembla." " When the word Spain is 
 pronounced, the world (no ! the orh, for the phrase is very 
 grandiloquent) the orb trembles." Among the different 
 races of Spain there is much jealousy, hatred, and hostility. 
 The Biscayan will talk of the Galician, or Castilian, or Man- 
 chego with infinite contempt, while the Aragonese will 
 
SPAIN. 109 
 
 elevate his Zaragoza above a liundred Madrids. The Anda- 
 lusian despises all capitals but his own Seville, the Galician 
 glories in his Santiago de Compostella, nor is the Catalan 
 less proud of Barcelona, nor the Valencian of his principal 
 city. Their pride and prejudice have passed into local pro- 
 verbs, and there is scarcely a town which has not some 
 addendum (generally laudatory) to its name. Sometimes 
 the epithet is sarcastic as " el ayre de Madrid mata a un 
 hombre, no apaga un candil." " The air of Madrid kills a 
 man, but does not put out a lamp." 
 
 Spain was, when I visited it, covered with bandits, with 
 whom the government could not cope, many of them being 
 popular with the peasantry, and having done good service 
 in guerilla warfare against the French. Strange marks of 
 barbarism were visible, both in the highways and byways 
 through which the traveller passed. To say nothing of the 
 many crosses that marked the spots where murders had 
 been committed, iron cages were often seen holding human 
 heads and limbs which had belonged to robbers who had 
 fallen into the hands of the authorities. Once, travelling 
 from Andalucia towards Alemtejo in Portugal, in company 
 with a band of smugglers, to be with whom was a great 
 protection, we tarried to take our noonday meal under a 
 large tree, and looking up, saw a number of human skulls 
 among the branches. The contrabandistas were public bene- 
 factors, who saved the people from some of the privations 
 and many of the heavy charges which, what was called a 
 "protective system," imposed upon the community, and no 
 song was more popular on the stage than one, often intro- 
 duced in the presence of royalty itself, beginning " Yo que 
 soy contrabandista." It was very amusing to journey in 
 the company of these men, who were generally on excellent 
 terms with the custom-house officers, who preferred pocket- 
 ing bribes to encountering danger, for the smugglers were 
 
110 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 always well armed, and had. the best mules in the country, 
 and. assuredly would not have come off second best had 
 they met with resistance. Gibraltar was the principal 
 depot in the south, the free ports of Biscayan Guipuzcoa in 
 the north, and Lisbon and Oporto in the west, whence they 
 drew the articles clandestinely introduced, among which 
 tobacco and English cotton goods held the first place. 
 Men were not the only instruments employed in the con- 
 traband trade, multitudes of dogs being used on the land 
 frontier to convey prohibited articles. Even in our own 
 country, the science of smuggling was, in those days, 
 carried on to an extent, and with a success, which would 
 now seem incredible. The mischief was not confined to mere 
 frauds upon the revenue, for the encouragement of a large 
 body of men, whose practice and profession it was to violate 
 the laws, could not but be a gigantic evil. 
 
 Once, while travelling with some friends from Cadiz to 
 Gibraltar, we met in a forest a party who had a short time 
 before been pillaged by a band of robbers. We continued 
 our course, being well armed and in considerable numbers, 
 and shortly fell in with the marauders, dismounted from 
 their horses and mules, and enjoying their repast, seated on 
 the ground. They saluted us as " cctballeros," and asked 
 us to partake of their meal, after which we proceeded on 
 our way, being persuaded that they would not risk an 
 encounter in which they would probably be worsted. They 
 waited for other victims, and we afterwards heard that the 
 party which followed us had been thoroughly sacked by 
 our hosts. 
 
 On another occasion, when bound from Bilbao to Vittoria, 
 we were informed that a horde of robbers had been com- 
 mitting many devastations on a mountain over which passed 
 the direct road. A good many travellers were then on their 
 way to Vittoria, and the more timid determined, for the sake 
 
PORTUGAL. Ill 
 
 of safety, not to go by this road, but to pass along the foot 
 of the mountain by a much longer and less frequented 
 route, which added another day to the journey. I joined 
 the cavalcade which resolved to proceed direct, and on 
 arriving at the spot where the two ways met, we found our 
 companions tied to trees by the bandits, having been de- 
 spoiled of everything they possessed. It is impossible to 
 describe the disorganization of the Peninsula at this period, 
 when the guerilla warfare was at its height, and men were 
 one day patriots destroying the French, and another robbers, 
 attacking all travellers without distinction. A notion of 
 their brutality may be formed from the fact that one band, 
 after murdering an officer engaged in their pursuit, flayed 
 him, and after sewing up and inflating his skin, suspended 
 it to a branch of one of the trees of the forest, 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 In 1815 I visited Portugal. I was familiar with the 
 language, whose beauties have not been sufficiently appre- 
 ciated, nor has its literature received the attention it well 
 deserves, although the Lusitanian clironicles especially are 
 of singular value. The language is so like Latin that pages 
 may be written in which not only would every word be in- 
 telligible to an ancient Roman as to a modern Portuguese, but 
 every word would be grammatically correct. Whole passages 
 in Camoe's Lusiad may be quoted, as flowing and as har- 
 monious as anything in Tasso or Ariosto. For example — 
 
 " Estavas, linda Inez, posta em socego, 
 De teus annos colli endo o doce fruto, 
 Na quelle engano d' alma tao ledo e cego 
 Que a fortuna nao deixa durar muto : 
 Nos saudozos campos do Mondego, 
 De teus formosos olhos nunca enxuto 
 Aos monies repetindo e as ovinhas 
 nome que no peito escrito tinhas." 
 
112 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECCLLECTIONS. 
 
 Portugal was at the time mentioned recovering from the 
 effects of the French invasion, and the spirit and the love of 
 liberty were moulding its institutions into constitutional 
 forms. There, as in all Catholic countries, the influence of 
 the clergy was the great barrier to improvement, but many 
 of the nobility were friendly to reform, and civilization was 
 making progress, though but slowly. In the Cortes there 
 were eloquent speakers. The influence of English residents 
 and the intercourse between Portugal and Great Britain, 
 were favourable to the developement of the Portuguese 
 mind. England and Ireland were the great consumers of 
 the Portuguese wines, and large amounts of British capital 
 were brought into the Oporto market. Under British com- 
 manders, the Portuguese troops had been trained to discip- 
 line, and were more to be relied upon than the Spanish, 
 who were often led by ineflicient ofiicers. Spanish pride 
 constantly repudiated foreign assistance, and yet I frequently 
 found among the peasantry a latent feeling of respect for 
 England, a proverb often repeated being " Paz con Ingla- 
 terra, y con todo el mundo guerra." 
 
 Lisbon is a much larger toAvn than I expected to see, but 
 its size and population are greatly exaggerated by the 
 Portuguese historians. Oliviera says "it is without doubt 
 the largest city in Christendom, and if we leave vain specu- 
 lations and consult facts, we shall find it the largest city in 
 the world." The Portuguese have a proverb " Quem nao 
 ha visto Lisboa, nao ha visto cousa boa." With the excep- 
 tion of five or six noble streets (some unfinished, for the 
 Portuguese forget the advice of one of their best writers, 
 " Be flexible in resolving, and inflexible in performing," and 
 begin a hundred things which they leave incomplete), 
 Lisbon was but an immense mass of irregularity and ill- 
 contrivance. The streets were made the depositories of all 
 the filth of the filthy city. Multitudes of dogs (the Lisbon 
 
PORTU&AL. 113 
 
 scavengers) patrolled their different quarters in the evening, 
 and removed some of the nuisances, but it was impossible to 
 walk in any but a few streets, without observing innumer- 
 able dead animals, and being almost overwhelmed with the 
 abominable stench. If the air of Lisbon were not extremely 
 salubrious, it would have been quite the headquarters of 
 pestilence. It was amusing to mark the names of some of 
 the streets, as, for instance, " The Street of St. Anne of the 
 Great Cross of the Happy Death," " St. Antonio of the 
 Place of the Convent of the Heart of Jesus," the street of 
 " Jesus, Joseph, and Mary." Then there were the Streets of 
 "The Holy Old Men," the "Shoe's Toe," the "Soldier's 
 Dogs," and lastly that of " St. John of the Happily Married," 
 which some say ought to be without inhabitants. 
 
 Portugal, though one of the smallest independent states 
 of Europe, and at that time a century and a half behind 
 many of the northern nations in the arts of life and the cul- 
 tivation of the mind, once extended its influence through 
 every quarter of the globe, and though the people were 
 completely subdued by the Moors, and kept in a state of 
 the worst slavery, they succeeded in chasing their con- 
 querors from their borders, took many important places 
 from them in Morocco and Arabia, and spread their vic- 
 tories " even from the Isle of Ormus to the coast of China." 
 In the sixteenth century Portugal became subject to Spain, 
 but they freed themselves from this yoke in 1640, Joao de 
 Braganza was proclaimed King, and his family have retained 
 the sceptre ever since, but the country was dreadfidly im- 
 poverished by its severe masters, who, in about one hundred 
 years levied from it as tribute no less than two hundred 
 millions of gold crowns. Since then Portugal has been 
 often invaded, her strength and influence declined, and 
 without the assistance of England, she would, I think, have 
 become a province of Spain. The administration of justice 
 
114 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLEOTIOXS. 
 
 was tardy and arbitrary. It was the custom for the 
 " Society of Mercy " to supply the instruments of punish- 
 ment, by bribing whom, the most atrocious criminals 
 escaped from death. They were always present at execu- 
 tions, and, when sufficiently paid, provided rotten ropes, 
 which broke with the guilty person, and when he fell, they 
 covered him with the flag of mercy, and he was out of the 
 reach of the civil power. I often saw in the streets robbers 
 and murderers chained together, who sold cigars as they 
 went along, and seemed quite insensible to their crimes. 
 
 I visited the extreme western point of Europe- — the rock 
 of Lisbon. We hired donkies, which were universally em- 
 ployed on all expeditions among the rugged and pathless 
 hills. An immense pillion was fastened on them, which had 
 no stirrups, and they were usually ridden as ladies ride in 
 England, but always with the left hand towards the head of 
 the beast. Passing through Colares, a village famous for its 
 vines, we reached the cliffs, against whose feet the waves of 
 the sea are dashed, and whose hollows echo back the roaring 
 of the surges. A number of men who accompanied us 
 descended the frightful precipice, and I scarcely know how 
 I could have looked on with so much calmness, as it is a bare 
 smooth rock, and the stones which we hurled from the top 
 fell with a horrible noise to the bottom of the cliff. I also 
 went to the Pena Convent, which towers over the highest 
 of the precipices. The rude path which leads to it winds 
 round the rugged steep, and if ever there was a spot fitted 
 for those who would withdraw from the world, it is this. 
 Here might misanthropy revel in perfect abstraction, for 
 scarcely could any earthly idea enter into that secluded and 
 weather-beaten temple. The clouds gather round the 
 building, the wild wind whistles shrilly through its alleys, 
 it totters in the earthquake, it is scorched by the suns of 
 summer, and frozen by the wintry hail -storm. Part of it 
 
PORTUGAL. 115 
 
 was sliaken and overwhelmed by the earth's convulsions. 
 In the highest tower I read the name of Byron, and I ven- 
 tured (for almost the first time in my life) to scratch my 
 own. It may recall to some future wanderer the name of 
 one he knew when the hand that wrote it has decayed in 
 dust. I remarked that the birds which flitted round the 
 dreary retreat seemed scarcely to consider it inhabited by 
 man. The lightning and thunder which flash and growl 
 there are sometimes horrible, but I observed that even here 
 worldly cares and worldly passions had found an entrance. 
 
 I visited also Pombal, which was built by the great 
 minister whose name it bears. It was the triumph of his 
 glory, and the witness of his disgrace. I know of no one to 
 be compared with him but Wolsey, whom he resembled in 
 his pride, in his vices, and in his fall. His rule was despotic 
 and inflexible, and he scrupled not to employ the basest 
 means to accomplish his ends. Whatever he determined 
 on, he carried into eflect, and was in vain resisted by the 
 whole influence of the nobility and ecclesiastics. Once, he 
 ordered one-third of all the vines in the kingdom to be 
 rooted up, and corn to be planted. At another time he 
 commanded half the inhabitants of a province to change 
 their dwellings ; but he purified and gave respectability to 
 the University of Coimbra (before an Augean stable of 
 corruption), he overthrew the gigantic power of the Jesuits, 
 he overawed the Inquisition, he diminished the influence of 
 the Fidalgos (nobles), he filled the impoverished treasury 
 with riches, and obtained for all the inhabitants of the 
 Portuguese colonies the privileges of citizens — in a word, 
 had he been less vindictive and tyrannical, he would have 
 been a model for ministers, but his enemies at last made 
 head against him with success, his decline was more 
 humiliating than his rise had been surprising, and in the 
 retreat of Pombal he ended his days. The nation had 
 
116 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIOXS. 
 
 become sensible of its loss in the removal of such a man, 
 they remembered him with gratitude, and spoke of him witli 
 reverence. He was once very hard pressed by the French 
 and Spanish ambassadors to declare war against England. 
 They had been making long speeches, and concluded by tell- 
 ing him that, if he did not immediately decide to comply with 
 their demands, an army of ten thousand men would be sent 
 against his country. He replied quite calmly, " Portugal, 
 he muito pequeno — nao cabe tanta gente." "Portugal is very 
 small — it would not hold so many people." We applied 
 for permission to see the coffin which contained his remains, 
 his body having never been buried, but in vain. So much 
 respect had the French for his memory, that during their 
 invasion, when everything M^as devastated by the soldiery, 
 the French commanding officer ordered to be inscribed over 
 the spot where he was laid, "Eespeitao este tumulo ;" but, 
 on their retreat, nothing could restrain their wild licentious- 
 ness, they destroyed the coffin, and his ashes were mingled 
 with those of meaner men. An attempt was made to 
 collect them in 1811, and they were deposited in another 
 case, but with them is mixed the baser clay of the humble 
 villager. It was a promiscuous heap, which would be 
 eloquent to the child of pride. 
 
 Coimbra was to Portugal what Santiago is to Spain, the 
 grand vortex of ecclesiastical power. There were immense 
 numbers of religious establishments and orders, and it was 
 to the monks what Gibraltar was to the JewS' — an earthly 
 paradise. I went over the " Mosteiro da Santa Cruz," or of 
 " St Vincent." Within it was every luxury which wealth 
 can purchase, or worldliness desire. Extensive orange 
 groves and vineyards, plantations of olive trees, gardens 
 glowing with beautiful flowers, magnificent arbours, long 
 shady walks impenetrable to the hottest sun, aviaries and 
 fi;3li-ponds, baths and grottoes, bowling-greens and billiard- 
 
RUSSIA. 117 
 
 tables, chess and backgaminon boards, cellars stored with 
 rich wines, and magazines full of fruits and luxuries. Some 
 of the monastic institutions, however, were as rigid as others 
 were comfortable. In that of St Teresa, the nuns led a life 
 of constant suffering. Once immured, they never saw a 
 friend, wore no dress other than the coarsest woollen, no 
 shoes or stockings, but a rough unpolished sandal. Besides 
 the daily services of religion, they chanted matins at 
 midnight. 
 
 Porto, the second city of Portugal, is said to have 
 given a name to the whole kingdom. Camoes says or 
 sings, "That noble city which, as told by fame, gave 
 Portugal its great eternal name." The rapidity of its rise 
 was wonderful, for in 1732 it only contained about 20,000 
 inhabitants, while in less than fifty years this number was 
 trebled, and in 1815 the population probably amounted to 
 80,000 or 90,000. Its trade was so great that England 
 alone took yearly 30,000 pipes of wine. The Douro, though 
 not a very large river, discharges a great abundance of 
 water into the ocean. They have a proverb, " Tejo tern 
 a fama e o Douro as aguas." Its stream was so rapid that 
 there was no bridge across it (in Portugal at least), but 
 there was a bridsfe of boats, which was obliged to be 
 removed whenever there was a flood. As the course of the 
 river is betw^een mountains, so that it cannot overflow its 
 banks, the perpendicular rise has been known to be as 
 much as 40 feet. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 In the winter of 1819 I went to St Petersburg, posting 
 from Hamburg, and passing along the Kurische Haf. It 
 was bitterly cold, and among the most delicious moments of 
 my existence was that of our arrival at a warm and com- 
 fortable inn called the Krasnoi Kabak, or beautiful inn. 
 
118 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the last stage before reaching the Russian capital. I took 
 lodgings on the Vasiliostrov (the Island of St Basil), which 
 forms a portion of the city, reached by a bridge of boats, 
 which are removed for a short time when the ice breaks up, 
 and the navigation of the Neva begins to be freed. 
 
 I neither found St Petersburg to be that magnificent and 
 wonderful city which it is represented by some, nor so 
 shabby and contemptible as described by others. The 
 contrasts exceeded all belief and all description. There are 
 In it palaces and mansions of great splendour and solidity, 
 buildings of enormous size and imposing appearance, but the 
 shabbiaess of many of the abodes, and the foul filthiness of 
 others, showed the utter want of sanitary regulations, and 
 the absence of efficient local police. It was sometimes 
 diflicult to make one's way through the ordure found on 
 large staircases and unswept courts. The houses were kept 
 warm by stoves and double windows, and had many more 
 winter comforts than summer accommodations, so that a 
 visit to Eussia in the cold season is to be preferred to one 
 in the hot. Ingenuity, in truth, can make much more 
 satisfactory arrangements against a low than against a high 
 range of the thermometer. What can a man do to protect 
 himself against tropical heat ? He may agitate the air with 
 j)unkahs, but it is but the air of an oven — he may wear the 
 lightest dress, but he cannot lower the temperature around 
 him many degrees — he may exclude the sun, but there is 
 intolerable warmth in the shade — he may slightly mitigate, 
 but he cannot escape the mighty, the irresistible influence of 
 the god of day. But, in the Arctic regions, the temperature 
 can be raised to any height by artificial means. The 
 peasants of Russia, in the bitterest winter, keep their log- 
 houses at a temperature of from 80° to 90° by stoves and 
 fires. Any amount of garments may be worn, and the same 
 furs which jDrotect the quadrupeds — the foxes, the wolves, and 
 
RUSSIA. 119 
 
 the bears — or the more delicate creatures, as the ermine, 
 whether in the Arctic or Antarctic zone, contribute to the 
 wants of man, and most successfully so. 
 
 I had occasion to see much and hear much of the cha- 
 racter of the government and institutions of Russia, which 
 were corrupt and barbarous. The proprietor of the house in 
 which I lived had, many years before, committed forgeries 
 in one of the public offices, but he was perfectly free. The 
 judge to whom his case was referred was a military officer 
 (a general), who had a pile of documents, the records 
 of various offences, the latest of which was placed at the 
 bottom of the file, and as they were cleared away, one after 
 another, the lowest document gradually mounted. My 
 host, a few clays before his case reached the summit (which 
 was about once in three years), received from the general's 
 secretary a notice that an adjudication was at hand, upon 
 which a bribe was sent in accordino- to arrangement, and 
 the case was removed to the bottom of the pile. I have 
 often seen public functionaries, whose pay did not exceed 
 £60 to £80 a-year, driving their carriages and four horses 
 through the streets of St Petersburg. Now and then, ex- 
 tortion received a check, when by some means or other a 
 case of cruel injustice reached the Emperor's ears, but the 
 Emperor was nearly as inaccessible as the God of heaven, 
 or implored only by prayers and groans which he never 
 heard. The constant aspiration of the injured was, " Could 
 the Emperor but know ! but Bog (God) and Tsar are equally 
 distant." It was of course alike the art and the interest of 
 every functionary, both high and low, to keep the Emperor 
 within an impassable circle, so that the relief which un- 
 limited power might bring to redress oppressive acts was 
 seldom available. 
 
 There is great fascination about the Russian Court. The 
 variety and costliness of the costumes, the splendour of the 
 
120 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 equipages, the extent and beauty of tlie imperial apart- 
 ments, and the grandiose character of the whole display, 
 are found in scarcely any other European capital. I was 
 once present at a court ball — I think it was on the New 
 Year's Day — to which, it was said, 30,000 persons were 
 invited from all parts of the empire, and an extraordinary 
 sight it was. There were Manchoos, Mongolians, and Chi- 
 nese, representatives of all the tribes and tongues from 
 Kamtshatka to the Gulf of Finland, from the White 
 Sea to the Crimean peninsula, all the Caucasian races, 
 Georgians, Circassians, and Armenians, Turks and Greeks, 
 to say nothing of all the envoys of European sovereigns. 
 Through the crowded multitude the imperial family swept, 
 a passage being made for them by the courtiers in attend- 
 ance, who announced their approach. I was talking French 
 to a Swiss lady, when a general, covered with orders, came 
 up to me and said " vous etes des etrangers. Permettez 
 que je vous fasse voir I'Hermitage." He beckoned us to 
 follow him. The crowd gave way before him, and he led 
 us through a long suite of apartments to the Hermitage, 
 which was brilliantly illuminated. I said to him, " veuillez 
 done me dire a qui nous devons cette attention si distinguee. 
 He replied, " h, personne. Je suis tres flatte de vous avoir 
 ete de quelque utilite." I ascertained afterwards the name 
 of this officer, who was, I think. General Miloradovich, the 
 head of the police, a great favourite of Alexander, and one 
 of the most distinguished noblemen in Russia. 
 
 In St Petersburg I made many agreeable literary acquaint- 
 ances, and among them the younger Adelung (Friedrich), 
 who was deeply engaged in philological researches, and had 
 just published his list of languages, amounting to about 
 3500. It was he who asked me to translate Chamisso's 
 " Peter Sehlemihil," which my friend George Cruikshank 
 illustrated by his humorous etchings. Philology is a popular 
 
EUSSIA. 121 
 
 study in Russia, and the Empress Catherine gave a great 
 impulse to it. We are but at the threshold yet of lingual 
 philosophy, and, compared with the vastness of the field, 
 the harvest is small and unsatisfactory. As regards our 
 own tongue, we are tracing it to its sources, and inquiry 
 will probably exhaust all that is practicable or useful to 
 know, but what languages have been spoken and have 
 perished for ever, what languages are perishing even now, we 
 know but little. It will probably turn out that, so far from 
 the number of languages having increased by ramification 
 from a common root, that number has been in constant process 
 of diminution by the progress of time and the extension of 
 intercourse. Every tribe had once its own language, which 
 has been lost by being moulded into the language of dis- 
 tricts — the language of districts lost by being absorbed in the 
 language of nations. We have seen with our own eyes the 
 process in our own country. The British language is dead 
 — the Manx, the Erse, the Welsh, the Gaelic are dying. In 
 France, before the Revolution, less than five millions of 
 people spoke the language of Paris, which is now spoken by 
 more than thirty millions of Frenchmen. In Australia, the 
 primitive state of things exists in all the remoter and less 
 accessible regions, the number of persons speaking the same 
 tongue is small, and there is little resemblance between the 
 various idioms where there is little intercourse. In Africa, 
 fifty-six difi'erent languages have been found in a not very 
 extensive tract of country. Everything shows that the 
 various nations who inhabited ancient Italy had each its 
 separate dialect, though of scarcely one does a fragment 
 remain. No doubt, without any affinity, or with a small 
 afiinity of words, there may be much resemblance in cha- 
 racter and construction. 
 
 I was much pleased with the conversation of Horch, the 
 political economist, who complained of the impossibility of 
 
122 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 pursuing investigations into scientific questions under a 
 despotic government. " You walk where you will," he 
 said, " but we are cramped in an infant's cradle," and this 
 is perhaps one of the worst consequences of arbitrary power, 
 for discussion would soon undermine its foundations, while 
 the proclamation of sound principles would shake its fiscal, 
 judicial, and administrative organization. There is no 
 safety for it unless the press is shackled, free thought 
 discouraged, and the exercise of the noblest faculties of man 
 restrained and paralyzed. 
 
 Kruilov, the fabulist, amused me much. He resembles 
 La Fontaine in the facility of his versification, and the same 
 droll, dry spirit of jest and fun runs through all his compo- 
 sitions. He was public librarian at St Petersburg. He 
 seemed to eschew clean linen, and looked as if he thought 
 the washing process an intolerable intervention. 
 
 Karamzin, the Hussian historian, was then at the height 
 of his reputation. I found him an agreeable and intelligent 
 man, but I remember nothing in his conversation that 
 betokened a high order of intellect. It was his object to 
 flatter the Emperor, and to draw brilliant pictures of the 
 progress, position, and futurity of his native country. His 
 writings are among the best specimens of Eussian prose. 
 The Eussian tongue has, in the course of three or four 
 generations, been raised to be a fit instrument for repre- 
 senting an advanced civilization. It does not repudiate 
 foreign aid, but, on the contrary, foreign words meet a 
 ready acceptance in consequence of the extensive employ- 
 ment of other languages by the higher classes in Eussia. In 
 the field of poetry, Lomonosov laid a noble foundation in a 
 style essentially popular and national, for he was a serf 
 without education, and unacquainted with any idiom but 
 his own. Derjavin brought a higher elevation of style and 
 a more dignified and sonorous versification, but Karamzin 
 
EUSSIA. 123 
 
 was the first to obtain for any serious prose work a general 
 acceptance and applause. Multitudinous writers on almost 
 all topics (excepting those connected with political specula- 
 tions) have brought their contributions to the various depart- 
 ments of literature, but the influence of French authors, es- 
 pecially in the region of the belles lettres, is still paramount. 
 
 I found at St. Petersburg; some interesting: documents 
 among the manuscripts, namely — the original letters of 
 Mary Stuart, written while in prison, and an immense mass 
 of papers purchased by the Russian ambassador at 
 Paris during the Revolution. I saw the missal of the 
 unfortunate queen, in which she wrote up to the time of 
 her death. She made it an album, and appears to have 
 requested the celebrated personages who visited her to write 
 their names in it. Bacon's name is among the rest. Some 
 of her own verses bewailing her fate are beautiful. From 
 the letters of Mary to the French court and others she seems 
 to have been treated by Elizabeth with monstrous brutality. 
 In one of them she complained that her guards insisted on 
 her sleeping with their wives and daughters. Elizabeth's 
 answers to several potentates who interceded for Mary be- 
 speak a cold-hearted cruelty and pride which do her little 
 honour. At the time of the Revolution these letters were 
 scattered among the mob, to be tramjoled on as the works 
 of " kings and queens/' and were most of them purchased 
 for a trifle. Some hundreds of letters of Henri IV. cost 
 forty francs. 
 
 At St. Petersburg I acquired a knowledge of the Russian 
 language sufficient to enable me to give the first specimens 
 ever presented in English to the public. The first volume 
 was successful. The second I wrote in 1822 while in 
 Boulogne Prison, and forwarded a copy to the Emperor 
 Alexander, who sent me a large amethyst ring surrounded 
 with diamonds. 
 
121 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Alexander, though idolized by his people, was a weak, 
 vain, and impressionable man. His policy changed as fre- 
 quently as the wind, for one day he would passionately urge 
 the progress of 23ublic instruction, and the next, alarmed at 
 that progress, he would suddenly check its course. He was 
 most accessible to flattery, which was administered to him 
 in large doses, but he seemed scarcely able or willing to 
 distinguish between the value of praise awarded for great 
 services rendered to his people, and the compliments paid 
 to him on the cut of his uniform, or the graceful manner in 
 which he bestrode the floor. He was much under the 
 influence of a fanatical impostor, one Madame Krlidener. 
 At this epoch foreigners were in great favour at the imperial 
 court, and many departments of government were undei* 
 their direction. The commanders of the Eussian fleet were 
 a Scotchman and a Hollander ; the head of the engineer de- 
 partment of the army (Betancour) was a SjDaniard ; Capo 
 d' Istria, a Greek, and Pozzo di Borgo, a Corsican, were two 
 of the most distinguished Eussian diplomatists : many of 
 the ministers were not Muscovites by birth ; the most emi- 
 nent professors of the universities were strangers, settled in 
 the country ; while most of the literature of the country was 
 moulded to a foreign, and principally to a French, type. 
 Since then a great change has taken place ; almost all the 
 high offices of government are now filled by native Eussians, 
 and the books of Eussia have acquired an independent and 
 even a robust nationality. Though many foreigners are 
 settled in Eussia, especially those connected with industrial 
 establishments, the capital is mostly provided from native 
 funds. 
 
 What most characterized the social state of Eussia was 
 the utter absence of a middle class, or tiers etat, to fill up 
 the vast chasm between the noble and the serf. The 
 condition of the millions of the servile races was ex- 
 
FINLAND. 125 
 
 ceedingly various, some of the more liberal of their lords 
 allowing them to amass wealth, and I heard of instances 
 where £60,000 to £80,000 had been saved by their indus- 
 try. Count Tsheremetiev was wont to boast of having 
 100,000 peasants, and was satisfied with a yearly contribu- 
 tion from each amounting to twenty shillings sterling, but 
 the whole property of the serf was at the absolute disposal 
 of his lord, who might at any time dispose of whatever 
 belonged to him, so that the serfs condition of course 
 depended upon the character of his master. A necessitous 
 noble, given up to habits of profligacy, or to gambling, 
 which is too common in Eussia, would frequently not hesi- 
 tate to pounce upon the hard-earned savings of his depen- 
 dants. It was often represented to me, though the witnesses 
 were no doubt interested parties, that the peasants were 
 generally well satisfied with their condition, that they 
 desired no change, and that those living upon the estates 
 had the first claim to its produce for the supply of their own 
 and their families' necessities, while of those who were 
 removed the situation was generally bettered. Multitudes 
 of peasants are settled in the larger towns as shopkeepers 
 and merchants, and the boy who attended me was one of a 
 very numerous body engaged as domestic servants, whose 
 earnings belong to their owners. 
 
 FINLAND. 
 
 I returned from Russia to England through Finland and 
 Sweden. Finland, which was so cruelly wrested from 
 Sweden by the despotic autocrat of all the Eussias, still 
 cherishes its ancient nationality, and looks back with deep 
 affection upon the period when the representative principle 
 existed, in however rude a form. I travelled through its 
 silent and solemn forests, looking at the tracks of the wolves 
 on the snow beneath, and listening to the crashes among 
 
126 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOL LECTIONS. 
 
 the trees of the dense woods whose branches, bound together 
 by icicles, were shaken by the stormy winds. The language, 
 the poetry, and the traditions of the people were full of 
 charms, having for their special interpreter Tengstrom, the 
 Archbishop of Abo. The Finnish tongue has been repre- 
 sented by some as bearing much resemblance to the Magyar, 
 and by others to the Laplandish, the fact being, however, 
 that very few words of either are to be found in it. Most 
 of the poetry of the Finns is written in that peculiar metre 
 to which Longfellow has given a certain popularity in his 
 " Hiawatha," but I believe I may take credit to myself for 
 having been the first to introduce it into our language in 
 an article which appeared in the WestTninster Review of 
 April 1827. In the long and severe winters which confine 
 the Finlanders to their wooden cottages, their ancient 
 mythical poetry serves to shorten and soothe many an 
 evening hour. It may be remarked that, notwithstand- 
 ing the rigour of the climate, the proportion of persons 
 who reach extreme old age is very great. The gods 
 and demigods of their old mythology have merged into 
 a Christian deity and Christian saints, and the name of 
 Wainamoinen now represents the Jehovah of the Hebrew, 
 and the paternal God of the Christian dispensation. 
 
 I found among the Finns a civilization far superior to 
 what I anticipated. The gastgivare, or public hotels, in the 
 main roads are excellent, and I was once conveyed in my 
 sledge eighty miles by four ponies abreast, almost without 
 stopping, more rapidly than the ordinary stage coach would 
 have carried me in England. Almost all the educated 
 people in Finland speak Swedish, that liquid language 
 which has been called the Italian of the North. The 
 Russian is almost confined to the Muscovite functionaries, 
 in whose oflices alone did I see either Russian books or 
 newspapers. There is a good deal of resemblance between 
 
FINLAND. 127 
 
 the Finlanders and the Esthonians and Livonians on the 
 opposite shores of the Baltic. There was a parish clergy- 
 man who, some fifty years ago, collected the Livonian 
 popular songs, and, in the absence of any accessible printing- 
 office, himself set up the types, and worked off an interesting 
 volume, a copy of which reached Sir Walter Scott, who re- 
 quested me to write some account of its contents. This I 
 did in an article which was published at the time, but where 
 I have now forgotten. 
 
 In my intercourse with the leading men, I found that 
 they had, like the Poles, an earnest longing for the return 
 of their independence, but they were fully convinced that 
 it was hopeless to dream of any such felicity. The immense 
 power of Russia, acting upon the weakness and the divisions 
 of the several countries she has absorbed into her huge 
 empire, has imposed a yoke which, heavy though it be, 
 must be borne. These regions are no doubt among the 
 "oppressed nationalities," and the best that can be anticipated 
 is that such concessions may be made by the wisdom and 
 fore-thought of the Russian government as will remove any 
 fair grounds for popular discontent. It is not for us, who 
 have imposed our dominion upon many a once independent 
 people, to be hasty in condemning the usurpations of other 
 powerful states. The progress of time may bring to many 
 a nation the blessings of self-government, and may instil 
 into the hearts of their conquerors the conviction that they 
 may safely and wisely leave many of their dependencies to 
 take care of themselves. That time is undoubtedly rapidly 
 advancing as reo^ards several of the British colonies, in some 
 of which the influence of the mother country is practically 
 almost annihilated. 
 
 In the University of Abo, the most accredited Swedish 
 authors are used as text-books, and some of the sciences 
 which have been cultivated with special success among the 
 
128 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Swedes, such as botany and chemistry, under the great 
 names of Linn^ (Linnaeus) and Berzelius, appeared to me to 
 be the objects of particuhir attention among the Finlanders. 
 A short time before my visit, a dreadful fire had destroyed 
 the university library, and 1 had the pleasure, with the aid 
 of friends, to send a pretty large collection of English litera- 
 ture, helping in a small way to fill the melancholy vacuum 
 left by the ravages of the flames. 
 
 Finland furnishes to Eussia some of her best mariners, 
 the naval service being one for which she has some difficulty 
 in finding a supply of experienced men. Down to the time 
 of the first Alexander, foreign maritime nations generally 
 furnished officers of the highest rank, but of late she has 
 found among her own people men sufficiently instructed and 
 experienced to take charge of her fleets, and this is to her 
 all the more important as her ships of war will undoubtedly 
 find an outlet in the Tatar seas, which is denied to them 
 from the Baltic or the Bosphorus. Whenever any great 
 naval power opposes their exit through the Sound or the 
 Belt, that exit is impassable during the winter season, and 
 Turkey, feeble though she is, can always prevent their 
 passage from the Euxine to the Mediterranean. 
 
 The habits of life of the Finlanders are necessarily 
 very simple, and, from the rudeness of the climate, the 
 inhabitants have been sometimes compelled to mix the bark of 
 trees with their bread, in order to provide sufficient aliment 
 for their wants. Tornea, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, is 
 sometimes visited by travellers as a place where, in summer, 
 the sun never sets, and in winter never rises. Most of the 
 country is covered with pines, which form a considerable 
 export trade. Wiborg and Helsingfors are, with Abo, the 
 principal ports, and furnish the best supply of sailors for 
 the Piussian navy. 
 
SWEDEN. 129 
 
 SWEDEN. 
 
 In order to avoid the long and weary land journey round 
 the Gulf of Bothnia, by Tornea, I engaged, at Abo, a small 
 boat with four men, and sledges to go on as far as possible, 
 hoping in this way to cross to Sweden. We went on very 
 well for six or seven miles, when the great chasms between 
 the masses of ice (one of the horses having fallen through, and 
 several of the men) induced us to send back the sledges, 
 and to try to drag our little boat to the furthest possible 
 point. The labour of hauling it thus for several miles, sur- 
 rounded as we were on every side by hills of ice, and by 
 large holes where the ice had been broken by the storm, was 
 extreme, but we reached at last open sea, and launched 
 our boat, hoping that our difficulties were over. We 
 encountered, however, large islands of ice, and found the 
 water freezing around us, so that we had soon to cut our 
 way through ice an inch thick. The cold and frost increased, 
 and at sunset we found ourselves completely frozen in, no 
 land to be seen, cold and darkness over and around us, in 
 an open boat, and in a latitude of 60 degrees. I had always 
 found fortitude under bodily suffering, and my spirits did 
 not flag. I wrapped myself in my wolf-skin and slept, 
 thinking of my friends, the North Pole Expedition, and the 
 second part of Don Juan. We had a couple of days' pro- 
 visions, no compass, and our food was frozen to ice. I had 
 once or twice expected, in the course of our land journey, 
 that we should have been lost in the snow, but now I 
 thought of a worse fate. I was calm, however, and rejoiced 
 to think that nobody knew where I was who cared a pin 
 about me. 
 
 We lay thus for nine hours, and at break of day were so 
 fortunate as to discover an open sea before us, and, with 
 the assistance of the wind, we cut through the ice, which 
 
 I 
 
130 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 liaci been much agitated through the niffht and was breaking 
 
 O o o O 
 
 around us, and reached again a space where we could use 
 our oars. The Finn sailors seemed less pleased than I, for 
 the ice islands, broken by the storm, were approaching us, 
 and they feared that we might be carried away by them. • 
 However, amidst their crashing and noise, we made great 
 progress, and drew near the coast of Sweden. The seals 
 were playing about, which portended a storm, but we 
 made for the shore, and as the port of our destination was 
 surrounded by ice, we reached land at some distance from 
 it. I suffered more fatigue in getting to Griselhamn along 
 the cliffs, which were rugged and pathless, covered with 
 snow and smooth with ice, with a part of my baggage on 
 my back, than I had ever experienced before. I often sank 
 into the snow, and several times fell among the icy rocks. 
 Two or three of the men slipped over the cliffs into the sea, 
 wliich was fortunately not more than two or three feet deep, 
 so they escaped with a wetting. The Avind was bitter and 
 bleak, but I was so hot with exertion that 1 devoured large 
 pieces of ice. 1 was also sadly encumbered with furs. 
 However, arrive I did at Griselhamn, and drank nearly two 
 bottles of the best beer T ever tasted. The first words I 
 heard were, " Komm lat oss ga," which have exactly the 
 English sound. 
 
 From Griselhamn I proceeded to Upsala where, in com- 
 pany with Professor Aurivilius, I visited the tomb of Linn^, 
 bringing away with me some of the earth which covered 
 his honoured remains. Among my acquaintances in Sweden 
 was Berzelius, whom I saw, where such a man is most advan- 
 tageously seen — in his laboratory — and engaged in his 
 scientific pursuits. He was then occupied with experiments 
 on the human skin, and he told me that there was no 
 substance in nature which could bear such vicissitudes of 
 heat and cold. He was dressed in garments most appropriate 
 
SWEDEN. 131 
 
 to the M^ork which occupied him, and mentioned with much 
 hilarity how long he had been detained when calling on our 
 chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy, in London, who thought it 
 necessary to dandify himself, and to appear in spruce 
 apparel, in order to welcome the Swedish philosopher. 
 
 I spent a few agreeable days with Franzen, Bishop of 
 Orebro, next to Tegner the most popular of the modern 
 poets of Sweden. My vanity was not a little flattered by a cir- 
 cumstance which he mentioned to me. A vessel from Calcutta 
 had been wrecked in the Baltic Sea, and a native Hindoo 
 who escaped saved a little book of mine called " Matins and 
 Vespers," which, he told the good Bishop, had been a source 
 of great comfort to him. He presented the volume to my 
 kind host as a token of gratitude for the attentions he had 
 received, and the Bishop had kept it in his pulpit, little 
 expecting to have the author as his guest. He wrote some 
 pretty verses in my album, in which he compared friendship 
 to the rainbow, whose arch stretches over and smiles on many 
 lands at the same time. 
 
 I found the Swedes a courteovis and hospitable people, 
 never given to luxury, more observant of forms and fashions, 
 and generally less contemplative than their neighbours the 
 Danes, but fond of dance and song, with which they make 
 their cold winters bright and gay. They have been called 
 the French of the north, and no doubt their choice of a 
 Frenchman to be their king had made Parisian tastes and 
 fashions and the French language popular. Bernadotte 
 seems to have understood them well, and founded the 
 present reigning dynasty, to the hopeless exclusion of the 
 ancient royal race. 
 
 The Swedish languao-e is remarkable for its sw^eetness, 
 and for the great number of vowel terminations by which, 
 like Italian, it is characterized. 
 
132 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 In tlie year 1822 I visited Paris on commercial affairs. 
 My known opinions, no doubt, made me an object of atten- 
 tion to the police, and I bad reason to believe that my 
 bureaux were opened by false keys at my lodgings, and my 
 papers examined, while my steps were constantly watched 
 by spies. I was then intimate with the Duke of Orleans, 
 who was in disgrace at Court. He had been denied the 
 privilege of sitting in the Chamber of Peers, no higher title 
 than Serene Highness was conceded to him, and it was 
 believed that he was the centre of a hundred conspiracies 
 to overturn the government. It w^as supposed, as I had tra- 
 velled much, and had had much intercourse with the liberals 
 of Europe, that I was a secret agent, as I undoubtedly was 
 a personal friend of Louis Philippe, to whom I had been 
 originally introduced by General Dumouriez, than whom a 
 more acceptable usher could hardly have been found. I 
 believe the accusations against the Duke of being a con- 
 spirator against the senior branch of the Bourbons were 
 wholly groundless, for, though talkative and somewhat 
 swaggering, he was really a very timid man. I know of 
 more than one flattering offer made to him by malcon- 
 tents, which he invariably repudiated and discouraged, but 
 he had a notion certainly that the absurd policy of the 
 elder Bourbons, and especially of " Frere Philippe" (Charles 
 X.) would, in the natural course of events, waft the crown 
 of France towards him, and that it would fall on his head. 
 In fact, his work was better done by his foolish relations 
 than he could have done it for himself, and he preferred a 
 safe to an adventurous policy. He was wholly without 
 enlarged ideas, but saw clearly enough in a narrow circle. 
 He was surrounded by spies, and I remember his whispering 
 to me, when on one occasion he proposed that we should leave 
 
FRANCE. 133 
 
 the dinner-table for a walk in the gardens at Neuilly, that 
 he had not a servant in attendance whom he could trust, 
 and that he believed they were all in the pay of the police. 
 That day was to me a memorable one. It was then that 
 the " quatre Sergens de la Rochelle" were guillotined, and I 
 heard, in the presence of Louis Philippe, the artillery whicii 
 he said announced their decapitation. They were young 
 men of good family who had been convicted and condemned 
 to death for singing republican songs. It was at a moment 
 when political passion was at its height, and the Bourbons 
 were revelling in the blood they shed. The fate of these 
 youths excited great interest in Paris, and an attempt was 
 made by Generals Fabvier, Dentzel, and others to save their 
 lives. The jailor was tampered with, and he promised to 
 facilitate their escape if the sum of 10,000 francs were 
 given to him. The money was raised and paid to him, but 
 the scoundrel denounced the plot to the police, and an 
 order was given for the immediate execution of the young 
 men. To crown all, the Bourbons gave a great fete and 
 bed the same evening, which led to the circulation of the 
 following couplet — ■ 
 
 " Pour le peiiple Frangais ! quel heureux jour ! 
 On ^gorge a la Greve et I'oii danse a la Cour." 
 
 When Fabvier was arrested, a bill of exchange was found 
 with my name endorsed on it. It formed a portion of the 
 money raised in order to save the unfortunate victims. 
 This fact was afterwards made the excuse for my arbitrary 
 arrest, when Mr Canning insisted on knowing the cause of my 
 detention and imprisonment. But the government dreaded 
 discussion and exposure, and did not venture to bring me 
 to a trial, which would have infallibly led to both. They 
 had suffered much in public opinion by the exposure in 
 Lavalette's affair, and the business of the young Serjeants 
 was still more sanguinary and indefensible. 
 
134 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I was accustomed to attend tlie house of a literaiy lady, 
 
 Madame de B . After the Eevolution of 1830, T had an 
 
 OjDportunity of ascertaining that she was in the habit of receiv- 
 ing the sum of (I think) 6000 francs a-year, to cover the ex- 
 pense of her entertainments, to which multitudes of people 
 were invited, whose conversation was regularly reported to 
 the police. The ramifications of the French police were at this 
 time so extensive, that I found I was honoured in my house 
 at London Field, Hackney, where I had a sort of conver- 
 sazione on Thursday evenings, with frequent visits from 
 police agents, who managed to get themselves invited in 
 consequence of letters they brought, or on their introduction 
 by personal friends. I saw at Paris the record of conver- 
 sations which had taken place in my drawing-room, which 
 were given with no small accuracy. Great numbers of 
 refugees, who had sought an asylum in England from poli- 
 tical persecution, and many of Avhom I had known in their 
 native countries moving in the highest circles, were in the 
 habit of visiting me, and in the melee no doubt were some 
 who became the willing instruments of French, Austrian, and 
 Spanish surveillance. But the grand organization of the 
 system of espionage was united in Paris, and the Pavilion 
 Marsan at the Tuileries, the portion of the palace occupied 
 by the Comte d' Artois (afterwards Charles X.), was one of 
 the places where the gathering and distribution of political 
 secrets were in a state of the greatest activity. 
 
 One evening, at the house of Madame de B , a gentle- 
 man who called himself the Marquis de , I have forgotten 
 
 the name — was exceedingly assiduous in his attentions to me. 
 I saw him for the first time. He expressed great interest 
 in England and English institutions, and said he had deter- 
 mined to send his son there for his education. " Would I 
 take charge of him?" I hesitated, said it would be an 
 embarrassment to me, as in fact I had not settled when or 
 
FEANCE. 135 
 
 how I should travel, and finally declined the proposal. On 
 the following day a livery servant called with a message 
 from the Marquis, who hoped I would change my purpose, 
 and was exceedingly anxious to know when I meant to 
 depart. My suspicions were aroused, and I sent a person 
 to follow the footsteps of the liveried gentleman, who went 
 directly to the Pavilion Marsan. I was arrested at Calais, 
 on my way to England, by a telegraphic order, and was 
 conducted by the gendarmerie to the Maison de Ville. 
 Among my compagnons de voyage was Mr Mark Phillips, 
 afterwards M.P. for Manchester. He was with me when, at 
 the moment of leaving the shore, a gendarme put his hand on 
 my shoulder, stopped the embarkation of my baggage, and 
 bade me accompany him. Had I been alone, probably 
 nothing would have been heard of my arrest, and I might 
 have been detained a prisoner as long as it suited the pur- 
 poses of the French government. While in the Mayor's 
 chamber, he was called out, and I took up the papers on 
 his table. They were communications from the Minister of 
 Police, in which my conversations with the Marquis were 
 fully reported, and they were to furnish materials for the 
 interrogatories to which I was to be subjected. But I believe 
 the more immediate object of my arrest was to obtain pos- 
 session of despatches of which I was the bearer from the 
 Portuo'uese Minister to his government in Portus^al. I was 
 
 o o o 
 
 at first thrown into a vile and offensive dungeon at Calais, 
 having for my companions forgers, from whose own lips I 
 heard a confession of their guilt. 
 
 Canning was then Prime Minister of Enoiand, and as soon 
 as he was informed of my arrest, he insisted on my release, 
 or an acte d' accusation which would justify my detention. 
 At last, charges were made against me, first of being the 
 bearer of letters, and secondly of being concerned in the 
 attempt to effect the escape of the Sergens de la Rochelle. 
 
136 AUTOBIOGRAPH[CAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Both of these accusations had, in truth, some evidence to 
 support them, for 1 was the bearer of despatches from the 
 Portuguese minister, his own couriers being tampered with, 
 and I was a party, with the generals I have mentioned, 
 in the endeavour to procure the evasion from their prison 
 of the condemned youths. The despatches were of great 
 •importance, as they announced to the Portuguese ministry 
 the intended invasion of the Peninsula by the Due d' 
 Angouleme. It may be observed that, in reply to an en- 
 quiry made by Mr Canning on this subject, such intention 
 was distinctly disclaimed, and he was assured that the troops 
 collected along the Pyrenees were intended only as a cordon 
 sanitaire for the protection of France. 
 
 I was several times escorted by French soldiers to 
 the griffe, where examinations, which lasted several 
 hours, were conducted by the Procureur du Eoi, in 
 order to extort from me materials out of which to 
 frame an indictment. As to the two charges on 
 which the French Government chose afterwards to rest 
 their justification for my detention, I did not hesitate to 
 avow my guilt, and told the Procureur that I would have 
 given my right hand to save the youths from the fate 
 to which they had been so cruelly condemned. I said, 
 moreover that, when brought to trial, I should justify all I 
 had done, and call attention to facts exceedingly discredit- 
 able as to the manner in which judicial proceedings were 
 conducted in France. I had applied for the presence of the 
 Consul or an interpreter during the interrogatories, but was 
 told that as I knew French perfectly well, their intervention 
 was needless. I protested, inasmuch as my case might be 
 made a precedent where individuals knew much less than 
 myself of the French tongue, and moreover that, as regarded 
 the j^hraseology and technicalities of the proceedings, I was 
 not so much at home as in the colloquial language, but I 
 
rEANCE. 137 
 
 protested in vain. I was, however, never brought to trial, 
 and was surprised one morning, six weeks after my arrest, 
 by the entrance of the jailor of the Boulogne Prison (to 
 which I had been removed five days after my first detention), 
 who informed me that I was a free man, and that a King's 
 messenger was waiting to convey me to England. 
 
 My arrest was the subject of a motion in the House of 
 Commons, as it was thought I had claims to indemnity for 
 the injuries done me, but it was stated by Mr Canning that 
 he had consulted the highest French authorities, and as I 
 had suffered no grievance other than that with which a 
 Frenchman might have been visited, I, a foreigner, could 
 claim no redress which would be denied to a native subject. 
 I was informed that I should not again be allowed to enter 
 France, but, after the Revolution of 1830, I conveyed the 
 congratulatory address of the citizens of London, which I 
 had written, and which was voted in Common Hall. A 
 public dinner was given to me at the Hotel de Ville by 
 Odilon Barrot, the Prefect of the Seine, and I was the first 
 person received by Louis Philippe after the British Ambas- 
 sador had announced to him that he was recognized by the 
 English Government as King of the French. 
 
 Louis Philippe was the most insincere of men, and Thiers 
 once called him "le plus grand fourbe de 1' Europe." 
 Though physically brave, he was a great political coward, 
 and it must be owned that a good deal of poltroonery was 
 inherited by some of his sons, Avho abandoned their wives in 
 the moment of danger. The Prince de Joinville was certainly 
 absent at this juncture, but for him there cannot be much 
 genuine sympathy in England. He was the author of the 
 pamphlet which his father corrected for the press, whose object 
 was the humiliation and subjugation of the British na-\^. I 
 remember Charles Napier, the admiral, saying to me, " If I 
 ever catch that fellow, I will fling him into the sea." There 
 
138 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 are indeed few, if any, of the Bourbon race distinguished 
 for bravery. I think it was Boileau who lauded Louis XIV. 
 for keeping out of danger, and waiting sur la rive while his 
 army crossed the river. Louis Philippe could not stand up 
 against any stout resistance. Dupont de 1' Euro told me he 
 applied to him, when Minister of Justice, to nominate to a 
 judgeship a magistrate unfitted for the post. Dupont 
 steadily refused, but the King returned again and again to 
 the charge, which made Dupont only the more obstinate, 
 and he at last said, " If Your Majesty persist, I shall fling 
 up my appointment." The King surrendered, but he took 
 the earliest opportunity of getting rid of the party to 
 which he owed the sceptre, and of taking into his confi- 
 dence the Doctrinaires, who proved his willing tools, helped 
 him in the disgraceful aff'air of the Spanish marriages, and 
 were willing (though some of them, and notably Guizot and 
 Duchatel, were not corrupted) to do all his behests. Cor- 
 ruption was indeed the great instrument of the Orleans 
 dynasty, and a majority of the House of Deputies under its 
 regime were place-holders. 
 
 Guizot was the most influential representative of the 
 Doctrinaires — a cold, hard man, who had the reputation of 
 Liberalism,, but was essentially harsh, despotic, and untrust- 
 worthy. Personally he was not corrupt, but was extremely 
 vain and ambitious. His hatreds were bitter, but there 
 was no relying on his love. He had the credit, and deserved 
 it, of having diligently studied English history, but he failed 
 to learn the emphatic lessons which it teaches, possibly 
 thinking a regime of despotism best suited to France. 
 When disorders broke out at Lyons, and so many of the 
 workpeople were slain by the soldiers, he announced his 
 policy to the Chambers by saying, "Eassurez vous, 
 messieurs, les ordres sont impitoyables," and pitiless they 
 were. Had he been born in Spain in the sixteenth centmy, 
 
FfiAlNXE. 139 
 
 lie would liave been tlie most merciless of inquisitors. He 
 consented to hold office long after he knew that the King 
 carried on a personal correspondence with his foreign minis- 
 ters, pursuing a policy of his own without the knowledge 
 or consent of the ministry. The intrigues connected with 
 the Spanish marriages were, I believe, unknown to the Paris 
 Cabinet, though Guizot afterwards undertook to defend the 
 double-dealinofs of the Kino;. The French Minister at 
 Madrid (Bresson) committed suicide to escape, it was said, 
 the opprobrium of the proceedings which took place. 
 
 My acquaintance with Louis Napoleon commenced at 
 Arenenberg, where he was living with his mother Hortense, 
 the ex- Queen of Holland. Her manners were so fascinating 
 that T can well understand the influence she exercised over 
 her imperial step-father, of whom she spoke in terms almost 
 of idolatry. She took me to her boudoir, and showed me 
 a number of interesting relies — the sash which Buonaparte 
 wore at the Ponte d'Arcolo — the various presents he had 
 received from diff"erent monarchs — the wedding rings and 
 jewels of the members of the Napoleon family — the pictures 
 of the Empress and the King of Pome, on which Napoleon 
 looked when he was dying — the ornaments found on the 
 breast of Charlemagne, when his cofiin was disinterred and 
 his corpse exposed to public view, and a number of other 
 things equally historical. She gave me a copy of her ac- 
 count of her journey incognita to Paris, notwithstanding the 
 banishment of the whole race by the French Chambers. 
 
 Louis Napoleon was at this time much engaged in mili- 
 tary studies, and gave evidence of the talent which he 
 subsequently displayed in the Italian campaign. His 
 book on the artillery service obtained for him a high repu- 
 tation among the greatest authorities, and in these days one 
 may safely affirm that no man can have written the best 
 book on any suliject, without being gifted with more than 
 
140 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 common sagacity. It has often been said that the merit of 
 the work was not his own, but was due to his instructor 
 General Dufour. I had occasion to meet the General at 
 Berne, and took the liberty to enquire how far he had been a 
 party to the composition, but he disclaimed all participation 
 in the Avork, saying that the Prince was a superior military 
 genius. I have since closely watched the progress of Louis 
 Napoleon's career, never concurring in that depreciatory 
 estimate of his intellect which the Orleanist party assidu- 
 ously sought to circulate. He was, at the time of the 
 Strasburg and Boulogne expeditions, the object of much 
 contemptuous ridicule, but those expeditions were very 
 near success, and one of them would almost assuredly not 
 have failed, if the officers in command had not been super- 
 seded by the government in consequence of some revelations 
 that were made. The primary object of these attempts was 
 to keep his name constantly before the French nation, and 
 to associate that name with acts of daring, which he was 
 well assured would popularize it, and the result responded 
 to his expectations. 
 
 It is impossible to deny that he succeeded in winning 
 the suffrages of the great majority of the French people, 
 and that he elevated his country to take the highest rank 
 among the continental nations of Europe. The tendencies 
 which latterly characterize<l his reign, the greater latitude 
 given to puUic opinion, the abolition of the passport-system, 
 and the distribution of many of the powers of the Central 
 Government among the Departments, are evidences of 
 liberal and enlightened views. Once, calling on Casimir 
 Perrier, while he was Minister of the Interior, and when all 
 the functions of domestic government were concentrated in 
 that ministry, I saw a heap of despatches, reaching from 
 the floor to the table, waiting for his signature. I asked 
 how it was possible he could master, or even make himself 
 
FRANCE. 141 
 
 tolerably acquainted with, tlie contents of the multifarious 
 documents. He said that would be impossible, that they 
 were prepared by the different heads of departments, and 
 that he was compelled to rely upon their sagacity and 
 honesty for the decisions which he had to affirm. It seemed 
 a strange mode of government, but so France was then 
 governed. Centralization had so completely usurped all 
 authority, and so much time was necessarily lost in the 
 various claims upon attention, that the decrees were almost 
 invariably behind hand, and inadequate to the removal of 
 the grievances they were intended to redress. Whatever 
 advantages may attend the consolidation of power in the 
 hands of the Home Minister in Paris, as regards foreiofn 
 nations, its effects upon the well-being of the French subject 
 are undoubtedly pernicious. 
 
 Among my most intimate acquaintances in Paris was 
 Appert, known for his works on prison discipline, who was 
 the almoner of the Queen of the French. In that capacity, 
 she transferred to him masses of letters, in which persons 
 of all classes applied to her for assistance, and at the foot of 
 every communication were instructions, written with her 
 own hand, for the guidance of the dispenser of her bounties. 
 The tales of human misery which were sometimes revealed 
 exceeded anything which fiction has ever painted, showing 
 from what heights and into what depths the victims of vicis- 
 situde may be flung, especially in a country where political 
 changes have been so frequent and appalling. Nothing could 
 be more admirable than the attention which this excellent 
 woman paid to petitioners, or the trouble she took to ascer- 
 tain the truth of their representations. 
 
 With Appert I visited many of the prisons of Paris. In 
 that of Bicetre there were four thousand five hundred per- 
 sons. I saw one hundred and sixty chained together, iron 
 collars bcincT rivetted round their necks. There was amonof 
 
142 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 them a boy of only sixteen, who was a chief of bandits, and 
 they coidd scarcely find a collar small enough to secure him. 
 Some of the prisoners were going to the galleys, and of all 
 the scenes I ever witnessed it was perhaps the most extra- 
 ordinary. Some had dressed themselves in a grotesque and 
 fantastic manner, with ribbons, swords of straw, and other 
 absurd decorations, while others were almost naked, and 
 there was scarcely one who felt the shame and ignominy of 
 his situation. They jested, they laughed, they sang, they 
 danced, one man having blackened himself to look like a 
 negro. These were of course the most hardened, and they 
 formed a strange contrast to the young, who were weeping, 
 and the old, who were despairing. Before they were 
 marched off, they gathered round one of the convicts, who 
 sang a song, in the chorus of which they all joined (and it 
 was very affecting), to the effect " that though they were 
 chained now, they should one day find freedom." 
 
 I afterwards visited the three great depots of felons at 
 Brest, La Bochelle, and Toulon, being provided with official 
 letters which enabled me to witness all their horrors. At 
 Eochefort, there were about six hundred or seven hundred 
 men condemned for life, and about five hundred for a longer 
 period than ten years. They were all heavily chained, and 
 were the most horrible collection of human beiags that one 
 could imagine, about half of them being murderers. I had 
 some conversation with tlae famous Collet, and bought from 
 him some of his work as a memento. He had appeared in 
 France some years before as an archbishop, had levied con- 
 tributions from the clergy, and had ordained so many 
 priests that the Pope was obliged to confirm his acts. He 
 next appeared as G-eneral Inspector, called out and reviewed 
 the troops, distributed decorations of the Legion of Honor, 
 and drew money from the military chests. He began his 
 career as a monk, got to be the boursier, and ran away 
 
FRANCE. 143 
 
 with all the money of the convent. I suppose so illustrious 
 a swindler never appeared, and I found that he exercised 
 the greatest influence over the wretches around him, who 
 all spoke of him as Monseigneur. He was a monarch in 
 hell. The felons were all chained together in pairs, and 
 were occupied with one solitary thought — how to escape 1 
 The overseer was obliged to employ men among them as 
 spies, but he told me that when the others discovered a spy 
 they invariably murdered him. 
 
 At Brest there were over three thousand three hundred 
 galley-slaves, the most renowned of assassins and robbers, 
 and I bought some beautiful carvings from one of them 
 named Contrefalto. Among them was a man who single- 
 handed robbed a diligence with fifteen passengers, five or 
 six of whom were military officers. He arranged along the 
 road a number of straw figures, which he armed with sticks 
 pointed at the diligence. It was nearly dark, and the pas- 
 sengers thought they were a troop of bandits. He made 
 all the passengers fall on their faces, telling the men of 
 straw to fire if there was the slightest opposition, and he 
 robbed the whole party alone. They remained on their 
 faces nearly half an hour, and when they rose, found that 
 the bandits were nothing but straw, covered with old 
 clothes ! Among these wretched beings reigned a sort of 
 fidelity. They always settled the day for every individual 
 to escape, and on that day he received every assistance 
 from all the rest. When they discovered a spy among 
 them, they invariably destroyed him by means concocted, 
 hut seemingly accidental, such as allowing a beam of timber 
 to fall upon him, precipitating him from a height, or some 
 other device which might free the perpetrator from the 
 charge of homicide. I heard of one case in wdiich a man 
 was conveyed away in the ordure of the criminals, and other 
 cases scarcely less extraordinary had occurred. Revolts 
 
144 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 sometimes took place, which were pitilessly dealt with by 
 the musketry of the soldiers. The felons had for their beds 
 rough planks, to which they were chained at night, and 
 marvellous it seemed that any slumber should " weigh the 
 eyelids down" of so much wretchedness. 
 
 Appert once invited me to a dinner such as could only be 
 given in Paris, the guests being Sanson, the hereditary 
 executioner, Vidocq, the thief-catcher, some authors, artists, 
 and myself Sanson and Vidocq made on that occasion 
 their first personal acquaintance, though they seem to have 
 had much connection with each other in their separate and 
 singular spheres of action. Sanson talked very willingly 
 of the manao-emeut of the guillotine, which he called "la 
 m^canique," of his ancestors, the former hourreaux of 
 France — and of his son and successor, whom he afterwards 
 introduced to me. He said that the families of the different 
 executioners in France almost always intermarried, and that 
 there was a strong clanship among the members of this life- 
 destroying community. He asked me to his house in order 
 that he might exhibit the operation of "la mecanique," 
 and I went thither, accompanied by Lord Durham, Mr 
 Edward Ellice, and Mr Dawson Damer, whom, by the way, I 
 had known in Egypt, where his wife was introduced to old 
 Mehemet Ali, whom she much amused. 
 
 Sanson's house was a Jittle way in the country, was 
 prettily furnished, and had quite the air of respectability 
 and comfort. He showed us the volumes of the proces 
 verhaux, which were detailed records of what occurred at 
 every public execution that had taken place in Paris. The 
 books were very neatly kept, and bore the signatures of the 
 parties who had assisted at the dread exhibitions. Some 
 one asked Sanson whether, after decapitation, he had ever 
 seen any movement in the head after its separation from the 
 body, as a theory had been put forward that sensation was 
 
FRANCE. 145 
 
 not immediately extinguished by the operation, but be said 
 that he had never observed the slightest movement. He 
 conducted us to a large outhouse in which the fatal machine 
 was kept. It was painted scarlet. Tin homme de paille 
 was prepared, and the usual assistants were summoned, in 
 order that we might witness the whole mode of proceeding. 
 We were struck by the heaviness and sharpness of the knife, 
 which, falling from a great height, could not but do its 
 bloody work most effectually. 
 
 While seated at dinner with M. Appert, Vidocq ques- 
 tioned Sanson as to the manner in which many acquain- 
 tances had met their death. He mentioned, among other 
 things, that, when connected with the police, he had 
 associated himself with a band of robbers and murderers, 
 whom he promised to deliver over to the authorities while 
 they were engaged in a large scheme of plunder at the 
 Batignolles. An arrangement was made by which, on his 
 firing a pistol from a window, the house was to be sur- 
 rounded and the felons captured, as they were. Vidocq 
 said they never discovered his treachery until they saw him 
 in the street on their way to execution. The account he 
 gave of his courtship and marriage with a woman who was 
 his fellow-prisoner was most romantic, but as the details of 
 his life have been published in memoirs written by himself, 
 they may be referred to as furnishing the sort of material 
 of which his conversation was composed. Probably no man 
 knew more of the organization of the thieves and burglars 
 in Paris than did Vidocq, whose own offences were con- 
 doned when he was admitted into the service of the criminal 
 police, of Avhoni he became a most efficient instrument. 
 He had also a little private profession of his own, and was 
 frequently employed by individuals to assist in the detection 
 and conviction of robbers. In his person there was nothing 
 remarkable, but he was singularly self-possessed and dis- 
 
 K 
 
146 ■ AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 posed to be loquacious. Sanson, on the contrary, was a 
 tall heavy man, of taciturn habits, from whom information 
 was only obtainable by its being specially sought. The 
 son had rather a cadaverous appearance, but took little 
 share, when his father was present, in the colloquies that 
 passed. 
 
 The whole system of criminal proceedings in France is 
 singularly contrasted with that which prevails in our coun- 
 try. We expect a prisoner always to plead " not guilty," 
 he is recommended to say nothing by which he may incul- 
 pate himself, and the judge before whom he is tried is called 
 his counsel, and is expected to point out to the jury those 
 points of evidence which are favourable to his defence. In 
 France, on the contrary, everything is done by the magis- 
 trate to extort confession, to involve him in contradiction, 
 and, even before his defence is heard, to give a strong 
 opinion as to his guilt. The number of condemnations to 
 capital punishment is very great, but, as the general 
 character of the French is really humane, the verdict of 
 " guilty " given by juries has often attached to it " avec 
 des circonstances attenuantes," equivalent to our " recom- 
 mended to mercy," even in cases where, to the calm eye of 
 reason and justice, the offence has in it everything that 
 could aggravate its criminality. My experience has led me 
 to the conclusion that the interests of society will be best 
 served by the absolute abolition of capital punishment, and 
 that O'Connell was perfectly right when he said, " The 
 worst thing you can do with a man is to hang him." 
 
 My mind is often filled with gloom when I remember 
 that, neither in my reading nor in my own personal ex- 
 perience, has France, in the midst of all her political 
 vicissitudes, ever really enjoyed the blessings of good 
 government. Under the ancient Monarchical despotism — 
 amidst the liberty, or rather the licence, of the Revolution 
 
FRANCE. 147 
 
 of 1792 — under the Consular or tlie Imperial dynasties — 
 with the modified form of the Constitutional Charter under 
 the elder Bourbons — in the concessions made by the semi- 
 legitimacy of Louis Philippe — or in the advent of Louis 
 Napoleon to the throne of France, I find nowhere any of 
 the guarantees for personal or public liberty which have 
 become a part of the social organisation of Great Britain 
 and her dependencies. Thiers once cleverly and happily 
 said that France was governed more by a ''phrase " than 
 by a principle, and after what have been called "the 
 glorious days of July," I found everybody in Paris occupied, 
 not with the establishment of national freedom on broad 
 and solid foundations, but with the consideration whether 
 Louis Philippe should be called " King of France " or 
 "King of the French," whether " parceque " or " quoique 
 Bourbon," whether La Fayette's interpretation " une 
 monarchic entour^e d' institutions r^publicaines " was to be 
 accepted as a final solution of the political problem, or some 
 other such really comparatively unimportant topic. The 
 simple fact is that the general distribution of property — 
 there being, I believe, more than five million owners of 
 land, and twenty million separate estates in France — has 
 made universal suffrage almost a necessity of government, 
 which, if it obtain the good opinion of these multitudinous 
 proprietors, is little likely to be overthrown. We commit 
 a great error in supposing that French institutions can be 
 modelled on our own, but if the small number of our land- 
 holding gentry, and the growing concentration of estates in 
 the hands of the opulent, to the exclusion of the ancient 
 yeomanry, be contrasted with the precisely opposite state of 
 things among our Gallic neighbours, a key will perhaps be 
 found to the understanding of much that takes place in the 
 course of events at home and abroad. 
 The bitter reproach which was formerly addressed to the 
 
148 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 French that they were either tigers or monkies, can cer- 
 tainly be no longer with any truth or propriety applied to 
 them. Wordsworth, in one of his sonnets, contrasting the 
 intellectual position of France with that of England in the 
 time of the Commonwealth of the illustrious names which 
 shone upon our annals, says that the history of our neighbours 
 exhibited " equally a want of names and men." But books in 
 every portion of the field of thought, and men honouring 
 the highest seats of action, have, for the last century at least, 
 been associated with French history and the French lan- 
 guage. Much of the old levity has passed away, and 
 the nation can boast of philosophers more severe and pro- 
 found than those who have made up the reputation of the 
 great people on the other side of the channel. Not that the 
 sprightly gaiety of conversation, and the sparkling of ready 
 wit have disappeared, for the soirees of Paris have a charm 
 in them which I have nowhere else discovered. The light- 
 heartedness of the masses, the cheerfulness with which 
 they submit to what is inevitable, are still their character- 
 istics, and they can joke on subjects from which other races 
 would turn away in disgust. I remember when the allies 
 entered Paris that the letter A, meaning Alexander, was 
 (probably by the Russians) made to supersede the N, for 
 Napoleon, and the calembour of the day was, " Autrefois il 
 y avait des N mis (ennemis) partout. Maintenant il n' y 
 a que des A mis." I had once a fencing-master, who nar- 
 rowly escaped death for having, in his zeal for legitimacy, 
 thrown an orange on the stage, exclaiming, " Otez 1' ^corce 
 (le Corse, i.e., Buonaparte) et gardez lui (Louis)." 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 Perhaps there never was a monarch so keenly engaged in 
 money-making as was Vader Willem, as he was familiarly 
 called by his Dutch subjects. When he was exalted to the 
 
HOLLAND.' 149 
 
 Hague, after the Frencli were driven out of his country, and 
 before any tariff of duties was established, he shipped a 
 large cargo of tea, without the payment of any impost, 
 which he sold at an enormous profit. In almost every suc- 
 cessful industrial undertaking he was a sleeping partner, 
 and in the bank at Brussels, the receptacle of the State 
 revenues, he held the largest number of shares. When the 
 Civil List was settled at a certain pecuniary amount, he 
 managed to get the money value changed into real property 
 on terms which enormously increased his yearly income. 
 
 In the year 1828, I was sent by the British Government 
 to examine into the state of the national accountancy of 
 Holland. I soon discovered that the establishment called 
 the Sindicaat was made the instrument of great abuses, and 
 my investigations into its doings were suddenly arrested by 
 special orders from the King. 
 
 Whatever may have been the intentions of tlie Congress 
 of Vienna, or the hopes of the Dutch from the union of 
 Belgium to Holland, the policy was a very mistaken one, 
 and there never was a real fusion of the heterogeneous 
 elements. Belgium was the more populous country of 
 the two, and was just as unwilling to submit to Dutch 
 authority as the Hollanders were anxious to enforce it. In 
 many respects Holland was the more enlightened of the two 
 countries, for the spirit of toleration, or rather of religious 
 freedom, was there generally difiused, and all sects were 
 equally patronised, if they desired to receive pay from the 
 State. No one sect looks with distrust or disdain upon 
 another, and it is quite common to hear diflerent doctrines 
 preached from the same pulpit, the Dutch pastors willingly 
 lending their churches to those of different opinions from 
 themselves. A very liberal system of theology has taken 
 deep root in Holland. Instruction is widely diffused among 
 the people, without the heartburnings and jealousies so com- 
 
150 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 men in Belgmm, and few countries have so many well-ad- 
 ministered charitable institutions. The national credit 
 stands high, and there is a great distribution of wealth 
 among the more privileged classes. Holland is one of the 
 most heavily taxed countries of Europe, but the burdens 
 are not felt to be oppressive, and are the subject of little 
 complaint. Where she is most at fault is in her protective 
 system. Under the pretence of favouring the interests of 
 navigation and commerce, the Bataavsche Maatschappij is 
 a monstrous monopoly to which the general interests are 
 sacrificed. 
 
 When I visited Holland in 1828, my name was not 
 unknown in the country, for, in association with Harry S. 
 Van Dyk, I had published a volume of translations from 
 the Dutch poets, and had been honoured with a gold medal 
 from the king in recognition of my services. I made the 
 acquaintance of most of the literati of the day — ToUens, 
 Bilderdijk (perhaps the most distinguished of their modern 
 poets), Cappadoce and Da Costa (converted Jews), Siegen- 
 beek, who remodelled the Dutch orthography, and many 
 others. William de Clercq was then in his glory, and his 
 improvisation in a language seemingly so little fitted for the 
 purpose was much applauded. I found social life in 
 Holland very much resembling that of ancient times in 
 England, the ladies taking a much more active part in 
 domestic and culinary arrangements than is the practice 
 now in our country. The distinction between the dresses 
 of the female servants and those of their mistresses was still 
 preserved. I met everywhere with great hospitality, and 
 ready entrance to the social circle, and discovered that there 
 was no ground for the reputation of inaccessibility, at least 
 for those who are acquainted with the language of Holland, 
 without which little can really be learned of the inner life 
 of the nation. The wealth of the Dutch merchants, and the 
 
HOLLAND. 151 
 
 extent of the Dutch colonies, give them a European position 
 higher than their small population would seem to warrant, 
 and their position excites no jealousy. 
 
 Of all the Netherlandic provinces, Friesland had for me 
 the greatest interest. The Frisian language more nearly 
 resembles the Anglo-Saxon than any other tongue, and the 
 proverb — - 
 
 " Butter, bread, and green cheese. 
 Is good English and good Fries." 
 
 is often heard from Frisian lips. It is a curious fact in 
 modern history that the Frisians had no proper family 
 names until the conquest of their country by Buonaparte, 
 when, for the purposes of conscription, the baptismal 
 designation was insufficient to identify the individual. So 
 every man selected the name that pleased him, and very 
 many were taken from Eoman history — John the Smith 
 becoming Julius Csesar, and Peter the Longshanked being 
 converted into Virgil. Posthumus was the name of a village 
 pastor living at Waaxen, whose translations from Shakspeare 
 much more resemble the original, and as perfectly convey 
 the sense as the best translations (and they are most excellent) 
 of the scholars of Germany. The Frisians have a poet, 
 Sapiex, of whom they are proud, and who was a school- 
 master at Bolsward. The well-known Francis Junius spent 
 some years in the country, in order to study its language 
 and literature, and presented to the Bodleian Library the 
 results of his researches. Eask, the eminent linguist of 
 Copenhagen, wrote a Frisian grammar. A literary society 
 exists at Leeuwarden, which publishes a periodical, and has 
 done good service by collecting the various works, printed 
 and manuscript, Avhich illustrate the history of the province. 
 An article which I wrote in No. XXIII. of the Westminster 
 Review, on Frisian literature, gives an account of my 
 inquiries in the country itself. 
 
152 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I was accompanied from Leeuwarden to Leer (in Germany) 
 hj an itinerant French conjuror and his family, who fancied 
 that he had been commissioned to enhghten the world by 
 his "talents dans les belles sciences," to use his own words. 
 He had been a farmer, a soldier, a dancing-master, a 
 merchant, and a corn-factor. The revolution took away his 
 farm ; he deserted from the army ; he was persecuted by a 
 priest for having taught a " danse immorale," which he 
 averred was admired in the very first circles ; the English 
 captured his ship, which, he said, was known in every port 
 from Bordeaux to the Isle de Re ; and he lost his factor's 
 ticket for something he had done "pour faire encherb? les 
 grains." The interesting family had been making the tour 
 of Holland, and the fellow assured me that he had been 
 " abim^, pilM, ravag^, ecorch^, brule, vol4, viole, creve, 
 massacr^," and a hundred things besides, in all the towns 
 and villages of the Netherlands. His conversation was 
 made up of the most vehement interjections, " ! les 
 assassins ! les gueux ! les scelerats ! les voleurs ! les tigres ! 
 les monstres ! les betes ! sans foi, sans loi, sans honneur ! 
 qui devraient etre foul^s a pied mais qui sont trop indignes 
 meme pour cela." He had the impudence to send the boat- 
 men to me that I might pay his fare, saying that it would 
 be very vmjust to demand it from " un professeur comme 
 moi, qui travaille pour gagner la vie," and that they might 
 ask it from me "puisque Monsieur etait Anglais, et que 
 tons les Anglais sont braves, riches, et g^n^reux." On my 
 refusal, he came himself and strutted up and down as if he 
 were the king of the conjurors, but as I continued obdurate, 
 he left me with a majestic air, saying, "Monsieur, je vous 
 croyais Anglais. Si vous I'^tes, ce que je doute, vous ^tes 
 peut-etre un de ces chetifs commis qui viennent vendre les 
 marchandises de leur maltres, sans avoir rien a eux." I had 
 hardly reached my inn and seated myself at the table d'h6te, 
 
DENMARK. 153 
 
 at tlje head of Avhich, as usual in Germany, the good woman 
 of the house was presiding, ere I was tapped on the shoulder 
 by an officer of gendarmerie, who, after many expressions 
 of regret at being obliged to perform so disagreeable a duty, 
 gave me to understand that the police had been struck by 
 my resemblance to a " Lord Murray," whom they had orders 
 to arrest, the " lange nase " being the first article in the 
 description. After some explanations 1 convinced him that, 
 though I might have a long nose, I was no Lord, and, 
 moreover, that the description did not suit me in other 
 particulars. I found afterwards that the conjuror had had 
 something to do with it. He had been summoned by the 
 boatmen for not having paid his fare, and revenged himself 
 on me by such a description of me as led to my being 
 waited on as T have described. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 At Copenhagen, the interesting capital of Denmark, I 
 enjoyed, in 1829, the friendship of many eminent men, 
 among whom was Henry Wheaton, the United States 
 minister, a well known writer on International Law, and 
 a man held in high esteem by his brother diplomatists. 
 Though no partisan, he was sacrificed to party, and died 
 poor and neglected, his fine intellect having sunk under 
 the burden of dejection and disappointment. I met also 
 Oehlenschlager, who wrote poetry and dramas Avith equal 
 purity and success in German and Danish ; Finn Magnusen, 
 the Icelander, the illustrator of Runes and Eunic history ; 
 Rask, whose knowledge of languages was as extensive, and 
 far more profound than that of Mezzofanti ; Thiele, the bio- 
 grapher of Thorwaldsen ; and the Bishop, a most learned 
 man, whose absence of mind often led to most amusing- 
 scenes. 
 
 A rather curious circumstance occurred when I was intro- 
 
154 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 duced to the King. I was kept some time waiting at the 
 palace, in consequence of the meeting of a council of minis- 
 ters, and meanwhile one of the courtiers apologised for 
 telling me that His Majesty had a singular aversion to 
 spectacles, and suggested that I should remove them when 
 admitted to the royal presence. When the ministers came 
 out, I, whose vision is not very perfect even with these aids 
 to deficient eyesight, moved forward, expecting, as is usual 
 in such cases, to pass through a succession of apartments, 
 instead of which the King was near the door of the first. 
 I walked blindly on, and nearly knocked down His Majesty, 
 who was an exceedingly small man. He staggered and 
 looked at me, my embarrassment of course being extreme; but 
 he behaved with great good nature, and we were soon engaged 
 in an interesting conversation, in which he naturally took 
 the initiative, asking me what had struck me most in visit- 
 ing his dominions. 1 answered — and the circumstance was 
 a very interesting fact — that I had not in my travels found 
 a single Danish subject unable to read and write. He said 
 it was a good thing to teach people, as it then made it difii- 
 cult to deceive them, and certainly nothing could be more 
 creditable to the despotic character of his rule than that 
 despotism should have been exercised for purposes so 
 beneficial. 
 
 Prince Christian, the heir-apparent, was in all respects 
 superior to the King, and his wife was one of the most 
 beautiful princesses in Europe. She spoke with enthusiasm 
 of the novels of Sir Walter Scott, which were then exciting 
 so great a sensation through the European world. On one 
 occasion they so completely absorbed her attention that, 
 while reading them in bed at night, the curtains caught 
 fire, and she was in consequence exposed to great personal 
 danger. Nothing could have been more courteous than the 
 Prince's reception of me. He was very anxious to hear all 
 
DENMARK. 155 
 
 about the London University, enquired after Mr Fry, and 
 desired me to assist the literary researches of one of his 
 friends who was proceeding to London. 
 
 Of the three great branches of the Scandinavian stem, 
 the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, the Danish is cha- 
 racterized by the most marked nationality. Copenhagen is 
 the centre from which most of our knowledge of the earlier 
 history of Iceland is derived, while the Danish mind is 
 more thoughtful and philosophical than that of the Swedes, 
 and less engrossed by the attention to trade and shipping 
 so universal in Norway. I am disposed to regard the 
 civilization of Denmark as being of a somewhat higher 
 character than that of its neighbours, and to think that the 
 despotism of the old government was often used for excel- 
 lent objects. Danish nationality is kept constantly on the 
 alert in consequence of its union with the provinces of 
 Schleswig and Holstein, where the German element is 
 generally diffused, upon which the German Powers are 
 constantly acting to the great disgust of the Danish Court. 
 The late introduction of a more liberal policy into the 
 councils of Copenhagen does not seem to have diminished 
 the deep hostility fanned and fostered by the most influential 
 portion of the German press. The patriotism of the Danes 
 at home, and the interest which they have inspired abroad, 
 may indeed prevent any serious rupture, as there is cer- 
 tainly no disposition among European Powers to lower the 
 influence of an enlightened and pacific people, who count, 
 as they ought to count, for much in the balance of European 
 policy. What is to be desired is the consolidation of all the 
 Scandinavian interests into one, and time may see a fusion 
 of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish authority, and the 
 consequent concentration of elements so great and important 
 as to place these nations among the most influential of 
 northern states. 
 
156 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 On my liomeward way I visited the Duke of Sclileswig- 
 Holstein at his palace. He was deeply engaged in the 
 study of the Phallic rites, and the history of Isis and 
 Osiris, some curious pictures found in the tombs of Theles 
 having specially interested him. Had he but lived to hear 
 of the extent to which the worship of the Phallus exists in 
 Japan down to our own days, he would have rejoiced at the 
 information. A very curious collection of the appurtenances 
 of this singular religion was made by Dr Witt, and, accom- 
 panied by Charles Dickens, Bishop Colenso, and several 
 other gentlemen, I visited the doctor, who disjDlayed and 
 explained his museum, in which all the Priapean illustra- 
 tions were gathered together. The collection was presented 
 by him to the British Museum, where it can be seen on 
 special application. 
 
 An accident, scarcely less unfortunate than that which 
 occurred in my interview with the King of Denmark, befell 
 me with the Duke. He was exceedingly excited during 
 our conversation. He was suffering from a severe attack 
 of gout, his feet being wrapped in flannel. I know not 
 whether it was his fault or mine, but my boots came in 
 contact with the gouty part, and the consequence was a 
 loud cry, the memory of which still vibrates in my ears. I 
 was glad to find, however, that he was able soon to resume 
 his favourite topic, and to establish what he deemed a suf- 
 ficient foundation for his theories in the paintings of Egyp- 
 tian temples, in the tombs of the Pharaohs, and in the 
 fragments of history which have conveyed down to us some 
 knowledge of the rites and superstitions by which the priests 
 ruled the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 The Dutch were not fortunate in their rule over other 
 races, and seldom succeeded in winning the affections 
 
BELGIUM. 157 
 
 land friendly feelings of their foreign subjects. No tiling 
 could have been worse than their management of Belgian 
 affairs, nothing less calculated to conciliate and win over the 
 Flemings, Brabanters, and Walloons, those various tribes — 
 clans in truth — which the ill-devised and hastily concocted 
 Treaty of Vienna transferred to them — a treaty which shows 
 how little modern statesmen have advanced beyond the 
 civilization of the middle ages, when the arms of a con- 
 queror, and nothing else, disposed of territory and peoples, 
 for, in the case of Belgium, nothing but the will of conquerors 
 was considered. It was a redeclaration, a new teaching to 
 souls enslaved and realms undone, of the " enormous faith 
 of many made for one — that proud exception to all nature's 
 laws," which, being built upon rottenness, is perpetually 
 tottering to its foundations, and must finally give way 
 piece-meal. It required only the movement of the French 
 Revolution in 1830 to tear Belgium from the Dutch sceptre, 
 a consummation which, however wounding to the pride of 
 Holland, has in no respect been pernicious to her true inte- 
 rests or to the prosperity of her people. 
 
 It was the fate of the House of Nassau to do everything 
 unseasonably, and, in consequence, amiss. The first mur- 
 murs of the Belgians asked for the redress of a very simple 
 grievance— the dismissal of a single obnoxious minister, 
 but, though demanded by tens of thousands, it was ob- 
 stinately refused. The Belgians then said, " We will now 
 ask for a better administration, both legislative and judi- 
 cial." The King got alarmed, and ofi'ered to dismiss Van 
 Maanen, but would not hear of the second proposal Then 
 the Belsians answered, " Nor will we now. We demand 
 complete separation from Holland." His Majesty was ad- 
 vised to say, " I agree to your second proposal," but it was 
 too late. They who have won the battle may use very 
 difierent language, and propose very diff"erent terms from 
 
158 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 those which would have satisfied them before tlie combat. 
 The King determined upon the unfortunate royal " ultima 
 ratio," attacked Brussels, where his troops met with a signal 
 defeat, and Brabant to a man rose against him. There was 
 still a door of salvation open, for the Prince of Orange had 
 kept aloof from personal compromise, and would certainly 
 have been elected king, had he not chosen to appear as a dic- 
 tator at the head of a Dutch army. He had numerous 
 partisans in Brabant, which his brother had managed to 
 alienate, but it was his ill fortune to win the execration of 
 the Flemings, Antwerp having been ruined by the Dutch 
 troops and frigates under his command. A few days be- 
 fore, the Prince was, what the " Courrier des Pays Bas " 
 called him, "the inevitable man," but afterwards none was 
 to be found to suwest his name. The destruction of the 
 
 too 
 
 Entrepdt at Antwerp brought ruin upon thousands, and it 
 was said that the value of goods destroyed was nearly two 
 millions sterlino;. The Bels-ians threatened to cut the dikes, 
 by which the whole country would have been overwhelmed, 
 and which would have been a retaliation such as might have 
 been expected from those who had suffered as the Bra- 
 banters and Flemings had done. Brussels, the liveliest 
 place in the gay world, became one of the gloomiest, the 
 houses in the higher parts of the town being riddled with 
 balls, while many were burned, and more deserted. The 
 population were all armed, and I saw groups of sorrowful 
 and suffering, but revenge-threatening men. The deadly 
 hate against the Dutch grew stronger and stronger, and this 
 was the result of the Metternich policy. It is quite true 
 that the Constitution, which was drawn up by twelve 
 Dutchmen and twelve Belgians, provided for a general 
 equality between the races, but the idea of " Orange 
 boven ! " (Up, Orange !) was still predominant in the minds 
 of the Hollanders, and practically they gave little effect to 
 
BELGIUM. 159 
 
 the promised conditions, and excluded the Belgians from 
 participation in many privileges which they contended were 
 their own exclusive and inherent right, while onerous taxes 
 were imposed to which the Belgians were wholly unused. 
 The Dutch, naturally enough, in the case of public employ- 
 ments, gave the preference to their own people, whose 
 loyalty was more assured, and who certainly had abundant 
 aptitude for any official post. The Belgians, moreover, 
 shared few of the advantages which the Dutch enjoyed in 
 their large colonies in the East and West Indies, and in 
 their fisheries on the coast of Europe. 
 
 After the Eevolution, there were three parties in the 
 field. First, the Eepublicans, who desired the establish- 
 ment of a Commonwealth, with De Potter as a president, 
 but their views did not meet with much acceptance in the 
 minds of the people, and would assuredly have created much 
 dissatisfaction among European Powers. Another party 
 was exceedingly desirous to call one of the sons of Louis 
 Philippe to the throne, but this faction was even less popular 
 than the Republican, and met with no encouragement from 
 the governments. Then there was the National party, who 
 succeeded in placing the sceptre in the hands of Prince 
 Leopold, undoubtedly the wisest policy which could have 
 been adopted. The Dutch were recovering from their first 
 panic, and there were not wanting in the Flemish provinces 
 many auxiliaries disposed to make great efibrts and sacri- 
 fices on behalf of the House of Orange, supported, as it 
 undoubtedly was, by the instincts of all the despotic and 
 monarchical influences of central and northern Europe. 
 Belgium had on its side the cordial sympathies of the French 
 nation — the King's cordiality being, however, wholly sub- 
 servient, as was all his policy, to the narrowest calculations 
 of personal and family interest. England remained aloof, 
 and the fate of Belgium certainly depended upon her fiat — 
 
160 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 not the ultimate and final condition of Belgium, for in some 
 way or other the force of events must have produced a 
 Separation from Holland, and either an independent govern- 
 ment or an annexation to France ; but the solution of the 
 then existing complications depended wholly upon the 
 Cabinet of Great Britain. I had much intercourse with 
 the members of the Provisional Government, and pointed 
 out to them that in London, and not in Brussels, the Belgian 
 question must be discussed and decided. I recommended 
 that M. A'^an de Weyer should be immediately despatched 
 to England. My views were adopted, I accompanied him 
 to London, and introduced him to that political circle of 
 which he has since been so distinguished a member. 
 
 I had two official missions to Belgium, both connected 
 with commercial objects. There was much hostility to 
 free trade among the manufacturers, but it was a good deal 
 modified by the desire of keeping on good terms with the 
 French, into whose markets there was a large importation 
 of Belgian produce, which was favoured by the differential 
 duties of the French tariff's. 
 
 There are two parties in Belgium engaged in constant con- 
 flict — the Liberals, who comprise the most intelligent persons 
 in the country, and the extreme Catholics, headed by the 
 ecclesiastics, who no doubt represent the masses of the 
 2:)eople. The battle-field is generally that in which the 
 modes of public instruction are debated, and the Govern- 
 ment often has great difficulty in steering its course amidst 
 these hostile influences, but, on the whole, has managed so 
 Well as to give little offence to either party. I found at 
 Home that the Belgian volunteers were among the most 
 earnest to do battle in favour of the Pope. 
 
 King Leopold once told me that I had hy my writings 
 and discourses made all his people free traders. There was 
 a movement at one time for the abolition of all custom- 
 
TUSCANY. 161 
 
 houses in Belgium, and a grand work will be done wlien 
 tins is accomplislied anywhere. 
 
 TUSCANY. 
 
 I have most pleasant reminiscences of the Tuscan court. 
 In 1836, I visited Florence on a mission from the British 
 government, and had the good fortune to enjoy the con- 
 fidence of, and to experience much kindness from, Leopold, 
 the Grand Duke. After my first formal official introduc- 
 tion, he said he should like to see me divested of my court 
 costume, that he would direct me to be admitted to him by 
 a private staircase, and that at 10 a.m. I should always find 
 him in his library, a privilege of which I availed myself 
 almost daily. He was then less an Austrian than a Tuscan 
 prince, and was much disposed to listen to any suggestions 
 of a practical and improving character. He said to me, 
 " J'ai mes d^fauts, mais j'ai une grande responsabilit^, et je 
 cherche a m'instruire." Railways were then beginning to 
 supersede less convenient and rapid modes of communica- 
 tion, but the Grand Duke exj)ressed his apprehension that 
 their introduction might interfere with the interests of his 
 " poveri vettu.rini." I assured him that there was no cause 
 for alarm, and that railways would not lessen but augment 
 the demand for conveyances, and the value of the horses 
 employed, of which in England we had abundant experience. 
 He liked to talk of the Medici, and presented to me a copy 
 in four volumes of the history of that illustrious family. 
 
 He asked me to accompany him in a visit he was intending 
 to make to his southern provinces, an invitation too flattering 
 to be rejected, and a most pleasant time we passed among 
 the peasantry, with so little gene that we did not even dress 
 for dinner. I even remember an embarrassment for the 
 want of a corkscrew, which I was fortunately able to supply. 
 We visited Piombino, which, a few years before, was almost 
 
 L 
 
162 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 uninhabitable, and which Dante compared to hell. Almost 
 all the children born there perished in infancy, and the 
 population, yellow, wretched, and diseased, wandered like 
 spectres over the surface. A gradual change was going 
 on, and all sorts of works in the way of draining, clearing, 
 &c,, had been introduced, so that the Maremma was 
 becoming productive, and the country every year more 
 healthful. My visit was not in the pestilential season, and 
 the climate was divine ; but in Fellonica, where there were 
 then fifteen hundred inhabitants, not a single one was left 
 during the summer, except three soldiers and one custom- 
 house officer, who invariably sickened and sometimes died, 
 although relieved two or three times in the hot weather. In 
 1836, an experiment was made to keep the labourers 
 through the pestUential months, but not one escaped, and 
 it was sad to see the yellow, cadaverous, and gloomy expres- 
 sion of their sickly countenances, but they are a kind and 
 gentle people, and it touched me to hear them adding, 
 " illustrissimo " to every word they uttered, and showing a 
 zeal to serve which was most striking. 
 
 I went into the mountains, to visit the copper-mines, and 
 was most hospitably entertained at Massa, which was an 
 independent Eepublic in the middle ages. A large body of 
 men, with lights, lanterns, and torches, escorted me to the 
 great alum-caves. We went in a long procession in the dark 
 up the mountain side, and were conducted in solemn silence 
 to the wonderful vaults, which were dug in the time of 
 Napoleon's sister Eliza, who was the proprietress of the mines. 
 They were illuminated, and in the different galleries the miners 
 were seen, each holding a light, which, reflected on their sallow 
 Italian faces, produced an efi"ect which Gerard Douw would 
 have been in raptures to see. We descended through pas- 
 sages hewn out of the solid rock (in several of which were 
 scattered men and boys bearing lamps), from cavern to 
 
TUSCANY. 163 
 
 cavern, eacli more beautiful than the last, and when we 
 reached the lowest of all, an explosion was prepared, and a 
 huge fragment of the rock fell in honour of the visitor. 
 The miners then all came forward to escort us home. In 
 spite of the beauty of the scene, their spectre-like looks, 
 pale but dark, gave the whole affair the character of a dead- 
 march. It was, I confess, a relief when, returned to our 
 house, a living " viva ! viva !" fell upon my ears. 
 
 At the Duke's request, I went to see one of the pestiferous 
 lakes (Lago Rimigliano), and found nothing but a thermal 
 stream, pure and bright, while the miles over which it had 
 flowed for ages were ripe for cultivation. I told the Grand 
 Duke {which was true) that he was gradually rescuing the 
 Maremmas from the Inferno, transferring them to the 
 Purgatorio, and that they would soon form a part of 
 Paradise. 
 
 When I arrived at Grosetto, the Court were attending a 
 joust, in which the peasants were exhibiting feats of horse- 
 manship, by endeavouring to carry off on their lances a 
 ring held by a painted figure dressed like a Saracen, which 
 they passed at full gallop. The Grand Duke directed the 
 principal engineer of the great hydraulic works to accom- 
 pany me through the district, and I had a very instructive 
 though toilsome tour through the neighbourhood. I went 
 in one day nearly fifty miles on horseback, and fifteen in a 
 boat, through the pestiferous marshes, which they were 
 filling up. One of these, the Padule di Castiglione, is nearly 
 forty miles in circumference, and for many months in the 
 year condemned the whole population to disease. In 
 making my way through the woods, and reaching the 
 mines, which the Grand Duke made a point of my seeing, 
 my clothes were nearly torn from my back. Sometimes it 
 was necessary to dismount, while the horses leaped from 
 rock to rock, and for miles together the path was through 
 
164 ArTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 rough masses of schist and granite, over rapid streams, and 
 through bogs of deep mud. I was generally eight or nine 
 hours a day on horseback, and had the Director of the Mines 
 as my companion, together with some Tuscan guards. After 
 visiting the boiling borax-lagoons, the fancied entrance of 
 hell, I went to Monte Cattini, where the sovereign took me 
 with him into the copper-mines, into which we descended, 
 and after breakfast he departed, and I proceeded to Volterra. 
 This tour was to me a memorable one, for I caught the 
 marsh fever, which nearly cost me my life. 
 
 The Grand Duke afterwards became a servile tool in the 
 hands of the Vienna Court, and his son even joined the 
 Austrian armies in their campaign against the Italians, 
 which made all reconciliation impossible, the Italian feeling 
 being so strong on the subject that a friend of mine, Count 
 Serristori, who, out of personal respect and affection for the 
 prince, endeavoured to bring about kindlier sentiments, 
 quite lost the confidence of the patriotic party, and his later 
 days were embittered by the thought of his failure. It 
 was well for the welfare of United Italy that Leopold was 
 ill-counselled on this occasion, for his existence as an inde- 
 pendent sovereign, and that of Tuscany as a separate State, 
 would have been a serious complication and embarrassment 
 to Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy. Wonderfully have 
 events assisted the progress of Italian emancipation, and 
 the establishment of good constitutional government. What- 
 ever has been done in hostility to freedom has but served 
 freedom's cause, and all things have worked together for 
 good. Austria has paid the price of her obstinacy, and 
 Italy has reaped the benefit of her patriotism and foresight. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 In December 1836, I was presented to Pope Gregory 
 XVI., in company with Mr. J. C. Herries, and a Colonel 
 
ROME, 165 
 
 . We went through seven ante-rooms before we 
 
 reached His Holiness, the Swiss guards and soldiers pre- 
 senting arms to us as we passed. In the last room but one 
 — where were friars with long beards — we were received by 
 the Maggiordomo, who was, I believe, the Archbishop of 
 Philippi, and a direct descendant of one of the ancient 
 Roman Consuls. At last the door of the room opened in 
 which was the throne, and at the end of it stood the 
 Holy Father, dressed simply in white, with a white cap, 
 and a large ring on the middle finger of his right hand. 
 He had a benignant, but not an intellectual look. He 
 beckoned to us, and the Hanoverian Minister (English there 
 was none, and Canning was wont to joke about the perils of 
 a proemunire hanging over the head of any minister who 
 might approach the Pope) presented us. The Pope asked 
 which was the " famoso letterato " of whom he had heard, 
 and then said some flatterino' thino;s of me. The Hano- 
 verian minister said I was an Irish member, which I was 
 obliged to correct. The Pope said to Herries that he was 
 obliged for all the kind things the Eno;lish Government had 
 done " per i miei figli." (I fancy he knew little of the part 
 Herries took in the Catholic question). He said that it had 
 never occurred to him before to have three Englishmen pre- 
 sented, with all of whom he could talk Italian. We then 
 got a little on Italian literature, and he said that one of 
 Dante's verses was addressed to a room in a convent in 
 which he had been a monk. He asked me how I had learned 
 Italian so well, when the minister said that I was a dis- 
 tinguished linguist. "Then," said the Pope, "I suppose 
 you have seen Mezzofanti ?" I answered no, but that I 
 meant to do so. " He is our great philologue," he added. 
 I told him the object of my mission, when he remarked 
 that England must not raise her commercial prosperity on 
 the ruin of other nations, and that she should not absorl) 
 
166 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the trade of the whole world. I answered that she could 
 only trade as much with others as others would trade with 
 her, and that trade was but the interchange of common 
 interests, all nations having the same interest when rightly 
 understood. He said that trade was a circle, in which there 
 was a great centre. 
 
 He was, I heard, a good theolomcal scholar, but knew 
 little of positive science or political economy. His manners 
 were mild and gracious, and he held the minister's hand all 
 the time he was speaking to us, which may have been 
 twenty minutes. We were told it was not usual for Pro- 
 testants to kiss his hand, so we did not. I think, however, 
 that he meant that it should be kissed, but, as I followed 
 Mr Herries, I could not of course do more than was done 
 by a Eight Honourable and ex-minister. 
 
 The parade of introduction was very curious — the mixture 
 of Church and State — the ancient costumes — ^the long road 
 to the Vatican about and above St Peter's — the simple dress 
 of the Holy Father, surrounded (but not in his hall of 
 audience, for there he was quite alone) by scarlet-stockinged 
 cardinals and purple-stockinged archbishops and bishops — 
 the various dresses of monks and friars — the military and 
 official state — the pomp and circumstance — all was curious 
 — and the being himself, the abstraction, was more curious 
 still. I had, I confess, an odd feeling in the Pope's presence. 
 It was the unveiling of the prophet. 
 
 He maintained to the last the system of despotic misrule, 
 which was then in the ascendant in most of the Catholic 
 courts of Europe, and which was superseded by the elevation 
 of Pius IX. to the Papal throne, of him who declared that 
 it was his purpose to establish a free and constitutional 
 government, and to give liberal institutions to the Eoman 
 people. Eossi, who was afterwards assassinated {a foul deed, 
 the mystery of which has never been unravelled), is said to 
 
ROME. 167 
 
 have given the Holy Father wise and judicious counsels on 
 this occasion. It was supposed that a new era of hope and 
 happiness was dawning on the Catholic world, and the 
 name and policy of Pio Nono began to be almost adored 
 among the friends of freedom and progress ; but other 
 influences obtained the ascendancy, and the Pope became, 
 not the representative of a liberal policy, but one of its 
 most decided opponents. Beyond the field of ecclesiastical 
 authority, his influence upon the minds of intelligent Italians 
 has passed away. Even among the peasantry, the hold of the 
 clergy is much loosened, and they have learned to despise 
 the thunders of excommunication, which have threatened 
 the persons of Victor Emmanuel and his partisans. It was 
 reported that the priests had cursed the vineyards and 
 the lands of those who favoured the new order of things, 
 but as the character of the vintages improved after the 
 malediction, the people began to call the best wines by the 
 name of " Scomunicati," and they were applied for and 
 known by that designation in the alherghi and wine-shops 
 of Tuscany, and perhaps in other parts of Italy. 
 
 In 1861 I had a private audience with Pope Pius IX., 
 which lasted exactly half-an-hour. He was habited in a 
 simple garment of white flannel, and seated me opposite to 
 him at his table, on which lay a few ofiicial papers for 
 signature. His reception was very cordial, and on my 
 leaving, he shook me most warmly by the hand . He expatiated 
 on many matters — Chinese, of course, especially, — asked for 
 a variety of information, and himself introduced the subject 
 of Italy. I did not conceal my opinions as to the policy 
 which ought to be pursued, and I must say that he listened 
 with the greatest amenity and good humour Avhile I gave 
 reasons for not concurring in his conclusions. I thought it 
 would be a blessing for him to be disembarrassed of his 
 temporal sovereignty, with all its financial cares and com- 
 
168 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 plications, and I felt assured tliat the removal of the Freneth 
 troops would immediately lead to the loss of his temporal 
 dominion. He acknowledged that there was something 
 great in the idea of a united Italy of twenty millions, with 
 Rome for the capital, but said the thing was impracticable. 
 I did not think so, and saw no other safe or satisfactory 
 solution. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 The spy system was carried to perfection in Italy, and I 
 had often occasion to see it exhibited, as my name figured 
 in that hlack list of dangerous men, which the despotic 
 governments on the continent pass from one to another for 
 their mutual information and security, the presence of any 
 such person being a subject of perpetual alarm. When I 
 went from Turin to Genoa, on a commercial mission from 
 my government, I was particularly recommended by the 
 Sardinian Court to the Marquis Paulucci, the governor of 
 the latter city, and no doubt the recommendation to his 
 courtesies which I brought was preceded by an official one 
 recommending me to attentions of another sort. I soon 
 found that, wherever I went, I was dogged and pursiied by 
 spies, and on one occasion, when one had followed me up a 
 thoroughfare to the house of a friend I was visiting, I 
 stopped the fellow, and threatened to break his head with 
 a trusty stick which I carried with me. He cried out 
 " Perdona, Signore !" and, on inquiring about his profession, 
 he told me what he was paid, who employed him, and that 
 he was especially charged by the police to look after me. 
 Upon which I went to Paulucci, and told him that, as I 
 was a public functionary of the British government, I 
 requested to be spared the civilities with which he honoured 
 me, both personal and political ; that I would most willingly 
 give him more correct information of all that I said or did 
 
ITALY. 169 
 
 in Genoa tlian he could obtain from the gentleman whom 
 he employed to follow my footsteps ; that I would furnish 
 him with a list of all the persons I visited in Genoa, and 
 moreover enlighten him as to the topics of our conversation, 
 and that if my government had, as he supposed, any secret 
 objects, I was the last person to whom the trust would be 
 confided, for my opinions as to Italian princes and Italian 
 politics were notorious to everybody. I added that, though 
 a sense of public duty restrained me from meddling in any 
 way with Italian affairs, my notions as to the state of Italy 
 would be somewhat strengthened by displays of the mode 
 of governing, such as those he had exhibited towards 
 myself. He said he acted according to his instructions, 
 but would in future refrain from what I thought an 
 improper persecution, and certainly, if the spies continued 
 to track me, their persons were changed. 
 
 That. I was in the black list of dangerous persons I had 
 special evidence at Leghorn. I was on my way to Naples 
 as a British commercial commissioner, and on applying to 
 the Neapolitan Consul to endorse my passport, he refused 
 to do so, saying I could not proceed to Naples. On my 
 request being strongly enforced, and an urgent representation 
 made of the responsibility he was incurring by denying his 
 signature to a British subject charged with a public mission 
 to his own Government, he produced a paper containing 
 a list of names of those who were prohibited from entering 
 the Neapolitan territories, among which mine undoubtedly 
 appeared. I transferred, of course, my indignation from 
 the Consul to his superiors, and soon received an aj)ology 
 from Naples, and a declaration that it was all a mistake on 
 the part of the Consul — that it was never intended to stop 
 me in my progress to Naples, &c. I afterwards found that, 
 knowing my appointment, the foreign Neapolitan minister 
 had sent to Paris, and to the other places through which I 
 
170 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was likely to pass, desiring that no impediment might be 
 put in my way. Leghorn was out of the ordinary line of 
 travel, and had been forgotten. The prohibitory list con- 
 tained many well-known names, with which I could only 
 deem it an honour to be associated. 
 
 My experience of the spy system as an instrument of 
 government is that it leads to the communication of ten 
 times more falsehoods than facts to those who employ it, 
 that it serves to mislead and embarrass infinitely more than 
 to instruct and to guide, that the very persons whom it 
 employs have a greater interest in deceiving than in in- 
 structing their masters, that the information they communi- 
 cate adds to the darkness and difficulty in which distrustful 
 and despotic governments habitually live, and that the 
 knowledge they obtain as to secret machinations, plots, and 
 confederacies is seldom furnished by the emissaries they 
 employ, but by treacherous persons of another class, who 
 are the occasional tests of authority. As regards the costly 
 machinery of political espionage, as it is organized in most 
 of the Continental monarchies, I believe it is utterly inope- 
 rative for any good purpose, and renders a beggarly return 
 for all its infamies and outlay. 
 
 An opportunity of better acquaintance with Garibaldi's 
 inner self has unveiled points of character little suspected 
 by the world. Everybody recognizes his patriotism, honours 
 his disinterestedness, marvels at his wonderful success, but 
 understands the influence he has acquired over his country- 
 men. If Cavour occupied a higher position in the estima- 
 tion of statesmen, Garibaldi has had a stronger hold upon 
 the affections of the Italian people, and it is as much to the 
 enthusiastic ardour of the one as to the cool statesmanship 
 of the other that Italy owes her redemption, and the occu- 
 pancy of a position of which her best loved sons had never 
 dared to dream. It may be remarked that even in the 
 
ITALY. 171 
 
 fsiint hopes breathed by her poets, there prevails a tone of 
 dejection and despondency as touching as it is eloquent. 
 The citizens were "schiavi, si, ma schiavi ognor frementi," 
 yet her destiny was proclaimed to be " per servir sempre, 
 vincatrice o vinta." Out of this degradation she has been 
 raised, and undoubtedly the honour is mainly due to the 
 sagacious minister and the brave soldier of whom I have 
 spoken. But in Garibaldi's heart of heart there is a deep 
 religious feeling, a constant recognition of a Providential 
 guidance, an earnest aspiration after ecclesiastical as well as 
 political reform, a strong conviction that the triumph of the 
 one will herald the advent of the other, and a longing for 
 the time when the arts of peace shall be more devotedly 
 cultivated than is now the science of war, and nations shall 
 repose in the security of peaceful commerce and progressive 
 civilization. 
 
 There is much of poetry in Garibaldi's mind, and the fol- 
 lowing lines are nearly a verbal translation of an address to 
 the scenery around him at Caprera when retired there from 
 the toils and turmods of iiis excited political existence. 
 
 " Upon tliy granite summits I inhale 
 The breath of liberty — far, far removed 
 From the corruptions of a palace court, 
 Caprera wild and lonely ! For my park 
 Thy bushwood, while, in thy imposing shades, 
 I find safe domicile — if unadorned. 
 Yet freed from servile vassalage. Thy few 
 Eustic inhabitants are rude indeed, 
 As are the craggy rocks that form thy crown, 
 But, like them, proud, like them, disdaining too 
 To bend the prostrate knee. The only sounds 
 Are of the storm-winds in the asylum deep, 
 Which neither slave nor tyrant sheltereth. 
 Eugged may be thy pathways, but no train 
 Of insolent courtiers there will cross my track, 
 Or turn me from my course, or with vile mud 
 Defile my uncoutamiuated brow. 
 
172 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTION?. 
 
 The Infinite I contemplate, removed 
 
 From fraud and falsehood, the stupendous works, 
 
 SjDread 'neath the broad horizon, I admire. 
 
 Grand, infinite, unlimited, immense, 
 
 Unveiled by the Eternal to the great 
 
 High priests of truth — to such as Kepler was, 
 
 Newton, and Galileo." 
 
 G. Garibaldi, lUh May 1861. 
 
 He has shown that, while ready and willing to act when 
 the fit occasion arrives, he can check his impatience, and 
 wisely bide his time in the interests of his fatherland. 
 Shakspeare has pertinently said " ripeness is all," and the 
 maxim is applicable to all the concerns of life, whether 
 public or private. It is, in truth, but an earlier form of 
 Bacon's great aphorism, " respice finem," a teaching which, 
 if it became the world's guide, would prevent the mischiefs 
 which Madame de Stael pourtrayed when she said, "le 
 mieux est le grand ennemi du bien." 
 
 It is not difficult to trace the causes of the decline of 
 Catholic influences through the whole of the Christian 
 world. Formerly, it was the noble ambition of ecclesiastics 
 to lead the van of civilization and progress. Not only were 
 the convents the distributors of bounty among the necessi- 
 tous, providing for wants in which the laity seemed to take 
 no interest, but the higher orders of the clergy were fre- 
 quently the protectors of the poor against oppression, 
 standing between the feudal lord and his serf with courage 
 and success. The monks especially often took the initiative 
 in agricultural improvements ; they repaired roads, threw 
 bridges over rivers, and in one of the titles of the Pope 
 himself — that of Pontifex, or the bridge-maker — His Holi- 
 ness was presented to the people as a public benefactor. 
 Most of the Books were written by the clergy, and most of 
 the manuscripts copied in the monasteries. At a later 
 period, Eome formed a glorious alliance with the arts, and 
 
ITALY. 173 
 
 made architecture, sculpture, and painting subservient to 
 her influences. But when an impulse was given by the 
 Eeformation to the new elements that were called into the 
 field of public improvement, the Papacy altogether failed in 
 turning them to any account. Navigation went forward 
 with its great discoveries ; commerce and colonization 
 changed the character of the eastern and western world ; 
 but the Church of Rome had little to do with these vic- 
 tories. She sent forth her missionaries, it is true, but they 
 had small power to direct or control the proceedings of 
 either the Spanish or the Portuguese conquerors. They 
 could not check the fierce and exterminating policy of the 
 former in the new world, and in the East they were princi- 
 pally occupied in the work of conversion, in which, no 
 doubt, they were aided by military influence. In periods 
 still more recent, when improvements in every species of 
 communication have made such astounding advances, no 
 helping hand has been stretched out, no sympathy exhibited 
 by the Papacy, which has looked with a cold eye upon the 
 progress of manufactures, and, as regards philosophical 
 discovery, would willingly have punished all whose superior 
 knowledge led to the abandonment of the Ptolemaic sys- 
 tem. Steam engines have revolutionized the application 
 of labour ; railways have facilitated communication through- 
 out the civilized world ; electric telegraphs have annihilated 
 distance ; and social improvements, too many and too 
 various to estimate, have added countless enjoyments to 
 man's existence, but with all these neither Pope, Bishops, 
 nor clergy have had ought to do. Who, then, can wonder 
 that Rome has ceased to be what Rome once was, the pole- 
 star and the guide of Christendom ? 
 
174 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 The vicissitudes of mortal existence are nowhere exhibited 
 in a more contrasted form than in the Ottoman Empire. 
 There, one man occupying a most exalted and confidential 
 post to-day may be degraded and decapitated to-morrow, 
 while another, upon whom the sunshine of imperial favour 
 falls, may be elevated with equal rapidity. The most 
 remarkable example of almost unchecked success is that 
 exhibited in the history of Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of 
 Egypt. I think that a great political error was committed 
 by the British government when they lent themselves to 
 the views of the Ottoman Porte, and determined to coerce 
 Mehemet Ali into subjection, instead of encouraging his 
 desire for independence. His plan was to gather all the 
 Arabic-speaking nations under Egyptian rule, and to estab- 
 lish the foundations of a great Arab empire ; and had we 
 been a party to this arrangement, there is no doubt that 
 we might have exercised at Cairo an influence far more 
 potent than we could ever expect to do at Constantinople, 
 which is the very focus of intrigue, where all the great 
 powers are constantly struggling for ascendancy, and where 
 our policy is often thwarted by the action of Russia, France, 
 or Austria. The geographical position of Egypt — standing 
 midway between England and her Indian possessions — the 
 great highway of a constantly increasing communication — 
 must have a political importance of the highest order. 
 When the French first invaded Algiers, they made to the 
 Pasha the most seductive offers to recognise his inde- 
 pendence of the Porte, if he would co-operate with them in 
 their intended African expedition. He communicated this 
 information to the Duke of Wellington, who recommended 
 him to repudiate the offer, stating that, if he did so, the 
 service rendered to English interests would not be forgotten. 
 
EGYPT. 175 
 
 Eeferring to this subject with some bitterness, he once told 
 me that he woiild at any time have despatched ten thousand 
 of his regular troops to assist in maintaining our authority 
 in British India, and though their services might not have 
 been of much value, the offer was evidence of the friendly 
 animus which inspired the Viceroy. 
 
 Mehemet Ali was born at Cavalla, in Eoumelia, in the 
 memorable year 1769, the year in which Wellington, 
 Napoleon, Humboldt, and many other celebrated persons 
 first saw the light, and was the son of a dealer in tobacco. 
 He may be said to have changed the face of Egypt by his 
 sagacious views, but he did not learn to read and write till 
 he was forty-six, and it was utterly impossible to create in 
 him any of those more refined and exalted tastes which dis- 
 tingmsh civilized nations. For example, when remonstrated 
 with on the destruction of some of the finest specimens of 
 Pharaoxiic antiquity, he asked what they were but old 
 stones, which might be usefully employed in building 
 edifices or making enclosures. Though he kept up his 
 reputation among fanatical Moosulmans by erecting mosques 
 and protecting religious endowments, he was eminently 
 tolerant, and laughed at an over-zealous Quaker, who put 
 a New Testament into his hand, and recommended him to 
 become a Christian. On another occasion, when a mis- 
 sionary had been preaching against the false prophet of 
 Mecca, and exposed himself to the indignation of the people, 
 Mehemet Ali interfered by representing the im|)rudent 
 zealot to be a lunatic, knowing that madmen are always 
 treated by Mahommedans with a certain degree of rever- 
 ence. 
 
 The Pasha received me in his palace at Shoubra, in the 
 month of November 1837. We were preceded by a 
 Janissary with his silver staflf, on horseback, and were 
 accompanied by a number of men, who turned aside the 
 
176 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 camels, overturned the donkeys, beat the children, collared 
 the men, and shoved away the women, it being as difficult 
 to tliread the streets of Cairo at sunset as it is to force a pass- 
 age through the Eoyal Exchange at mid-day. The Pasha's 
 secretary awaited us, and conducted us into the place of 
 audience, in the centre of which were three huge silver 
 candlesticks with lighted wax candles. In the corner stood 
 Mehemet Ali, with his white beard, soft and fair hands, 
 and fiery eye. He beckoned us to approach, and squatted 
 himself in the corner of the divdn, on a carpet of green and 
 gold. Next to Colonel Campbell, the Consul General, I had 
 the seat of honour, the interpreter standing before the Pasha. 
 Coffee was ordered in, and conversation began. He told us 
 of the bad education he had received, said that he had never 
 seen civilised nations, that he had been thrown among bar- 
 barians, of whom, when he came to Egypt, scarcely one could 
 read, but that he was endeavouring to instruct his people, 
 and had ten thousand in different schools. He added that 
 though he had often been at war, it was against his wish, 
 and necessary for his protection, and that he wished to live 
 ten years more in peace, in order to show what Egypt was 
 capable of becoming. He told us that, when the insurrec- 
 tion broke out in Syria, the Russian and French consuls 
 told him that he should study histori/ in order to learn how 
 to govern. "My son wrote to me," he said, "for orders. 
 I thought the best thing was to go myself, so T went, and 
 settled everything in a week. That was practical govern- 
 ment — better than I would have learned from history." 
 The fact is that he went to Jaffa, seized and hanged the 
 leaders of the revolt, and returned to Egypt in a month 
 from the day he had left it. Colonel Campbell, who went 
 with him, told me that he never saw such an example of 
 energy. 
 
 Nobody could fail to be struck with his suavity of 
 
EGYPT. 177 
 
 manners, Lis natural ease, his good liumour, liis smile, and 
 liis penetrating eye. Who, in that fine old man, stroking 
 his long beard, white as snow, and wiping his lips with a 
 fair and fine pocket-handkerchief, could imagine that he saw 
 the slaughterer of the thousand Mamelukes, his quests and 
 dependents, the conqueror of the Wahabees of the holy 
 cities, the man who had bearded the Sultan, and subjugated 
 the half of Arabia, the hero of Syria and Candia ? There 
 he sat in the corner of the divdn, his words bearing life and 
 death. It was altogether a most interesting scene. 
 
 I had heard in Alexandria that the Pasha's troops had 
 been carrying on the slave trade to a frightful extent, but I 
 did not like to introduce the matter until I had got together 
 better evidence. When I had obtained suiBcient facts from 
 eye witnesses, I determined to try to induce Colonel 
 Campbell to go with me at once to the Pasha, and at all 
 risks to break the matter to him. I had met a gentleman 
 who, in Senaar, saw a soldier fondling a young slave on his 
 knees, who had been caught in a slave bunt (as they called 
 their chase of human beings, in which hundreds of slaves 
 were taken by the soldiery), and when the General enquired 
 why he was busied with the child, he found it was his 
 brother. "What is the value of the boy?" inquired the 
 General. " Five dollars," they answered. " Let him take 
 him for this, and deduct it from his pay." Districts had 
 been depopulated, the poor inhabitants being smoked and 
 burnt out of caves to which they had retreated ; and I saw 
 myself in the slave-markets the emaciated children who had 
 been marched over the burning sands for hundreds of miles, 
 a large proportion of them perishing on the journey. But 
 to talk of such a subject to Mehemet Ali in Egypt, the 
 country of slavery even from the Bible days, to a Mahom- 
 medan tyrant whose religion authorised the crime ! Colonel 
 Campbell, without waiting for instructions from home, fell 
 
 M 
 
178 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 into my views, acted nobly, and before the first sun-set 
 after we had got the facts, we mounted our horses, and went 
 to the Pasha. The fate of thousands, of tens of thousands, 
 hung upon our success. Might not, too, my own mission 
 be thwarted, and was it not a foolish risk to run ? Would 
 he tolerate a lecture from us, shocking all his prejudices, 
 and bearding his power ? Might we not fail from mis- 
 management, from over-excitement, or from respect for a 
 sovereign — for this Mehemet Ali, the murderer of the 
 Mamelukes, the terrible of the terrible ? How I watched 
 his countenance as we entered ! He was smoking a pipe 
 resplendent with hundreds of diamonds, a snuff-box even 
 more splendid being at his side. The room was cleared, the 
 interpreter stood before him, and we seated ourselves close 
 to him on the divdn. Colonel Campbell opened the matter. 
 The Pasha's eye of fire glanced lightning, and he stroked his 
 long white beard with his beautiful small hand, while the 
 words, " slave-lumt " — "your Generals," fell on his ear. I 
 cannot describe what passed, but we carried our point 
 triumphantly, and the old man acted superbly. The first 
 shock over, we talked to him of the opprobrium from which 
 we sought to relieve him, and of the honour and reputation 
 he would win, if he would terminate the horrors that were 
 being committed. He asked for delay, said he would like 
 to enquire, and offered to pay the expenses of any English- 
 man going up to Senaar, accompanied by an agent of his 
 own to verify the real state of things ; but we urged the 
 danger of delay, and succeeded in obtaining from him an 
 order to the Governor of Senaar to put an immediate stop 
 to the slave-hunts, and to the payment of his troops in 
 slaves. We obtained also his promise that he would, as 
 soon as he could, and by degrees, put an end to the slave- 
 trade altogether in his dominions. The order to the 
 Governor of Senaar concluded thus, "Know thou tliat I 
 
EGYPT. 179 
 
 will make no profits from a trade which does me no honour, 
 and even though its abolition should require some sacrifices, 
 I am willing to make them." 
 
 Mehemet Ali had six sons, of whom five were by his 
 favourite wife. They always approached him with the 
 wonted obeisance paid to princely rank, but I was present 
 on one occasion when a little boy, the child of his old age, 
 who bore his name, instead of kneeling reverently before 
 him, scampered away, which only elicited a shrug of the 
 shoulder and a smile from the old Pasha, to whom I said, 
 " he is your pet, I observe," a remark which he received 
 with considerable complacency. 
 
 When the tribute to be paid by Egypt to the Porte was 
 under consideration at Constantinople, and the line of suc- 
 cession was to be settled, there was some doiibt whether 
 European law, by which the eldest son succeeds the father, 
 or, on failure of direct descent, the next of kin, was to re- 
 gulate the futurity of Egypt, or whether the Mahommedan 
 law, by which the eldest living member of the family con- 
 tinues the line, should be adopted. The latter course was 
 eventually followed, and on the death of Ibrahim Pasha, 
 Mehemet All's eldest son. Abbas Pasha, the next son, was 
 called to the throne to the exclusion of Ibrahim Pasha's child- 
 ren. Doubts have been expressed whether Ibrahim Pasha was 
 the legitimate or only an adopted son of his father, but on 
 my once asking Mehemet Ali what was the truth, he 
 answered that he was undoubtedly the first-born of his wife, 
 who was also the mother of several of his brothers. Abbas 
 Pasha, who was for a short time Viceroy, was a great bigot, 
 resembling his father in no respect, while in Ibrahim Pasha 
 was to be seen the coarse but very obvious likeness to his 
 more illustrious sire. Said, the third Viceroy, was somewhat 
 rigidly brought up, and, being inclined to corpulency, was 
 subjected to severe exercises by command of his father, who 
 
180 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 directed that from time to time he should be weighed, and re- 
 ports be made of the discipline. It failed, however, and Said 
 Pasha became a very unwieldy personage. He had a 
 Frenchman for one of his teachers, and spoke the French 
 language well. His only son frequently visited England, 
 where he often saw the Queen, and it was said that on one 
 occasion, when she offered to kiss him, he gracelessly said 
 that he preferred giving a kiss to the Princess Royal. He 
 had an English nurse from his childhood, and afterwards an 
 English tutor was appointed to direct his studies. 
 
 Mehemet Ali, in his rude way, did wonders for Egypt, 
 caused vast tracts of land to be redeemed from the desert, 
 introduced the fine sea-island cotton, which has become so 
 important an export from Alexandria, made canals, though 
 at a fearful sacrifice of human life, introduced into the army 
 the military organization of Europe, so that he overthrew 
 again and again the forces of the Sultan in Syria and Asia 
 Minor, put his ships of war into good condition, and ap- 
 pointed French officers to the supreme commands, both in 
 the army and the navy. He had applied to our govern- 
 ment to obtain the services of British officers, but met with 
 a refusal. The French government, .however, willingly 
 granted his request, and in consequence French interests in 
 Egypt have not unfrequently circumvented British policy. 
 He saw the importance of facilitating communication across 
 the desert, which he cleared from predatory Bedouin Arabs, 
 so that, even before the laying down of tlie railway, it was 
 as safe to travel from Cairo to Suez as from London to 
 Bristol. No man was ever more fitted to deal with the m- 
 habitants of the wilderness than he. He subjugated the 
 Wahabees when they had obtained possession of the holy 
 cities, and when caravans were robbed, he extorted from the 
 Bedouins many times the value of the plunder they had ap- 
 propriated. Under his rule the Egyptian revenues increased 
 
EGYPT. 181 
 
 enormously, the commerce of the country was greatly aug- 
 mented, and the flags of all nations were seen to crowd to 
 the port of Alexandria. He had his territory explored 
 in different quarters in the hope of finding coal, and on one 
 occasion, for the purposes of visiting his dominions, went 
 up the White Nile, far beyond its confluence with the Blue 
 Nile at Khartoum. 
 
 His convex-sation was lively and original. He was fond 
 of talking of his plans for the improvement of Egypt, and 
 said to me, " I have hitherto only scratched the earth with 
 a pin, or tilled it with a hoe, but I mean to go over it with 
 a plough." He took great interest in steam navigation, and 
 when I asked him how Moosulman pilgrims going to the 
 holy cities could venture to employ the steam vessels of the 
 infidels, he answered, " there is not a word said against 
 steamers in the Koran. You Englishmen have done many 
 great things, but nothing so great as the application of steam 
 to shipping." I observed that the first successful experi- 
 menter was Fulton, who was an American, not an English- 
 man, on which the Pasha retorted, — " He never would have 
 done what he did if he had not had Englishmen for his an- 
 cestors.'' When Mrs Dawson Damer was introduced to him, 
 she asked him for a lock of his hair as a memento. He re- 
 fused the favour, probably thinking it would be an improper 
 and un-Islamite concession to a Christian woman, but said, 
 " No ; I can't give you a hair now ; but when I am dead 
 my whole head shall be at your service." 
 
 During my residence at Cairo, corn got up to a famine 
 price, and there was much misery among the people. 
 Mehemet Ali, with a short-sighted but not unnatural policy, 
 published decrees ordering that wheat should not be sold in the 
 markets above a certain sum, a politico-economical mistake, 
 for which he might have found a justification in the 
 example of the first Napoleon, and in the legislation of 
 
182 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 more tlian one European country. He, at the same time, 
 prohibited the export of corn from Egypt, the result being 
 what greater sagacity might have foreseen, namely, that 
 wheat was sold clandestinely at a much higher rate than it 
 would have obtained under the ordinary action of supply 
 and demand, inasmuch as the seller made an extra profit to 
 protect himself from the penalties of having violated the 
 law. Very small quantities were brought to the market, 
 and the quality of that openly sold was of the worst 
 kind. Thus the evils were greatly augmented, the country 
 was menaced with absolute famine, and public discontent 
 began to show itself, for it is well known that there is no 
 rabellion like that of the belly. Knowing that I had con- 
 stant access to and frequent interviews with the Viceroy, 
 a deputation came to me, imploring me to represent the 
 condition of the people to his Highness, which I willingly 
 consented to do. Fortified by incontestible facts, and what 
 I deemed irresistible arguments, I entered upon the dis- 
 cussion wdth the wily old man, who at first would not hear 
 of any opposition to his ordinances, or admit that the value 
 of a commodity was beyond his control to regulate. I 
 launched all the reasoning at my disposal against his views, 
 which he valiantly defended, and, though he made no con- 
 cessions, I thought my arguments could not but produce 
 some efi'ect on his sagacious mind. The next day, the colloquy 
 was resumed. He had expected that the high price of 
 wheat would entice adventurers to bring it to the Egyptian 
 market, but I showed him that, while the prohibition to 
 export continued, prudent merchants would not incur the risk 
 which the lowering of prices might entail. I recommended 
 the abrogation of all restrictions, and the proclamation of 
 free trade, both for the export and import of corn. He 
 adopted this counsel, the mischief gradually diminished, 
 prices fell to their natural level, and the disquietude and 
 
EGYPT. 183 
 
 murmuring of the people as naturally ceased. This was 
 some years before our legislators had the wisdom to pursue 
 a similar course. 
 
 While I was at Damascus, the Greek Bishop brought to 
 me some of the families of merchants to whom Mehemet 
 Ali had lent large sums of money, which they had lost by 
 imprudent speculations. As they were unable to discharge 
 their obligations, the Pasha ordered them to be seized, and 
 condemned to the punishment of the galleys. They implored 
 me to lay before him a statement of the misery inflicted on 
 their innocent families, and to entreat him to revoke the 
 decree which had subjected the merchants to so severe a 
 penalty. I doubted whether I could venture upon so 
 delicate a topic, and only promised to do so should I find a 
 convenient opportunity, but T determined if possible to find 
 such opportunity, and asked for an interview with the 
 Viceroy. I am not aware how he had learned that I had 
 undertaken the mission of imploring his clemency, but soon 
 after I entered the hall, where he was seated in a corner of 
 the divdn, he rose, and placing his scimitar, as he was wont 
 to do, against his back, and supporting it with his two 
 hands, he said, " I know what you are come about. It is to 
 speak to me on behalf of those rascally merchants, but you 
 will speak in vain, and they must pay the price of their 
 knavery." He did not, however, enforce silence upon me, 
 and I ventured to say that he would be touched could he 
 but witness the misery into which the wives, children, rela- 
 tions, and friends of the peccant traders were plunged. I 
 said it was a noble privilege to possess power, but that tlie 
 exercise of the attributes of mercy and forgiveness was the 
 noblest of all. "But the women," said he, " about whom 
 you have been talking to me, have been recipients of the 
 spoils, and have received from their husbands presents of 
 diamonds and other jewellery, paid for from the funds out 
 
184 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 of which I have been cheated." Ignorant as I was of the 
 circumstances of the case, I could say nothing in answer to 
 tliis statement, and I left the Pasha under tlie impression 
 that he would be inexorable. The next day, however, T 
 received a message from him that he would not enforce the 
 penalties against the merchants, and that their sole punish- 
 ment would be exile from Egypt. 
 
 The name of Boghos Bey, his Armenian Prime Minister, 
 is closely associated with the history of Mehemet Ali, his 
 position having frequently been compared with that of 
 Joseph at at the Court of Pharaoh. The viceroy gave way 
 occasionally to violent outbreaks of passion, and once, being 
 exasperated against his minister, ordered him to be thrown 
 into the Nile. An intimate friend, a Hungarian of the name 
 of Walmas, who had received many favours from the Bey, 
 determined to screen him from the effects of the viceroy's 
 resentment, believing that the tempest of wrath was only 
 temporary, and that the time would come in which Mehemet 
 Ali would regret the sacrifice of so faithful a servant as Bo- 
 ghos had always been. He therefore concealed him, and it 
 was not long before the viceroy gave evidence of the value 
 he attached to his services, expressing annoyance that there 
 were always people to be found at court to give effect to the 
 hasty mandates of the sovereign. When matters went 
 wronsf, he would remark that had Boghos been alive, this 
 would not have happened. " Oh, that I had the benefit of 
 his judicious counsels ! " At last Walmas informed the 
 Pasha that his orders had not been carried out, and that 
 Boghos was still alive. The Pasha sent for him immediately, 
 an interview and reconciliation followed, the minister was 
 restored to his former high position, which he continued to 
 fill till the day of his death, and was the individual through 
 whom the representatives of foreign Powers carried on the 
 whole of their neo'otiations. 
 
EGYPT. 185 
 
 Meliemet Ali had heard that I had been engaged in en- 
 quiries as to the system of public accountancy. He told me 
 that he was much dissatisfied with the manner in which this 
 department of the government was conducted, and that he 
 could never comprehend what was meant by the word 
 balance, which he found in all the accounts laid before him. 
 I told him that in that word all perplexities were con- 
 centrated, and that the most judicious course he could adopt 
 would be to allow no balances to remain in the hands of the 
 receivers of his revenue, but to require their immediate 
 payment into the public treasury, employing a separate set 
 of officials for all purposes of expenditure. He asked me 
 whether I would look into the accounts, which I expressed 
 my willingness to do, and he directed Abbas Pasha, who 
 afterwards succeeded him as viceroy, to hold a divdn, to 
 which the finance minister and the principal receivers of the 
 public monies were to be summoned. It was a curious 
 scene. The state account-books were brought on camels' 
 backs, and I was amused at seeing Abbas throw a golden 
 snulf-box at the Coptic Finance Minister. The idea of 
 examining the huge volumes which were brought in was 
 absolutely ridiculous; the conference ended in nothing, and 
 I could only repeat that I saw no solution of the difficulty 
 but in the adoption of the plan I had suggested, namely, 
 that all public money should be paid without deduction or 
 delay into the exchequer. It may be remarked in passing 
 tliat this system has only of late years been adopted in 
 Great Britain, and that formerly only the net revenues were 
 handed into our treasury, nearly seven millions sterling 
 being detained by the departments of receipt and expendi- 
 ture, and disposed of without the authority of Parliament. 
 
 I paid an interesting visit to the Shereef of Mekka, one 
 of the most sacred persons among the Moosulmans, and a 
 dnect descendant of the Prophet. Mehemet Ah, being 
 
186 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 afraid that he would insurrectionize Arabia against him, 
 in^dted him on board a vessel of his in the Eed Sea to a 
 grand festival, and, as soon as he had him on board, ordered 
 him to be brought to Egypt, where he was kept in a sort of 
 honourable durance, being much distinguished, and of course 
 closely watched. He was something like Pius VII. in 
 Buonaparte's custody. He had heard of Buonaparte, wanted 
 to know how he was overthrown, asked particulars of our 
 Sovereign, and was astonished to hear we had a Queen who 
 dined in public unveiled, as well as her mother and other 
 ladies. He enquired what was the cause of the rise and 
 fall of the sea, and why it was that the moisture of the eye 
 was salt, of the mouth sweet, and of the ears bitter ? I re- 
 marked, " You are a Mahommedan, and those who surround 
 you (there were 30 or 40 Moosulmans seated on the Divdn, 
 and listening in a large circle about us), and we are Chris- 
 tians, but we can aarree in this, that though we cannot 
 understand many things, we all understand that God is wise 
 and good, and that all He does is wise and good." His 
 eyes brightened with fire, and he exclaimed with enthusiasm, 
 " It is so — it is so," and an audible murmur, an universal 
 response, went round the room "tayib — tayib," meaning, "it 
 is good — it is right." 
 
 The state of society m Egypt is such that there is no law 
 but the law of violence, and every master beats his servants. 
 The Minister of Public Instruction gave two thousand three 
 hundred blows on the feet to one of his dependents, who 
 died the next day, but he paid £45 to the family, and the 
 affair M^as hushed up. I saw a young man take off his sash 
 in the street, throw it round the neck of an old man, and 
 nearly strangle him in the presence of the lookers-on. The 
 Dufturdar, in order to punish a smith who had shoed his 
 horse badly, ordered the shoe to be taken oflf and nailed to 
 the feet of the smith, which was done. 
 
EGYPT. 187 
 
 We explored the Nile beyond the first cataract into 
 Nubia, — the Nile venerated by the modern Egyptians as it 
 was by their more civilized predecessors. The Copts say, 
 " what champagne is among wines, the Nile is among waters. 
 No one ever drank of it without longino- to taste it again." 
 In my travels, having to visit a spot where I could not lead 
 my horse, I left it in charge of an Arab woman, and on my 
 giving her a few small coins for her trouble, she said, " May 
 Allah bless thee, as he blessed the sources of the Nile." On 
 my leaving Cairo for the South, the Pasha gave me one 
 of his beautifully adorned boats, with a great number of 
 rowers ; a Bey, who had been educated in France, for a 
 companion ; a French cook, with a large supply of provisions 
 and wine ; and a Teskereh, commanding all his vassals to 
 supply whatever I might rec[uire. I of course paid, though 
 it was not expected, for all I demanded, but Prince Ptickler 
 Muskau, who had just preceded me, was not so considerate, 
 and T heard that he had even exacted wax candles, and 
 would not give a hakhshish in return. In visiting the pyra- 
 mids, I witnessed a curious example of oriental notions of 
 justice. In one of the dark chambers I was robbed of the 
 purse which I carried concealed in my sash. We had been 
 followed by a crowd of Arab boys, and on my telling Selim 
 Bey of the robbery, he offered to hang them all on the spot, 
 so as to make certain of having punished the thief. 
 
 At Assouan I had for my guide an intelligent native, who 
 escorted me about that wild and wondrous scenery which 
 forms such a contrast to the pure marble temple of Philse, 
 sacred to Isis and Osiris. From him I learned marvellous 
 stories of Jins and other fabulous creatures, some of which 
 I turned to account in "Minor Morals," which George 
 Cruikshank illustrated by characteristic etchings. We 
 stopped at the difierent spots of interest, which we visited 
 by day, always returning to our boats at night, — " our boats," 
 
188 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I say, for we had one belonging to Mr E. H. Galloway of 
 Alexandria, and another to Mr Baillie Cochrane, so that our 
 voyage was eminently social. We found that in many 
 cases interesting monuments had been recklessly destroyed, 
 a very needless devastation, for chance and change are but 
 too busy, and need not the co-operation of thoughtless man. 
 A beautiful sphynx was dug up while I was in Egypt, and 
 bore the name of that Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. I 
 presented it to the British Museum, but through careless- 
 ness it was disintegrated and destroyed in the fire which 
 took place in the Plymouth dockyard, and the monument 
 which had been spared for thousands of years was lost in 
 consequence of the neglect of its keepers, who had forgotten 
 to report its arrival, and to forward it to the Museum 
 authorities. 
 
 I witnessed at Cairo a scene which could not but remind 
 me of that which preceded the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 
 A man was brought before the tribunal, beino; accused of 
 burglary. There was an immense clamour in the court, and 
 loud cries of " let him be hanged — let him be hanged," and 
 the judge instantly condemned him, and ordered him to be 
 conveyed to the gates of the city, to be suspended there. 
 The judge enquired of me how such a criminal would be 
 dealt with in England, to which I answered that he would 
 probably be transported to a distant colony. " And at 
 what cost ? " asked he. I mentioned some amount that ap- 
 peared monstrous to his imagination. " And what, in your 
 country, is the cost of a rope ?" "A few paras (pence)," I 
 answered. "Then, I think," said he, "you must be great 
 fools." 
 
 SYRIA. 
 
 The Pasha gave us one of his vessels, the " Timsah" 
 (Crocodile), to convey us to Scanderoon (Alexandretta), and 
 
SYRIA. 189 
 
 on our voyage we had strange evidence of the credulity of 
 the Mahommedans. They enquired whether our European 
 doctor had any marrow taken from dead men's bones, which, 
 it was reported, he used for ointment, as if so, being of evil 
 augury, it must be thrown into the sea. They pointed out 
 a place on the hills which, they said, Adam had visited, 
 leaving footmarks traceable by white spots. So careless 
 were they, that we found one of them seated on a barrel of 
 gunpowder smoking his pipe, though, from inattention in 
 packing, grains of the explosive material might have been 
 lying about. We, however, reached Scanderoon in safety 
 on 8th April 1838, but had such reports of the extreme un- 
 healthiness of the place, that we hurried on to Dana, which 
 geographical descriptions represent as an important town, 
 but we saw only miserable ruins. We ascended with some 
 danger and difficulty up rotten stairs to the room where we 
 were appointed to sleep, which was peopled by rats and 
 smaller vermin. The Orontes is a beautiful river. Mount 
 Taurus being visible in the distance, and we made our way 
 to Antioch, one of the least changed, least visited, but at the 
 same time one of the most interesting cities of Northern 
 Syria. There it was that the disciples were first called 
 Clhristians, and the places where they worshipped among the 
 rocks are still pointed out to visitors. Wherever we went, 
 crowds of people came, having heard that we were accom- 
 panied by a great foreign physician — they " came to be 
 healed," and seemed to think that our friend possessed 
 miraculous powers. 
 
 Aleppo interested us much, though the streets were in 
 ruins, having been overthrown by an earthquake. It had 
 a considerable trade, and some British merchants were 
 established there, who received us with cordial hospitality. 
 There M^ere a good many Jews, whose outward appearance 
 gave no indication of the wealth they possessed, nor of the 
 
190 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 luxuries we found in their dwellings. They had large 
 quantities of precious stones for easy transport in case of 
 danger, but with which their wives and daughters adorned 
 themselves when they received visits from strangers. There 
 was not the same difficulty of access to the Hebrew families 
 as to those of the Mahommedans. Attended by domestics, 
 the young ladies brought coffee to the guests, and furnished 
 them with smoking materials, giving them the choice of the 
 chibook or the narghileh, the latter being preferred by the 
 women. The Jews live in constant fear of persecution from 
 the Moosulmans, and, sad to say, the native Christians give 
 them little protection or sympathy. I had a servant, named 
 Joseph, who one day said to me, " Was not your prophet a 
 Jew ? " I answered, " Undoubtedly he was." " Then," said 
 he, "What must his brethren think of him, if he taught you 
 to persecute us, and what must we think of yon, if he did 
 not so teach you ? " 
 
 On our way to the South we visited Horns and Hamah 
 - — the Hameth of the Scriptures. Many of the cities have 
 retained their ancient names. We had been furnished with 
 excellent horses by the Governor of Antioch, but we found 
 it very difficult to provide for them a sufficiency of food, 
 and were obliged to return them to the kind donor in a very 
 emaciated state. Food for ourselves we could purchase, 
 and shared now and then our bread with our four-footed 
 companions, but that was insufficient for their support, and 
 as the resting-places where stabling or shelter was to be 
 found were frequently distant fi'om one another, we had 
 often to lament the sad state of our cavalcade. Things 
 became worse as we approached the Hauran, where Ibrahim 
 Pasha had gone to suppress an insurrection, but the Ansari 
 tribe had been ravaging the country, and we found it unsafe 
 to travel without a military escort, whose wild freaks and 
 oriental apparel added not a little to the picturesqueness of 
 
SYRIA. 191 
 
 our train. We had a Syrian dragoman, an Armenian ser- 
 vant, a Greek cook, a wild Bedouin Arab, a Constantino- 
 politan Turk, an Aleppine muleteer, and our scarlet - 
 cloaked escort. I had the Sultan's firman, as well as 
 Mehemet All's, and that of the Governor of Aleppo, besides 
 being furnished with letters to all the principal people, so 
 we obtained every attention, and were considered very 
 great personages. 
 
 Our stopping-place, after leaving Aleppo, was Khan 
 Sh^khun^ We met on our way caravans of camels, an 
 immense body of Armenians returning from Jerusalem, 
 hundreds of pilgrims — many of them old, feeble, lame, and 
 wretched — men, women, and children, wlio had been 
 travelling fifteen hundred or two thousand miles on foot to 
 perform their supposed religious obligation, and numbers 
 of Christian Persians, of whose existence 1 was not aware. 
 
 The Sheikh received us hospitably, and while with him, 
 a dervish introduced himself into the divdn, professing to 
 be able to deprive any one of speech, and he certainly prac- 
 tised successfully on one of our attendants, a mascara, or 
 story-teller, who had been given to us as a companion by 
 the Aleppo Governor. When he was forced into the pre- 
 sence of the magician, who was a man clad in black flowing 
 garments, and wearino; a s;reen turban as a descendant of 
 the prophet, with a stern black eye, he trembled violently. 
 The dervish said loudly, "I strike you dumb." The man 
 stuttered in absolute agony, but was unable to utter a 
 word, and his suffering was so great that I implored the 
 necromancer to release him. Giving him a cup of cofi'ee, 
 he said " Speak ! " upon which the poor mascara fled, con- 
 cealing himself in a neighbouring mountain, and did not 
 join our party till we were far from Khan Shekhunt^ on 
 the following day. 
 
 We had heard much of the extreme beauty of the Sheikh's 
 
192 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 young wife, and I had a natural curiosity to get a glance 
 at the inaccessible lady. Fortune seemed to favour my 
 wishes, for the Sheikh informed me, with expressions of 
 great grief, that his infant child — the child of his old age 
 and of his lovely spouse — was dangerously ill, and as I had 
 the credit of being, and indeed bore the name of " El 
 Hakeem el Kebeer " (the great Doctor, for they were not 
 learned enough to distinguish between a Doctor of Laws and 
 a Doctor of Medicine), I was supposed to be able to effect 
 marvellous cures. He entreated me to cure his little boy, 
 which I expressed my willingness to attempt, but said I 
 must see the mother, and talk with her of the child's ail- 
 ments. He said that was impossible, as an unbeliever 
 could not be introduced into the harem of one of the faith- 
 ful, but the child would be brought to me. I said that I could 
 not prescribe for the child without seeing the mother, but 
 he repeated, " That cannot be." I retorted " Your child 
 will die." He left the room the picture of despair, but in 
 the evening came again, saying that I was very unkind, 
 but that he would do anything to save the boy's life, and 
 that he would show me the way to the harem. He led me 
 to a room where I saw a poor, emaciated child on a rug, 
 his body covered with various charms, such as sentences 
 from the Koran, and bending over him was a veiled woman. 
 My curiosity was, of course, on the stretch, and I addressed 
 the mother with some enquiries as to the symptoms. She 
 answered, but I said I could but imperfectly understand 
 her, as she spoke Arabic, and I asked her to remove her 
 veil. She resisted, when I observed that European phy- 
 sicians studied the diseases of children in the countenances 
 of the mothers. I became peremptory, and at last she 
 slowly raised the veil, when, instead of the angelic beauty, 
 I was confronted with the face of a hideous hag, who said 
 to me, " I am the old wife." The Sheikh laughed, as in- 
 
SYRIA. 193 
 
 deed he had a right to do, and I could not but join in the 
 laugh, for the trick had admirably succeeded. 
 
 The Orontes runs through the town of Hamah, where 
 there is a water-wdieel of gigantic size. Vie were amused 
 by the tale-telling and song-singing of our professed buffoon, 
 and on his dismissal I gave him a piece of gold, which he 
 flung indignantly away. The Moofti at Hamah, a jolly 
 fellow, asked whether we had brought any "moya inglis" 
 (brandy) with us, and whether I could get him a young and 
 pretty handmaid for a sum representing about £300. I 
 replied that our fair maidens were beyond all price, though 
 what he offered was about the market value of a handsome 
 Circassian. There was a good deal of business in the 
 bazaar, and troops of all sorts were moving about, as Ibra- 
 him Pasha was then making war in the Hauran. His 
 father, Mehemet Ali, who was very proud of his eldest son, 
 especially after his success in conquering Mekka and 
 Medina, having heard of his being ill, sent Clot Bey, his 
 principal physician, to minister to him, but the Bey was 
 met by a messenger sent to say that he did not want any 
 physic, but if he had brought a supply of champagne he 
 would be welcome. 
 
 Of the cities of the Holy Land, Damascus ranks next to 
 Jerusalem in order of sanctity. The Orientals call it " the 
 Pearl girded with Emeralds," and it well deserves the name, 
 for its whitened walls are surrounded by beautiful gardens 
 freshened with Abana and Pharphar, which shine with ever- 
 living green. The architecture of the city is probably not 
 changed since the days of Abraham. The houses present 
 bare white w^alls towards the streets, but their interior is 
 charming, with marble floors, in the centre of which are 
 fountains perpetually flowing, while all around are beautiful 
 flowers. 
 
 The Pasha gxive me a splendid dinner, consisting of one 
 
 N 
 
194 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 hundred and fifty dislies. He had hired a Turkish, an 
 Arab, and a French cook, the last having served under 
 Napoleon, and each was ordered to provide Hftj plats. We 
 were a company of thirteen — -the fatal number, as supersti- 
 tion says — and in this case the event was inauspicious, for 
 the Pasha was beheaded for treason to his sovereign shortly 
 after. He amused us with his stories after dinner, moya 
 inglis being the topic. He said he had learned that a 
 Mahommedan shopkeeper in Damascus had been clandes- 
 tinely selling the liquid prohibited in the Koran. He sent 
 for the sinner, who tremblingly confessed that he had six 
 cases with six dozen in each, on which the Pasha said, " I 
 am doubting whether I shall hang you or not, but send the 
 cases to the palace, and I will look into the matter myself." 
 The cases were sent, and the Pasha was tempted to taste. 
 " I liked it," he said. " I was going to take a ride, but I 
 got up the wrong way on the horse, and found that I caught 
 hold of the tail instead of the bridle, but I thought the 7noya 
 very good, and I am sorry to say none is left to offer you." 
 
 Damascus had not then undergone the changes which 
 have since altered its character. A man could scarcely pass 
 through the streets in a Eairopean dress without being 
 insulted — a stranger especially — and a Jew was only allowed 
 to ride on a donkey. The Jews were more numerous and 
 richer than those of Aleppo, and were most hospitably 
 disposed towards European officials. 
 
 At Hasseyah we found the government of the place 
 entrusted to a lad only twelve years old. We had 
 Teskerehs, enabling us to levy contributions for our wants, 
 which we only asked when money availed not. Having 
 purchased some eggs of a Syrian woman, we offered her a 
 glass of wine, which she refused, shaking her head, but soon 
 after, to our surprise, she returned and claimed the proffered 
 gift, which she did not drink, but poured it over her head. 
 
SYRIA. 195 
 
 At Salialieli, we went to dine with Ali Aga, a jovial 
 Maliommedan who, no doubt made bold by wine, pro- 
 posed to show us his harem, and we were glad to take 
 advantage of the opportunity. He conducted us to a room 
 where female garments were strewn about, and a number of 
 ladies, who were seated on the divan, screamed out, " Oh, 
 infidels ! What business have you here ? " There was one 
 very sweet voice, and I said, " I am sure that sweet voice 
 must belong to a very pretty woman, whose face I should 
 like to see." She put aside her veil, which concealed a very 
 handsome person, and screamed out louder than before, 
 " Ya Giaour ! " covering her face suddenly again. It was 
 an unaifected — I may perhaps say an affected — display of 
 feminine vanity. I remember that in Turkey, where the 
 ladies are concealed by screens from the male guests, they 
 manage to make holes through which their bright eyes are 
 to be discovered, and that they put out their pretty feet 
 under the carpet that they may be admired, but the old and 
 ugly seldom unveil. 
 
 Galilee and Samaria were to me the most interesting 
 parts of the Holy Land. At every step, as we j)roceeded 
 to the south, we were met by the most absurd and baseless 
 traditions, but Nazareth and Nablous — the Secliem of the 
 Old Testament, the Sychar of the New — stand forth in all 
 their ancient simplicity and truth, reproducing the Bible of 
 yesterday in the pictures of to-day. We crossed the Jordan 
 at the bridge of "Jacob's Daughter," and met numberless 
 pilgrims going to or returning from Jerusalem, though many 
 perish on their way before they reach the sacred city. The 
 river's banks were crowded with people. Christians, Jews, 
 and Mahommedans, all bathing in the crystal stream. It 
 was with singular pleasure that I dipped my feet in its 
 waters, and, strange to say, of three fresh-water shells which 
 I took out, one was very rare, and the otliers, till then. 
 
196 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 unknown. I filled a bottle with water, which I presented 
 to the Queen, and from which the Crown Princess Imperial 
 of Prussia was baptized, as were the children of Lord 
 Clarendon. Our pleasure was somewhat diminished by the 
 enormous quantity of vermin which we found in a shed 
 where, for a short time, we tarried, in which a caravan of 
 camels had been housed. We sent one of our servants to 
 explore, and he was absolutely blackened by the quantity of 
 fleas that covered every part of his person which was 
 exposed, so we determined to sleep on our rugs under the 
 clear canopy of heaven, but even then we were persecuted 
 by such multitudinous visitors that, as Curran said, if they 
 could only have agreed to pull one way, I might have been 
 dragged into the Jordan. Travellers must expect to find 
 the plagues of Egypt in Syria, added to other vermin not 
 mentioned in holy writ. 
 
 " How beautiful," I exclaimed, " is the Sea of Galilee ! 
 How beautiful the wild flowers on its borders ! beautiful 
 the barren mountains on the east, more beautiful still the 
 green valleys on the west ! " 
 
 There was complete solitude on the lake — not a boat, not 
 a human being^. We sat on its shore lookina; above to 
 Magdala, where are the ancient graves hewn out of the rock. 
 As we turned to the lake, we witnessed one of the phenomena 
 which frequently occur in inland lakes. There was a violent 
 hurricane coming from the opposite hills, which shook the 
 lake violently, and then, suddenly there was a great calm. 
 We sat down to take our meal by the side of a rivulet 
 running into the lake, the banks beinff covered with 
 flowering rhododendrons, while I gathered some of the 
 watercresses which grew there abundantly. Everything 
 looked bright and happy, the fields were filled with oxen, 
 there were multitudinous wild-flowers, and numbers of 
 green lizards were running about the rocks. Most of the 
 
SYRIA. 197 
 
 towns, once so thickly peopled, and of whose large trade on 
 the Galilean Sea Josephus speaks, were but solitudes. We 
 entered Nazareth close by the declivity down which Jesus 
 passed through the crowd. Many women, the younger 
 of them very pretty (and being Christians they were 
 not veiled), were filling with water from the wells the 
 vessels which they bore gracefully on their heads. In the 
 streets there were loud songs and music, and a procession 
 was escorting a bridegroom home. He wore a white turban, 
 and was arrayed in handsome scarlet garments. Multitudes 
 of children followed the trains of the bridegroom and the 
 bride. We had just passed Cana of Galilee, and there was 
 evidence enough that the wines were of an intoxicating 
 character, the most celebrated being the " golden wine " of 
 Lebanon. Cana is in ruins, as is Eamla, the Arimathsea of 
 the New Testament, but the monks of the convent, of whom 
 there were fifteen, escorted us to the " Holy Places." Many 
 of the monks had forgotten their native language, but they 
 were very civil, showed us the house where Joseph and 
 Mary lived, and of course told us the story of the pillar 
 miraculously conveyed to Loretto, the broken fragment of 
 which was there to tell its own tale. 
 
 Passing to Nablous, we saw the well at the entrance of 
 the city, where the grand words were uttered to the woman, 
 " God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth." A woman was there who 
 offered us water to drink. It was indeed a realization of 
 past history. 
 
 The governor, at whose palace we descended, lived in 
 luxurious style, and we had beds of silk, stretched on the 
 floor, with gold decorations. From the harem the ladies 
 sent us sweetmeats, flowers, and embroidered handkerchiefs. 
 The servants were numerous, and I was glad to learn that 
 the secretary of the governor was the son of Aias Cohen, 
 
198 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the liigii priest of the Samaritans. He accompanied us to 
 Mount Gerizim, where we saw the famous Pentateuch 
 written on sheep-skins in the ancient Samaritan language, 
 and containing the celebrated verse not found in the Hebrew 
 Septuagint — " In Mount Gerizim ye shall worship." The 
 type of the Samaritans is not Jewish, and they bear the 
 same antipathy to the Jews which their forefathers bore. 
 Their numbers did not exceed one hundred and twenty. 
 They told us how wonderfully their sacred book had been 
 preserved, it having been several times buried, and once for 
 eighty years in the bowels of the mountain. Its preserva- 
 tion uninjured they, naturally enough, deemed miraculous. 
 I published a short account of my visit entitled " Samaria 
 and the Samaritans." What most struck me was a con- 
 versation with a sheikh, who said he could not understand 
 why European Christians were so much interested in a small 
 tribe of men like them. I told him that there was a story 
 which we were taught in our childhood of " the good 
 Samaritan," a lesson taught us by our Master, and I 
 narrated it to him. " Why ! every word of that is true," 
 he said. " We had a great and good physician among us, 
 of whose kind deeds we have many traditions. He was 
 accustomed to go into the highways, and to relieve and 
 succour the indigent, and to heal the sick. You have been 
 told a true story." 
 
 The governor was very curious about European customs, 
 and had his children taught Turkish and Persian, as well as 
 Arabic. The master used not the rod, but he spared not 
 the kourbash, which is made of buffalo-hide. The boys 
 were frequently introduced, only the youngest being allowed 
 to sit in his father's presence, as is generally the case among 
 the higher ranks of Mahommedans. A Christian youth 
 was bought as a slave while we were there, the price paid 
 being about £70, but domestic slavery is not oppressive, the 
 
SYRIA, 199 
 
 slaves forming part of tlie family, as in patriarchal times, 
 though they have no legal protection, and are disposed of 
 at the master's will. 
 
 We found much civility, but little civilization in the 
 Franciscan convent at Nazareth. A Spanish brother said 
 he had never heard of such a person as " Don Quixote," but 
 he was enlightened by another of the fraternity, who was 
 surprised at his ignorance, and told him, and the company 
 in general, that the king of France had sent a copy of 
 " Telemachus " to Spain, and that the Spanish king returned 
 the compliment by sending a copy of " Don Quixote." His 
 most Christian majesty said that the author must be a very 
 clever fellow, so he invited him to his court, where he was 
 covered with honour and glory. 
 
 Sleeping at the convent, we were awakened by the tones 
 of the bells, and our special friend, the Spanish friar 
 Antonio, cam,e with a cup of tea to speed the departing 
 guests. Our goal was St Jean DAcre — the Akka of the 
 modern Arabs, the Ptolemais of the ancient Greeks. Recol- 
 lections of home crowded on me when the clotted cream, 
 which, it is said, the Phoenicians introduced into Devonshire 
 and Cornwall, was given to me, and I saw the same kind of 
 cob-walls — the clay mixed with straw, so memorable in the 
 Egyptian history of the Jews — around me. Strange that 
 the influence of those adventurous men, whose nation, whose 
 language, whose memory has passed away, the great 
 merchant princes of Tyre and Sidon, should still be visible 
 in our western regions. At Acre we saw curious evidence 
 of personal affection for one of the most brutal of tyrants. 
 Jezzdr Pasha, known by the name of " the butcher," had 
 died. He was a most horrible example of a modern despot, 
 and would put out the eyes of one of his vassals, saying, 
 "you did not see a plot laid against me." He would cut 
 off the ears of another, exclaiming, " you did not hear the 
 
200 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 tales of the market-place, and report them to me." He cut 
 out the tongues of others, and said, " you knew what was 
 going on. "What were your tongues given you for but to 
 tell me what you heard." And yet to this monster's 
 memory a shrine was raised, it was covered with flowers, 
 and streams of fresh water flowed from it. In spite of 
 the proverb, " Flatterers have friends, and tyrants have 
 worshippers." 
 
 We passed through Soor and Sayda, the ancient Tyre 
 and Sidon, cities whose merchant princes filled the world 
 with their fame, but the ports, once crowded by the largest 
 ships, will scarcely admit a fisherman's boat. Columns of 
 the old piers lay in the sand, the waters had invaded the 
 coast, and silence reigned where the noisy traffickers filled 
 the marts, and where the treasures of Ophir were bought in 
 exchange for the luxuries which the industry of Syria could 
 produce. Here we encountered a flight of locusts, which 
 darkened the air with their multitudes, and devoured every- 
 thing green on the face of the land. A few hours brought 
 us to Beyrout, now the principal port in Syria, whence the 
 markets of Damascus are principally supplied. 
 
 While at Beyrout, I sent a message to Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope, who had established herself at Joun, a hill looking 
 down upon ancient Sidon, asking if she would do me the 
 honour of receiving me, as I was acquainted with some of 
 her family in England. She replied that she would receive 
 no envoy from Cupid (Lord Palmerston), but she had been 
 visited by Lamartine, Prince Plickler Muskau, and others. 
 She had written a letter to the British Consul General in 
 Egypt, in which she said, in answer to a claim which he had 
 been directed to prefer against her, that " She would recom- 
 mend him to put on a wig, and give his orders from the 
 woolsack, servant as he was of the wise Lord Palmerston, 
 and he the servant of our magnificent Queen," and ended 
 
SYRIA. 201 
 
 by saying that she would not pay her debts, unless Her 
 Majesty ordered her to do so. She lived, with more than 
 a hundred and twenty armed people around her, like a 
 sovereign, but Mehemet Ali told Colonel Campbell that she 
 should have as many people, and no more, as were necessary 
 for a lady, upon which Colonel C. said she might have six- 
 teen, whereupon she called the old Pasha " a bloody tyrant," 
 at which I daresay he laughed heartily. She coveted the title 
 of Queen of Syria, and a mad fellow at Alexandria, who called 
 himself King of Jerusalem, wanted to marry her. Mr C. 
 visited her, and gave strange accounts of her manners and 
 
 conversation. She said to him, "You are not such ad d 
 
 puppy as Byron was. You are lame as he was, but you 
 don't come shuffling into a room as if you were ashamed of 
 what is no fault of yours, standing before this picture and 
 that, and making your way to a seat sidling, just to hide, 
 what anyone can see, that one of your legs is shorter than 
 the other." She told him, if he would stay, that she would 
 send for a magician to take him to a place where was a ser- 
 pent born before the world was created, and hidden under a 
 rock, and that the serpent would show him a spot where 
 treasures were concealed. 
 
 She had a great hatred for consuls, and one of our consuls, 
 thinking she would be pleased at the compliment, asked her 
 opinion as to the name he should give to his newly born 
 son. She wrote him the following letter : — " Sir, call him 
 Humbug or Fiddlesticks." I saw a copy of a letter which 
 
 she wrote to that wandering fellow, Mr , which is 
 
 really too good to be lost, and which she gave to Mr C. : — 
 " Sir, — I am astonished that an apostate should dare to 
 thrust himself into my family. Had you, whose real name 
 I know not, been a learned Jew, never would you have 
 abandoned a religion, rich in itself, though defective, for the 
 shadow of one. Light travels faster than sound. Therefore 
 
202 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the Supreme Being could never liave allowed His creatures 
 to remain in utter darkness for two thousand years, until 
 paid speculating wanderers think it proper to raise their 
 venal voice in order to enlighten them." 
 
 When pressed for payment of what she owed, she said, 
 " I have divided ray creditors into three categories. Those 
 who have asked for their money, which I consider an insult, 
 shall never be paid, and the second and third who have 
 never asked, I shall divide into two classes, some of whom 
 I shall pay, and some not." Her dress was rather that of a 
 man than a woman. She talked of religious matters, saying, 
 that she had been looking into the respective merits of the 
 Bible and the Koran, and had come to the conclusion that, 
 on the whole, the latter was the better book of the two. 
 Her creditors endeavoured to lay hands on the pension 
 which her uncle, William Pitt, had obtained for her (she 
 had kept house for him), but she managed to receive 
 the money so cleverly through the French and not the 
 English authorities, that not a penny could be reached. 
 
 In the earlier part of her residence in Syria she was very 
 popular. She had a horse with a natural saddle (back), and 
 a handsome ass, which was to assimilate her entrance with 
 that of Jesus Christ, when she came to claim sovereignty 
 as the Queen of Jerusalem. She spent liberally, but bor- 
 rowed on all sides, which soon dissolved the charm of her 
 presence, and in her later days her pride had a bitter struggle 
 with her poverty, and nothing in her life was so sorrowful 
 as its termination. Dr Merian published her memoirs, 
 which are interesting, though they throw but an imjoerfect 
 light on so singular a character. 
 
 Count Berthoud, whom we met at Beyrout, told us that 
 he had discovered that the level of the Mediterranean was a 
 hundred and twenty feet above that of the Red Sea. He 
 had, in his explorations, found out the site of Zoar, and 
 
SYRIA. 203 
 
 ascertained tliat a town, now in ruins, still bears tlie name 
 of Wadi Moussa, the stream of Moses. 
 
 Wlien at Akka, I heard of a case of plague, and was con- 
 vinced, as T endeavoured to show in a paper on Oriental 
 Plague and Quarantine, which I read at a meeting of the 
 British Association, that plague cannot be communicated 
 beyond the infected regions, and only in certain atmospheric 
 conditions. I showed that, when the plague broke out 
 among the Egyptian troops, and they were sent to the desert, 
 its ravages were immediately stopped, that Clot Bey had 
 dissected more than a hundred plague patients, and that Dr 
 Hepites had inoculated himself with the pus, neither having 
 caught the disease; that the quarantines, which confined 
 sufferers to a particular locality, had immensely increased 
 the mortality, while the dispersion of the infected had always 
 diminished it ; that in the Lazaret of Malta, where for cen- 
 turies plague-infected persons and goods had been im- 
 prisoned, there had never been an example of its communica- 
 tion to a doctor, nurse, or attendant ; in fine, that Quaran- 
 tines, created and maintained solely for the benefit of the 
 interested, and by the folly of the ignorant, were in them- 
 selves the veritable plague and pest of commerce and of 
 commuuication, and ought to be abolished. I brought the 
 subject more than once to the notice of the House of 
 Commons, and there have been many modifications of the 
 regulations which once existed. It has been declared, both 
 by the Academic de Medicine in Paris, and by the College of 
 Surgeons in London, that the disease is never latent more 
 than ten days, and generally breaks out in seven. Hence 
 the absurdity of establishing a quarantine of. forty. But the 
 time must come when the belief in the contagion of plague 
 will be buried in the same limbo which holds other creduli- 
 ties of past times, such as the belief in ghosts, witches, and 
 other marvels. The process is slow, for the belief is strongly 
 
204 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 impressed on the minds of the vulgar, and will long serve to 
 decorate the fictions of the novelist and the artist. 
 
 We started from Beyrout for the land of the Druses, on a 
 visit to the Emir Beshir. Both the country and the inhahi- 
 tants appeared very superior to those of the district we left, 
 the land being well cultivated, and the people having a 
 noble bearing. The women were handsome, and wore the 
 characteristic ornament of the silver horn, always "exalted,' 
 except when they bow at the entrance of their lowly doors. 
 Almost every man was absent from home, the fields having 
 been invaded by clouds of locusts, which the people were 
 destroying with branches of trees, and burying in deep holes. 
 The scenery was wonderfully grand. Many of the roads are 
 like staircases, winding round and round the skirts of the 
 hills. We reached a height, down whose sides streams of 
 clear water were flowing, and there stood Bait-ood-deen, the 
 palace of the Prince of the Druses. An immense number of 
 attendants were in the court, which was filled with travellers 
 and their horses, for whom every accommodation was pro- 
 vided. The Prince had been humiliated and disarmed by 
 Ibrahim Pasha, but was able to maintain a certain amount 
 of authority. Not long after our visit, however, he was 
 banished to Constantinople, where it was reported that his 
 eyes were put out, and that he was condemned to death. 
 He came to welcome us with a most courteous reception. 
 He was handsomely clad, and his watch-chain was decorated 
 with brilliants. The walls of the apartments were gorgeously 
 painted, fountains of water played around, and there were 
 hundreds of servants. We observed that lightning con- 
 ductors had been placed, and the Emir told us that, having 
 seen them on the masts of English ships of war, and having 
 ascertained their use and value, he had protected with them 
 his palace from the lightning, which formerly did much 
 damao;e to it. We were told that he had seven thousand men 
 
SYRIA. 205 
 
 capable of bearing arms, but their arms were taken away by 
 Ibrahim Pasha, and the Emir was compelled to witness their 
 being broken in pieces in the court of his palace. A hand- 
 some dinner was provided for us in European style, and our 
 sleeping room was that which had been occupied by Sulei- 
 man Pasha, the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army. 
 We had never seen such baths, nor smoked such tobacco 
 (Latakia), as awaited our acceptance. 
 
 We visited the church, which was ornamented with 
 several pictures sent from Pome, the service being conducted 
 in Syriac. In the library was a collection of books in that 
 language, and in the school attached to the church were 
 about twenty Syrian ladies who were learning Arabic, but 
 they were not taught Syriac, which is a sacred tongue, 
 mainly useful to the priests. 
 
 The Emir was said to be a Christian, but most of the 
 Druses of the mountain are faithful to their ancient religion, 
 and observe the superstitious rites of their forefathers. The 
 people told us that they had a temple for worship, but they 
 would not say where it was to be found. I asked one of 
 the attendants of the chapel whether they were Roman 
 Catholics, and he anwered, " siamo figli della chiesa," but 
 there are among the Druses a large sect of Maronites, who 
 profess, however, devotion to Rome, and use the Roman 
 services. 
 
 Syria is one of the most interesting regions of the world, and 
 I had on my visit some sj^eeial advantages, not only because 
 I had a mission from my government, but because I had 
 recommendatory teskerelis from the Sultan and from Mehe- 
 met Ali. 
 
 Nothing of particular moment occurred till I reached 
 Constantinople, where every one was talking of the follies 
 of the Sultan, who, while his country was invaded by 
 Ibrahim Pasha, and his troops had been utterly defeated at 
 
206 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Konieli and Kutayali, was amusing himself with frivolities. 
 He ordered bows and arrows, and then flung them away. 
 He entertained himself with childish toys. One day, when 
 going up the Bosphorus, he saw a Greek priest, to whose 
 cap he took a fancy, and ordered an attendant to follow 
 him, but the priest escaped. A mandate was issued, and 
 the priest was traced to his convent, where the cap was 
 demanded from him. He handed over an old one, which 
 was taken to the Sultan, who said that it was not the one 
 wanted, and that a new one must be brought, which was done, 
 and the priest was glad no doubt to escape on such easy terms. 
 In his rage, the Sultan, one day, ordered all his Chris- 
 tian subjects to be murdered, but the Seraskier, happily for 
 him, represented the perilous character of his proposed 
 ordinance, and it was withdrawn. When at last the pro- 
 gress of the Egyptian army towards the gates of Constanti- 
 nople was announced to him — which the English ambassador 
 insisted should be done — he was found in his srarden cutting 
 down the rose-trees with his sabre, and exclaiming, " Thus 
 I dispose of my enemies!" Aft^,r the destruction of the 
 Janissaries was determined on, and his orders given, his 
 courage failed him, and he withdrew the mandate, but it 
 was too late. He had confided the task to officers who 
 delayed not to execute it. He was addicted to the inordinate 
 use of spirituous liquors, and not unfrequently gave orders 
 for the execution of oflicers, which he recalled when the 
 bloody deed had been done. 
 
 PRUSSIA. 
 
 In 1839 I was sent by the British government to the 
 meeting of the ZoU Verein at Berlin. The object was to 
 ascertain how far our commercial relations with Germany 
 could be extended, but the German delegates appeared to 
 me for the most part very narrow-minded in their views, 
 
PRUSSIA. 207 
 
 opposed to free-trade, and afraid of competition, most of 
 them indeed being manufacturers, or the representatives of 
 manufacturing interests. They failed to see that if the brealc- 
 ing down of the barriers whicli had opposed the free circula- 
 tion of commodities within the circle of the German Verein, 
 had been a great blessing to trade by leading to its aug- 
 mentation, the application of the same principle to England 
 and the wide world, would, in proportion to the increased 
 area, have extended the common benefits. But Great 
 Britain was ill fitted to be a teacher when a restrictive and 
 prohibitory system formed the foundation of her commercial 
 code. Adam Smith, and a succession of distinguished 
 politico-economists had preached sound doctrines in vain, 
 and though I could easily and triumphantly answer the 
 reasonings of our opponents, I could not gainsay the fact 
 that our own tariffs, and especially those which most inter- 
 ested Northern Germany, by which the import of corn was 
 placed under severe and repelling restrictions, were alto- 
 gether hostile to free-trade principles. But so little hopeful 
 were our prospects then, that when I returned to London, 
 and gave an account of my mission to Lord Melbourne, then 
 Prime Minister, telling him he must abolish the Corn Laws, 
 he looked at me Mith surprise, and exclaimed with an oath 
 (not an unusual ornament of his conversation) that I was fit 
 for Bedlam. 
 
 But the Corn Laws ivere abolished, and I had the honour 
 of laying the foundation of the Anti-Corn-Law League, 
 which grew out of a small meeting held at Manchester, and 
 acquired such a gigantic power, by creating an irresistible 
 public opinion, that Sir Eobert Peel was convinced, and had 
 the honesty to own that Cobden had become his master. 
 So, in spite of the resistance and the vituperation of a sec- 
 tion of the Tory party, headed by Lord George Bentinck, 
 D'Israeli, and others, we conquered the ill-judged resistance 
 
208 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 of the landed interest, who proclaimed that they — the 
 farmers and the husbandmen, would be hopelessly and help- 
 lessly ruined, that the sun of England's glory would set for 
 ever, and — but the result has not warranted the awful pre- 
 dictions. Rents are advanced, and wages too as a necessary 
 consequence, and well may we now say, " Fac recte, nihil 
 time." Eight was done, and there was no ground for 
 fear. 
 
 One morning at Berlin, while I was sitting at breakfast, 
 a stately person, booted and spurred, and wearing a gay 
 uniform, entered, and bowing low said, " You are invited 
 to dine Avith the King at Potsdam to-day at 4 o'clock." I 
 accepted of course, royal invitations being commands, but I 
 went off at once to Lord William Russell, our ambassador, 
 expecting that he would accompany me, and aid me in sur- 
 mounting the difficulties which, in Courts so formal as those 
 of Germany, always attend the stranger. To my surprise, 
 he said that neither he nor any of the foreign ministers had 
 ever been invited to dine with the King, it being a tra- 
 ditional counsel of Frederick the Great, still observed at 
 Court, not to allow foreigners to meddle with the affairs of 
 the royal family. Lord William added that he saw him only 
 once a year, and then but for five minutes, while even his 
 ministers rarely got at him. People waited three months 
 for an audience, and the King spent half his time with 
 dancers and ballet girls. 
 
 I went to Potsdam, and happily found Humboldt at 
 Court. I was the sole Englishman introduced. The King 
 asked me how I liked Berlin, and said he had heard of my 
 reputation from Humboldt. Soon came in the Queen of 
 Bavaria, the Princess Liegnitz, the Princess Royal, and other 
 princesses, and some pretty children, among whom was 
 the son of the heir to the crown, a lad of ten or twelve. At 
 about six we were summoned to the theatre in the palace, 
 
PRUSSIA. 209 
 
 which was superbly fitted up, and filled with guests invited 
 by the king — some sixty or seventy persons. All the great 
 actors of Berlin were there, but the ballet, which was the 
 King's hobby, w^as specially good, and one part of it truly 
 amusing. There were forty or fifty little children, four or 
 five years old, playing the parts of men and women, and 
 some did it admirably. One child, who was a grandmother, 
 was perfect, and there was a good love scene, and an after- 
 matrimony scene between a boy and a girl not above six 
 years old. The soldiers with moustachios, the sappers with 
 long beards, the postillions in their boots and with their 
 tails, the lawyers in their gowns, &c., were d mourir de rire. 
 
 The King's dinner was unlike any I had ever seen. In 
 the centre of the room was a table where the royal family 
 took their seats, while around it were many other tables^ 
 arrano-ed as at a French restaurant, the most distinguished 
 guests being near enough to hold conversation with the 
 royal family. The waiters were Chinamen wearing their 
 national costume, whom the King told me he had imported 
 to take charge of his gardens, but the project not having 
 succeeded, he had turned them to other account. 
 
 Wandering through the gardens and admiring the collec- 
 tion of dahlias, Humboldt mentioned that all the dahlias in 
 Europe were the descendants of a few seeds, which he had 
 gathered on the table-land of Mexico and sent in a letter to 
 Lady Holland, from whose gardens they have been so 
 widely distributed that there is scarcely a garden unadorned 
 with them, and they are to be seen near many a peasant's 
 cottage. 
 
 The necessity of standing in the presence of royalty is a 
 very painful duty, and must be dreadfully wearisome to the 
 habitues of the Prussian court. I recollect that at a party 
 given by the Crown Prince, to which I had been invited to 
 come dressed en bourgeois because, in addition to the court 
 
 
 
210 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 people, there were only to be some gelehrten, a message 
 came to say that as the Dowager Queen of Bavaria, mother 
 of the Crown Princess, was to be present, I must come in 
 my court dress. The Queen invited me to converse 
 about the Holy Land, saying she wanted to compare 
 my impressions with the accounts she had received from 
 her son, Prince Max, who had lately visited the sacred soil. 
 While she stood, nobody could sit, and as it was in the 
 evening, there was a large company of guests. The Crown 
 Prince was impatient and very angry. " Ich bin so genirt," 
 he said irreverently, speaking so loudly as to be heard by 
 his mother-in-law, who, however, did not heed his rebuke. 
 At Charlottenburg, where the Prince had built himself a 
 house in the classical Roman style, with baths and all the 
 appurtenances which an opulent patrician could desire, he 
 rejoiced at being able to enjoy himself and entertain his 
 friends without the fettering of court etiquette. 
 
 The Crown Prince escorted me through the Potsdam 
 library, where are many reminiscences of Frederick the 
 Great, and of his visitor, Voltaire. There was scarcely a 
 German book on the shelves — indeed it is known that 
 Frederick despised his native language and literature, 
 which had little to recommend it, for the days of Goethe, 
 Schiller, and the illustrious writers of Germany, had scarcely 
 dawned. The furniture was of light blue satin, fringed 
 with silver. The mill was still to be seen which the bold 
 miller refused to surrender to his master. The statue of 
 Queen Louise in the gardens appeared to me very beautiful. 
 I shall always retain sweet impressions of Berlin. Men- 
 delssohn was then in the full blaze of his fame, society was 
 cordial, amusing, and instructive, the city was rapidly 
 growing in wealth, and the suburbs were being covered 
 with comfortable habitations. Who then could have 
 dreamed of the wonderful events which have made the 
 
PRUSSIA. 211 
 
 descendants of the Prussian King emperors of Germany, 
 have reduced France almost to a state of vassalage, and 
 given to the empire an ascendancy which entitles it to be 
 ranked as the first of Continental Powers ? 
 
 I passed some time with Humboldt, who showed me the 
 presents he had received from the Emperor of Russia, 
 among which was a platina medal as large as a cheese-plate, 
 of which only one other exists, and a collection of gold 
 medals weighing, I should think, fifty sovereigns each. 
 He said that he had had some misunderstanding with the 
 Emperor, and when the quarrel was made up, Nicholas gave 
 him this superb cadeau. He took me over his house to 
 show me how he carried on his studies, how he arranged 
 his books and maps, how he conducted his philosophical 
 observations, &c. It was wonderful how he crowded so 
 much into life, for he was constantly at court, attended all 
 great parties, and yet produced the most profoundly 
 elaborate and learned works that have ever been written. 
 
 At Berlin I met a well-known character, J E , 
 
 who by sheer, persistent, imperturbable boldness, had made 
 his way to half the kings and courts of Europe, getting the 
 various sovereigns to write their names in his album. 
 " Now ! look at that signature," said he, pointing to the 
 handwriting of the King of Bavaria. " See what a passion 
 that's written in I Why, do you know, when I took out 
 my album and asked the King to write in it. His Majesty 
 said he wouldn't — positively wouldn't — never did such a 
 thing — so I attacked him again, and he took up a pen, and 
 see what a towering passion he was in when he wrote his 
 name." F. said that the police were troubling him, and 
 asked me to help him. He told me that a sovereign once 
 said to him, " Get out of my way," on which he answered, 
 " No, Sire ! I am an Englishman, and you may get out of 
 mine." He said he had ordered Lord S. away from Stutt- 
 
212 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 gardt, for the police, on an application of his, had dismissed 
 him. Some one asked him if he might refer to me about 
 him, but, as I had refused to lend him money, he replied, 
 " ! that Dr Bowring is so caustic, and is an outrageous 
 radical, while I am a Tory — a true Tory to the backbone." 
 
 ISLE OF MAN. 
 
 The position of the Isle of Man formed a singular 
 anomaly in the dominions of the British rulers. It had for- 
 merly a language of its own, whose principal elements are 
 Keltic, with a few Scandinavian words introduced by 
 visitors from the north, and some English of still more 
 modern date, but the idiom has nearly died out, and at the 
 present moment the national tongue is used in all the 
 Church services. Many of the ancient usages and cere- 
 monies, however, remain, and fragments of the Manx are 
 still used in some of the legislative proceedings, e.g., the 
 Tynwald, and the title of Deemster (Judge), while the 
 names of almost all the old towns, villages, and country 
 seats are Keltic, and such as still are found in Scotland, 
 Ireland, and Wales, namely, Douglas, Ealta, Curn, Avon, 
 and others. The surnames, too, resemble those of the 
 Gaelic races, with the prefixes of " " and " Mac." 
 
 The rights of the lords, and the subjection of the vassals, 
 resembled those of feudal times. The rich paid no taxes, 
 but levied contributions from the poor ; the yachts of the 
 opulent entered the ports scatheless, while the boats of poor 
 fishermen paid taxes to the state ; the well-to-do had 
 licences for the introduction of foreign commodities, and 
 sold to shopkeepers and consumers the excess not required 
 for themselves, their families, and friends. I brought' these 
 oppressions to the notice of Sir Eobert Peel, and the abuses 
 Avere remedied to a great extent. The members of the House 
 of Keys, who, in earlier times, were nominated by the kings 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG. 213 
 
 of Man, and afterwards self-elected, are now chosen by 
 popular suffrage. One of the earliest experiments in favour 
 of Free Trade was made with complete success in this small 
 island, which is the scene of one of Sir Walter Scott's most 
 popular novels, "Peveril of the Peak," in which many 
 illustrations of the old habits and history of Manxmen may 
 be advantageously studied. 
 
 When I visited the island in 1843, I learned much of the 
 history of the people, whose manners were quite primitive. 
 I was told that in 1825 they drove away the Bishop and 
 his family, owing to his extreme exaction of tithes, and that, 
 when he sent his carts to collect the potatoes, they pre- 
 cipitated them into the sea. The Bishop then applied to 
 the government for troops, whom the women surrounded, 
 bound, disarmed, and sent away empty-handed. A deputa- 
 tion then went to his Lordship, and, on being admitted to 
 his presence, told him that unless he signed three documents, 
 giving them indemnity for the past, pardon for the present, 
 and release for the future, they would burn his palace, farm, 
 and ricks. The Bishop signed, but after continuing the 
 struggle for some time, fled with all his family. My host, 
 who was one of the prime movers in this rebellion, recounted 
 all this with bright eyes, and added that the Bishop after- 
 wards told him that if he had followed his (my informant's) 
 advice he would have been Bishop still, and would have 
 lived in peace and quietness. 
 
 SINGAPORE — PENANG. 
 
 What struck me most in visiting these places in 1849 
 was the immense number of Chinamen in the streets, in the 
 shops, and in the water, all busily employed, or eager for 
 employment. The excessive population of the " Central 
 Kingdom " is constantly swarming forth in every direction, 
 and the immisration of the black-haired races is changing 
 
214 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the whole character of society, the Indian Archipelago being 
 the field where the battle of the nationalities is constantly 
 fought; and where the expulsion of the less civilised by the 
 more civilized may be studied. The aborigines were ruled 
 over by the more adventurous Malays ; then came from the 
 shores of India the Klings who, under British rule, had 
 acquired some elements of progress ; then the Chinese, far 
 more industrious and economical, and with more temperate 
 habits than their predecessors ; and, lastly, the EngUsh, of 
 whom a very few have learnt to subject the very many of 
 the now subordinate tribes. In proportion to the civiliza- 
 tion is the growth of wealth and influence, the silent law of 
 developement is always actively, and somewhat mysteriously 
 at work, and the tide of tendency moves on, ever flowing, 
 seldom ebbing, or, if ebbing, only to obtain a greater and 
 more active impulse. Singapore owes its great success to 
 Free Trade, whose foundation was laid by John Crawfurd, 
 the Malayan. scholar, known in the clubs by the name of "the 
 inventor of forty Adams," a title he obtained for repudiating 
 the doctrine that the various races of mankind are descended 
 from one single ancestor. He used to say that Max Mtiller's 
 Aryan heresy respecting the Oriental and Occidental tribes 
 of men was a grosser heresy in the philosophical field than 
 was the Arian heterodoxy in the theological. Certainly, 
 Singapore may be advantageously studied in comparison 
 with, and resemblance to. Hong Kong, and in contrast with 
 the French colonies in Cochin China and elsewhere, where 
 the old taint of monopoly and national privileges remains 
 associated with loss of wealth, of reputation, and of soldiers' 
 lives. Many of the prodiictions of the Straits Settlements 
 have rendered incalculable benefits to science and to civil- 
 izing comforts. The value of india-rubber — caoutchouc 
 - — was for some time confined to the artist's studio, but 
 Macintosh introduced it for garments, and for a hundred 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG. 215 
 
 other purposes. Gutta-percha has played a still more 
 important part, for, while more soluble than caoutchouc, it 
 is of far greater natural hardness. What cookery owes to 
 the various spices, the pen of a more practised gourmand 
 than myself must describe. 
 
 Penang had been described to me as a most beautiful 
 island, and certainly its appearance, presenting one mass of 
 gorgeous vegetation, with trees covering the sides, and 
 crowning the tops of the highest hills, is singularly striking. 
 The town looks like a fragment of China, torn away, and 
 fixed in the straits. There was Chinese music in the streets, 
 and Chinese water-sellers, fish-sellers, fruit-sellers, &c., 
 everybody crying about his wares. We went into one of 
 the opium-smoking houses, where lay multitudes, almost 
 naked, in a state that seemed one of felicitous dreaming, 
 while the fumes were inhaled. The dull eye brightened, 
 the haggard look departed, and a smile succeeded the scowl, 
 till sleep took possession, and then, alas for the wakening ! 
 A large proportion of the Chinese are addicted to this vice, 
 which has none of the horrors however of our European 
 drunkenness. It enervates and destroys body and mind, 
 but so slowly and stealthily as to leave much controversy 
 as to the extent of the evil. 
 
 We went to a Chinese theatre in the open air, where there 
 must have been two thousand spectators ; the actors, on a 
 high stage, being gaily dressed, and the whole exhibition 
 somewhat better than that of a country fair. There was a 
 humourous bufi"oon, a troop of soldiers, and an audience at 
 court, where the Kotoiv was performed. The music was 
 very strange, and some of the speeches reminded me of the 
 ]'avings of an ambitious village stage-player. Thence we 
 went to the Joss-houses, where the priests were telling 
 fortunes, the attendants making oblations and burning 
 papers to the memory of their ancestors. There were some 
 
216 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 hideous idols, bedizened with, scarlet and gold, but, strange 
 to say, in the inner temple was a figure of the Virgin 
 Mary, which the Chinese had found at sea and made a 
 goddess of 
 
 The beauty of Singapore is indescribable. Through 
 groves of spice-trees, nutmeg, and clove, through a garden 
 of fruits and flowers, amidst the songs of rare and beautiful 
 birds, and enormous splendid butterflies, we reached the 
 governor's bungalow, which is on the top of a hiU over- 
 looking all the town and neighbourhood — the centre of a 
 magnificent circumference of sea and land. The governor 
 had a large aviary, and while I was lying down, quietly 
 reading a description of Singapore, a gigantic peacock of 
 the Borneo race perched near me, and, after looking at me 
 for some time, attacked me fiercely. I ran at him, sup- 
 posing he would retreat, but no ! he came on again with 
 redoubled violence, so I seized my umbrella, opened it, and 
 by main strength forced the hero out of the Avindow. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 When I was a little boy, I had a singular dream. It was 
 that I was sent by the King of England as Ambassador to 
 China. No doubt my head was filled with the gorgeous 
 representations of Chinese life which are found in the narra- 
 tives of the Macartney and Amherst missions to Peking) 
 but of all improbable things nothing could appear less 
 probable than the fulfilment of my dream, for T was living 
 in the country, no ambition had been awakened in me, and? 
 according to all appearance, I was destined to walk in the 
 humbler path which my forefathers had trodden for many 
 generations. But to China I went as the representative of 
 the Queen, and was accredited, not to Peking alone, but to 
 Japan, Siam, Cochin China, and Corea, — I believe to a 
 greater number of human beings — indeed not less than a 
 
CHINA. 217 
 
 third of the race of man — than any individual had been 
 accredited to before. 
 
 Lord Palmerston offered me the Consulship of Canton, 
 where diplomatic questions with the ' Central Kingdom ' 
 were discussed. The engagement made with Sir John 
 Davis that the gates of the city should be opened, and per- 
 sonal intercourse established between the Mandarins and 
 the British authorities in two years after the treaty was 
 signed, had been repudiated, and it was my business to 
 enforce the engagement. I knew the importance of the 
 question, for it was certain that if one could get into the 
 presence of a Chinese ofEcial, with a sufficient force behind, 
 he was not likely to be unreasonable. Year after year, I 
 implored Yeh (the Chinese word means leaf) to admit me to 
 his presence in his yamun (official residence) at Canton, or to 
 visit me either at the factories or in Hong Kong, but he was 
 deaf to every entreaty. I went to the Peiho, and was visited 
 by Mandarins, but only to learn that Yeh's conduct was ap- 
 proved, and that we must not attempt to visit the capital. 
 
 My career in China belongs so much to history, that I do 
 not feel it needful to record its vicissitudes. I have been 
 severely blamed for the policy I pursued, yet that policy 
 has been most beneficial to my country and to mankind at 
 large. It is not fair or just to suppose that a course of 
 action, which may be practicable or prudent at home, will 
 always succeed abroad. You can no more apply exactly 
 the same discipline, or the same character of reward and 
 punishment to masses of men than you can apply them to 
 individuals. The powers of reason fail when coming in 
 contact with the unreasoning and unconvincible. No man 
 was ever a more ardent lover of peace than I — in fact, 1 
 had been the Secretary of the Peace Society, and had always 
 taken an active part in promoting the peace- movement — 
 but with barbarous — ay, and sometimes with civilized 
 
218 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 nations, the words of peace are -uttered in vain — as with chil- 
 dren too often the voice of reproof. Better times may come, 
 and the delightful anticipations of the poet may be realized, 
 future ages bringing 
 
 " Peace and good will, good will and peace, 
 Peace and good will to all mankind." 
 
 I look back with complacency on my government of Hong 
 Kong, which I held for five years, and on surrendering the 
 post, received the thanks of the Conservative Minister of the 
 Colonies. I had during my tenure of office the pleasure of 
 seeing the population nearly trebled, and the shipping trade 
 increased nearly cent, per cent. I not only made the revenue, 
 in which there had been a great deficit, equal the expendi- 
 ture, but I left a large balance in the treasury chest. I 
 carried out the principles of Free Trade to their fullest 
 possible extent, and did not impose even a harbour-due to 
 pay the expenses of the service. Vessels came from every 
 quarter and from every nation. They entered, they departed, 
 and no ofiicial interfered, except to record whence they came 
 or whither they went. The tonnage increased from 300,000 
 to 700,000 tons of square-rigged vessels, to say nothing of 
 the large native junk trade. The harbour (one of the finest 
 in the world, having an extent of safe anchorage exceeding 
 five miles) is always crowded with shipping, more than a 
 hundred vessels being ordinarily in port, in addition to 
 the steamers — frequently as many as twenty — and the ships 
 of war of all the great maritime powers. An enterprising 
 individual made docks equal, if not superior, to any east of 
 the Cape, and there is no element of prosperity and progress 
 which has not been wonderfully developed. 
 
 The revenues are furnished by the ground rent of houses, 
 the opium monopoly, the judicial fees, &c., but there is no 
 direct taxation. The value of land has increased rapidly, 
 and indeed land is the main source of income. On my 
 
CHINA. 219 
 
 recommendation, the Legislative Council had an infusion of 
 many non-official names, but I am not sure that the colony 
 was ripe for this sort of representation, and I think that 
 more might have been done by the executive without the 
 popular element. 
 
 Some time ago there was a great deal of clamour in 
 praise of Chusan and depreciation of Hong Kong, and Sir 
 Henry Pottinger was blamed for having chosen tlie latter 
 in preference to the former. Though the mortality among 
 our troops in Tinghai was exceedingly great, the climate 
 was represented to be more salubrious, the geographical 
 position more favourable, and it was said that the greater 
 adjacency to Peking would enable us to exercise far 
 more influence than in the remoter island of the south, 
 Avhile it was averred that Chusan would give much greater 
 facilities to trade than Hong Kong could ever offer. Experi- 
 ence has belied all these predictions. Hong Kong is as 
 healthy as any of our tropical colonies, its trade is enormous 
 and constantly increasing, owing to its being in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Canton, and to its having always a large fleet 
 in the bay, and it is an object of greater apprehension to 
 the Chinese authorities than our possession of Chusan could 
 ever have been ; but the truth is that the influence of either 
 at the Court of Peking has always been almost nil. 
 
 I do not know that I could better illustrate the character 
 of the great Kwans or Mandarins of China, than by personal 
 sketches of two or three of them, with whom I was more 
 intimately associated while British Plenipotentiary in China, 
 and 1 will select Yeh, the viceroy of the Two Kwangs ; Wang, 
 the viceroy of Fookien ; and Keih, the governor of Kiangsoo. 
 
 All the superior authorities have received Imperial instruc- 
 tions, which may be summed up in two sentences — " Keep 
 the barbarians at a distance," and "take care not to involve 
 the Emperor in annoying disputes." It will be easily seen 
 
220 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 tliat the practical application of these two principles would 
 depend very much upon the personal character of the indi- 
 vidual authority. Yeh gave all his care to the first of these 
 lessons, being very reckless as regards the second ; for, 
 while his measures were most repulsive to strangers, he 
 forgot that they might involve his master in many disasters, 
 as in fact they did, so that he brought upon China the last 
 war, with all its mischiefs and miseries. Canton has gener- 
 ally been ruled by a man of more obstinacy than prudence. 
 Kesheu had greatly offended the Emperor by telling him 
 that he was unable to resist the power of the westeru bar- 
 barians, and the " Son of heaven " directed that he should ' 
 be sawn in two for his inaptitude of judging of the 
 foreigner ; but having powerful friends at Court, the exe- 
 cution of the sentence was delayed, and it was afterwards 
 commiited into banishment, from which he was recalled 
 into the public service, and became the Chinese Ambassador 
 at Lhassa, in Tibet, where Father Hue saw him. Hue had 
 so completely mastered the Chinese and Manchoo lan- 
 guages that he was not discovered to be other than a Chinese 
 subject, until Kesheu, who had had much experience of 
 foreign nations while at Canton, found out that he was 
 nothing better than a Christian Missionary. 
 
 Yeh succeeded two viceroys, each of whom had obtained 
 considerable celebrity. The career of Lin, the most renowned 
 of the viceroys in China, whose literary reputation was of 
 the very highest order, was most disastrous, for he was the 
 cause of the opium war, and suddenly fell in consequence 
 from the height of popularity into the depth of degradation. 
 He too was exiled into the cold country, for in China no man 
 is forgiven whose policy has proved unsuccessful, but Lin 
 also was summoned to court when the affairs of the empire 
 were entangled in difficulty. He was despatched to the 
 south, and on his way thither died at Foochow, the capital 
 
CHINA. 221 
 
 of the province in which he was born. Sen, who was then 
 made viceroy, was less unfortunate in carrying out the 
 policy of contempt for western nations, but he was made 
 very uncomfortable in the latter part of his vice-royalty, 
 when he was associated with Yeh, then governor of Kwang- 
 tung. Yeh was the very incarnation of wrong-headedness, 
 and when I begged some of the mandarins of his council to 
 induce him to ma.ke some small concessions, — all such as 
 were promised by treaty engagements, — they answered that 
 they might as well talk to the rocks as to the viceroy. 
 Again and again I requested him to grant me an interview, 
 which he perseveringly refused. He would not come to 
 the consulate or to Hong Kong, nor receive me in his own 
 yamun, under the pretence that he could not protect me 
 from the violence of the people. This was a false plea, and 
 I answered that I would bring with me a force sufficient to 
 secure me from danger if he would consent to give me an 
 interview. He was a most industrious administrator, wrote 
 his own despatches, which, like those of Lin, were much ad- 
 mired for their correctness of style, and he obtained great 
 credit at court and among his countrymen for knowing well 
 how to manage the English barbarians. In the official papers 
 which fell into our hands (on the capture of Canton), we 
 found much evidence of the exalted opinion formed of his 
 sagacity, his course of action being recommended to the 
 imitation of the other viceroys. When Sir John Davis 
 seized all the Bogue forts, and menaced Canton, Keying 
 entered into an engagement that in two years from that 
 period, namely, in April 1849, entrance into the city should 
 be allowed to the British. The time being arrived, Seu re- 
 fused to give effect to the agreement, but said he would 
 refer the matter again to the Emperor, whose answer was, 
 " Keep the barbarians out if you can." It is greatly to be 
 regretted that this infraction of treaty rights was not there 
 
222 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL llECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 and tlien resented, but the British government, desiring to 
 avoid controversy, and perhaps not attaching sufficient im- . 
 portance to the question, consented to leave it in abeyance, 
 giving the viceroy to understand, however, that the treaty- 
 right was by no means relinquished. The Peking Court 
 was delighted with the success of Sen's policy, and a cornu- 
 copia of presents and honours was showered down upon him, 
 and upon those whom he reported as having co-operated 
 Avith him. The Emperor declared in an Imperial rescript 
 that he had shed tears of joy on learning the success which 
 had attended the wise but prudent course pursued by the 
 viceroy, and six triumphal arches of granite were ordered to 
 be erected in the name of the Emperor at the principal 
 entrances to the city of Canton. A copy of the Imperial 
 letter was engraved on each of the columns, with the names 
 of the meritorious patriots who had laboured with the vice- 
 roy to maintain the dignity of China, and to bring about the 
 humiliation of the foreigners. About the same time, a 
 gathering of the dignitaries of the province took place at the 
 famous Poloo temple, where a foreign idol is worshipped, the 
 image showing that it mvist have been an Indian whose body 
 was interred, and whose person was deified by the Chinese. 
 It was represented that his influence over the British had led 
 to their submission. Yeh, profoundly learned in the litera- 
 ture, and a master of the language of China, was, beyond 
 all belief, ignorant of all that characterizes western civiliza- 
 tion. He was given to the study of necromancy, and many 
 astrological horoscopes were found among his joapers. Being 
 a thorough predestinarian, and believing that " the city of 
 rams " '" was under the protection of the five genii whose 
 
 * It is a tradition among the Chinese that when, in very remote times, the 
 city was visited by famine, five rams entered it, each bearing a sheaf of corn, 
 and that an abundant supply of food followed their advent. These rams were 
 afterwards converted into the five tutelar genii, and five rude stones in the 
 temple are still shown as their representatives. 
 
CHINA. 223 
 
 temple in Canton was the object of the most superstitious 
 reverence, he scarcely made any preparations for its defence, 
 and though walled and fortified, and containing a million 
 of inhabitants, it was captured by a small body of British 
 and French troops and marines with a very trifling sacrifice 
 of hfe. 
 
 Yeh was dreadfully sanguinary in his policy. The execu- 
 tions at Canton frequently amounted to many hundreds a 
 day, and on my asking him, when he was a prisoner on 
 board a British ship at Hong Kong, whether it was true, as 
 I had heard, that he had caused the decapitation of seventy- 
 two thousand persons, he answered, with a sort of triumph- 
 ant energy, " more than a hundred thousand, of whom 
 three thousand were chiefs." The Chinese code professes to 
 be very tender of the life of man, and under ordinary circum- 
 stances no man is put to death except by a warrant from the 
 Emperor, but there are cases in which this finality is sus- 
 pended, and the powers of life and death are confided to a 
 viceroy. How Yeh used this power is visible in the bloody 
 records of his government, and it may be doubted whether 
 any example is to be found of such holocausts of human 
 sacrifice as took place under his rule. 
 
 After Yeh, on his capture, had ascertained that he was 
 not to be put to death, a fate which he undoubtedly ex- 
 pected, he exhibited a stolid indiff'erence to all that was 
 passing. He wholly neglected his person, wore filthy gar- 
 ments, scarcely ever submitted himself to an ablution, and 
 only on one or two occasions, such as on visits from myself 
 or the Admiral, did he put on his mandarin costume. Be 
 complained, however, that he was given in charge of a cap- 
 tain with two gold stripes instead of three, which, he thought, 
 was an off'ence to his dignity. When he reached Hong 
 Kong, he professed utter inditference as to the aspect of the 
 colony, saying he knew all about it, and had nothing to 
 
224 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 learn. On my enquiring whether I could render him any 
 services, he said no, but after a few days he requested me to 
 provide for him some medicine, which, he said, was neces- 
 sary to his health, and some of the peculiar tobacco which 
 he was accustomed to smoke. One lady was introduced to 
 him by the general, but he turned away as if in disgust, 
 and would not favour her with a single glance. On board 
 the ship was the correspondent of the Times, to whom he 
 took a great antipathy. On reaching Calcutta, he exhibited 
 the same insouciance, saying he cared nothing about the 
 place, but he was more than once detected looking out of 
 the port-holes as the vessel passed up the Hoogly. After 
 he landed, offers were frequently made to him to show him 
 the city, but he always declined. I sent him the Imperial 
 decree which announced his degradation, but he only said 
 he expected it. An honourable M.P. who visited him said 
 he had taken his part in the House of Commons, as he 
 thought Yeh was right and Bowring wrong in the Cantonese 
 quarrel, but when he was gone, Yeh exclaimed " Umph ! and 
 do such men make the laws of England ? " A credit for 
 money was sent to him, of which he never availed himself. 
 He died in Calcutta, but his corpse was conveyed back to 
 China, where it met little honour at the hands of his 
 countrymen. The Indian government intended to bury him 
 in the Chinese cemetery at Calcutta, but the people of that 
 nation, who are almost exclusively of inferior rank, remon- 
 strated, saying, " that the other ghosts would not like it." 
 
 Wang was a more timid and cautious politician than 
 Yeh, and though he equally desired to keep foreigners at a 
 distance, he avoided any steps which might complicate the 
 relations of the empire with the Treaty Powers. When I 
 visited Foochow, I sent him a message that I wished to 
 pay him my respects in person, but he endeavoured on 
 various pretexts to elude the interview, sending several 
 
CHINA. 225 
 
 mandarins of rank instead, whom T refused to receive, and 
 insisted on the rights established to hold personal inter- 
 course with the great authorities of the State. After much 
 correspondence, in which, by the way, he employed some 
 characters representing superiority, and opposed to that 
 equahty between the British and Chinese sovereigns fixed 
 by treaty, he gave way, and appointed a time for receiving 
 me officially at his yamun within the gates of the city ; but 
 having been given to understand that it was his purpose 
 that I should be met, not at the great portal, through which 
 all the high dignitaries of the empire pass, but at the en- 
 trance used by mandarins of lower rank, I informed him 
 that I must be received in the same way as the highest 
 Chinese functionary. Accompanied by a large escort, our 
 sedans reached the yamun, but we heard, as we passed 
 through the streets, that our expectations would be disap- 
 pointed as to the honours to which I was entitled. The 
 bearers of the sedan deposited me at the great entrance, the 
 doors of which were opened at the appearance of the Gover- 
 nor, who came forward, took me by the hand, and escorted 
 me in the presence of a prodigious number of mandarins 
 through a succession of apartments to the interior, where he 
 placed me in the seat of honour. He apologized for the 
 delays and difficulties which had taken place, exculpating 
 himself without much regard to truth. I then pointed out 
 to him the discourtesy in the phraseology of the letter he 
 had addressed to me, when he declared that the fault Avas 
 attributable to the ignorance of the scribe, whom he offered 
 to summon and punish in my presence, but I assured him 
 I should be perfectly satisfied if the becoming alteration 
 were made, which was immediately done with all the forms 
 of urbanity, and the expression of a wish to cultivate the 
 most friendly relations with the subjects of Great Britain. 
 He directed the immediate redress of some grievances which 
 
 p 
 
226 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I represented to him as complained of by our merchants, 
 particularly in reference to obtaining legal titles to lands 
 which they had purchased at Nantai, on the banks of the 
 Min, where most of the foreign warehouses are built. 
 Nothing could have been more satisfactory than the results 
 of the conference, and I have generally observed in China 
 that where matters in dispute can be discussed with the 
 high authorities, amicable arrangements are the result. 
 Had the viceroys of Canton been willing to hold friendly 
 communications with our plenipotentiaries, both the Chinese 
 wars might have been avoided. 
 
 Of all the mandarins of China, Keih had formed the most 
 correct notion of the power of Western nations, and the 
 desirableness of maintaining with them relations of concilia- 
 tion and amity. He was killed, and his army utterly de- 
 feated in a battle with the rebels at Chin-Kiang-foo. He 
 had lived at Shanghai, where he had seen much of the 
 wealth and prowess of foreigners, the trade of that place 
 exceeding twenty millions sterling, and the receipts of the 
 custom-house, collected with the assistance of foreign agents, 
 amounting to from two to three million ounces of silver. 
 On several occasions he was made the channel of intercourse 
 with the court of Peking, where he represented himself to 
 be very influential, assuring us that he should be able to 
 prepare the way for the establishment of a more friendly 
 policy towards the Treaty Powers, but in this he wholly 
 failed, and the ministers were obliged to proceed to the 
 Tientsin Eiver, where they had no success whatever in ob- 
 taining those reasonable modifications of the treaty which 
 might have prevented collision. It was under Keih's 
 government that the rebels held the city of Shanghai, many 
 attempts being made at his request to get rid of their pre- 
 sence by assuring safety to their persons, but they were 
 obstinate and unmanageable. They were ultimately dis- 
 
BRITISH INDIA. 227 
 
 lodged, and principally by the intervention of the French, 
 after having committed incredible horrors in sacking the 
 city and torturing the rich inhabitants. 
 
 My intercourse with Keih was not unfrequent, and on 
 one occasion, when the admiral and I went to complain that 
 by the firing of his troops the lives of some Englishmen had 
 been endangered, he sent for the sLx men represented as 
 guilty, who were ordered to kneel down, and he offered to 
 decapitate them there and then in our presence, which of 
 course we declined. It was Keih's ambition to be appointed 
 Imperial Commissioner at Canton, where assuredly his policy 
 would have formed a favourable contrast to that adopted 
 by the Viceroys in general. Keih was a Manchoo, and, as 
 far as my experience goes, the Tatar mandarins have been 
 better affected towards the representatives of foreign nations 
 than have the native Chinese. This may be accounted for 
 by the fact that the Tatars have had, from their adjacency 
 to the Russian tribes of the same races, more opportunities 
 of acquiring information as to western affairs than have been 
 enjoyed by their Chinese brethren. 
 
 BRITISH INDIA, 
 
 When I visited Bengal in 1851, I came to an early, and, 
 I believe, just conclusion that the popularity of the govern- 
 ment and the happiness of the people depended far more on 
 the conduct of our local functionaries than, on any instruc- 
 tions received from Leadenhall Street or the Board of Con- 
 trol. I shall not now enquire as to the extent to which the 
 prosperity of India may be promoted by its absolute trans- 
 fer to the rule of the British sovereign, nor enter into the 
 many intricate matters which that question involves. I 
 certainly found among the most intelligent of the Hindoos 
 that British rule was far preferable to that to which they 
 
228 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 had been subjected under Mahommedan sway, and there 
 was a general confidence in the manner in which justice is 
 administered, and a belief that our officials are not to be 
 diverted from their integrity. I watched with great interest 
 the proceedings of the supreme tribunals, and frequently 
 attended the kutcherries, or subordinate courts, where there 
 are so many opportunities of studying native character. 
 One could not but be shocked by the mass of contradictory 
 evidence and consequent mendacity. At that time, all was 
 conducted by written depositions, often of the most elabo- 
 rate and confused character, prepared by the native lawyers, 
 crowds of whom were assembled, either in the chambers 
 adjacent to the Kutcherry, or seated in the compound that 
 surrounded it. There was generally a large auditory, ap- 
 pearing to take a deep interest in all that was passing. In 
 the department of criminal justice especially every species 
 of misrepresentation was employed, above all in defence of 
 the accused, an alibi being the most frequent plea, and it 
 required the utmost sagacity on the part of the judge to see 
 his way through the entangled mass upon which he was 
 about to pronounce judgment. Questions of property, and 
 especially those connected with the soil, were in a most 
 misty state, the removal of landmarks, the imperfect 
 survey, and contradictory traditions involving these mat- 
 ters in obscurity, through which no penetration could 
 discover a way. In England it is not unusual to talk 
 about the settlement of these intricate subjects, as if the 
 labyrinth could be explored by a stroke of the pen or an 
 act of the legislature, but the practical difficulties can only 
 be estimated by those who have local knowledge. It might 
 no doubt be practicable in general terms to separate the 
 rights of the Zemindar from those of the Kyots, but it is 
 scarcely necessary to observe that these have varied in dif- 
 ferent parts of India from time immemorial, and that great 
 
BEITISH INDIA. 229 
 
 divergence of opinion exists as to what would be, on the 
 whole, the most satisfactory tenure of land. 
 
 I believe it has of late become more the practice to subject 
 witnesses to personal examination, a course of proceeding in 
 every respect desirable, and especially to interrogate indi- 
 vidually plaintiffs and defendants, who know more of what 
 is relevant to the question than other parties are likely to 
 do. This great reform, so urgently insisted on by Jeremy 
 Bcntham, has at last become the law and the usage of 
 England, and by it the ends of justice have been greatly 
 facilitated. But the all-present evil in India is the curse of 
 caste, an evil which one meets on every side, and which 
 tends utterly to destroy that equality in the eye of the law 
 which it is the object of sound legislation to introduce and 
 maintain. It is impossible to calculate the mischief and 
 misery, social and political, which the broad distinctions 
 among the different classes necessarily create ; yet, so invete- 
 rate are the prejudices, and so deeply rooted are the habits 
 of the Indian people, that it is difficult to suggest a remedy 
 for so gigantic an evil, and it must be owned that we have 
 in some respects augmented it by the deep abyss which we 
 have established between the whites, who are the ruling few, 
 and the coloured races, who are the subject many. I believe 
 no large amount of military force, either European or native, 
 would be necessary to maintain our domination, if more 
 attention were paid to the usages and opinions of the people. 
 These are often treated with great unconcern, yet I believe 
 the late mutinies found their main strength in the erroneous 
 estimate we had formed of what we called their supersti- 
 tions. Our people are frequently in the habit of treating 
 the Indians with contumely, and using expressions in their 
 presence deeply wounding to their pride and self-respect. 
 Even in acts, gross insults are sometimes inflicted, as in a 
 case once brought judicially before me, where the captain of 
 
230 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 a Britisli ship, who had been dissatisfied with the conduct 
 of his Mahommedan cook, ordered a ham to be brought, 
 with which he beat the offender cruelly about the head and 
 even the mouth. It was an outrage of the grossest character, 
 and as the tale would be widely told, one cannot but see 
 how detrimental it would be to our reputation, and how 
 aggravating to the susceptibilities of Moosulmans, who look 
 upon the pig as one of the most unclean of animals. 
 
 Most beneficial, without doubt, are many of the schemes 
 proposed for the developement of the resources of India — 
 improved roads, river steam -navigation, and extensive rail- 
 way lines producing important res\ilts ; but it is to irriga- 
 tion we must mainly look, and anyone who will study 
 the increased value of lands, which attention to the water- 
 courses has given to Lombardy, or compare the great results 
 in Egypt (a country resembling in many respects parts of 
 our Indian dominions), from the overflowing of the Nile, 
 the numerous canals, and the measures taken to carry out 
 a general system of irrigation, will be struck by the 
 enormous amount of produce which Egypt furnishes, con- 
 trasted with the miserably small returns from most of our 
 Indian districts. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 The perfumed island, as Ceylon has been called, fragrtint 
 with cinnamon and flowers, presents a singular but welcome 
 contrast to parch ed-up Aden, that volcanic record of pre- 
 historic ages, at which the Oriental steamers touch, to be 
 supplied on their transit with coals. 
 
 It is in Ceylon that Booddhism may be studied in its most 
 orthodox forms, the Cingalese priests being deemed the 
 highest authorities. Much of their time is passed in silent 
 meditation, the principal topic of their contemplations being 
 the mysterious manifestation of Booddh'a, and the manner 
 
CEYLON. 231 
 
 in which notions of his eternal existence can be conveyed to 
 his disciples. The unit of these calculations is a Kalpa, 
 which represents ten thousand of our numerals. Here is an 
 example of these teachings. There is a huge rock of granite, 
 and once in a kalpa of years an angel descends, and just 
 floats by the rock, touching it with the edge of a light 
 muslin robe. Now there can be no attrition without action. 
 When you can conceive that the whole of the granite stone 
 shall have been swept away by the angel's visits, you will 
 have an idea of the time which represents the existence of 
 Booddha ; or, suppose an enormous building to be filled with 
 sand, and that, once in a kalpa, one grain of sand is removed, 
 when not one is left, the life of Booddha will have but begun. 
 With such illustrations, the Bonzes profess to explain the 
 inexplicable, to grasp the infinite, but they certainly succeed 
 in producing towards themselves a great amount of rever- 
 ence, greater than that enjoyed by the priests of any other 
 religious community. 
 
 In 1852 I visited their sacred temples. In one of them 
 is Booddha reposing, carved out of the solid rock, and ten 
 yards long, the temple being built over the god, while on 
 the exposed part of the rock outside is the grant, engraved 
 in Cingalese, by which the kings of Kandy conferred its 
 rights upon the temple. The government agent, with two 
 native authorities, each having a key, has custody of the 
 precious relic, the tooth of Booddha, the possession of which is 
 supposed to confer the rights of sovereignty over the island 
 of Ceylon. Unfortunately, one of the authorities was absent, 
 so I could only see the outside of the chest which contains 
 the relic. I should have been allowed to see it, the rarest 
 of favours, had it not been for the absence of this functionary. 
 There are six chests or coffins of pure gold, one within 
 another, the outer, or seventh, being of silver gilt, with a 
 great number of precious stones, its form being somewhat 
 
232 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 conical, and its height about three feet. It is enclosed 
 within iron bars, with the three locks I have mentioned. 
 The tooth was taken by the Cingalese in the rebellion, but 
 was recaptured. The King of Siam offered, it is said, 
 £70,000 to £80,000 for the tooth, so great is its prestige. 
 There are a good many priests in the temple, but the tooth 
 is not left in their care, and there is always a guard of 
 British soldiers in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The tropical trees and shrubs in Ceylon, the magnificent 
 fridts and flowers, remind you of a nursery hot-house on the 
 largest scale, but a hot-house has no gorgeous butterflies 
 floating about, no songs of birds, no lizards glancing along 
 in the sunbeams, no little black children, with their flashing 
 eyes, ivory teeth, and long pendant hair, in absolute and 
 utter nakedness ; no men looking just like women, for they 
 all wear tortoise-shell combs, some of them very large and 
 tall, as I remember the fashion when I was young. Then 
 the women, with a single piece of muslin, or sometimes a 
 short jacket and loose under garment, pass along with their 
 little ones clinging to their hips, for they seem never to 
 carry an infant in their arms, as in Europe, or on their 
 backs, as in China. 
 
 The temperature was delightful (in January) and the 
 scenery enchanting, especially where streams make their 
 way down from the distant hills, whose very brows are 
 crowned with gorgeous vegetation. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 No greater political blunder was ever committed by 
 British negotiators than the cession to the Dutch of the 
 fertile regions of Netherlands India, while we retained a 
 portion of their West Indian colonies of incomparably less 
 value. The teeming population, the prolific soil, the ex- 
 cellent roads, and the fine harbours of Java srive it advan- 
 
JAVA. 233 
 
 tages rarely enjoyed by any colonial possessions. The re- 
 sources of Borneo, one of tlie largest islands in the world, 
 are for the most part undeveloped, Sumatra being in the 
 same condition, while in neither have the aboriginal tribes 
 submitted to the Dutch, who only hold a few spots where 
 the civil is supported by the military rule. Banca, small 
 as it is, gives a large revenue to the mother country, being 
 one of the few places producing that important metal which 
 brought the ancient Phoenicians to the Cornish Stannaries. 
 
 The population of the Dutch archipelago is said to be 
 nearly thirty millions of souls, and if the choice were offered 
 to me of being viceroy of these dominions or King of Hol- 
 land, I should not hesitate to prefer the former dignity. So 
 rapid is the communication from the excellence of the postal 
 service, that in 1853 I was conveyed in a carriage from 
 Batavia to Buitenzorg, a distance of forty miles, in less than 
 four hours, almost all the way being an ascent. Many 
 extraordinary public works were accomplished by General 
 Daendels, who was the Governor-General under Napoleon, and 
 had much of his character. On one occasion, finding that 
 the road to Bandong went round the foot of a mountain for 
 a considerable distance, he collected the native chiefs, and 
 told them he must have a direct passage made, over which 
 a carriage could travel. They answered that this was im- 
 possible, and that there would be a great sacrifice of human 
 life, on which he observed that roads put an end to intestine 
 wars, and that it was better that lives should be sacrificed 
 on useful works tlian in useless feuds, while as regards the 
 impossibility of the work, he should order a gallows to be 
 erected, and would hang every chieftain in the country if 
 the road was not ready in six months, when he meant to 
 travel over it. The menace did not fail of its purpose, for 
 the road was made, and he did travel over it. He issued 
 an arbitrary decree that, whenever he passed, all travellers 
 
234 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 should alight under pain of undergoing a public flogging, 
 but a member of his government, who conceived that his 
 high position freed him from the obligation, having omitted 
 to do so, Daendels ordered him to be seized, and the ignomin- 
 ious penalty was inflicted upon him. The official felt the 
 insult so deeply, that at a party which he gave soon after- 
 wards, he proposed as a toast " death to General Daendels." 
 This having been reported to the Governor- General, he in- 
 vited the offender to meet a large party at the palace, and 
 such invitations having the character of commands, the 
 outraged functionary took his seat at the table. The 
 Governor-General then himself proposed a toast, " to the 
 death of General Daendels," on which the official, without 
 any hesitation, said, " I drink your toast." The General, 
 hearing this, offered him his hand, told him to uncover a 
 dish on the table in which were two loaded pistols, and ob- 
 served, " You say to my face what you have said behind 
 my back, I honour your honest courage, and claim your 
 friendship. You and I should otherwise have met, and one 
 life would certainly have been sacrificed had you shown any 
 poltroonery." Though probably in these days acts so 
 tyrannical could not be practised towards any European, 
 yet the natives and the Chinese have often to complain 
 of the irresponsible despotism exercised by the Dutch 
 functionaries. 
 
 The number of settlers from the Flowery Land is nearly 
 a hundred and fifty thousand, and when I was in Java, I 
 learned that there was only one China woman among them. 
 I knew a wealthy Chinese merchant at Samarang who exer- 
 cised authority over ten thousand men of his nation. He 
 received me with some ostentation, met me with a con- 
 siderable escort some miles from his abode, and conveyed 
 me in a state-carriage, which had belonged to one of the 
 viceroys, to the place of my destination. He gave me a 
 
JAVA. 235 
 
 grand entertainment, to which all the principal officials and 
 leading inhabitants were invited. I had known him in 
 China, and had been able to afford him some protection 
 from the exactions of the Mandarins. One of the objects of 
 his visit was to obtain the consent of his wife to accompany 
 him back to Java, but such is the stigma attached to the 
 abandonment of her country by any female, and such the 
 surveillance exercised by the clan to which she belongs, 
 that no exertions and no money sacrifices enabled him to 
 effect his purpose. This is not the only case which occurred 
 during my residence in China of the failure of such attempts. 
 I was requested by a Chinese, who had made a large fortune 
 in the Straits Settlements, to endeavour to accomplish the 
 removal of some female members of his family, he being 
 willing to pay a large sum for the purpose, but, although it 
 is supposed that there is no high Chinese official who cannot 
 be tempted by a large bribe, in this instance also, there was 
 nothing but failure, for the mandarins dared not encounter 
 the obloquy which the removal of a female would have cer- 
 tainly created. Yet the emigration of Chinamen to various 
 parts of the east must amount to many millions. In the city of 
 Bangkok alone there are reported to be more than a hundred 
 thousand, while the whole number settled in the Siamese 
 dominions is believed to exceed considerably a million, a 
 similar state of things existing in the islands of the Indian 
 archipelago, where the great success which attends persever- 
 ing exertion, accompanied by temperance and economy, 
 makes the Chinese the subject of distrust and dislike to the 
 aborigines, who have few of the qualities which lead to the 
 accumulation of wealth, and who labour as little as they 
 can, and then generally only for the supply of their daily 
 wants. 
 
 At Bandong I took up my abode with the Toemenggong 
 or Eegent, who wore rich diamonds, and a golden dress 
 
236 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 sparkling with precious stones. Everybody, including all 
 the servants, crouched to the ground whenever he ap- 
 peared. His government (always subject to the Dutch, 
 however), was over one of the richest and most picturesque 
 regions I have ever seen, and the people seemed extremely 
 happy. He invited me to be present at the marriage of his 
 wife's brother. We were introduced with music and artil- 
 lery into a large hall, in which were Moosulman priests all 
 on their knees, while in the centre sat a youth with a golden 
 helmet, his breast bare, but the rest of his body oppressed 
 by the burden of gold ornaments, splendid robes, and a 
 quantity of diamonds and other jewels. The principal 
 priest came and knelt before him, two others kneeling be- 
 hind on small carpets. Attendants came in, and covered 
 the young man with a white sheet to remind him of the 
 vanity of worldly pomp, while the high priest read, or sang, 
 from the Koran all the verses which speak of marital 
 duties. He alone was allowed to touch or to come near 
 the bridegroom, on account of his exalted rank, while the 
 others bowed their heads to the ground from some distance. 
 Then the attendants brought in the bride, a rather pretty 
 and modest looking girl, whom they unveiled, and she too 
 was encumbered by jewels and splendid garments. She sat 
 on a chair on the right side of her husband, now and then 
 glancing timidly round, while offerings were presented, and 
 betel-nut distributed to the attendant priests. The bride- 
 groom came to receive his father's blessing, and that of the 
 other gentlemen of the family, the Regent among them. I 
 gave him a hearty shake of the hand, and we were 
 then escorted from the bridal chamber with torches and 
 music. 
 
 I visited the volcano of Tang-koeban-praoe, and was 
 accompanied by a troop of mounted men in the liveries of 
 the Regent, and by a great number of petty chiefs, who, 
 
JAVA. 237 
 
 with their followers, turned out to escort us. Music was 
 prepared in the villages, and, on reaching the foot of the 
 mountain, I should think a hundred attendants went with 
 us through the vast woods which we had to penetrate. The 
 forests were gloriously beautiful with trees covered with 
 flowers, ferns twenty or thirty feet high, orchids hanging 
 down from the branches, and singing birds around, but 
 when we reached the upper regions, all was desolation, the 
 trees being scathed and stripped by the eruptions of the vol- 
 cano, whose sulphureous outpourings filled the atmosphere. 
 We went to the top, and looked into the crater, where the 
 hot waters were boiling and bubbling from the depths below. 
 The wildness of the place is as wonderful as the Eden-like 
 look of the forests beneath, and there is a vast expanse of 
 scenery visible in the distance. 
 
 At Cheribon I went to see the tombs of the Sultans, 
 which are a strange mixture of the old and the modern, the 
 beautiful and the grotesque. They are reached through a 
 plain with splendid trees, and are surrounded by tessellated 
 walls, on which Chinese porcelain-plates of all sizes, and 
 Dutch tiles with Scriptural pictures, exactly such as amused 
 my childhood, are among the ornaments, with all sorts of 
 vases and jars, the government allowing three thousand 
 rupees yearly to keep the tombs in repair. The innermost 
 is deemed holy, being that of the founder of the dynasty, 
 and is locked, no Christian being permitted to enter. At 
 one place where we halted, about eight miles from Koenin- 
 gan, the musicians and people were congregated under an 
 immense and much-venerated tree, on measuring which, at 
 three or four feet from the ground, we found its girth to be 
 sixty-three feet. The gardens and grottos of the former 
 native rulers at Cheribon were laid out by a Chinese archi- 
 tect, whom the Sultan murdered in order that he might 
 make nothing so beautiful for any one else. They are all 
 
238 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 in ruins, having been shaken by an earthquake, but re- 
 sembled exactly what I had seen in China, and what one 
 observes in Chinese pictures and porcelain. 
 
 The people all looked meek and docile, robberies being 
 very rare, and though they sometimes run what is called 
 " a-muck," killing and wounding every one they meet, I 
 was told this only happened when they were under the in- 
 fluence of opium, and that the outbreak was generally 
 caused by some motive of jealousy. Throughout the Tegal 
 district I saw at every station a curious fork for catching 
 such unruly people, the sharp spiked points fixed along 
 each branch of the fork being the prickles of a certain 
 species of bamboo. 
 
 After visiting the famous temple of Boro-Buddor, I went 
 to see the Mcrapi, or eternal fires, places where flames are 
 constantly bursting forth from the earth's surface, some- 
 times through waterponds, and at others merely through the 
 soil, the hydrogen igniting when it comes in contact with 
 the atmosphere. Then, accompanied by a great number of 
 native chieftains, we went to the Moddenvell, a vast pond 
 of liquid mud, which the action of the internal fire tosses 
 up in violent heavings, like a huge caldron. Its appearance 
 for a moment is smooth and quiet, and then with loud 
 noises the liquid mud is hurled into the air, agitating from 
 one side to the other the pond's vast extent. Some of the 
 ponds are in the centre of hillocks, which have been raised 
 by the falling mud when hardened by the action of 
 the sun. 
 
 At Toeban I inspected a tree eighty-six feet in circum- 
 ference, a single trunk nearly two hundred feet high, called 
 in Malay the Randor Alas — the wild-cotton tree, I believe. 
 I visited the tombs of the ancient sovereigns, and a beauti- 
 ful bath overshadowed by tall banyan trees, and descended 
 into a grotto of almost boundless extent, whose alleys and 
 
JAVA. 239 
 
 arches represent an infinite variety of forms, and as we were 
 accompanied by many men bearing large lighted torches, 
 the effect was sublime. 
 
 While I was at Pasoeroean, the Resident, a warm-hearted 
 Dutchman of the old school, invited me to accompany him 
 to the Bromo volcano situated in the wild and wondrous 
 scenery of the Tengger Hills. We started before daybreak, 
 and saw the volcano blazina; in the dark distance, lightnings 
 and thunder bursting from the neighbouring mountain. 
 Preceded by horsemen bearing torches, and lighted by those 
 of the peasantry as we went along, our carriage took us to 
 the foot of the Bromo, where we found chairs, with roofs 
 and supported by bamboos, and with no less than sixteen 
 bearers to each, which conveyed us over roads, and through 
 ravines and woodland-passes which often looked perilous. 
 How the bearers made their way with their bare feet over 
 sharp rocks and stony places, through deep mud, masses of 
 lava, the roots of forest trees, and numerous other impedi- 
 ments, I know not, but they are patterns of docility and 
 good humour. We breakfasted at Torarie, 5,373 feet high, 
 and then proceeded to the volcano through the grandest 
 forest scenery, looking up to heights and down into depths 
 covered with all the magnificent vegetation of the tropics. 
 The people brought wild raspberries from the woods, and I 
 saw many a white rose in the banks and braes. At last, 
 from the top of a high headland, we looked down upon 
 what is called the lake of sand, it being the crater of an 
 extinct volcano, and after descending about half a mile on 
 foot along a most precipitous and crooked path, I leaning 
 on the arm of one of the native chiefs, who took as much 
 care of me as if I had been his father, we reached the sandy 
 sea, and traversed it for three miles to the bottom of the 
 Bromo volcano. Supported by my friendly Javanese, I 
 mounted two hundred and forty steps to reach the top of 
 
240 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the crater, and looked down upon the smoke issuing from 
 several parts of the vast basin. 
 
 I visited the island of Banca, which, for its extent, is one 
 of the most populous and productive of the Dutch settle- 
 ments, the tin found in it being of excellent quality and in 
 great abundance. The onlj workers in the mines are 
 Chinamen, of whom there were about five thousand em- 
 ployed, their general term of engagement being five years, 
 while their industry enables them to save sufiicient to pur- 
 chase a small farm in their native land, to which they are 
 so passionately attached that their corpses are taken back 
 to be interred in the places occupied by their departed fore- 
 fathers. The Government informed me that the supply of 
 emigrants was always equal to the demand, and that it was 
 considered a privilege in China to emigrate to Banca. 
 
 My visit in Java was to the Governor-General Deymaar 
 van Twist, from whom I received every courtesy, and was 
 accompanied by one of his aides-de-camp in my explora- 
 tions. Our hosts were generally the native chiefs, among 
 whom we had an opportunity of witnessing the mode of 
 living which, as to their meals, seemed characterized by the 
 use of an enormous quantity and a great variety of heating 
 condiments. I saw as many as twenty sorts upon a waiter, 
 and undoubtedly something is required to give piquancy to 
 the rice, which is the foundation of all their culinary prepara- 
 tions. The Dutch functionaries live in their own homely 
 style, varied in some cases by recherche French cookery, but 
 generally the simplicity of ancient manners is maintained. 
 
 At Buitenzorg I was invited to an exhibition of biology. 
 After failing with five persons, three soldiers, whom the 
 biologist saw for the first time, and who were sent for by 
 the commander of the regiment, were, after certain passes 
 and processes, placed so completely under the control of the 
 biologist that they lost absolutely all liberty of action. At 
 
JAVA. 241 
 
 his command they slept and woke, visited Holland, described 
 the places they saw, and drank of whatever beverage he 
 ordered them to partake, cold water being turned into hot 
 punch, madeira, port wine, and sundry other drinks. He 
 set them down to dinner before an empty table, pieces of 
 wood being turned into knives and forks. They cut up 
 their meat and potatoes, appeared to eat the dessert (out of 
 empty plates), picked up cherry after cherry, throwing the 
 stones away, and giving, as they thought, fruit to those 
 who were near. They were ordered to skate, and seemed 
 to put on their skates, complaining that the ice (the floor) 
 was so difficult to skate upon. They were taken to a 
 menagerie, when one suddenly exclaimed that the door of 
 the tiger's den was open, and he ran away in an awful 
 fright, saying that the beast was following him. Another 
 was made to fancy that he was drowning at sea, exhibited 
 all the marks of fear, and took to swimming for his life. 
 They were made dumb several times, and no menace, even 
 of their commanding officer, whom they recognized, could 
 extort a word. Things changed their colour at the com- 
 mand of the biologist, and a large sum of money was offered 
 if they would strike him, which they made many an effort 
 to do, but the hand was always arrested before it reached 
 him. They were, as it were, fastened to the ground limb 
 by limb, and even one finger after another, and were re- 
 leased in the same way, after incredible but vain efibrts to 
 relieve themselves. They could not break a rush, or even 
 a straw, upon their knees with all their force, till allowed to 
 do so. One was made to believe that he was playing on a 
 drum, another on a hand-or^an, and when the latter was 
 requested to sing, though he protested he could not, such 
 was the power of the biologist that he compelled him to do 
 so, the singing being most grotesque. One was made a 
 corporal, and began to command the others, showing his- 
 
242 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 chevrons with, great delight, but was disappointed on awak- 
 ing to find that he was only a private. Another was made to 
 see the girl whom he was courting;, and who was in Holland. 
 Again, another was told that the biologist would heat a 
 florin which he placed in his hand, and declared that it 
 grew hotter and hotter, till at last he flung it down, being 
 unable to hold it any longer. Being ordered to let drop a 
 handkerchief which they held, it was impossible for them to 
 do so, and when allowed to let it fall, they could not pick 
 it up again. They were ordered to tie it in a knot, and 
 made many efl^orts to do so, but in vain. The three were 
 employed some time in endeavouring to blow out a candle, 
 which was close to their mouths, but, in spite of all their 
 attempts, their breath always passed on one side or the 
 other. They all made several trials at putting a small 
 stick into an empty bottle, but could not find the way to 
 its open mouth. These are only some of the strange things 
 exhibited, the performance lasting some hours. They could 
 not in the slightest degree account for the power exercised 
 over them, but said it was absolutely irresistible. The 
 biologist was a marine ofiicer — modest and intelligent. 
 
 SIAM. 
 
 One of the most interesting parts of my public life was 
 my visit to Siam in 1855, of which I published an account 
 in two volumes, called " Siam and the Siamese." There 
 had been many attempts on the part of the United States 
 of America, of the Governor General of British India, and 
 of the English government, to establish diplomatic and com- 
 mercial relations, but they had utterly failed. Sir James 
 Brooke, the Eajah of Sarawak, had visited the Meinam, 
 and endeavoured to open a correspondence with the 
 Siamese authorities, but his reception was so unfriendly 
 that he was compelled to break ofi" all negotiations. 
 
SIAM. 243 
 
 The country was crushed by monopolies, almost every article 
 of produce was made an exclusive property, and there were 
 only two vessels engaged in the foreign trade. An obstinate 
 and ignorant illegitimate son had succeeded to the throne ; 
 but on his death the nobility clamoured for the recognition of 
 the legitimate descendant, a remarkable man, who had 
 retired from public life, and made his person sacred by 
 becoming a Booddhist priest, and withdrawing to a convent, 
 where for eleven years he devoted himself to the study of 
 Sanskrit, Pali, and other Oriental tongues. He learned 
 Latin from the French Catholic Missionaries, at whose 
 head was Bishop Pallegoix, the author of the Thai dictionary 
 and grammar, and of one of the best accounts of Siam ; and 
 English from the American Missionaries, who for many 
 years had a Protestant Propaganda in Siam, where, if truth 
 be told, they laboured with little success. 
 
 The new King, who was a most enlightened, sagacious, 
 and enquiring man, had been a correspondent of mine, and 
 received in an amiable spirit the overtures I made him. I 
 informed him — which indeed he knew well, for he had a 
 pretty accurate knowledge of Oriental and European poli- 
 tics — that I had a large fleet at my disposal, but that I 
 would rather visit him as a friend than as the bearer of a^ 
 menacing message. He wrote to me to request that, in order 
 not to alarm his subjects, I would come with a small naval 
 escort, so I steamed to the Meinam, with two vessels of 
 war, one of which, the " Ptattler," conveyed me and my 
 suite to Siam. 
 
 "We were advised by the American Missionaries that I 
 must expect to fail as .other envoys had failed, that the Sia- 
 mese were preparing barricades on the river, and giving 
 other evidence of an unfriendly spirit, that the Court was 
 hostile to strangers, and that our conquests in India had 
 awakened and seemed to justify their apprehensions. 
 
244 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Arrived at the mouth of the river, I sent my secretaries 
 to the capital, where they had little reason to be pleased 
 with their reception, as they were kept in a sort of imprison- 
 ment, and not allowed communications beyond their abode. 
 The King, however, determined to send down one of his 
 steamers to Paknam, to ask more specifically the purposes 
 of my mission, and to beg that they might be put in 
 writing for his information. A similar request had been 
 made to Sir James Brooke, who had complied with it, 
 and was soon involved in an irregular and entangled 
 controversy. My answer was a refusal to enter upon such 
 correspondence, as it might involve me in making demands 
 which it might be inexpedient or impossible for them to 
 grant, and exclude topics which it might be important for 
 both parties to introduce. I said I should prefer some 
 preliminary conversation, in which they could explain to 
 me their position and objects, and hear from me what I 
 thought we might reasonably expect from them. 
 
 The negotiations were thus opened, but many difficulties 
 arose which had to be vanquished. They wished the ships 
 of war to remain at the mouth of the river, to which I 
 could not consent, as, independently of their being neces- 
 sary to my comfort, they and their officers were requisite 
 appendages to my mission. Then the Siamese requested 
 that the guns might be left in their keeping, while the ships 
 ascended the river, a condition equally inadmissible. Next 
 the King sent down a number of royal barges, magnificently 
 adorned, in the shape of dragons and peacocks, with gold 
 and crimson silk drapery, to escort me to the city in all 
 dignity, as if we were Siamese of the highest rank. I 
 accepted the proffered courtesy, but requested that the 
 " Eattler " should follow in our wake. After a day's delay, 
 this point was conceded, but they wished to impose another 
 condition, namely, that no salutes should be fired, as this 
 
SIAM. 245 
 
 might frighten the people. I urged, however, that it was 
 out of the question for us to see the flag of the White Ele- 
 phant (the Siamese ensign) flying on the palace without 
 saluting it, and that I expected a return salute of seventeen 
 guns, but I suggested that the King should announce by 
 proclamation our intended arrival as friends, and that the 
 salutation of his flag was a respect paid to him by the 
 Queen of England. I added that it would be wise to send 
 some of his State Officers on board the " Eattler," to witness 
 the ceremonies, and then matters were comfortably and 
 peacefully arranged. 
 
 On arriving at the court, however, a new perplexity 
 awaited us, as no man was allowed to approach the king's 
 person with any weapon, but I informed them that we 
 always wore swords when received by our sovereign, and I 
 was able to show that M. Chaumont, who had been the 
 ambassador of Louis XIV., had worn his sword in the 
 presence of the then king, and that I was the representative 
 of a monarch certainly as great as the sovereign of France. 
 The king sent for me at night, and conducted me secretly 
 to the audience-hall, where I settled with him all the terms 
 of precedence, respecting which he was glad to be instructed, 
 as he would know how to arrange matters for other ambas- 
 sadors who might follow me. I said that I could not ask 
 the officers of Her Majesty's naval service to divest them- 
 selves of an ornament which was a part of their official 
 costume, in which they were bound to show their respect 
 for a foreign power. 
 
 The King's throne was an elevated recess, regally adorned. 
 He wore a high, splendid crown, with many precious stones, 
 and held his sceptre in his hand, while near him were the 
 members of the royal family, which comprised then forty or 
 fifty sons. We passed to the centre of the hall, all the 
 nobles being on their faces in the presence of their monarch. 
 
246 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 A cushion had been provided for me to sit on, while my 
 suite stood around me. I made my address to the King, 
 but though His Majesty understood English, it was translated 
 into Siamese for the benefit of the audience, while the 
 king's answer was translated froin Siamese into English, 
 that all the replies might be intelligible to our party. The 
 following day similar ceremonies were performed in the 
 presence of the second King. There was an interchange of 
 presents, and I was sorry to see that the telescope which 
 was among the gifts sent by the Queen, was far inferior to 
 those which the King had already in his observatory. 
 Among other presents which His Majesty handed to me 
 was one which he said was of greater value than all the 
 rest. It was a golden box, locked with a golden key, in 
 which were some hairs of the tail of the sacred white 
 elephant tied with floss silk. The possession of a white 
 elephant is considered a high privilege, it being believed to 
 be one of those incarnations in which Booddha loves to 
 dwell, an emblem of purity, though the skin is not white 
 but of a coffee colour. The elephant is kept in a beautifully 
 ornamented stable, is fed upon sugar-cane, is waited on by 
 Siamese dignitaries, and, whenever it goes forth to bathe, is 
 covered with splendid drapery, preceded by music, and 
 accompanied by reverential crowds. 
 
 After the reception, the King sent for me to visit him 
 privately in his apartments, and said he had understood 
 perfectly every word in my address except one, of which he 
 desired an explanation. He had no garment on but his 
 shirt, and held a child on his knee, utterly naked, but 
 wearing a wreath of fragrant white flowers. He was fond 
 of his children, and wrote me a letter five months after my 
 visit, which began, "Plenty of Eoyalty! five children have 
 been born to me since you left." 
 
 The Siamese laws about etiquette are so rigid that no 
 
siAM. 247 
 
 man is allowed to cross a bridge if a noble be passing on the 
 water below, and if an individual of inferior rank is found 
 in an upper apartment when visited by a superior, he must 
 either descend, or the superior, instead of ascending the 
 staircase, makes his entrance through the window, in order 
 to maintain a more elevated position. A curious exhibition 
 of this feeling occurred on board the " Rattler," when a 
 member of the royal family visited her. He saw in the 
 cabin several images of Booddha, over which the sailors were 
 accustomed to walk upon deck. He showed great distress 
 at what he deemed a profanation, and offered a large sum 
 of money for the idols, as it would have been a merit 
 recognised in a future state of existence to have released the 
 emanation from the godhead from a state of ignominy. I 
 was not able to comply with his request, and informed him 
 that, with the feelings of Christian people, it was quite 
 impossible to give any security that the images of Booddha 
 would not frequently be placed in a similar position. It is 
 remarkable, however, that the King repudiated all the 
 teachings of the Bonzes, which are inconsistent with the 
 discovered truths of natural philosophy, particularly those 
 of a geographical and astronomical character, to the study 
 of which he had specially devoted himself. He had a large 
 collection of telescopes, quadrants, and other instruments, 
 was able to calculate an eclipse, and had himself published 
 an almanack for the use of his people. He insisted that the 
 vulgar errors which are prevalent in Siam now, as they were 
 formerly in Europe, are not warranted by the earlier revela- 
 tions of Gautama, who lived about the time of Confucius 
 and Herodotus, and is deemed the last incarnation of 
 Booddha manifested to the world. It is remarkable that a 
 similar philosophical spirit distinguishes the reformed 
 Brahmins of India, who repudiate the corruptions found in 
 the Shastras, and aver that there is no authority for such. 
 
248 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 adulterations in the more ancient and far more sacred books, 
 the Vedas. Among the Eeformed Hebrews, there is a 
 similar determination to reject the teachings of the Talmud, 
 as having no divine authority, while even in the Christian 
 Church, many are bringing into the field of discussion 
 opinions which, a few centuries ago, would undoubtedly 
 have been deemed heterodox and heretical. In China, the 
 learned Confucians treat with utter contempt the hundreds 
 of volumes of legendary rubbish which have been introduced 
 by the Booddhist and Taouist priests. In fact, a new spirit of 
 religious investigation pervades the whole eastern and western 
 world, and, in the course of a few centuries, will no doubt 
 modify opinions now deeply rooted and widely spread. 
 
 The king of Siam used to express an opinion that what 
 he called the Superior Intelligence had given different 
 religions, each specially adapted to the locality and people 
 to whom his will had been conveyed. He put no impedi- 
 ment in the way of the teachings of either Catholic or 
 Protestant missionaries, saying, what was most true, that 
 they had made few, if any, converts among his people. 
 There are at Bangkok a considerable number of professing 
 Catholic Christians, but they mostly belong to the mixed 
 races, the descendants of the Portuguese, while the few con- 
 verts whom the Protestant missionaries claim are to be 
 found principally among the Chinese settlers. There is 
 probably no nation, with the exception of the Cingalese, 
 so attached to Booddhist rites and doctrines as are the 
 inhabitants of Siam. Every Siamese passes three months of 
 his life in a convent, where the priests instruct him in the 
 creed of Booddha, and it must be acknowledged that as a 
 race, the Siamese Bonzes are incomparably more intelligent 
 than those found in China, or any of the remoter regions of 
 Eastern Asia. Time has produced great changes in the 
 action of different sects, for, though Christians only are now 
 
siAM. 249 
 
 to be found sending forth teachers to carry on the work of 
 conversion, there was a period when the missionaries of 
 Booddhism covered the face of China, made their way to the 
 court, and persuaded millions of men to embrace their faith. 
 Though the Mahommedans, after the death of the prophet, 
 despatched their priests to the Flowery Land, they were 
 less successful than the advocates of Booddhism and 
 Brahminism, who came from India. 
 
 The Mormons have exhibited much zeal in the propaga- 
 tion of their extraordinary revelation, and boast of having 
 made from sixty to seventy thousand converts in England 
 and Wales alone — a greater number probably than the 
 Protestant missionaries could claim in all the regions of the 
 East. While I was Governor of Hong Kong, an American, 
 who looked and spoke as if he came from the back-woods 
 ■of the United States, visited me, charged, as he said, with 
 a special mission to China, and, producing his credentials, 
 said that if I would listen to him, I might effect a wonder- 
 ful religious revolution. " Signs, and wonders, and 
 miracles," he added, " have accompanied our progress, and 
 evidence of divine approval is seen in the immense multi- 
 tudes that have joined our standard." I replied, "Though 
 I am much occupied with public business, work now a 
 miracle in my presence. Turn this pewter inkstand into 
 stone, walk on the ceiling with your head downwards, or 
 do anything supernatural, and I will acknowledge at once 
 the authority which you represent." "Ah !" said he, "you 
 are but one of a faithless and unbelieving generation," and 
 he left my presence. I heard afterwards that he went to 
 the parade-ground, haranguing an auditory, of whom 
 scarcely any understood a word that he said, and inveighing 
 bitterly against the incredulity and deafness of the place. 
 He ended by speaking of his poverty, and a British sailor, 
 touched by commiseration, flung some money towards him 
 
250 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 as a charitable contribution. Of the future fate of this 
 adventurer I never heard. 
 
 On one occasion the King of Siam delivered over a great 
 number of Anamite prisoners to Pallegoix, the Catholic 
 Bishop, telling him that he might convert them to Chris- 
 tianity if he could. 
 
 I may add in conclusion that the Anglo-Siamese Treaty 
 has brought most beneficial fruits. The number of vessels 
 engaged in foreign trade has been centupled, the sides of 
 the Meinam are crowded with docks, the productive 
 powers of the land have increased, and with them the 
 natural 'augmentation of property, and the rise of wages. 
 The number of Chinese who are settled in Siam have greatly 
 aided the natural developement, and intercourse with 
 Europeans has not introduced, as in many parts of the 
 world, the deteriorating effects of intemperance. Siam is a 
 country of progress, and is sending forth her youth to be 
 educated in the best schools and colleges of Em'ope. The 
 Siamese, like the Japanese, are more aware of the advan- 
 tages of Christian civilization than are the proud Chinese^ 
 but even upon China that civilization is not without its 
 beneficent influence. 
 
 THE PHILIPPINES. 
 
 A serious attack of the intermittent fever, which is the 
 chronic malady of many parts of the east, compelled me in 
 1858 to seek the remedy of a sea voyage, and I determined 
 to visit the Philippine Islands, into which a more liberal 
 policy had lately been introduced. 
 
 In these islands Spain possesses a great treasure, and at 
 some future time they will become one of the greatest em- 
 poriums of commerce, and one of the widest fields for the 
 production of tropical articles. The number of islands is 
 very large, and in fact not fully ascertained, as only a few 
 
THE PHILIPPINES. 251 
 
 of them have been wholly subjected to Spanish dominion, 
 while, even in these, authority is maintained by the occa- 
 sional presence of military force. Even the friars, with all 
 their missionary zeal, have not penetrated into the interior 
 of any of the larger islands. In Mindanao the Spaniards 
 only possess some territory on the coast, while the native 
 chieftains, Mahommedans, and idolaters retain almost all 
 the inner regions. Manila, and a few other commercial 
 ports, particularly those of Iloilo in the island of Panay, and 
 Sual and Lingayen in the northern part of Luzon, two 
 places which (with Zounboanga) have been lately opened to 
 foreign trade, are giving evidence that these fertile regions 
 are making their way out of obscurity, and that they wiU 
 ere long prosper in the sunshine of a brighter day. 
 
 Their ancient condition was indeed a miserable vassalage. 
 They wore the heavy chains imposed by an unenlightened 
 monopoly, and were placed under the sway, and exposed to 
 the oppressive legislation, of new Spain, which laid upon 
 the Philippines a yoke more intolerable even than that im- 
 posed upon herself by the tyranny of the mother country. 
 
 In those times the islands were not self-supporting, but 
 drew for large deficits upon the resources of Spanish 
 America, their trade was confined to the narrowest limits, 
 and that trade, though so small, was restricted to a privileged 
 few. But the improved spirit of the age, and the progress 
 of free-trade principles have led, though slowly, to a con- 
 siderable relaxation of the ancient monopolies. Many 
 European and American merchants are now settled, espe- 
 cially in Manila, and have brought with them capital and 
 experience, giving a great impulse to the general prosperity. 
 These improvements are small indeed compared with the 
 capabilities of the soil. Any quantity of land can be ob- 
 tained without the payment of rent, and though the 
 character of the natives is generally careless and indolent. 
 
252 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 some of them have been giving a better example to their 
 fellows, and have begun to learn that industry is the parent 
 of wealth, and that wealth brings with it many blessings 
 and enjoyments. Many examples fell under my notice, 
 and I found Indians, moved by the love of gain, who were 
 increasing their plantations year by year, there being a 
 ready sale for the fruits of the soil. The Philippines are 
 no longer a burden to Spain, but in fact contribute a large 
 amount of revenue annually to the home treasury. In 
 truth, while the finances of the Spanish peninsula have 
 been in a most disorderly state, the Philippines have revelled 
 in a considerable excess of income; every functionary has 
 been regularly j)aid, and every engagement righteously ful- 
 filled, and yet, compared with the productions of Cuba, the 
 value of the exports from these islands is small and unsatis- 
 factory. The meddlings of the Madrid Cabinet, the con- 
 stant changes of Governors-General, which have been the 
 result of the quarrels of faction at home, the inattention 
 and delay which these valuable colonies have met with at 
 the hands of the sovereign authorities, and the restraiats 
 put upon the action of those whose local experience entitled 
 them to attention, are among the causes which have pre- 
 vented the greater developement of the latent resources of 
 the Philippines. 
 
 The friars possess much influence over the people, and 
 might, if they pleased, give a great impulse to industry, 
 but they seem rather concerned in maintaining their eccles- 
 iastical authority, and there is no part of the world in which 
 there appears such a prostration of the understanding and 
 the will to priestly domination. The most opulent of the 
 regular orders of clergy are the Augustines, who possess 
 large tracts of land in the islands, and are said to be liberal 
 landlords. Next, the Dominicans, then the Franciscans, and 
 last of all the Kecoletos or barefooted monks, who, though 
 
THE PHILIPPINES. 253 
 
 smaller in numbers, are not wanting in authority, tlie arch- 
 bishop, when I visited the Philippines, being one of their 
 order. Out of Manila there are no hotels, and it is to the 
 friars principally that the traveller must look for the exer- 
 cise of hospitality. I found that hospitality boundless, the 
 spacious convents and the gardens attached to them pro- 
 viding for something more than the ordinary wants of life. 
 In many localities the padres possess the best horses and 
 handsomest carriages that are to be found, and enjoy re- 
 venues far larger than they are able to expend. A friar, 
 who was exceedingly popular in the locality where he lived, 
 once invited me to a dinner at which he said he would 
 show what he was able to effect in the way of a festive 
 entertainment. No doubt he drew largely on the liberahty 
 of his neighbours, but he placed upon the table a dinner 
 which might have satisfied a Parisian gourmand, at which 
 a great number of his friends were assembled, and they 
 carried on their revelries for several hours after I quitted 
 the house. 
 
 Two characteristics have especially excited the attention 
 of all travellers in the Philippines — the ostentatious display 
 of the religious processions, and the universal passion for 
 cock-fighting which everywhere prevails among the native 
 inhabitants. The church ceremonies are most costly. I 
 witnessed a procession in honour of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception which, I was informed, was nearly a mile long, the 
 whole line being crowded by votaries, each bearing a lighted 
 wax-caudle. There was a long succession of Madonnas, 
 glittering with ornaments, and adorned with jewels to the 
 value of many thousand dollars, borne upon the shoulders 
 of devotees. Crowds of the secular and regular clergy, 
 with many members of the different sisterhoods, accompany 
 these exhibitions, multitudes of children, dressed in white 
 garments, and often representing the angelic hosts, being 
 
254 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 among tlie attendants, while the great civil and military 
 authorities are also not wanting. There are large escorts, 
 too, of cavalry and infantry, and the programme of the 
 arrangements in the official gazette sometimes occupies 
 whole pages. I have heard the ecclesiastics boast that in 
 no part of Christendom can be seen such a display of devo- 
 tion, and that the reverence for the Virgin is greater ia 
 these islands than in any other part of the world, yet 
 among the natives there is much hidden dislike, and many 
 of the vestiges of ancient idolatry are to be found in the 
 phraseology which they employ. I have heard it said that 
 the most binding oaths are those made in the names of the 
 heathen gods whom they formerly worshipped, and many 
 superstitious practices have traditionally come down from 
 their ancestors, having had an origin long anterior to the 
 Spanish invasion. In the writings and in the conversations 
 of the Papal priesthood complaints are often made of the 
 hypocrisy and mendacity of the aborigines, and many 
 curious examples are given of their untrustworthiness and 
 insincerity. At the same time they have their apologists 
 and advocates, and very different judgments have been 
 formed, even by those who have had the same opportunities 
 of observation. 
 
 Cock-fighting is the general amusement of the natives, 
 and long before the break of day the game-cock's clarion is 
 heard reverberating from every side, its noisy crowing con- 
 tinuing till the setting of the sun. There is no to^vn or 
 considerable village in which there is not a galleria or cock- 
 pit, invariably crowded with spectators to witness the 
 bloody fights between these bipeds, which are armed with 
 steel spurs, so sharp that their encounters are frequently 
 fatal. I have seen the Indians bearing home a triumphant 
 chanticleer, to whose wounds they pay more attention than 
 they would to the indisposition of any member of their 
 
THE PHILIPPINES. 255 
 
 family. If an Indian's hut take fire, he will neglect his 
 wife and children in order to preserve his favourite 
 bird, to which he is as much attached as the Arab to his 
 high-blooded horse. The government derives a consider- 
 able revenue from the cockpits, which are the scenes of 
 much gambling and of frequent quarrels. Every character- 
 istic of the game cock is, with the Indian, a subject of 
 study, the colour and disposition of the feathers, and even 
 the scales on the legs and the shape of the claws being 
 favourite topics, while money will not purchase from his 
 owner a cock who has been a successful warrior. 
 
 I ought to mention among the notabilia of these islands 
 the enormous production of ducks by artificial heat. The 
 eggs are placed in sawdust, which is kept constantly warm, 
 and at the same temperature. Every day multitudes of 
 ducklings come forth, and are sent to the ponds belonging 
 to the proprietor, where they are fed on mollusca, which 
 are found in large quantities in the water. Strange stories 
 have been circulated by some credulous travellers, who have 
 asserted that the eggs are incubated by the natural heat of 
 the bodies of Indians employed to sit upon them, a story 
 having about the same authority as the fable that there are 
 birds in the Philippine islands which make their nests in 
 horses' tails, where their offspring are naturally and re- 
 gularly hatched. 
 
 One of the great charms of the Philippines is the forest 
 scenery. Magnificent trees are covered with beautiful, and 
 often fragrant flowers, while many varieties of orchids 
 hang their insect-resembling blossoms in festoons from 
 branch to branch, and from tree to tree. Then the multi- 
 tudes of many-coloured butterflies, beetles, and other insects 
 give vitality to the scene, and the waterfalls which dash 
 down from the mountain tops bring music to the ear. The 
 equinoctial rains and perpetual sunshine give an enormous 
 
256 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 impulse to vegetable life, and I have heard that bamboos 
 half-a-footfin diameter grow to twelve inches in twenty-four 
 hours ; while the production of fungi is stiU more rapid. 
 Of course no inhabitants are found in the depths of the 
 mountain solitudes, of which so many utterly escape the 
 penetrating eye of man. One cannot but be amused by 
 the grotesque and picturesque shapes of the trees, which 
 seem to divert themselves by putting forth every fantastic 
 form. There is sometimes great difficulty in making one's 
 way through the wild scenery, but the Indians carry with 
 them large knives, which they use for many purposes, and 
 rapidly remove the branches, even in the thickest parts of 
 the woods. Sometimes the mud is so deep that it is diffi- 
 cult to make one's way through it, and I have had thirty or 
 forty attendants, embedded up to their thighs in mire, en- 
 gaged in extricating my palankeen from so disagreeable a 
 plight. 
 
 The inhabitants of the several islands are very different 
 in character. The languages sjDoken in Luzon are Tagala 
 and Bisayan, but in the ruder and less accessible parts the 
 idioms are very various, and consist of a small number of 
 words and very few letters. Like the rude islanders of the 
 Pacific, they have only five consonants and three vowels, 
 and these are not very distinctly pronounced. The Negritos, 
 or little black men, found in the interior of the Island of 
 Mindanao, are among the very rudest of the human race. 
 They build no houses, and dress no food, but live in trees, 
 and eat reptiles and fruit. Immense numbers of Chinamen, 
 but without Chinawomen, have settled in almost every part 
 of the Philippines, penetrating into parts which the Spaniards 
 have not conquered, nor even dared to invade. They have 
 intermarried with the natives, and their presence may be 
 traced in the greater industry exhibited in the famiKes 
 where they have been domiciled. Among the aborigines, I 
 
THE PHILIPPINES. 257 
 
 do not remember seeing any evidence of manufacturing 
 industry, but looms are generally found in the cottages of 
 the Chinese. 
 
 There is not much difference at Manila between the 
 temperature of the summer and the winter months. They 
 divide the year into the hot and the rainy season, and there is 
 a refrain which says that the Manila year is made up of " Seis 
 meses de polvo, seis meses de lodo, y seis meses de todo " — • 
 " Six months of dust, six months of mud, and six months 
 of everything." 
 
SKETCHES OF VARIOUS CELEBRITIES.* 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 My acquaintance with Louis Philippe dates from more 
 than half a century ago. I had been an intimate friend of 
 General Dumouriez, who was closely connected with Broval, 
 the Private Secretary of the Duke of Orleans, and in the 
 year 1822 I was introduced to the Duke through Broval, 
 and was frequently received by His Serene Highness, both 
 at the Palais Royal in Paris, and at his country seat at 
 Neuilly. 
 
 I have never seen a happier family than was that at Neu- 
 illy. Though, naturally enough, the Duke thought much 
 and talked much of the prominent public events of the time, 
 he was mainly occupied with his domestic affairs and the 
 management of his large property. The whole scene was 
 that of a prosperous country gentleman — an affectionate 
 happy husband, the father of a numerous and promising 
 progeny. I was the first foreigner who saw the 
 King after he had been acknowledged by the British 
 government. A singular accident occurred, which was 
 mentioned at the time in some of the newspapers, and was 
 deemed by some ominous of Louis Philippe's fate. When we 
 entered by that room in which there was a picture represent- 
 ing Louis Philippe when engaged as a teacher of mathematics 
 in a Swiss family — I believe David was the painter — the 
 King met us in a most excited state of delight at the 
 announcement which had just been made to him by the 
 British envoy. There were several ancient ornamented 
 
 * A few of these sketches have, I believe, previously app'?ared in priut. 
 
LOUIS PHILIPPE. 259 
 
 armchairs there, and with his own hand the King drew three 
 of them to the centre of the room, and saying to us, " asseyez 
 vous — asseyez vous," he sat down so violently in the middle 
 chair that it broke down, the King falling on his back. He 
 was raised up by the Prefect and myself, and Odilon Barrot 
 said, " voyez ! vous etes entoure d'amis," but the incident 
 was not a very pleasurable one to the incipient monarch. 
 He was only disturbed for a moment, and talked, as he was 
 accustomed to do, most glibly. 
 
 The faults of Louis Philippe were as prominent and as 
 unmistakeable as his virtues, but his faults damaged his 
 public reputation, and led to his overthrow, while his 
 virtues were only felt in his immediate social circle. If his 
 failings leant to virtue's side, it may be argued, they did 
 no mischief to others, while they were meant to benefit his 
 race. This is not so. His passion for money was such a 
 weakness as to lead him into errors of whose consequences 
 he never made a calculation, and from which he could 
 never recover. He was constantly dreaming about aug- 
 menting the wealth of his family, and was always hunting 
 for bargains in the investment of his property. He had 
 reports made to him of "lots" which were to be pur- 
 chased cheaply, and bought many " lits de mer," in order 
 that he might recover lands from the encroachment of the 
 waters. He was perpetually talking of the insufficiency of 
 the grants for the Civil List, and was not pleased when I 
 told him that the Chambers had dealt more liberally with 
 him than our Parliament had dealt with the British 
 Monarchs. 
 
 I had represented to the King, who was not a Free 
 Trader, and to the Baron Louis, the Minister of Finance, who 
 was a most earnest and conscientious supporter of commer- 
 cial freedom, the desireableness of strengthening the entente 
 cordicde, to use the phrase of M. Guizot, who, by the way, 
 
260 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 uttered the flattering words, but by his acts showed how 
 little he was disposed to give effect to them. I had 
 shown how much the political unity would be pro- 
 moted if the commercial intercourse between the two 
 countries could be based on a liberal treaty of commerce. 
 Lord Clarendon (then Mr George Villiers) and I were named 
 the British Commissioners to meet Baron Freville and M. 
 Tanneguy Duchatel, afterwards Minister of the Interior. 
 Notwithstanding repeated assurances of the King's desire 
 to aid us, we had abundant evidence of his duplicity. He 
 Avas alarmed lest the introduction of British iron should 
 depress the value of his forest property, as the French 
 smelting furnaces of that time employed only wood. He 
 employed Oudard, his Private Secretary, to report on the 
 extent of sacrifice he might have to make, and finding it 
 considerable, the British Commissioners had little hope of 
 success. The government had proposed as the French Com- 
 missioner, David, the head of the Custom-House, and the 
 most determined enemy of free-trade, with whom we refused 
 to act. We remained for some months at Paris, constantly 
 thwarted by M. Thiers, and by the intrigues and sinister 
 interests of Ministers, Peers, and Deputies who were manu- 
 facturers of iron, and who exercised great influence in the 
 Chambers. The sister of the King, Madame Adelaide, was 
 a partner with Marshal Soult, the Duke of Dalmatia, in 
 iron-works, and they furnished supplies for the State. It 
 remained for Mr Cobden to accomplish the work in which 
 we had so signally failed, and in which he would have 
 failed too, but for the courageous and omnipotent sup- 
 port which he received from Napoleon III. Had Louis 
 Philippe shown more honesty and more sagacity, his dynasty 
 might at this moment be occupying the throne of France. 
 His short-sighted and selfish policy met with an appropriate 
 recompense. 
 
LOUIS PHILIPPE. 261, 
 
 No man ever exhibited more markedly than Louis 
 Philippe the deteriorating eflfect of power. The man who 
 can enforce his opinions, and put down controversy and 
 contradiction by his position, he whose will can influence 
 the will of other men, without the necessity of bringing his 
 understanding to convince the understandings of those he 
 seeks to influence, will, as the shorter way of settling any 
 question, feel it sufiicient to say "sic voleo— sic jubeo." 
 And the infirmity of loquacity grew upon him. On one 
 occasion he sent for me to discuss some matter of interest 
 at the Tuileries. I went. He talked, and talked, but never 
 approached the subject on which he wished to consult me. 
 He was accustomed to interlard his conversation with bits 
 of foreign languages, several of which he spoke well. I 
 think he called the Duke of Wellington "comme vous 
 autres Anglais disent a Puss in Boots," and when speaking 
 of his own possession of the crown, he added " Possession, 
 vous savez, is nine points of the law," In reference to some 
 question of war, he said he should not be betrayed like the 
 Spaniards by a cry of " a la guerra ! a la guerra ! Espanoles ! " 
 He complained bitterly of the Duke of Wellington's refusing 
 to give him a command in the army during the Peninsular 
 War. He had a high notion of his own military abilities, 
 and there was no subject on which he was more eloquent 
 than the battles of Valmy and Jemappes, where he had 
 fousht under Dumouriez. Though Dumouriez served under 
 the Eepublic, he was never a Republican. The convention, 
 no doubt, mistrusted him, and when the commissioners 
 summoned him to Paris to answer for his monarchical weak- 
 nesses, he arrested them, well knowing that if he obeyed their 
 mandate, the guillotine would have been his doom. The 
 allies were as unwilling to co-operate with him for the 
 establishment of a constitutional monarchy, as he was to 
 carry out their despotic views. The " M^moires " written 
 
262 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 by himself may be accepted as a fair picture of his opinions 
 and an honest report of his doings. 
 
 I witnessed strange sights immediately following "les 
 glorieuses journdes de Juillet 1830." Then it was that 
 Louis Philippe, with his umbrella in hand, walked about 
 the streets of Paris, unaccompanied by any servant — the 
 citizen more than the king, the king absorbed in the citizen. 
 Then it was that I saw the whole of the Lafayette family at 
 court, the King stifling them with kisses, beginning with 
 the old General, and going through the line of his descen- 
 dants. . Then was the time of the " monarchic entouree 
 d'institutions republicaines." Then were the cries mingled 
 — from one side, "Louis Philippe parceque Bourbon," and 
 from the other, " Louis Philippe quoique Bourbon." Then 
 was it loudly proclaimed that he was the son of his father, 
 L'Egalit^, who had so boldly placed the big tri-colour cockade 
 in his hat, and whose taint of blood and life of folly had 
 been more than expiated by his death. Lafayette, less 
 distinguished by strength of mind and sagacity than by 
 his amiable temper and courteous manners — in fact he was 
 a preux chevalier, who woiild have been distinguished in 
 the chivalric ages — was only taught by sad experience the 
 duplicity of the King. When Lafayette's influential position 
 as Commander-in-chief of the National Guard gave the King 
 some disquiet, lest his authority should be used to strengthen 
 the republican against the monarchical principle — the King 
 managed to persuade the General to resign his high post, on 
 the ground that his moral was greater than his military 
 influence. I ventiired, when Lafayette reported to me 
 what had been done, to say, " and so the King persuaded 
 you that a man without a sword is stronger than a man 
 %vith a sword ? " On his death-bed, Lafayette confessed to 
 me that he had been deceived, that I had apj)reciated Louis 
 
LOUIS PHILIPPE. 263 
 
 Philippe's character better than he, and that he had trusted 
 him when he deserved no confidence. 
 
 It was clear to me that Louis Philippe altogether mis- 
 took his position, and fancied his dynasty was firmly 
 established in the mind and the purposes of the people. 
 He listened unwillingly to any representations as to the errors 
 of his policy, received and welcomed the pleasing pictures 
 of his popularity which his courtiers painted, and was 
 utterly blind to the indications which, previously to his 
 downfall, were perceptible on every side to everybody. On 
 one occasion, when I reminded him that monarchs were often 
 misled by the flatterers who surrounded them, he retorted 
 that the mob had its flatterers too — a truth, no doubt, but 
 the flatterers of the mob are less mischievous than the 
 flatterers of the monarch, and their influence is counteracted 
 and controlled by other popular influences favourable to 
 good government, and even to monarchy itself I remember 
 once, when at the Tuileries, he pointed to the troops on the 
 Place du Carousel, and spoke of them as the supporters of 
 his throne. How little did he recognize the fact that the 
 army of France has never hesitated to abandon the Eepub- 
 lic, the Empire, or the Monarchy, when public opinion has 
 declared itself unfriendly to either. The French army is 
 not the army of a monarch or a ministry, or of any par- 
 ticular form of government. It is thoroughly imbued with 
 the national feeling, and in moments of popular enthusiasm 
 shares that enthusiasm and becomes its instrument. 
 
 The King so little understood the position of a Consti- 
 tutional Monarch that he often boasted of carrying matters 
 against the opinion of the Ministers by his personal wiU. 
 He said to me, " am I to sit in Council, and be a nullity like 
 the Queen of England?" to which my reply was " Sire ! vous 
 faites des questions ministerielles des questions monarchi- 
 ques. You involve yourself in responsibilities which had 
 
264 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 better be avoided." And yet he had a great idea that he 
 was a master of the art of kingcraft, and that he could 
 carry out his personal policy by a machinery of his own. 
 He never concealed his opinion that he was the only person 
 who could pilot the State vessel through all the revolution- 
 ary storms. In one of his outpourings he said, " II n'y a 
 que moi qui puisse mener cette voiture Ih " — meaning the 
 State carriage— and when I answered, " Mais, sire ! si vous 
 la versez V, he was much displeased, and retorted to Casimir 
 Perrier, from whom I heard it, " Bowring m'a dit des choses 
 vertes." Up to a certain time, he received me most con- 
 fidentially. I have been summoned to his boudoir when 
 he was shaving himself, for I believe he did not employ a 
 barber ; but in a later part of his reign his courtesies were 
 wholly discontinued, and I never intruded on him during 
 his exile. 
 
 At the Eevolution of 1848, a list was found headed, 
 " Hommes a moi," and it is well known that he had cor- 
 rupted the Chamber of Deputies by honours and emolu- 
 ments, a very great number of them having obtained places 
 and decorations for themselves and their dependents. Elec- 
 tors and elected were equally bribed. At the time of the 
 negotiation of the unhappy Spanish marriages, he carried 
 on a private correspondence with his minister at Madrid, 
 Bresson, who afterwards committed suicide ; and in a con- 
 versation I had with him at the Tuileries, he pulled out 
 from his side-pockets a quantity of papers, and said, " Croyez 
 vous que mes ministres aient vu cela 1 " He certainly had 
 not the ars celare artem. As far as my experience went, 
 his sister Adelaide was the only person who had any real 
 influence with him. His talkativeness and obstinacy in- 
 creased with his age. As a country squire, he would have 
 held an honoured position ; as a monarch, he was beneath 
 mediocrity. He would have quarrelled with England, and, 
 
LEOPOLD L, KING OF THE BELGIANS. 265 
 
 under Thiers' impetuosity, would have willingly gone to 
 war, but he dared not. I doubt if he trusted anybody, 
 though he believed he could control everybody. 
 
 There is little merit in delineating his character, and it 
 may be prognosticated that posterity will be pretty well 
 agreed as to his demerits and his deservings. 1871. 
 
 LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIANS. 
 
 Whatever may be the future fate of the Duchy of Saxe- 
 Coburg as an independent State, the blood of the princely 
 family which there rules is now intermingled with that of 
 almost all the imperial and royal races of the civilized 
 world. The population of Coburg, united with that of 
 Gotha (added to it in 1825, and nearly double in amount), 
 does not exceed 150,000, or less than that of a second-rate 
 European city ; while the House of Gotha can claim a 
 ducal ancestry scarcely extending back beyond the period 
 of two centuries. Now, when the position of the Coburgs 
 in the political field is contrasted with that of the Bourbons 
 of France and Italy, that of the Vasa in Sweden, of the 
 Stuarts in England, and other wrecks of ancient royalty, 
 the chances and changes of time become indeed matters of 
 great marvel as regards the past, and of perplexing specula- 
 tion in reference to the future. 
 
 Time was when the rise and fall of dynasties depended 
 wholly on the results of the battlefield. The conquered 
 being crushed, the conqueror seized the contested crown, 
 and seated himself on the vacated throne. But other in- 
 fluences than the sword have decided, and are more and 
 more likely to decide the fate of sovereigns. Beyond a 
 certain amount of misrule, public patience will not tolerate 
 the grave faults of those in authority. The beheadings of 
 some kings, and the deposition and expatriation of others, 
 have shown how little sacredness attaches to the person of 
 
266 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 a sovereign, even if they have not destroyed all reverence 
 for rights divine. New views of the relations between 
 governors and the governed have brought the mightiest as 
 well as the meanest before the inexorable tribunal of public 
 opinion. 
 
 Leopold was the first of a royal dynasty, and has fixed 
 it on a foundation more likely to be durable than the 
 assumption of ruling " by the grace of God," or by the 
 titles conferred by the Pope of Eome. Eoyalty is subject 
 to the same conditions of chance and change which sur- 
 round all human institutions, and if, in ordinary circum- 
 stances, monarchs are treated, as they have a fair title to be 
 treated, with more indulgence than their dependents, it has 
 been sometimes found that they become the objects of 
 bitterer hatred and severer condemnation than those less 
 fawned upon and less flattered than themselves. 
 
 I enjoyed more or less of intercourse with King Leopold 
 during the fifty years of his public life, and, not long before 
 his death, had a most interesting conversation with him on 
 his personal history during that half century, in whose 
 remarkable events he had taken so active and so useful a 
 part. I had an occasion then particularly, as I had often 
 had an opportunity before, of studying the grounds of that 
 quiet and benign influence which he had so habitually 
 exercised in the interests of peace, and in the service of his 
 race, and which, though the marks of pain and exhaustion 
 were still visible, enabled him to look back, not only with 
 serenity but with self-gratulation on his own marvellous 
 history, on the elevation of his family, and generally on the 
 position and prospects of European affairs. His nature — 
 not, however, so unimpassioned as it has sometimes been 
 deemed — had been subdued by age, toil, and suffering, to a 
 singular complacency, and enabled him, like one harboured 
 in a port of safety, to recall to his grateful memory the 
 
LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIANS. 267 
 
 storms in which many had been wrecked, but through 
 which he had passed, not with safety and dignity alone, 
 but in triumph. 
 
 I may briefly revert to the question which was the 
 immediate occasion of my last visit to Laeken, as it had 
 been referred specially by the ministers to himself, and its 
 solution was characteristic of his peace-seeking and peace- 
 loving nature. It had reference to an article in a treaty of 
 amity and commerce, by which it was provided that, if 
 there were any difference of opinion between the contract- 
 ing governments which could not be satisfactorily solved 
 by diplomatic correspondence, there should be no appeal to 
 arms — ultima ratio legum — but that such differences should 
 be referred to the friendly arbitration and decision of some 
 neutral power. It was the first European Treaty into which 
 such a condition had been introduced, and there were many 
 objections, principally on account of its novelty. It is a 
 general but somewhat hasty assumption, both of monarchies 
 and republics, that they are sufficient for the maintenance 
 of their own authority and dignity, that they ought to 
 reserve to themselves the power of insisting on the repara- 
 tion of supposed wrongs and the recognition of invaded 
 rights, and that it does not become the pride and self-suffi- 
 ciency of a nation to surrender to others the solution of 
 controversies which it can settle by its own unaided strength. 
 Such an opinion Lord Palmerston had invariably interposed, 
 when on more than one occasion it had been suggested that 
 it would be a noble example to be given to the world if a 
 country so powerful as Great Britain would take the initia- 
 tive of declaring her willinarness to submit to arbitration the 
 vexatce questiones which have so often led to fierce con- 
 tests, associated with all the uncertainties of war, but with 
 the certainty at least that the evil passions of envy, hate, 
 and jealousy, will be fanned and fostered, the peaceful rela- 
 
268 AnOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 tions of commerce interrupted, the taxes fearfully augmented 
 — for great nations, as the Duke of Wellington declared, 
 cannot engage in petty strifes — and, as a result far more 
 sad, that the loss of money, the sufferings of individuals, 
 families, and peoples, might all be provided against, and 
 prevented, would governments allow, in cases of contro- 
 versy, an appeal to some equitable and disinterested autho- 
 rity. " C'est une question humanitaire — ainsi soit il," was 
 the king's decision, when his ministers asked for his award. 
 Well do I remember the phrase, and though I believe the 
 word is not to be found in the dictionary, where it well 
 deserves to be, the arbitration clause was introduced into 
 the Belgo-Hawaiian Treaty of friendship and commerce, 
 and has since been adopted in the treaties with several 
 European nations. Its adoption is at all events one step 
 towards the establishment of an International Tribunal — 
 that great desideratum — which will, in process of time, 
 propound and administer a code of international law ; for, 
 whatever may be the power of a lex non scripta, authori- 
 tative international law there is none. 
 
 Among the foolish schemes of a very foolish sovereign 
 was that of disposing of the hand of his daughter — of the 
 heiress to the British Crown, without that daughter's con- 
 sent. NoAv, if there ever were a woman with a will of her 
 own, and whom it would have been impossible to bend to 
 a despotism which disregarded her feelings and affections 
 in the most susceptible part of her nature, that woman was 
 the Princess Charlotte ; and even had no more attractive 
 lover than the Prince of Orange been presented for her 
 acceptance, the Prince of Orange most assuredly would 
 never have obtained her hand, and still less have won her 
 heart. Neither in person — for that was mean and un- 
 attractive — nor in any moral or intellectual superiority, did 
 the young Dutch prince recommend himself He had every 
 
LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIAN'S. 269 
 
 possible advantage, the warm patronage of the lady's father, 
 and of the ministers of the Crown, and what was perhaps 
 of more importance to him, the personal knowledge and 
 approval of the Duke of Wellington, whose aide-de-camp 
 he had been, and with whom he had creditably served. 
 He had, too, the recommendation of belonging to a family 
 with which the Protestant sympathies of England had been 
 long associated, and was the future representative of that 
 " Oranje boven," the utterance of which had not been with- 
 out its importance in overthrowing the Napoleon dynasty. 
 His rival was a youth of a comparatively obscure race, a 
 younger son of one of those petty States which represent 
 the discordant elements of Germany, and which are in pro- 
 cess of inevitable absorption by that tendency to union and 
 unity which makes similar elements gravitate to and finally 
 mingle with one another. Great nations are formed, and 
 constantly grow greater by drawing towards them the in- 
 feriorities that surround them, whether inferior in physical 
 strength or intellectual power. This irresistible " tide of 
 tendency" has lately been strikingly exhibited in the crea- 
 tion of the Prussian kingdom, while, on the other hand, the 
 failure of the attempt to dissever a smaller portion of a 
 great empire from the larger may be studied in the events 
 of the federal war in the United States. 
 
 The mind of Leopold, modified as it was by English and 
 French associations, the result of the study of books and 
 intercourse with men, was markedly of the German type, 
 and though he spoke fluently, but somewhat slowly, the 
 lanffuao-es of what have been called the two great rival 
 nations, and was well instructed in the history of both, 
 there was a paramount Teutonic influence traceable in his 
 phraseology, which showed that he thought in German, 
 even while his utterances were in the idioms of France or 
 England. Even at his table, German was the accepted and 
 
270 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 preferred tongue, unless when courtesy to guests, or diplo- 
 matic usages, made the employment of French or English 
 more becoming. The affinity between High and Low 
 Dutch, or in other words, between the Saxon and the 
 Flemish, both derived from Gothic roots, is so great that 
 the knowledge of one woidd render easy the acquisition of 
 the other. Of the three languages spoken in Belgium — 
 French, Flemish, and Walloon- — the Flemish is the most 
 extensively used among the people. I am not aware that 
 Leopold ever ventured to employ the popular idiom in any 
 public discourse, or in any communication with the Flemings. 
 The presence and government of the Hollanders had given 
 to the dialect of Flanders no small encouragement from its 
 very close resemblance to the Dutch. Indeed, while Belgium 
 was linked to Holland, and they formed together the 
 Netherlandic Kingdom, the Flemish was quite as much the 
 official language as was the French, and many of the depu- 
 ties of Flanders used the vulgar tongue in their parliamentary 
 debates ; but, as the French represents a higher civilization, 
 occupies a far more extensive field, and is recommended by 
 a more rich and varied literature, there can be no doubt that 
 the French will gradually supersede the Flemish, not only 
 from its greater value as a language, but because it is the 
 organ employed by the State, and represents the riches and 
 the rank of the capital, for, except in the lower districts of 
 Brussels, to speak Flemish would be deemed something 
 worse than unfashionable. French has become the organ 
 of the government, and all the influential newspapers, almost 
 all the remarkable publications, the more eloquent preach- 
 ings from the pulpit, the dramatic exhibitions, and the 
 national scngs, bear testimony to the intrusion of the French 
 language upon Flemish ground. Parliamentary oratory is 
 almost exclusively French — indeed there is scarcely a states- 
 man of mark who has employed any other tongue for the 
 
LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIANS. 271 
 
 display of his political power. The nationality of the 
 Belgian, his alienation from the Dutch alliance, is more 
 marked by his repudiation of their tongue. Holland, in 
 which the home-feeling is intense and immoveable, will 
 long retain de Hollandsche Taal ; but that portion of the 
 Netherlands which was wrested from her by the revolution 
 of 1831, will in a few generations adopt the language of 
 Paris, to which all others will be subjected, or in which 
 they will be absorbed. Already the Brabanters pride them- 
 selves, in that the French of la honne Societe Bruxel- 
 loise is as pure as that which, according to Chaucer, in the 
 schools of one metropolis was not spoken — at all events not 
 in " Stratford le Bo we," 
 
 " "Where French of Paris was to them unknowe," 
 
 and certainly the Belgian French is more classical than that 
 of many departments of France, where the patois tone and 
 type influence the pronunciation of the national tongue. 
 
 Nothing could be more fortunate to Leopold than to have 
 resisted the temptations which the crown of Greece oflered 
 to his ambition, an offer singularly attractive at a time 
 when the uprising of Hellas from her long apathy had 
 awakened the impassioned sympathy of the world. Canning 
 had, in his youthful enthusiasm, hailed the hope of her 
 resurrection, and Byron had flung his heart, and soul, and 
 voice, and fortune into the movement, by which she seemed 
 to prove that something better than a " blush " was to be 
 found for Greeks, and for Greece something brighter than a 
 "tear." But Leopold had penetration enough to see that 
 the anarchical elements which stood in the way of the re- 
 construction of the Hellenic Kingdom might be too strong 
 to be subjugated by his energies, and perhaps had even the 
 foresight to anticipate that he might be called to a higher 
 mission. Be that as it may, it was fortunate for Belgium, 
 
272 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 for Europe, and for the world, that Athens was not chosen 
 for the display of his talents for government, and that 
 Brussels was so chosen. Leopold was chosen too when 
 many rivalries were in the field, when it was notorious that 
 Louis Philippe had an absolute passion for seating his 
 children on adjacent thrones. Fond as he was of intrigue, 
 and never losing sight of family interests, his views upon 
 Belgium would have been willingly accepted and endorsed 
 by the French people, had not a very steady purpose of 
 independence become the popular Belgian policy — a policy 
 looked upon with something more than complacency by the 
 European Powers. Moreover, Louis Philippe was wholly 
 wanting in moral courage and confidence, and always 
 shrank from the dangers which might have followed any 
 adventurous daring. He was indeed well satisfied with an 
 arrangement by which, soon after the nomination of Leopold 
 to the kingly power, the eldest daughter of the Orleans 
 royal race was selected for the Belgian queen. 
 
 The position in which Leopold was placed was one 
 which demanded two special, and not always concurring 
 qualities — calmness and energy — calmness to form a clear 
 and distinct estimate of what was needful to be done, and 
 energy to subdue the difiiculties that opposed themselves 
 to the accomplishment of a steadily defined purpose, and to 
 give to that purpose substantial effect. The national feeling 
 insisted on terminating the connection between Holland 
 and Belgium, a connection in whose enforced infliction not 
 the slightest regard had been paid by the Congress of 
 Vienna to the wishes and opinions, or to the prejudices of 
 the Belgians, a people more numerous, though perhaps less 
 national, than the Dutch. It is true that the prevailing 
 feelino- was not wholly divested of the sympathies which 
 grew out of a common language, and a common literature, 
 for the Flemings have always considered the Netherland 
 
LEOPOLD I., KING OF THE BELGIANS. 273 
 
 authors as belonging to, and reflecting glory upon, them- 
 selves. Still, the influence of French writers over Brabant 
 and the provinces in which French was spoken, was stronger 
 than that of Dutch literature over the Flemish provinces. 
 The Catholic religious element, while it presented a serious 
 barrier to any strong sympathy between the two nations, 
 was not the less a subject to be dealt with by a Protestant 
 prince whose Protestantism would naturally be supposed 
 to give influence to the party with which he had been con- 
 nected from his birth upwards, and his attachment to which 
 could only have been strengthened by his alliance with that 
 English princess who would undoubtedly have a right to be 
 deemed, should she ascend the throne of England, as the 
 very head of the Protestant religion in Europe, and indeed 
 of the whole world. It is only in weighing the heterogeneous 
 and opposed elements with which Leopold had to deal, that 
 the sagacity of his mind can be properly appreciated in so 
 disposing of them that they were combined in a regard for 
 his person, and a disposition to support his government. 
 Not to ofi"end the priestly party, while strengthening the 
 growth, and helping the extension of a general educational 
 system, and at the same time not to alienate or offend those 
 who looked upon priestly interference as mischievous and 
 intolerable, was indeed no easy task. It is true that, from 
 time to time, each party took umbrage at the too much or 
 too little that was done, but neither party had ever 
 any ground for complaining that the kingly authority was 
 exercised in an unbecoming or unconstitutional manner. 
 
 Leopold was singularly fortunate in the choice of his 
 agents and representatives, of which a remarkable evidence 
 was seen in the person of Sylvain Van de Weyer, so long 
 his minister plenipotentiary at the Court of St James. 
 Van de Weyer was the son of an obscure Juge de Paix, and 
 his mother kept a librairie at Louvain. He obtained some 
 
274 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 eminence as an avocat, and by his writings and speeches 
 made himself obnoxious to the Dutch, and was marked out 
 for political persecution, which obtained for him notoriety 
 and fame. In 1830 he became a member of the Provisional 
 Government in Brussels, of which De Potter was the 
 President, and, though speaking English marvellously well 
 for one who had never put his foot in England until he 
 came hither, sent by the Eepublican party, he soon, by his 
 firmness and sagacity, won his way to the good opinion of 
 our leading politicians, and especially of the ambassador of 
 Louis Philippe, Talleyrand, who constantly spoke of the 
 young diplomate in terms of high laudation. The Duke 
 of Wellington was struck by the undiplomatic frankness 
 and ability with which the youthful envoy treated the 
 great interests confided to his advocacy. Van de Weyer 
 formed a very correct estimate of the tendencies of public 
 opinion at home and abroad, soon detached himself from 
 the Eepublican party, and attached himself to the cause of 
 monarchy as represented by Leopold, to whose service he 
 devoted himself with unswerving faithfulness. His mar- 
 riage with the daughter of Mr Bates, the opulent managing 
 partner in the house of Baring Brothers, brought to him all 
 the consideration that wealth could give, while his love of 
 books and literary studies secured for him a very honour- 
 able position in the world of letters. It was happy for 
 him that Great Britain was the field in which his talents 
 found their exercise, for in Belgium the morgue aristocra- 
 tique would have rebelled against his elevation, as it did 
 when for a short season he was invested with ministerial 
 authority at home. 
 
 There is no country in Europe where opinion has been so 
 thoroughly revolutionized on the subject of Free Trade as 
 Belo-ium. The woollen and cotton manufacturers of the 
 Flemish provinces were among the most ardent advocates 
 
LEOPOLD L, KING OF THE BELGIANS. 275 
 
 of the protective system, while the greater and more grow- 
 ing mining and agricultural interests advocated the re- 
 moval of restrictions. Moreover, the interest which, after 
 all, ought to be preponderating and paramount — namely, 
 the interest of the consumer, distinctly perceived that the 
 national well-being would be best promoted by low tariffs, 
 and extended foreign commerce. Towards this object, and 
 the promotion of the sound principles of political economy, 
 the views of Leopold were constantly turned. He spoke 
 with much delight of the conversion of the Belgian people 
 to wholesome and profitable notions on the subject of trad- 
 ing intercourse. In fact, if the revenue could be spared, or 
 other means of taxation be provided, there is a disposition 
 among the Belgians to abolish custom-houses altogether, 
 and to allow the exit and entrance of all merchandize with- 
 out any fiscal interruption, whether to levy an impost or to 
 impose a condition. Happy will be the nation which shall 
 first give the noble example, and splendid its reward will 
 be, of allowing to the whole world the privilege of unre- 
 stricted communication, and which shall have the courage 
 to say — " Bring to us your superfluities ; we shall impose 
 no tax upon their import — take in exchange what we have 
 in excess, no duty shall be levied on its export ; our mar- 
 kets shall be to you and to everybody what your home- 
 markets are to one another ; as far as we are concerned, we 
 will make international what has hitherto been only 
 national, and as far as commerce is concerned, extend to 
 all people the privileges of a common fraternity," Such a 
 solution of fiscal and financial controversies would indeed 
 be the introdviction of a happy millennium, whose advent 
 will perhaps be hailed by a not distant generation. 
 
 As the vital forces of nature overpower all resistance, as 
 the rays of light proceed in straight lines, notwithstanding 
 temporary interruptions or refractions, as the electric fluid 
 
276 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS, 
 
 runs through the wire-conductors as far as they reach, so 
 we may anticipate a day, however remote, when all human 
 energies, brought into the arena of industrial and beneficent 
 action, will display themselves in full and unmolested 
 power, and the law^s of a sound political economy will be 
 recognised as the most solid basement for the prosperity of 
 nations. 
 
 The two opposing elements — subjection to ecclesiastical 
 authority, and free thought with its various tendencies — 
 are pretty evenly balanced, and come into immediate contact 
 with one another in Belgium. There can be no doubt as to 
 the tendencies of public opinion. The hold of the clergy upon 
 the peasantry is very strong, and made much stronger by the 
 attachment of many of the old families to the Church of 
 Eome, while the priesthood puts forward its claim to be the 
 director and controller of the national education. Its power 
 is at the same time greatly augmented by its association 
 with the religious rites of baptism, marriage, and burials, 
 though it is the civil registration that constitutes the legal 
 validity of the ceremony. Added to these, the monopoly of 
 the pulpit, and the omnipresence of the confessional, give 
 the ecclesiastics instruments of action and influence which 
 are denied to the laity. Wise and popular political insti- 
 tutions, a free press, cheap and accessible means of locomo- 
 tion, a low rate of postage, and a teeming and industrious 
 population are all co-operative to diffusion of knowledge 
 and of civilization, while it is certain that Catholicism must 
 either move with the onward march of mind, and reconcile 
 itself to new phases of religious thought, — in other words, 
 must be combined with the colour of the times, — or it will 
 be supplanted by other systems more in harmony with that 
 social futurity to which everything is tending, whatever 
 may be the temporary obstructions and delays. 
 
 The best of Belgian society is not easily accessible to 
 
LEOPOLD L, KING OF THE BELCtlANS. 277 
 
 strangers, nor, when they are admitted within the social 
 circle, are the predominant influences very distinctly trace- 
 able in their many ramifications. The Parisian habits of 
 grands diners, soirees, and receptions diplomatiques have 
 made their way to the capital of Belgium only on a small 
 scale. There are few brilliant conversationists, indeed, Vart 
 de causer is little studied. The Belgians are not wanting 
 in a costly hospitality, though it is for the most part of an 
 exclusive character. There has been none of the levellino-, 
 none of the equalizing, such as the French Revolution in- 
 troduced even into the salons of Paris, where, though the old 
 family morgue has maintained itself in certain inaccessible 
 circles, known as those of the Quartier St Germain, the 
 very best intellectual society is often honoured by the pre- 
 sence of distinguished men emanating from and belonging 
 to the unopulent and even the proletaire ranks. The courte- 
 sies of intercourse, the polite phraseology addressed from 
 one grade of society to another, and by people of the same 
 grade among themselves, evidence how widely the true 
 spirit of 6galite has interblended itself with the forms and 
 usages of daily life — even more so than among nations 
 whose institutions are avowedly democratic and republican. 
 Belgium is not emancipated from caste prejudices, but to 
 have mastered them, modified them, and, still more, to have 
 made them subservient to the peace, prosperity, and pro- 
 gress of the Belgian people, was perhaps the most memorable 
 recompense of the wise rule and administration of Leopold 
 the First. 
 
 There was always in the mind of King Leopold a long- 
 ing, a feeling (for which the Germans have in sehnsucht,* 
 
 * The Portuguese have a word, sandades, which has no synonym in any 
 other language. The French translate it by " regret de I'absence " — " doux 
 souvenir" — "juste ni^moire," as they render sehnsucht by " d^sir constant," 
 and " souhait animd," but the very variety of these interpretations shows how 
 little they represent the real meaning of the words. 
 
278 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 literally sigh-malady, a more emphatic word than we 
 possess) — there was a longing which led his thoughts 
 towards Claremont. The gardens and conservatories there 
 were called upon to furnish fruits and flowers for his table, 
 and I have had not unfrequently a dinner-invitation from 
 the Court, with the appendix " le panier de Claremont est 
 arrive." It will be remembered with what a high- 
 minded sense of propriety the king returned to the British 
 exchequer all that was voted him as a yearly revenue by 
 Parliament, except that portion which was necessary to 
 keep in proper condition the grounds and gardens of that 
 spot whose memory was so dear to him. Few places will 
 teach more emphatic lessons than that charming chateau. 
 It was the witness of Leopold's elevation to a height of 
 singular felicity and influence, and contrasted sadly with 
 the melancholy reflections that the fallen Orleans family 
 must have often uttered, and more frequently felt, as they 
 wandered through its walks. Leopold never sank down- 
 wards in the whole of his career. From the moment in 
 which the Princess Charlotte stretched to him her welcom- 
 ing hand, and accepted him as the chosen one of her afi'ec- 
 tions, his good fortune never deserted him, but led him 
 step by step till he culminated in kingly power, and 
 founded a dynasty likely to last longer than that of the 
 Bourbons, with all their historic prestige. 
 
 There was one topic on which the king was always 
 pleased to dwell — the means of increasing the salubrity 
 and beauty of the capital. The improvements which he 
 introduced during his reign, without such enormous 
 pecuniary outlays as have been required from the Parisians, 
 and as have entailed upon coming generations such heavy 
 responsibilities, will make that reign distinguished in 
 future times. For, though opulent, Brussels has not the con- 
 centrated wealth of the French metropolis, nor does the 
 
LEOPOLD L, KING OF THE BELGIANS. 279 
 
 Belgian government possess the centralized despotic power 
 whicli would enable it to carry out even beneficial changes 
 without the concurrence and support of public opinion, 
 and of the representative orders who have to be consulted. 
 Whole districts have, however, been covered with commo- 
 dious residences, beautiful hotels, and public edifices, the 
 population has gone on increasing, the facilities of commu- 
 nication have been greatly extended, railways, cheap pos- 
 tage, and electric telegraphs have added to the national 
 wealth and to the general well-being, and it may be confi- 
 dently asserted that there is no part of Europe with fewer 
 subjects of complaint, or with greater cause for self-gratula- 
 tion as to its present and its future than the Belgic king- 
 dom. And when this tranquil and happy state of things 
 is contrasted with the internal troubles and tumults which 
 have so frequently disturbed the public peace, with the 
 miseries of personal and local feuds, with the plagues of 
 foreign invasion, and, from its geographical position, with its 
 having so often been the battlefield of wrangling Europe, the 
 present tranquillity of Belgium is all the more remarkable — ■ 
 the best evidence that the well-being of the people has 
 been provided for, not only by the satisfactory action of 
 the legislative and administrative bodies, but by the wisdom 
 of the supreme power. 
 
 A striking evidence of the genuine simplicity of Leo- 
 pold's nature was seen in his attachment to his country 
 abode at Laeken, which he mu.ch preferred to the palatial 
 residence in the capital. In the grounds and gardens, and 
 in the less adorned but very comfortable apartments of his 
 country home, he found much more that was domestic and 
 social than was compatible with the greater glare and 
 splendour of the metropolitan city. Though he visited it 
 for state receptions, for diplomatic intercourse, and for 
 those public displays which are associated with the func- 
 
280 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 tions of monarchy, he always returned with renewed enjoy- 
 ment to the comparative retreat and seclusion of his 
 beloved rural domicile. Not that he was in any way 
 reserved or inaccessible — quite the contrary — for not only 
 did he willingly and cordially receive all those with whom 
 he had to do in private or public life, but there was a 
 courtesy and kindness in his habitual bearing which were 
 singularly winning, and which in his presence left every- 
 body at his ease. He spoke, as has been noticed, gravely 
 and deliberately, but with a very pleasing emphasis. Both 
 his French and English had a very slight touch of German- 
 ism, alike in accent and forms of expression — not that 
 anything inaccurate or ungrammatical could ever be 
 detected, but that his thoughts seemed moulded in a 
 Teutonic type, and preserved in their expression somewhat 
 of their normal character when translated into any other 
 tongue. It is impossible to graft u]3on the stock of early 
 education any offshoots which shall not have something in 
 them of the original stamp. Thoughts, like streams, flow 
 in their wonted channels, and even should they be diverted 
 from that course, they will bear with them the character 
 with which they were impregnated at the fountain-head. 
 The style which is said not only to represent, but to he the 
 man, will reflect early associations as assuredly as the 
 bending of the twig will decide the form of the branch. 
 
 Among the less important characteristics of King Leo- 
 pold was this. He seemed to have an affection for old 
 garments, not from any niggardliness — of which I never 
 heard him accused — but from the mere force of habit, 
 which becomes, as it were, a portion of every day's con- 
 tinuity. Many men confess to a certain weakness in 
 favour of old shoes and old hats, and it is a subject of rea- 
 sonable complaint that when they become most comfortable, 
 when every toe has found its own particular niche, or 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 281 
 
 when tlie liat has become plastic enough to accommodate 
 itself to every undulation of the brow, the faithful servant 
 is dismissed on account of some hostile criticism, and a 
 new hat is introduced which pinches the forehead, or a 
 new pair of shoes which inflict agony upon the feet. Now, 
 up to the time in which absolute raggedness demands the 
 expulsion of a favourite bit of ancient costume, one may be 
 allowed to hesitate about its rejection — and certainly the 
 gold lace upon King Leopold's ^roc had lost its lustre long 
 before it was dismissed — 1868. 
 
 GEORGE CANNING. 
 Mi7iutes of a conversation ivitli Mr Canning, 16th January 1824. 
 
 On my entering, Mr Canning rose and shook me by the 
 hand, apologising for not moving. " I have a good deal 
 of gout yet, though I'm better. Take a seat." I said that 
 I had written to him when he was in the country, asking 
 for an interview on the subject of the Malta loan ; but that 
 I had also Mashed to communicate to him viva voce some 
 information I had received indirectly from the Duke of 
 Orleans, of language used by Chateaubriand with respect to 
 him (Mr Canning) personally, and which it might at that 
 time have been important for him to be acquainted with, 
 as it was of a most unfriendly character, and at a time 
 when there were external marks of good opinion between the 
 parties. Mr Canning was very much excited by this, and, 
 lifting himself up, asked when such language was used. I 
 said, " it was some weeks "ago," on which he nodded his 
 head significantly. (Chateaubriand's words were, " I pro- 
 phesy that Mr Canning will not much longer dii-ect the 
 Cabinet of St James.") 
 
 I then said that when I before solicited the honour of an 
 interview, I wished to make him master of many extraordi- 
 
282 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 nary facts ■wliicli tlie agitation of the loan for the Knights 
 of St John had brought to my knowledge, as I wished to 
 show him how Russia had been using this military Order 
 for carrying into eifect her projects of aggrandisement in 
 Greece and Turkey. I had seen the correspondence be- 
 tween the agents of the Order who were sent to Verona and 
 Prince Metternich, showing that the sovereigns looked with 
 much complacency on the re-establishment of the Order. 
 I mentioned that the Order had been for years a mere in- 
 strument in the hands of Russia. Paul was the last Grand 
 Master, the iasignia and archives of the Order were de- 
 posited at Moscow, almost all the late admissions of knights 
 had been from among the Russian nobles, and the scheme 
 of Russia was no doubt to arm herself with the Order for 
 carrying into eifect her plans upon Greece. Mr Canning 
 asked what had prevented the completion of the contract for 
 the loan ? I told him that the first cause was the misunder- 
 standing between the contractors of tlie agent for the Order 
 — the second was probably the interference of the Greek 
 Committee, who, finding the loan was assuming the name 
 of a "Greek loan," and being well assured that the Greek 
 government was no party to it, published an advertisement 
 declaratory of this fact. Mr Canning asked what security 
 they offered ? I said, " The estates of the Order." " Was 
 this," said Mr Canning, "a security?" I replied that it 
 was deemed so by the contractors, for I heard from their 
 own lips that their lists were completed, and the whole sum 
 subscribed. 1 added that it was certain that the French 
 government regarded the loan- with complacency, for it 
 was within my knowledge that the Duchess of Angouleme 
 had made several applications for the admission of knights, 
 and that the last Chapter had been held at Paris. " Was 
 there some stipulation for the cession of some islands to the 
 Order ? " inquired Mr Canning. " Yes ; Cyprus and Rhodes 
 
GEOEGE CANNING, 283 
 
 were mentioned. They formerly claimed the Negropont and 
 the bailiwick of the Morea, and I imagine it was believed the 
 British government would consent to their establishment, 
 on their quietly giving up all claim to Malta, which we 
 hold with a flaw in the title, they, its former possessors and 
 heirs, never having consented to its cession." Mr Canning 
 looked exceedingly surprised, and obviously checked some 
 rising feeling. 
 
 Mr Canning said, " I should tell you that the informa 
 tion you formerly gave me (respecting the intrigues of 
 Russia in the West Indies) has turned out to be correct, 
 and we have found that the individuals whose names you 
 gave me were really engaged, but we could not ascertain 
 that there was a treaty for the cession of an island." I said 
 I believed the principal agent (Colombel) was now dead, 
 but that another individual had been since sent by Russia 
 to treat with Boyer. 
 
 I then said, " The immediate object, sir, of my wishing 
 to see you was to represent to you the state of Greece, and 
 to communicate a number of facts which might perhaps be 
 important in assisting a prompt decision on the part of the 
 British government. We have news down to the /th 
 December, by which it appears that new triumphs on the 
 part of the Greeks have closed the present campaign, and 
 have decided finally the independence of Greece." " I 
 believe," said Mr Canning, " that they are now convinced 
 at Constantinople that the struggle is a hopeless one for 
 them." I said, " Sir, it is not Turkey, but Russia that the 
 friends of Greece have cause to fear. The Greek insurrec- 
 tion was originally planned at St Petersburg, where Ipsi- 
 lanti, Hepites, and others received their instructions. The 
 Russians have sent several agents to the Morea, they have 
 been in constant intercourse with the Kcqntcmoi, they have 
 kept the Metropolitan of Greece (Ignatius) long in their 
 
284 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 pay, and through the Hetairist Society at Warsaw they have 
 long sent supplies into Greece. Now, the Greeks can have 
 no chance of independence against Eussia, except in alliance 
 with England, and to England they are stretching out their 
 arms, and would make any sacrifice to obtain its amity, for 
 they feel that the interest of England and the independence 
 of Greece are closely allied." " The situation of Turkey," 
 said Mr Canning, " is one that is sufficiently perplexing to 
 us. The peace of Europe hangs on a thread, and we know 
 that, with the monstrous powder of Russia, Turkey would be 
 overwhelmed, and Greece too, whenever Eussia chooses to 
 put her armies in motion. A war with Turkey would be 
 popular in Eussia — popular with the army, popular with 
 the people, if popular opinion can be said to exist in a 
 country so governed, but we have the Emperor's pacific 
 assurances constantly repeated." " Then, sir, if the power 
 of Eussia is to be feared, why allow Turkey to exhaust her- 
 self in a fruitless struggle ? and would it not be a sound 
 policy to create in Greece a strong and popular government 
 which mi^ht be an efi"ectual barrier asfainst Eussia ? " 
 " Yes," said Mr C, " that would be a proper argument for 
 English policy, but what language could we hold to Eussia 
 to obtain her consent, knowing as we do that she can con- 
 quer Turkey and Greece when she pleases ? " " Eussia has 
 fomented every insurrection in Greece, she has made the 
 treatment of the Greeks the prominent ground of complaint 
 in all her discussions with the Porte, and has always pro- 
 fessed to be the advocate of Grecian independence. She 
 would hardly put in a direct claim to the sovereignty of 
 Greece, but, if the worst came to the worst, France would 
 be disposed to oppose her. The French government has 
 sent t'wo agents to Greece lately to ascertain the state of 
 affairs, and has always in its official journal {Journal des 
 Debats) advocated the Greek cause. The possession of 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 285 
 
 Greece by Eussia would give her at once that without which 
 she is not to be feared as a naval power — namely, ports 
 open all the year round. The Russians would be disposed 
 to introduce a monarch into Greece (and they have already 
 mentioned the son of Gustavus Adolphus). Such a monarch 
 — a stranger, for no one could be found with any preten- 
 sions among the Greeks themselves — must be the blind in- 
 strument of the Holy Alliance, of which he would of course 
 be a member." "Will you," said Mr Canning, "give me 
 substantive evidence of the facts you have mentioned with 
 respect to the proceedings of Eussia which I may lay before 
 others ? " " Yes ; I will also, if you please, communicate 
 in confidence the substance of conversations between Pozzo 
 di Borgo and Colonel Stanhope, the former of whom is on 
 his way to Italy." " No ! I do not wish to have anything 
 from that Mr Stanhope. I believe Pozzo di Borgo is not 
 gone to Italy, though he has large estates there. Does any 
 government exist in Greece which is generally obeyed ? 
 We understand that in the Islands they refuse to obey the 
 executive body." " The fact is, sir, that there is great in- 
 subordination among the Kapitanoi. They possess wealth, 
 they have all that has been plundered from the Turks, and 
 they overawe the senate of the executive. This evil will 
 be removed when a loan shall be put in the hands of the 
 really virtuous party." " I suppose a loan can now be 
 easily effected ? " " Yes ; many subscribers have already 
 come forward." I then referred to the expected arrival of 
 the Deputies, and mentioned that Orlando had been Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, and was an Islander (Hydriote), and 
 Luriottis, a Peloponnesian, and said I hoped he would 
 honour them with an audience. He hesitated, but at last 
 said, " No ; I think not. Everybody knows what passes 
 here. I suppose the object of their coming — the principal 
 object — is to raise a loan, which they probably will raise." 
 
286 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 "That is tlieir principal object certainly, but they will also 
 be most desirous of ascertaining on what terms they can 
 obtain the friendship and alliance of this country. Would 
 it, sir, be too much to hope for your interference to stop the 
 efl'usion of blood, to prevent the continuance of a struggle 
 which will exhaust both ? If you will suggest anything to 
 the Greeks, I will answer that it shall receive their most 
 solemn attention, and, if it be consistent with their honour 
 and their interest, that it shall be carried into eifect." He 
 answered, " A mediation of this sort, if rejected, would pro- 
 bably involve the interfering mediator in a war. What are 
 the views of the Greeks with respect to their independ- 
 ence ? " I said, " I imagine their independence must be 
 recognized in an unqualified form, but it is not impossible 
 that they might consent to make some pecuniary remune- 
 ration to the Porte for that unqualified recognition." Mr 
 Canning, " There seem two ways in which the matter might 
 be considered. First, could not the Greeks be in a situa- 
 tion of qualified dependence, as in Wallachia and Moldavia ? 
 or would they be disposed to pay a tribute for the unquali- 
 fied recognition of their independence ? " I said, " I imagine 
 they would not be satisfied with the former, for there could 
 be no security with such a government as that of the Porte, 
 unless such a power as England was the guarantee — that a 
 yearly tribute would be intolerable, but that a loan might 
 be raised in this country for the final redemption of their 
 country from the Turkish yoke ; but meanwhile, the Porte 
 was losing time, and that the boundaries to which the 
 Greeks would now consent would be advanced much further 
 north if the struggle continued, and that Macedonia itself 
 would be probably freed." Mr Canning said, " Would they 
 make the Isthmus of Corinth the boundary line ? " " Cer- 
 tainly not — much more is freed. A line must be drawn 
 across somewhere to the south of Macedonia." 
 
GEOEGE CANNING. 287 
 
 1 then spoke of the conduct of the British consuls in the 
 East, and said that I hoped the changes in Greece would 
 put the consulates into the hands of the government instead 
 of a monopolizing Turkey company. "It is only about 
 fifteen years," said Mr Canning, " since we sent even an 
 ambassador." I mentioned that Green of Patras had sup- 
 plied the Turks with stores, that £20,000 of his bills had 
 just come back protested from Constantinople for supplies 
 for the service of the Turks, and I expressed great indigna- 
 tion at such conduct. " He is not directly under our con- 
 trol," said Mr Canning, " but we did give one of them, and 
 I think it was Green, a very hard rap. I am glad of the 
 fact you mention, because we can quote it at Constanti- 
 nople, where they speak of the interference of Englishmen 
 on behalf of the Greeks. You will then give me some evi- 
 dence of the facts of Eussian interference without betraying 
 your authority." " Yes, sir ; and allow me to say in refer- 
 ence to Greece, that your situation is one enviable beyond 
 the conception of envy. It is a subject which every mind 
 like yours must enter on with something like enthusiasm. 
 The enthusiasm that exists you contributed to create, and 
 what you dreamt of as a boy, you may do as the minister 
 of England." He bowed his head very graciously. " I 
 see," he said, " D. Lyall has published his work on Russia." 
 " Yes ; and it contains many curious facts, though written 
 in a bad style. His comparing the political state of Eussia 
 to a decayed wheel, where, the spokes being equ.ally rotten, 
 no one gives way, is very good." 
 
 I gave Mr Canning some information with respect to 
 Mavrocordato's character and the affection of the people for 
 him, of the constitution of the Senate and their proceed- 
 ings, of the progress of the campaign, &c. He thanked me, 
 and my interview, which lasted more than an hour, was 
 ended by his saying, "I shall be very glad to see you 
 again," We shook hands, and I left him. 
 
288 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 LORD PALMEESTON. 
 Memorandum of a Conversation with Lord Palmerston on 18th Dec. 1848. 
 
 I stated to him that it would be of great importance that 
 T should be able to say to the Chinese Authorities that I 
 had seen the Queen before my departure. He answered 
 that there was a general rule, through which he could not 
 break, that no persons under the rank of Ministers Pleni- 
 potentiary should have special audiences, that the Queen 
 was unwilling to have her privacy disturbed at Osborne 
 House, and that he had been obliged to negative several 
 requests similar to mine. He thought my having been so 
 long in Parliament, and so much in the public eye, with my 
 literary reputation, would give me all the consideration 
 necessary in the eyes of the Chinese Authorities. 
 
 T asked him whether he would consent to give me the 
 title of President, so as to place me in a situation equal to 
 that of the American representative. He said that might 
 be a matter for future consideration, but that at present the 
 existing arrangements could not be disturbed. 
 
 I enquired whether, in case of obtaining access to the in- 
 terior of the town, which might necessitate some ostentatious 
 array, he would be disposed to make an allowance for extra 
 expense so incurred. He said that he should favourably 
 consider such an application, admitting it to be reasonable, 
 and saying that similar allowances were made at Constanti- 
 nople and elsewhere. He said that, if convenient, he should 
 be glad if I could be ready to depart by the January 
 steamer, in order to be present when, according to the terms 
 of the treaty, the town of Canton was to be opened to the 
 British ; that there would be great resistance to their being 
 admitted ; that he did not think their admission should be 
 peremptorily insisted on, if it were likely to lead to a 
 
LORD PALMEESTON. , 289 
 
 rupture, or a war, as the object would not be worth the 
 sacrifice ; but that he thought, as regarded the Consul, the 
 right should be insisted upon, which might lead in due 
 time to the admission of British subjects in general. He 
 desired me to state my views specifically in this matter. 
 
 I told him, generally, that while we ought to be very 
 cautious in making a demand upon the Chinese, that 
 demand, once made, should not be retracted — that, as the 
 greater portion of the opulent Chinese merchants lived 
 without the walls of the city, admission within the walls 
 did not appear to me a matter of sufficient importance to 
 be insisted upon, if pertinaciously resisted by the Chinese ; 
 but that access to the government authorities by the Consul 
 was absolutely necessary for the comfortable despatch of 
 business, and for those verbal explanations which tended so 
 much to facilitate a friendly imderstanding. He agreed in 
 this, and said it would be right to insist on access to the 
 authorities, and to persevere until that point was carried, 
 even though menaces and the presence of an armed force 
 were necessary. 
 
 I enquired whether, if there should be invincible repug- 
 nance to the admission of British subjects at Canton, he 
 would be willing to waive the right, if other concessions 
 were made by the Chinese, such as the surrender of Chusan. 
 He said there were various opinions as to the value of 
 Chusan, and objections from the difficulty of defending it ; 
 but he still felt that Hong Kong was too near Canton, and 
 would be willing to entertain favourably any suggestions I 
 might be able to convey. He wished me to write to him 
 privately on these or any other matters of interest. 
 
 He told me that two important mistakes had been made 
 by Sir Henry Pottinger. First, in not insisting that if there 
 were any misunderstanding as to the treaty, the English, 
 and not the Chinese text should be taken as the authority ; 
 
 T 
 
290 AUTOBIOCxRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 and secondly, that he had not required that Chinese ships 
 from all the ports, and not the five only, should be 
 permitted to trade with Hong Kong. 
 
 We discussed, at much length, the subject of the internal 
 duties, by the imposition of which the Treaty of Nanking 
 was practically violated, and he said it must be one of my 
 principal objects to get them removed, to the state at least 
 in which they were before that Treaty. He said also that 
 a practical monopoly had grown up, in violation of the 
 Treaty, by which another Hong had been established, grant- 
 ing to fifty or sixty merchants the sole privilege of intro- 
 ducing certain articles, on the plea that this was necessary 
 for the security of the Chinese revenue. To the removal of 
 these and similar impediments to a free interchange, my 
 attention was specially called. 
 
 I suggested to Lord Palmerston that, as there were very 
 different usages in the five ports of China, it would be 
 desirable that I should visit the various ports, with a view 
 to the adoption of the best system, and assimilating the 
 whole to that system. Lord Palmerston said that he should 
 not object to this, provided it were done in concurrence 
 with Mr Bonham, the Superintendent of Trade, with whom 
 he wished me to confer on the subject. 
 
 The two points which were particularly pressed on my 
 attention by Lord Palmerston were the removal of internal 
 impediments to commercial transactions, and the placing 
 the consular relations with the authorities of Canton on a 
 proper footing. 
 
 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 I have mentioned that I had in my boyhood a peep at 
 Nelson in a shop at Exeter. Of the military hero, with 
 whom we have been accustomed to pair the naval victor, I 
 had some experience and knowledge, and have more than 
 
DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 291 
 
 once somewhat disagreeably crossed his path. In 1828 I 
 was recommended by the Financial Committee of the House 
 of Commons (Alexander Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, 
 being the Chairman), to be appointed a Commissioner to en- 
 quire into the state of the public accountancy with a view 
 to its reform. It was proposed that Messrs Brooksbank and 
 Beltz of the Treasury (we should have been three Bees) 
 should be nominated by the Government, and that I should 
 come in without prejudice in favour of routine, and bring 
 into the field that practical knowledge which I possessed. 
 The Duke of Wellington struck my name out of the Com- 
 mission, saying he would never consent to the appointment 
 
 of such a d d radical. The then Chancellor of the 
 
 Exchequer did his best to support me, but the Iron Duke 
 was inexorable, and Mr Peter Abbott was selected to fill 
 my place. The whole afi'air was an abortion, the Commis- 
 sioners quarrelled, the ofiicials prevailed for a time, and the 
 public accounts were rescued from any substantial reform ; 
 but, thanks to the perseverance of Sir Henry Parnell, a 
 commission, consisting of himself. Lord John Russell, Sir 
 James Graham, Sir James Kemp, Mr Edward EUice, &c., 
 was appointed on a change of ministry, and I was made the 
 Secretary of the Commission. It produced the report on 
 the Exchequer which was laid before Parliament in 1832, 
 and which became the foundation of all the improve- 
 ments which have been introduced into our financial 
 records — whose last triumph has been in the act which 
 requires the payment of the gross revenues of the State — ■ 
 the revenues without any deduction — into the Exchequer, 
 thus o-ivino- Parliament an absolute control over the whole 
 
 o o 
 
 national expenditure. 
 
 I have been told that I afterwards gave offence to the 
 Duke of Wellington by the efibrts I made in Parliament to 
 abolish corporal punishment in the army. The Duke did 
 
292 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 not willingly surrender an opinion, or part with a prejudice, 
 yet, though for some time he stoutly held by the necessity 
 for flogging for the preservation of discipline, on the ground 
 mainly that the soldier was made of bad moral materials, 
 I had the pleasure of hearing from his own lips an avowal 
 (made in the House of Lords), that he did hope that 
 corporal punishments might be wholly superseded in the 
 British ai-my. They have been nearly superseded without 
 any injury to its efficiency, and much of pain, disgrace, and 
 suffering have been spared. The officers connected with 
 the ancient system of severity, who do not willingly sur- 
 render any portion of their corrective coercion and power 
 of punishment, will continue to prognosticate all sorts of 
 mischief to the military and marine services if men pretend 
 to be wiser than their forefathers. It is the stale, the ever 
 repeated fallacy which stands in the way of all improvement, 
 but the sophism dies away as the sceptical pass from the 
 stage, and so the great tide of reform rolls forward — the 
 mighty tide of tendency. 
 
 Though party bitterness never forgave Sir Robert Peel 
 the changes in his opinions and policy, those of the Duke of 
 Wellington, though equally marked and prominent, seem 
 not to have been recorded or remembered, or were lost sight 
 of in the blaze of his military services. For, as regards the 
 Test and Corporation Acts, the emancipation of the Catho- 
 lics, the repeal of the Corn Laws, the question of Free 
 Trade, and other matters, his desertion of the Tory or Con- 
 servative banners was quite as marked and quite as decided 
 as that of the right honourable Baronet, and, considering 
 the unbending nature of the Duke, those desertions were 
 even more remarkable. The fact is he understood very 
 little, if anything, of the questions of State policy, beyond 
 the immediate field of his own personal responsibilities and 
 duties. Of political economy he was supremely ignorant, 
 
LORD MELBOURNE. 293 
 
 yet liis strong common sense enabled him at last to recog- 
 nise some of its fundamental truths. His speeches on 
 economical subjects teem with puerilities and absurdities, 
 without ingenuity in conception or in expression. Of the 
 ends and objects of government he had formed no philoso- 
 phical estimate, nor dreamed that authority had any other 
 duty or function than to cause itself to be respected and 
 obeyed. The people were altogether a cypher in his eyes, 
 except as grouped round the sovereignty. All his sympa- 
 thies were with rulers, whatever was the character of their 
 rule, and he cared nothing for subjects, whatever might be 
 the nature of their subjection. But when dangers menaced 
 the " ruling few " from the action of the " serving many," he 
 had the sagacity to discover that those dangers justified and 
 demanded concessions. His patrician spirit could discover 
 that it was not safe to detach the commanders from the 
 plebeians of the rank and file, without whom stafis and 
 commissioned officers would cut a poor figure in the field, 
 and so, far from being an impediment, he became a valuable 
 instrument in forwarding a legislation disagreeable and 
 hateful to his nature, but submitted to under the responsi- 
 bilities of a high infiiuential position. 
 
 LORD MELBOURNE. 
 
 On my return from Germany, where I represented Great 
 Britain at the meeting of the Zoll Verein in Berlin in 1839, 
 I accompanied a deputation to Lord Melbourne to repre- 
 sent that while the Corn Laws existed, there was no chance 
 of obtaining any commercial concessions from the German 
 States until those laws were abolished ; upon which Lord 
 Melbourne said to the deputation that " I was mad, and 
 fit for Bedlam " to propose anything so utterly unreason- 
 able. Events have told a different tale. 
 
 On another occasion, when my name was introduced, 
 
294 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIOISrS. 
 
 Lord Melbourne exclaimed, " Dr BoAvring ! d n him, 
 
 why, he collared a prime minister ! " which was the ex- 
 aggeration of a true story. When, with Lord Clarendon 
 (Mr George Villiers), I was sent to negotiate a commercial 
 treaty with France, M. Thiers had consented to an arrange- 
 ment for the removal of the prohibition on the importation 
 of the finest qualities of cotton twist, and had promised 
 us that the ordinance announcing the removal of this pro- 
 hibition should appear in the Moniteur of the following day. 
 It did not appear, upon which I made my way to M. Thiers, 
 and, taking his coat quietly and laughingly, I told him that 
 we had been seriously compromised, having announced his 
 formal engagement to our government, and I said, "Mon 
 ami, il faut que I'ordonnance paraisse sans retard." He 
 made some lame excuse about " difficulties " (which no 
 doubt had emanated from the King, who professed free- 
 trade principles, but hated them at heart, and had himself 
 a pecuniary interest in many monopolies), but ended by 
 saying, " bien ! ga se fera," and the ordinance appeared the 
 next day, so the collaring at all events was to some pur- 
 pose.— 1853. 
 
 LORD BROUGHAM. 
 
 Jeremy Bentham once said to Lord Brougham — 
 
 " Henry ! what a mystery you are ! 
 Nil fuit unquam tibi tarn impar ! " 
 
 And, on another occasion, " Harry ! when you want to 
 study insincerity, stand opposite a looking glass." I found 
 in Bentham's handwriting these words — 
 
 " Frailty ! thy name is ■woman, 
 Insincerity ! thy name is Brougham." 
 
 And yet Bentham had a great affection and a great admira- 
 tion for Brougham, and very frequently invited him to his 
 
LORD BROUGHAM. 295 
 
 table, to which also Brougham sometimes invited himself, 
 especially when he was about to make a speech on law 
 reform. I find one of his applications in the following 
 shape — " Grandpapa, I want some pap ; I will come for it 
 at your dinner hour." Bentham often expressed to me his 
 surprise that Brougham seldom or never referred to the 
 sources of his inspiration by mentioning his name, or laud- 
 . ing his writings, but, after Bentham's death, I happened to 
 be in the library of the House of Lords, when Brougham 
 had in his hand a large roll of paper, which I believe was 
 a Codification Bill. He gave me laughingly a rap upon 
 the ribs, exclaiming, " Here he is, here is our old friend 
 Jeremy." 
 
 There was something very charming in Lord Brougham's 
 conversation. It was playful, varied, wise, witty, full of 
 anecdote and novelty, and overflowing with vanity. His 
 forgetfulness was extreme. He once asked me to breakfast. 
 I went, but he had gone out long before the breakfast hour, 
 and told the servants they were not to expect him till 
 dinner, and he afterwards, when I reminded him of his 
 invitation, and of my disappointment, said with great sim- 
 plicity that he had forgotten it wholly. 
 
 I think I may, at all events, say that my political career 
 had been tolerably consistent, yet I found among Bentham's 
 papers, which, as his executor, fell into my hands, a letter 
 addressed to him by Brougham telling him to beware of 
 n^e, as I was no better than a tool of the Tories, and by no 
 means to be trusted, and this was written at a time when 
 Brougham assured me he was exerting himself on my be- 
 half, in order to secure my nomination to a professorship in 
 the London University. It was an era in my life in which 
 the pressure of adversity was hard upon me, and when 
 Bentham's kindness was a plank of salvation to me. I be- 
 lieve the emotions excited in my mind were afterwards 
 
296 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 made intelligible to Brougham himself when, as Lord Mel- 
 bourne's executor, he turned over the correspondence of 
 some of his bosom friends, in which he found expressions 
 not very flattering to his self-love. — 1853. 
 
 LORD HARDINGE. 
 
 When the inquiry into the conduct of General Darling 
 as Governor of Australia was before a Select Committee of 
 the House of Commons, Sir Henry Hardinge was the M.P. 
 who was the recognised advocate and friend of the accused. 
 It is always understood that an accused man shall have 
 some such defender. On one occasion Sir Henry used his 
 privilege of having the room cleared, and, as it appeared 
 to me, pressed with cruel severity on one of the witnesses. 
 I said that I did not think he would have carried on the 
 examination as he did had the eye of the press and the 
 public been upon him. He thought the remark Avas 
 damaging to his honour, and sent the Judge Advocate 
 (Nicol) to me the next day, asking explanation and satis- 
 faction. I replied that I meant no reflection upon him 
 which would not apply to any man, for I thought the pre- 
 sence of auditors and spectators a necessary protection to 
 the administration of justice. He was satisfied, but I had, 
 I believe, no intercourse whatever with him till years after, 
 when, being Governor-General of India, he wrote me to 
 say that as he was intending to patronize the most distin- 
 guished youths among the civilians, he had fixed on a son 
 of mine as the first object of his attentions, and had in- 
 vited him to Barrackpore. Now this was a deHghtful 
 exhibition of a noble spirit. — 1853. 
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
 Daniel 'Council, during the early part of my connection 
 with public affairs, was a prominent actor in the political 
 
DANIEL O'CONNELL. 297 
 
 scene. His rude, robust, impassioned eloquence produced 
 a greater impression upon assembled multitudes tban that 
 of any other man of whom I have had any knowledge. I 
 was with him on the Calton Hill at Edinburgh, when he 
 harangued an incredible gathering of the people, who seemed 
 to roll to and fro, like waves in a storm, under the magic 
 influence of his oratorical powers. It was a sudden out- 
 break, descriptive of the magnificent scenery of that re- 
 markable locality ; the hills, the sea, the ancient and the 
 modern city, upon which the sun was brightly shining, were 
 the themes of his outpourings, and they lost nothing of 
 their efiiect from the strongly Hibernian pronunciation which 
 distinguished them. When he came into Parliament, it 
 was said that the Irish demagogue would lose all influence 
 there, but his ready and original wit, and his vituperations — 
 often coarse and personal — obtained for him a ready atten- 
 tion on the part of the honourable House. He was some- 
 times singularly felicitous in his illustrations, two of which 
 I have mentioned under the head of " Parliamentary 
 EecoUections." 
 
 It was O'Connell who gave a national character to the 
 discontents of his country. He worried the English 
 government by the menace of dissolving the Union, and 
 found this to be a chord which met with strong sympathy 
 among the Hibernians — the talisman by which all their 
 grievances would be redressed. There were many who be- 
 lieved that, if he could have efi"ected the repeal, he would 
 have shrunk from the responsibility ; but, vile as were the 
 means by which that union was brought about, and disgrace- 
 ful as was the conduct of many who were prominent parties 
 to it, there are few, I suppose, who would not now acknow- 
 ledge that the connection of Ireland with Great Britain has 
 
 o 
 
 been a blessing to both countries. As a law-reformer, 
 O'Connell rendered great assistance to the cause of progress. 
 
298 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 I have in my possession some of his letters, of great length, 
 addressed to Jeremy Bentham, whom he held in the highest 
 esteem, full of admirable matter connected with this 
 important topic. The injudicious conduct of the govern- 
 ment in their persecutions, and the abuse in many of the 
 English papers of the " big beggar man," naturally enough 
 exasperated a proud and sensitive mind. 
 
 He was a charming companion. Educated at Douai, he 
 was an almost fanatical Catholic, wore a scapular upon his 
 bosom, and showed immense reverence for the Papacy and 
 the priesthood. His nature was so impulsive that, though 
 he must have regarded the character, both public and 
 private, of the Prince Eegent with dislike and distrust, he 
 rushed into the water to welcome him when honouring 
 Ireland with his visit. His parliamentary influence was at 
 one time incredibly great. He brought several of his sons, 
 a son-in-law, and his nephew into the House of Commons, 
 and these formed but a small part of the persons who owed 
 their seats to his intervention. When Joseph Hume very 
 prudently refused to incur the expenses of a contested 
 election for Middlesex, O'Connell found a seat for him in 
 an Irish borough. The charge against him of avaricious 
 selfishness in receiving the contributions of the people as a 
 recompense for his many professional sacrifices was un- 
 reasonable, inasmuch as he lost much more than he gained 
 under the new arrangement, but with his death his influence 
 passed away, and his name and fame have been strangely 
 forgotten. 
 
 He left his body to his country, but directed his heart to 
 be sent to Rome as evidence of the strength of his attach- 
 ment to the Catholic faith. He had a great zest for the 
 enjoyment of the beauties of nature, especially in their 
 wilder character, and I have heard him describe with poetic 
 enthusiasm the delight with which he saw and heard the 
 
DANIEL CONNELL. 299 
 
 waves dashing upon the coast of Kerr}^, and led his 
 beagles to the chase in the neighbourhood of Derrynane 
 Abbey. His character was an incarnation of his country, 
 and it seemed as if all the faults and virtues, the foibles and 
 eccentricities of the Emerald Isle had been mingled and 
 moulded into his individual self He was greater than 
 Demosthenes in Athens, Cicero in Eome, or Mirabefiu in 
 France. In his domestic relations he was honoured and 
 beloved. He was of gigantic size, which was the more re- 
 markable when compared with the small stature of Eichard 
 Lalor Shell, who stood next to him in the estimation of his 
 countrymen, and whose shrill and feminine voice formed a 
 singular contrast to the deep and sonorous tones of the more 
 formidable agitator. 
 
 O'Connell had an intense dislike to Disraeli. He was 
 one of six members of Parliament who, on the right 
 honourable's first appearance in the field of public life, com- 
 mended him to a radical constituency on the ground of his 
 attachment to liberal principles. He afterwards called him 
 "a recreant deserter," and hurled at him the scathing 
 denunciation of being "the direct descendant of the im- 
 penitent thief." Yet evidence may be seen in Disraeli's 
 political career that there is an under-current in his mind 
 of democratic opinion, of which his speeches in favour of 
 reform, avowing that he would go further than the liberal 
 party, his coquetting with the Manchester school, when by 
 their aid he hoped to continue to hold the reins of Govern- 
 ment, and the distrust with which he is spoken of by the 
 representatives of the old Tory regime, afibrd abundant 
 evidence. That, if an opportunity occurred, he would 
 imitate the conduct of Sir Eobert Peel, and incur the 
 opprobrium of having deserted his party, I cannot doubt ; 
 but there is not in him that stability and honesty which 
 distinguished the man who had the courage and the truth- 
 
300 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 fulness to avow that he had been converted to the principles 
 of free trade by the irresistible arguments of a political 
 opponent, Richard Cobden, and this avowal was the more 
 remarkable, as on a former occasion Sir Eobert had even 
 accused Cobden of something like an encouragement to 
 assassinate him by holding him up to popular reprobation 
 as an enemy of the people. I remember few things with 
 greater complacency in my House of Commons' experience 
 than that speech in which he said that his cup of life would 
 be sweetened by the thought that he had cheapened the 
 poor man's daily bread. Had his life been spared, I have 
 no doubt he would have originated many other important 
 reforms. Long before he announced his purpose, the work- 
 ings of his mind were manifest in his conversations with 
 others, in which he sought to elicit information on subjects 
 to which his thoughts were directed. I have seen him 
 perambulating the Queen's Square Place garden with the 
 venerable sage (Bentham), discussing matters of law-reform, 
 and I have reason to think great changes were contemplated 
 by him in the ecclesiastical field which, in due time, would 
 have developed themselves, had it been the will of Provi- 
 dence to maintain him in his high position. 
 
 RICHARD COBDEN. 
 
 Cobden 's name has obtained far too much celebrity, and 
 his history is too well-known to sanction any observa- 
 tions of mine upon either. I deem him one of the most 
 privileged, as he deserves to be one of the most honoured 
 of his race. No man has ever been called in to exercise 
 more important functions, and no man's exertions have been 
 more successful in their issue, or more unpretending in 
 their display. No doubt he has been rewarded by proofs 
 of the most general sympathy. Those were indeed for him 
 proud moments when The Times announced the existence 
 
C. p. THOMSON (lord SYDENHAM). 301 
 
 of tlie Anti-Corn-Law League as a great fact, and when 
 Peel avowed that Cobden was the apostle who had converted 
 him from the errors of his ways in the field of political 
 economy. Cobden has been tried by heavy domestic 
 sorrows in the loss of his only son — an affliction far more 
 hard to endure than the endless vituperations of which he 
 has been the object. His strength has always been found 
 in his advocacy of sound principles to be carried out in their 
 full extension. No surrender of a truth — no compromise 
 with an error. Yet he has always been willing to take 
 reasonable instalments towards the payment of a just debt, 
 he has never sacrificed an obtainable good in the pursuit of 
 an unapproachable better, but has felt that every step 
 forward is progress, leaving less to be done than if that step 
 had not been taken. This is practical philosophy and 
 sound wisdom — it is a disarming of the enemy to employ 
 against him the weapons he has surrendered. Then again, 
 there has been on Cobden's part no jealousy or distrust of 
 fellow-labourers — on the contrary, they have been most 
 cordially welcomed to co-operate. — 1861. 
 
 C. P. THOMSON (lord SYDENHAM). 
 
 Among the public men whom I have been instrumental 
 in bringing into the field of politics was Charles Poulett 
 Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham. He was a young 
 Russia merchant of considerable sharpness and sagacity, 
 and had made himself acquainted with the principles of 
 political economy. He had an ambition for public life. I 
 introduced him to Joseph Hume, and through him he was 
 introduced to the electors of Dover, and returned by them 
 to Parliament. He became useful to Lord Althorp, brought 
 much commercial knowledge and aptitude for business into 
 the field, made his way to the Vice-Presidency, and after- 
 wards to the Presidency of the Board of Trade, and became 
 
302 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Governor-General of Canada. But he was by no means a 
 man of high capacity, or of remarkable stedfastness and 
 soundness of opinion. Happily the tide of his interests 
 rolled in the current of his knowledge. He abandoned 
 Dover to represent Manchester, and his connection with 
 that free-trade citadel, in which popular opinion was be- 
 coming more and more patent, and more and more enlight- 
 ened, gave Thomson an influential status in the government, 
 in parliament, and in the country. Yet he was not the 
 man to conceive, and still less to undertake, anything essen- 
 tially grand. His free-trade schemes were puny, hesitating, 
 and imperfect. He ought to have anticipated Peel in his 
 nobler and wider conceptions, but that was beyond his 
 grasp. He was ever querulous, impatient, and unteach- 
 able when anything was suggested of a more comprehensive 
 and embracing character than a policy founded on an in- 
 stinct of self-preservation appeared to warrant. This is 
 the curse of party factions. They look mainly to their own 
 safety, and will only cede so much to public oj)inion as will 
 enable them to hold exclusively the reins of power. If 
 public opinion demand anything which imperils a party 
 object, they will despise and oppose that opinion. Thus it 
 is that concessions which might be gracefully and becomingly 
 made, are extorted by an irresistible pressure, and parties 
 lose the reputation they might acquire by what may seem 
 a self-sacrificing course of action. But party-selfishness 
 had generally destroyed public confidence, which looks with 
 almost equal indifi"erence on both sides of the House, and 
 no wonder. 
 
 Thomson obtained a peerage, which died with him. He 
 suffered much from gout, and died at an age which might 
 have opened to him very bright prospects, but perhaps he 
 was not winged with strength for a higher flight than that 
 to which he reached — 1853. 
 
TALLEYRAND. 303 
 
 TALLEYRAND. 
 
 From Talleyrand I received once a very gracious com- 
 pliment. He said I was the only man who ever made an 
 intellectual treaty. During my residence in Paris in 1830, 
 a proposal was approved of, both by the French and English 
 governments, that there should be a yearly gratuitous inter- 
 change of the literature of both countries, and that such 
 interchange should not be interrupted by war, but that the 
 vessels bearing the books should pass unmolested. The 
 British minister endeavoured to purchase from one of the 
 Scotch universities a right then enjoyed to a copy of every 
 book published, but the negotiation failed, and the object 
 was not accomplished. An arrangement was, however, 
 made between the Chamber of Peers and the House of 
 Lords for the mutual communication of all parliamentary 
 documents. I was the victim on this occasion of a shabby 
 act of petitesse from M. Guizot, then Minister of Public 
 Instruction in France. M. Semonville, the Grand R^feren- 
 daire of the French Chamber, proposed to him that, as a 
 testimony of the value set upon my services, the grand 
 edition of Denon's ' Egypt,' published at the government 
 cost, should be given to me, but M. Guizot said he thought 
 it was too liberal an acknowledgment. M. Semonville then 
 suggested that the volumes of the " Antiquities of Greece," 
 a work of less value, might be presented, but excuses were 
 made, and I did not receive it. I heard of the steps taken 
 from M. Semonville himself, and have reason to believe 
 that M. Guizot was influenced by a dislike towards me 
 resulting from some strong expressions I had used, and 
 which had been repeated to him, condemnatory of certain 
 acts of his administration. Guizot is by nature a stern, 
 narrow-minded, pedagogical man. With all his asceticism, 
 he had the strongest thii'st for power, and with all his pro- 
 
.so 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 fessions of liberalism, he was a decided despot. He was 
 furious in his moderation. He laid down his principles of 
 government, which he called free and constitutional, but he 
 exacted for them the most slavish deference. 
 
 When Talleyrand was ambassador from Louis Philippe 
 to the British Court, he occupied the house in Hanover 
 Square in which Lord Grey had lived, and in which he 
 fancied he saw that human head which entered the room, 
 looked at his lordship, and then took its departure. Talley- 
 rand said he had never been honoured by the presence of 
 the mysterious visitant, and that he liked a haunted house 
 just as well as any other ; and I remember saying to him, 
 " The spirits are afraid to encounter you." Talleyrand's 
 conversation was terse and sententious. His readiness was 
 wonderful, but the few words he uttered showed often re- 
 markable sagacity. What could be more biting than his 
 answer to the minister who said to him in his diplomatic 
 perplexity, " Je sens tons les tourments de I'enfer" — "Eh 
 comment ! d^ja ? " What more embarrassingly flattering 
 than the reply to Madame de Stael, who, in responding to 
 some perhaps overstrained compliments to her intellect, 
 said, " But, Prince, if Madame Eecamier and I were both 
 to fall into the water at the same time, which would you 
 save ? " — " Madame ! vous sauriez nager." His chin and 
 mouth were usually buried in the folds of a large white 
 cravat, and the etfect was odd when he raised his head to 
 utter some sharp witticism. I was once dining with him — ■ 
 the Duke of Kent was one of the guests — the cuisine was 
 exquisite, and the wines particularly of the very finest 
 quality. The Duke, lauding one of the specimens, asked 
 the Prince its age, and he answered, " II est aussi vieux que 
 moi," and it appeared that it was the produce of a vintage 
 gathered in the very year of his birth. Before Thiers had 
 attained his celebrity, he mentioned him to me as a young 
 
LA FAYETTE. 305 
 
 politician who had a " grand avenir " before him, and lie 
 spoke admiringly of the talents of Van de Weyer, who was 
 then entering upon the cares of public life. Jeremy Bentham 
 was once the subject of conversation, and he said he had 
 known many able men, but, as a man of genius, Bentham 
 overtopped them all. Bentham and he had been acquaint- 
 ances in the earlier period of the French Revolution. It was 
 at the time of Mirabeau's great oratorical successes, for 
 many of whose most splendid speeches, Dumont of Geneva, 
 Bentham 's French interpreter, furnished the materials. I 
 had occasion to bring the statesman and the philosopher 
 together after a separation of forty years. I mentioned to 
 Bentham the language in which Talleyrand spoke of him, 
 and he asked whether he would accept a dinner-invitation 
 to the hermitage. Talleyrand said he would give up any 
 and every engagement for the pleasure of meeting his 
 ancient acquaintance. They met, and an amusing and in- 
 structive colloquy took place between one of the busiest 
 actors in the great scenes of the world, and the almost in- 
 accessible recluse whose life was given up to meditation 
 and study. 1861. 
 
 LA FAYETTE. 
 
 La Fayette was called by the Eoyalists during the early 
 part of the French Revolution the " Grandison Robespierre," 
 than which no designation was ever less deserved ; for, 
 though sometimes weak of purpose, and seduced by the 
 Hattery of the Court on the one hand, and the desire to 
 win popular applause on the other, a more sincere and in- 
 corruptible man never appeared on the stage of public 
 events. The republican tendencies of the young enthusiast 
 were displayed in his visit to America where, going to assist 
 the so-called rebels in their resistance to monarchical despot- 
 ism, he was received as if he had been an angelic visitant. 
 
 u 
 
306 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 The head of one of the first families in France, he flunjr 
 aside his title of Marquis, detached the aristocratic De from 
 his name, and adopted all the forms of commonwealth sim- 
 plicity. Loaded with evidences of American gratitude, he 
 returned to France, and could scarcely fail to be selected as 
 a leader in the great liberal movement. His counsels, had 
 they been listened to, might have saved the King from de- 
 struction, but, as in the case of the Stuart Charles, the 
 Bourbon Louis disgusted his best friends by his faithless- 
 ness and treachery, and became another example of the 
 truth of the ancient maxim, " The gods infatuate those they 
 mean to overthrow." That he should have escaped amidst 
 all the dangers that menaced him, obnoxious as he became 
 to the Covirt, and distrusted by the mob, is not among the 
 least remarkable of the events of that wonderful chapter in 
 history. He bore serenely the rigours of his imprisonment 
 at Olmlitz, and became again all-influential when the three 
 glorious days of July called him prominently forward. 
 
 In his family relations, he was one of the happiest of men, 
 and it was a delightful privilege to be his guest at his 
 country seat at La Grange, where, surrounded by a nume- 
 rous family, he was the object of universal affection and 
 reverence. No doubt he was sadly disappointed by the 
 course of action pursued by Louis Philippe, who, to him, 
 more than to any man, owed his regal position. His 
 disappointment was shared by Lafitte, Du Pont de 
 I'Eure, and the other great men, who created an influence 
 which soon became too strong for their control, but the 
 field is too wide to be here explored. — 1861. 
 
 BARRY o'mEARA 
 
 said — " T saw the Duke of Sussex yesterday. He told me 
 I had killed Lord Castlereagh. That will console me for 
 the rest of my life." 
 
DUMOURIEZ. 307 
 
 DUMODRIEZ. 
 
 General Dumouriez, in whose eyes yet sparkled that 
 extraordinary vivacity which led Charles IV. of Spain to 
 say— "aquel Francesito tiene los ojos endiablados," was 
 talking to me over old times, and throwing the spirit of his 
 genius over all his narratives. He said — "When I was 
 first introduced to Paul at Petersburg, I found him, with 
 Alexander acting the part of a page, and the courtiers 
 before him, arranged in straight and formal lines according 
 to their rank. He said to me, ' How comes it that you— 
 v^ous autres Fran9ais — ^do such fine and glorious things, 
 and gain such splendid victories ? What can I do with a 
 sty of pigs like these ? — un tas de cochons comme voila ? ' 
 pointing to his court. I answered, " C'est par I'impulsion 
 de la gloire, I'appliquant a recompenser la bravoure et a 
 punir la lachet^.' ' Bah,' replied Paul, ' de la gloire ! ! ! 
 Parlez de la gloire a ces cochons la,' and swept away 
 abruptly as usual." The next time he went to court, Du- 
 mouriez was nearly hidden behind a column, when Paul 
 entered, with the Empress hanging on his arm. He was 
 dressed in his usual uniform, with white silk stockings and 
 white kid gloves. He marched on, and, perceiving Du- 
 mouriez, smiled, and when he came opposite to him, turned 
 off at riarht anoles, drawo-ino; his wife, and shoutinof, " G^n^- 
 ral ! je vous presente ma femme," which being said, he 
 turned off abruptly, and hastened forwards. Paul's vehe- 
 mence of character is well known, and when irritated, he 
 seemed to have all the ferocity of a demon. A young lady 
 of whom the Emperor was enamoured — Nellidoo was her 
 name — was once present during one of Paul's paroxysms 
 (she was, Dumouriez said, small and short, and ugly as 
 himself, but with I'esprit d'un diable). She seized him 
 violently with both hands by the collar, and dragged him 
 
308 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 to a mirror, to which she pointed, exclaiming, " See what 
 a horrible countenance you have." Paul sprang upon the 
 glass, and broke it into a thousand pieces with his feet. 
 " Now Sire ! " said she, " you have only multiplied your 
 hideous figure ! " She was banished, and her recall could 
 not be obtained. " Paul," said Dumouriez, " gave me his 
 picture, which I gave to the Prince Regent (George IV.) 
 I visited Gustavus Adolphus in his closet. He had the 
 smallest room and the biggest sword I ever saw, so that he 
 was constantly tumbling over it, or obliged to hug it in his 
 arms in order to move about. He consulted me about his 
 campaigns, and took out of his pocket a vile little map of 
 post-roads, by which he began to explain his military plans, 
 but it was so small, that Pomerania, to which all his pro- 
 jects were directed, was not there. However, he talked on. 
 He had a plan for making Stralsund an impregnable fortress, 
 and meant to build bastions, &c., of the bricks of the mer- 
 chants' houses, which he said he would destroy. II n'avait 
 pas le sens commun. 
 
 "Meyer was not satisfied with my translation of his 
 little book on France. Klopstock said to me, however, 
 " Meyer aime trop a farder. II veut trop peindre en beau. 
 Vous I'avez fait parler un langage plus raisonnable." 
 
 " -'^y grandfather had thirty -two children, every one of 
 w^hom reached the age of twenty-two, and often twenty- 
 five or twenty-six grown-up children sat at his table. 
 
 " I was omnipotent when I had little claim to the good 
 opinion of my country. I won the battle of Jemappes. 
 They disorganised my army, took aU power out of my 
 hands, and sacrificed me." — 1822. 
 
 Dumouriez died on 2d March 1823 at Turvile Park, aged 
 eighty-four, his last days having been made comfortable by 
 a liberal allowance from the then Duke of Orleans, which 
 enabled him to keep a carriage. The General had, I believe, 
 
DUMOUEIEZ. 309 
 
 a pension of £1000 a year from the British Government, with 
 whom he was in intimate communication, and for whom 
 he drew up a plan of defence agninst the menaced French 
 invasion. At his death, his papers were purchased by the 
 Government from his executors. The accusation that he 
 had sold himself to the enemy was certainly groundless, for 
 he was almost penniless when he quitted the army, and 
 suhsisted for some time in Germany by the use of his pen 
 before he emigrated to England. I left London in the vain 
 hope of finding him alive, but found him a corpse. He 
 had enjoyed life to the very last, and a few hours before 
 his death, had walked to the window, and looked over the 
 green common with complacent and delighted satisfaction. 
 I had hoped for one glance from those bright eyes, but they 
 were closed, and for ever. He was dead, stiff, calm, and 
 silent. He who shook empires, frozen as a wintry clod. 
 The spirit of Jemappes stilled and voiceless. A short time 
 before his death his hands were often observed to be closed. 
 "Que faites vous, mon General?" — " Je me recueille," I 
 am harvesting myself. What a harvest ! The Catholic 
 priest behaved manfully. Le Dieu said, " the General be- 
 lieved in God, and in a future state. He did harm to 
 none, but good wherever he could. We will not have his 
 last moments tormented with cruel questionings." The 
 priest crossed his eyelids with the holy oil (extreme 
 unction), in silence, — and the General died. 
 
 He had seen much of kings, and estimated them at their 
 value. Take an anecdote of his of the present Emperor 
 of Austria (1823). When the news of the taking of 
 Mantua was brought to him, he opened the letter, and 
 seemed to read it attentively. He snatched at the sheet 
 suddenly, exclaiming, " I have caught him." A fly had just 
 pitched upon the sheet, which the wary monarch had 
 entrapped. He threw down the sheet unfinished. Who 
 shall say, " Aquila non captat muscas" ? — 1823. 
 
310 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 LEON FAUCHER. 
 
 France, more perhaps than any country in Europe with 
 the exception of Turkey, presents examples of the most re- 
 markable changes associated with the history of her pubhc 
 men. In the fall of the aristocracy, as in the rise of men 
 of the people, many lessons are to be found of the strange 
 chances which mortal flesh is heir to. L^on Faucher's his- 
 tory is a very singular one. His character was marked by 
 great buoyancy of mind, integrity of conduct, perseverance 
 in the objects of his ambition, and a courage not to be re- 
 pressed by any misadventure. He was bom in obscurity, 
 and the pangs of poverty were augmented by family dissen- 
 sions, which led to the separation of his father and mother ; 
 but even in his earlier studies, he gave evidence of in- 
 tellectual superiority, and carried off many of the prizes 
 that were accessible to competition. But the small town 
 of Limoges offered too narrow a field for his genius, and 
 having great facility in composition, he made his way to 
 Paris, where a ready writer seldom fails to find employment 
 for his pen. He determined to establish a newspaper, but 
 had certainly not estimated the difficulties attending such 
 an enterprise in a capital where the public press is in the 
 hands of influential and opulent men, and where most of 
 the principal journals represent the opinions of large politi- 
 cal sections of the community. He failed, and his failure 
 involved him in debt, led to his imprisonment, and reduced 
 him to such straits that he was often obliged to ask for a 
 meal from the bounty of his friends. He had scarcely where- 
 with to shelter himself from the inclemency of the weather, 
 and was obliged to.pledge his little possessions in order to 
 keep body and soul together. But his indomitable perse- 
 verance never abandoned him, and his literary reputation 
 grew by the production of a number of papers in the 
 
LEON FAX] CHER. 311 
 
 periodicals, in which he treated subjects of finance, political 
 economy, and other matters which occupied the French 
 mind, and in which he exhibited great sagacity and varied 
 information. The breaking down of the barriers between 
 the different States of Germany in the great federation 
 called the Zoll Verein led him to conceive of a similar cus- 
 tom-house union between France, Belgium, Spain, and 
 Switzerland. It was a natural proposal to come from one 
 who had been an early apostle of free-trade, and who saw 
 more facilities in binding the smaller nations to France, 
 than in emancipating France and England from the heavy 
 fetters which obstructions and monopolies had placed upon 
 both. His great desire, however, was to get into the 
 Chamber of Deputies, which he naturally thought would 
 afford him the widest sphere of useful action. He made 
 four or five unsuccessful efforts, being generally defeated by 
 some representative either of the agricultural or manufac- 
 turing interests of France, but he ultimately effected his 
 purpose, and became one of the most useful of deputies, 
 for, though he could scarcely be called an eloquent man, 
 his sound arguments and valuable statistics gave weight 
 to his opinions, and, in committees especially, his services 
 were most invaluable. He had travelled in England 
 during the time of the great anti-corn-law agitation, had 
 made the acquaintance of many of our most eminent free- 
 traders, returned to France more firm than ever in the 
 sound principles of political economy, and gave his opinion 
 to the world in several papers of great excellence. 
 
 He married Miss Wolowska, a sister of the lecturer on 
 political economy, well known in the world of literature 
 and public affairs. In 1848-49, Faucher became one of the 
 French Cabinet, and was also made a member of the Insti- 
 tute. His political opinions, though republican, were not 
 extreme, and he was unfriendly to the action of universal 
 
312 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 suffrage. He showed some restlessness and impatience 
 under the sway of Louis Napoleon, then President of the 
 Eepublic, and of course was not long allowed to occupy 
 his official position. He died of pleurisy in 1854. His 
 " poor tenement of clay was o'er informed," and he bore 
 about him evident marks of exhaustion and weariness. 
 The pecuniary difficulties which had overshadowed his 
 earlier life had been removed, and though his style of 
 living was always simple, his home afforded him all the 
 felicity which a happy union could bring. Madame 
 Favicher's patriotism and love of her country were such as 
 may be said to characterize almost all Polish women, and 
 while her husband's memory will long be honoured for his 
 personal virtues, he will be deemed one of those who gave 
 no small impulse to the progress of reform at home, and 
 the brotherhood of nations abroad — 1861. 
 
 AELES DUFOUE. 
 
 Amiable alike in all the relations of private life, and re- 
 spected in his public career, Aries Dufour of Lyons has ever 
 been most loved and honoured by those to whom he has 
 been best known. It is impossible to estimate the amount 
 of good done by a man of intelligence, activity, and 
 strong convictions, in a sphere where his intellectual supe- 
 riority gives him pre-eminence. Aries was not only an 
 earnest promoter of every philanthropic project in Lyons, 
 but one of the most efficient advocates of the great prin- 
 ciples of Free Trade in the Chamber of Commerce, and 
 through the public press. It is to the honour of Manches- 
 ter, and the cotton-interest, as to that of Lyons, as repre- 
 senting the silk-trade — these being the most interesting 
 and the most advanced of the manufactures of the two 
 countries — that they have struggled for emancipation, and 
 have been the faithful exponents of the soundest political 
 
ARLES DUFOTTR. 3 1 3 
 
 economy. They have not only furnished irresistible argu- 
 ments, but the statistics of important and conclusive facts, 
 and in their prosperity and self-sustained strength have 
 given admirable lessons to the world. Some of the most 
 instructive documents which have been published emanated 
 from Aries' pen, and if men like Chevalier Frederick 
 Bastian, and some others, have been better known, it must 
 be attributed to the circumstance that they have been, not 
 anonymous writers, but open and avowed partisans of 
 opinions which have of late years been spreading through 
 society like a new revelation of truth and soberness. 
 
 Aries owed much to the influence of the St Simonians, 
 among whom the Pere Enfantin was the object of his 
 special reverence. Whatever tares and weeds may be 
 found in the harvesting of this strange community, there 
 was in all their teachings abundance of the good and pro- 
 lific seed of a genuine and generous philanthropy, which 
 has produced excellent fruits in many of the leading minds 
 of France. International hatreds have disappeared wher- 
 ever the St Simonian creed has prevailed, and with it the 
 conviction has spread that love, not hatred, peace, not war, 
 unchecked commercial intercourse, not repulsion, are the 
 motives by which nations should be influenced, and the 
 objects for which they should strive — that if God, in His 
 all-wise providence, has given to each people its advantages 
 of climate, soil, and production, it was not for selfish but 
 for cosmopolitan ends — it was that the superfluities of each 
 may be interchanged with those of all others — it was in a 
 word, that benefi.ts and blessings miffht be maximized over 
 the widest space, and for the whole human family. Men 
 like Aries become the apostles of this genuine Christianity, 
 and if the little candle throws its beams afar, the light that 
 is set on high cannot be hid, and, fed by heaven's flame, 
 will burn and brighten for ever and ever. 
 
314 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Ifc would be an interesting task to discover and disclose 
 the gems of truth and words of wisdom which exist in the 
 teachings of all the founders of new religions. Even 
 among the Mormons there is something to be learnt. 
 For example, "To say 'I cannot,' is to condemn yourself to 
 lielplessness — to say ' I will try,' is the way to accomplish 
 wonders — but to proclaim 'I am determined' to succeed,' 
 will work even miracles." '^^ So in the St Simonian creed, 
 how much of practical good sense is there in the command- 
 ment, " To each the labour according to his talents, to all 
 the recompense according to their deserts." These, like 
 Bacon's great aphorism, " Look to the end + — let experi- 
 ence be fruitful, authority barren " — or Bentham's " maxi- 
 mize aptitude, minimize expense" — "seek the greatest 
 good of the greatest number " — these, and other such are 
 as pole-stars to guide our way. They constitute a higher 
 code of instruction than is to be found in contradictory 
 proverbs, and represent the concentrated deductions of 
 a sound and stable philosophy. — 1861. 
 
 d'argenson (voyer) 
 
 Said, " It is necessary that an influence be given to the 
 wealth gained by industry equal to its importance in 
 society, and that hereditary wealth possessed by indolence 
 and laziness be reduced in its influence to the point of its 
 comparative worthlessness. 
 
 * By the last returns given by M. Edmy in his Voyage au pays des Mormons 
 (Paris, 1860), the number of Latter Day Saints is estimated at 186,600 — of 
 whom 33,000 are in the British Islands, 80,000 in Utah, 40,000 in the United 
 States, and the rest scattered over the world. In France, only 500 are re- 
 ported to exist. 
 
 + I do not know that Jouffray's maxim " The best criterion of morality is 
 the course which best secures the universal end " — or the aphorism proposed 
 by some French writers, " Duty is that which looks to the universal end with 
 a view to the general good" — practically differs from Bentham's theory, though 
 the phraseology is more diffuse. 
 
FOURNIER PESCAY. 315 
 
 " Buonaparte was not eloquent. He had a wonderful 
 effusion of words, and was remarkably verbose. He talked, 
 and talked, and talked, and it was only now and then that he 
 talked with talent. In such a mass of talking;, of course 
 there fell something from him worth recording, and it was 
 always recorded. But on great occasions, when eloquence 
 might have materially served him, he was generally obscure 
 and wordy. He erred in the gross — he erred in the details 
 of his conduct. He hated liberty, and spurned the principles 
 on which his greatness was built. He wanted to blend 
 extremes — old civilization with liberal institutions. He 
 re-created nobility, he re-introduced expensive farces and 
 delusive follies, and would unite them with the stern sim- 
 plicity of republicanism. He would be crowned by the 
 Pope, and he would have had the ampoule of the Holy 
 Spirit if he could have managed the trick. He married an 
 Emperor's daughter, to show that he made common cause 
 with monarchs. All this was blindness. He ruined his 
 country and ruined himself. 
 
 " He had, after all, no great discrimination. Gourgaud 
 told me that when his escape from St Helena was plotted, 
 he refused to seek an asylum in the United States. He 
 exclaimed, ' Je n'aime pas les Am^ricains. lis me ven- 
 draient.'"— 1822. 
 
 FOURNIER PESCAY 
 
 Said, " I lived three years with Ferdinand, and his 
 brother and uncle at Valengay. Carlos was a poor super- 
 stitious wretch — Antonio half an ass and half a pig, ignor- 
 ant and brutish. Ferdinand was the vilest, and coldest, 
 and most abject piece of servility I ever met with. He rose 
 at 7 — when ready, his valets were called to assist him at 
 his wardrobe, and I was introduced. He never varied his 
 form of salutation, ' Bon jour, comment te portes tu ? ' 
 
316 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 After his chocolate, the correspondence and newspapers 
 were brought, the former having always been examined 
 before. The first things that arrested his attention were the 
 enigmas and charades, and he cried out ' Devine ga.' When 
 found out, he never would believe that the guess was right, 
 but said ' We shall see to-morrow,' and that was always 
 part of the morrow's business. He generally read the 
 prayers himself, and when pleased with anybody, would 
 say, ' Tu iras avec moi k la messe.' (In Spain, the King 
 always uses the second person singular). He dined with 
 his brothers at 12 o'clock, and afterwards slept (the siesta) 
 till 4, when he played at cards, but would never learn any 
 game but ' la mouche,' the game of the most common and 
 vulgar classes. He used to translate the journals for his 
 uncle, who understood no French. It was I who wrote the 
 famous letter in which he entreated Napoleon to call him 
 his son, and to give him his sister in marriage. I entreated 
 him on my knees not to do so foolish a thing, but he 
 insisted on it, though he afterwards declared that the letter 
 was sent to him ready- written by Buonaparte. When the 
 Emperor received it, he burst out laughing, and said, 
 ' Combien ils sont vils ces Bourbons ! ' Napoleon sent the 
 letter to the Moniteur, but never deigned to answer it. 
 
 " His mistresses were the washerwomen and servant 
 girls who visited his apartments. At dinner he delighted 
 himself with reading the inscriptions on the bon-bons, and 
 making others read them. C'^tait un veritable enfantillage. 
 He went out every day, except when it rained in torrents, 
 and his invitation was invariably ' Voulons nous aller nous 
 promener.' " — 1822. 
 
 COUNT PORRO 
 
 Said, "I had once a singular conversation with the 
 Pope, who said to me, ' Murat is a very good fellow, biit 
 
N. PICCOLO. 317 
 
 I'll tell you what passed on one occasion between him and 
 me.' He said, ' Holy Father ! I have a favour to ask ' — 
 ' Well, what is it ? ' '1 hope. Holy Father, you are disposed 
 to grant it.' ' Yes, if it is reasonable.' ' I want you. Holy 
 Father, to excommunicate the Carbonari.' ' No ; that I 
 cannot do.' ' Holy Father, you wish well to me, and this 
 would be serving me.' ' Well ! I will do it, on one condi- 
 tion.' ' What is that, Holy Father ? ' 'I will excommuni- 
 cate the Freemasons at the same time.' ' No ! no ! Holy 
 Father.' The truth is Murat was a Freemason." — 1822. 
 
 N. PICCOLO. 
 
 Piccolo was a Greek who honoured his country, and, over- 
 flowing with fine and generous emotions, devoted thought 
 and action wholly to the liberation of Greece. He wrote 
 that fine appeal to the English, which was published in 
 1821 in the Examiner and other papers. It was an un- 
 successful appeal. He observed — and it was observed with 
 truth — that the love of liberty is much less extensively 
 circulated in England than in France. It is less understood 
 here. Our people, deceived by vague declamations about 
 " our glorious constitution "— " wisdom of ancestors " — and 
 other delusions, rivetted in their minds from childhood up- 
 wards, have really a very imperfect notion of good govern- 
 ment. They are badly off, and wish for change, but they 
 do not see how all-important it is that the change should 
 be erected on a popular and extensive principle. 
 
 I enjoy those orientalisms and ancient usages which are 
 still preserved among the Greeks. When I was travelling 
 with a Sciote in the South of France, our afiections had 
 blended, and we were about to separate with mutual regret. 
 He proposed that we should go into the woods to seek some 
 rivulet, and wash each other's feet, as Jesus did, as a token 
 of love. I am not one who can resist such appeals to the 
 heart— 1822. 
 
318 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECT[ONS. 
 
 FOSSOMBEONI. 
 
 Fossombroni was prime minister when I was in Tuscany. 
 He was a very clever man, but of course lost in the narrow 
 sphere to which his abilities were confined. Buonaparte 
 said of him, " Cest un geant dans un entresol." He often 
 was very happy in his talk, and had much influence with 
 the Grand Duke Leopold, whose unbending gravity was not 
 always pleasing to the more lively and imaginative minister. 
 On one occasion when Leopold was encouraging Fossombroni 
 to point out any of his political mistakes, the minister said, 
 " V. A. ha un difetto." " Cosa e ? cosa e ? " enquired the 
 Prince, " V. A. non sa ridere "• — your Highness cannot 
 laugh. The services Fossombroni rendered to his country 
 by draining and filling up the Maremma are beyond all 
 praise. Under his auspices, health supplanted disease, and 
 fertility superseded barrenness, the fetid marsh became a 
 fruitful plain, and vast tracks where disease and death 
 reigned were made habitable and salubrious. 
 
 SONNET TO COUNT FOSSOMBRONI.' 
 
 " If sovereigns throw a glorious light on story, 
 
 When peace and peaceful triumphs mark their reign, 
 They too shall reap their portion of the glory 
 
 Who led them on — nor led them on in vain. 
 Blest he whom years have crowned with lionours hoary, 
 
 Whose memory, tracking life's long path again, 
 Sees — not war's footsteps barbarous and gory. 
 
 But flowers and fruits and harvests in the plain, 
 Which he hath planted ! Statesman ! thou shalt cull. 
 
 In Chian's vale and the Maremmas wide. 
 Laurels of brighter green, and nobler pride. 
 
 More lasting, more divine, more beautiful. 
 Than those men wreathe around the warrior's brow. 
 
 Thine the true conquests — the true conqueror thou." 
 
 Florence, 30th Dec. 1836 
 
MINA. 319 
 
 MINA* 
 
 Said, "During tlie war of independence, I kept up a 
 correspondence with Carlota (the Queen of Portugal, and 
 sister of Ferdinand), who wanted above all things to become 
 Eegent in Spain, and then Queen, to accomplish which she 
 would have sacrificed brothers and sisters, husband and 
 children. Her daughter, the wife of Don Carlos, is her 
 image, just as bad, and has a hundred queridos. When I 
 went to call on Don Carlos at the palace, he called her 
 ' Maria Francesca ! ' She came in — a dirty sloven, her 
 hair tangled, a common cotton gown on, and said to me 
 abruptly, ' Ah ! Mina ! mama te quiere mucho-mucho. 
 Has tenido una larga correspondencia con ella ? ' 'Si 
 Senora.' ' Si, mucho te quiere, mucho. Ha roto algunas 
 cartas tuyas, pero muchas guard e, mitchas.' ' Pues, yo, 
 Senora, todas las guardo. '"f A friend of Mina had great 
 influence over her, for she had committed herself by her 
 letters to him. He told me that she had several times hinted 
 that to reign was worth shedding some blood for. She did 
 not care for a few heads rolling, be they whose they might. 
 " How did you manage your correspondence with the 
 Queen of Portugal," I asked Mina. " By special couriers. 
 She said the Empeanado and I were the only men in Spain 
 who could do the thing, and she wrote me thirty-six or 
 thirty-four letters. In one, she offered me anything I could 
 ask. I sent copies of all her letters and of all my answers 
 to the Eegency, and she found it out at last. If she caught 
 me, she would flay me." " Tell me what passed in your 
 interviews with Ferdinand?" "I saw him first in 1814, 
 
 * The well-known Spanish Guerilla partisan. 
 
 •f- ' Ah ! Mina ! mamma loves thee much. Hast thou had an extensive 
 correspondence with her 1 ' ' Yes, Senora.' ' Yes, she loves thee much. She 
 has destroyed some of thy letters, but keeps many, very many.' ' And I, 
 Seiiora, keep them all.' 
 
320 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 after tlie war of independence. He sent for me, and said, 
 ' Mina ! mncho deseaba verte ' — I wished much to see thee. 
 I said, ' Your Majesty has only to command my presence.' 
 ' •* I am very glad to see thee. How do things go on ? ' 
 'Your Majesty is surrounded by knaves and flatterers, 
 bringing on the perdition of Spain.' ' Yes ! I have many 
 flatterers, what shall I do ? ' ' Dismiss them all, and seek 
 trustworthy and honest men.' ' I'll do it instantly.' He 
 then began to vituperate Eguia, and the other ministers, 
 and said he would form a new list. 
 
 " Castano came to me very much perplexed. He had an 
 affection for me, and I for him. He said, ' Son of mine, 
 son of mine, you must not talk thus at Court. You don't 
 know how to behave yourself You should not sow dissen- 
 sions and enmities thus.' ' I suppose you do not talk in this 
 style, but I cannot talk in any other. A king has no more 
 in him to me than any other man.' I was only a few days 
 in Madrid. I was wretched there. I would rather live in 
 the free air, or the mountains, or anywhere. ' Did he 
 change his ministers ? ' said I. ' No.' ' What do you think 
 of Ferdinand 1' 'A timid, trembling knave.' When I 
 spoke to him, the perspiration ran over his brow. He would 
 have done anything — anything. He sent for me in 1822. 
 I arrived post, and before I visited my lodgings, covered 
 with dust as I was, I went to the palace, and asked to see 
 the king. He was with one of his mistresses, and ap- 
 pointed me to come in the morning. When I was intro- 
 duced to him, we talked of the insurrection in Catalonia, 
 and I said I would soon put that down, but that his Majesty 
 ought to know that the heads of the faction were not in 
 Catalonia, but in Madrid. Everybody felt it was necessary 
 that the ministry should be changed, and diflferent members 
 were to be proposed, but there were some names which were 
 so hateful to the king, yet so necessary for the people, that 
 
MINA. 321 
 
 no one would venture to propose them. Abisbal was wanted 
 as Inspector-General of the army. The king hates him 
 cordially, yet he is the only man in Spain fit fur that office. 
 No one would propose him. Nerva Pambley said he could 
 not^dared not. I said, ' What ! you won't propose, from 
 men's fear, that which is so necessary for the country ? ' 
 ' El Eey me echark un ajo.' ' Well, throw another at him, 
 or come down to the Cortes, and say the king has insulted 
 you while you were discharging your duty, but speak 
 firmly. Does he sweat when you speak to him ? (He 
 hace S. M. sudar ?) ' I went to the king, told him that 
 Abisbal must be appointed, and brought back the order, 
 written in pencil by Fernando himself 
 
 " When I was at Madrid, charged with the affairs of the 
 Tnbimal volante, which had been established during the 
 war of independence, but whose decrees the tribunal had 
 refused to sanction, in consequence of which many thousand 
 families were in a state of great distress, I went to the 
 Mmister of Grace and Justice, and urged his expediting the 
 matter. He hesitated, asked for time, and would not be 
 hurried. I went to the king, and said, ' This decision, your 
 Majesty, can and must delay no longer.' ' Let us talk with 
 the Minister of Grace and Justice.' ' I cannot answer for 
 your Majesty's safety if it is not despatched.' ' But/ said 
 the king, ' must I approve of all they have done ? How 
 do I know what iniquities I may sanction 1 ' ' The thing, 
 please your Majesty, has been for a long time before the 
 Minister of Grace and Justice. Every cause was decided 
 by judges, and I have approved them. Six thousand fami- 
 lies of Navarre and Aragon are clamorous. There can be 
 no longer delay.' The king took a pencil and ordered the 
 minister to despatch the matter. 'Will your Majesty 
 authorize me to say that it must be despatched imme- 
 diately 1 ' ' Yes I ' It was eleven o'clock at night. I went 
 
 X 
 
322 AUTOBIOGRAPHCCAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 instantly to the minister's house, who said it was impos- 
 sible then, that his secretaries had left the office, that the 
 time was unreasonable, that he must examine the affair, &c. 
 I said, ' Sir, will you or will you not obey the king's orders 
 instantly 1 ' I will not be put off (for I knew that, if he saw 
 the king, the order would be changed). He said the decree 
 was by far too comprehensive. I replied that I would not 
 leave the place until he expedited the order. He sent for 
 his secretary, and ordered him to prepare the despatch, 
 with which I went at six in the morning to the king, who 
 signed it. I called on the Infante, Don Carlos, who said 
 to me, ' Mina, vas a Cataluiia contre los facciosos ? ' — ' Si 
 Senor ' — •' Jode los, jode los.' 
 
 " ' Do you know the Infante Don Francisco ? ' ' Yes, I 
 lived with him for a long time.' He once said to me, ' My 
 brother (the king) is not a constitutional — I am. Do the 
 people like me ? Have I any party ? ' (for, though a miser- 
 able fellow, he has much ambition). I said, ' You have, 
 sir, the party of the Spanish nation.' He was prodigiously 
 delighted, and wanted to give me two fine horses fi'om his 
 stables, which I refused. I would not have it said that I 
 received favours from the princes." — 1825. 
 
 ECHEVERRIA, J. T. 
 
 Echeverria came to Europe with Revenga to induce the 
 Spanish government to recognize the independence of 
 Columbia. His health had been shattered by his sufferings 
 in the patriotic cause, he having been shut up for many 
 months in a mountainous and desert spot with nothing but 
 roots and wild fruits to exist on. Bentham endeavoured 
 to persuade him to use his influence with the Columbian 
 government in favour of the cession of a part of the Isthmus 
 of Darien to a company, to be called Junctiana, who should 
 undertake to make a water communication between the 
 
COEAY — HASUN EL D GHIES. 323 
 
 Atlantic and the Pacific, and to allow equal privileges of 
 transit to all nations, but Echeverria would not hear of 
 the alienation of a foot of land belonging to the Republic. 
 
 —1822. 
 
 CORAY. 
 
 r^ yepovTi xopari, as he Called himself. I saw him in August 
 1821. The sons of Greece were gathered round him, and 
 he was listening to the different tales they brought of the 
 progress of the struggle with the Turks. " I foresaw all 
 this, but I believed it would take place when my pilgrimage 
 was over. I foresaw it ; " and tears flowed fast from " the 
 old man's " cheeks. " No, no," said the young men who 
 were about him ; " you shall return to Greece, and we will 
 build you a monument." A smile of grateful joy played 
 upon the old man's countenance, and every tongue had 
 some accent of kindness and of congratulation. — 1822. 
 
 HASUN EL D GHIES. 
 
 Hasiin el D'Ghies was a liberal, fine-hearted Moosul- 
 man, learned, and impatient to do good to his country 
 (Tripoli). He complained of the great injustice done to 
 it by the publication of the Tully correspondence. He ap- 
 pealed to his own dress, that he had always worn, as a proof 
 of the carelessness of the details. He had been reading 
 Vattel and Bentham (in his translator's " Traits de Legisla- 
 tion"), and I found the pages covered with Arabic notes. 
 
 " To what extent might reform be introduced in Tripoli," 
 he asked, " without giving umbrage to the Holy Alliance ? 
 I want to introduce a more liberal system. It must be 
 represented to the monarch as a guarantee for his personal 
 safety — to the people it would recommend itself. Adopted 
 in Tripoli, it would spread to Tunis, and so fly along the 
 
324 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 coast. I have prepared the following Arabic decree to pre- 
 pare men's minds for it. 
 
 " People ! beloved people ! whom God hath committed 
 to my care ! Hearken now to my voice ! It shall be a 
 sound of sweetness to your ears. Opening on a former day 
 the Book of Life, for so did God ordain, I read in it this 
 sentence — ' Euler ! act not purely of thy own will. That 
 which is of moment do it not but with wise and honest 
 counsellors.' No sooner had I read these words, than it 
 seemed to me as if a film had fallen from my eyes. I 
 looked up, and lo ! all the errors of my past life stood as it 
 were arrayed before me. I trembled, and should have sunk 
 down at the sight, had not the same divine words which 
 thus brought to my eyes the evil, brought with them the 
 remedy. On a sudden, it seemed to me as if the prophet 
 were looking down upon me, and that not with hand, as 
 when he delivered to our forefathers the book of truth, — 
 not with hand, but with tongue and lips, he spake to me 
 these words — ' My son, adore God, and listen to the 
 prophet. Thou hast erred, I will set thee right. Thou 
 hast been severe, I will make thee gracious. Thou hast 
 been selfish, I will make thee generous. Thou hast been 
 weak in mind, I wiU make thee wise. Thou hast been in 
 peril, I will make thee safe. Thou hast been weak in 
 power, I will make thee strong. Thy power would end 
 with thy life, but I will continue it even to the end of time. 
 The power of those that come after thee shall thus be 
 bounded, but thine own power shall receive increase. Yea ! 
 it shall receive increase, for that obedience which those who 
 w^ent before thee were wont to receive from fear, that, and 
 more also, shalt thou receive from admiration, love, and 
 gratitude. Do that which I command thee, and the whole 
 multitude of the faithful throughout the earth shall look up 
 to thee, they shall envy thee until they imitate thee, and 
 
HASUN EL D GHIES. 325 
 
 all generations to come shall bless thee even as a second 
 prophet from whose word they will have received a being 
 compared to which the state of all who went before thee 
 was a state of affliction, fear, and darkness. Euler ! thou 
 takest upon thee to provide for the wants of thy people, 
 and thou knowest not what they are. Thou callest upon 
 them to obey thy will, and they know not what it is. My 
 son ! Thou shalt call the people around thee, and thus shalt 
 thou know their wants. Thou shalt call around thee men 
 chosen by the people, and, when thou hast heard their 
 counsel, thou shalt profit by it. Thou shalt cause thy will 
 to be written in a book, and wheresoever the book of my 
 laws shall be kept, the book of thy law shall be heard. 
 Thou shalt divide thy kingdom into districts, and from each 
 district thou shalt call unto thee a wise man, the man 
 whom thy people shall have chosen. In each district thou 
 shalt place a judge. At his right hand shall lie the book 
 of my word, and the words of those concerning whom it is 
 written in the Table of Brass that in all ages they shall 
 come after thee. The seat of the judges shall be on high, 
 and shall be in the presence of the people. Under them 
 shall sit at all times two men, or three men, as the case 
 shall require, also taken by lot among the fathers or sons of 
 families. Without these men he shall do nothing. On 
 each occasion he shall pass such decision as, in his own 
 judgment, shall be according to the law, and according to 
 the facts that have come before him, but whatever these 
 men shall see good to say, shall in the first place have been 
 heard. Thus doing, thou shalt be loved as sovereign never 
 was loved before thee, for never before did people receive 
 from a sovereign such gifts as thy people shall thus have 
 received from thee. Thus doing, thou shalt be safe against 
 adversaries from within, even as no sovereign before thee 
 was ever safe, for that safety which other sovereigns have 
 
326 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 sought in fear, thou wilt have received from love. Thus 
 doing, thou wilt be safe against adversaries from without, 
 even as before thee no sovereign ever was safe, for, seeing 
 thy people clinging to thee, while their subjects flee from 
 them, they Avill see that, instead of assailing thee, those 
 whom they would lead or send against thee would cast 
 themselves at thy feet, and beg to be received into the 
 number of thy subjects. The yearly growing wealth which 
 God has given to thee as sovereign, thou shalt divide into 
 two parts. One thou shalt continue to receive for the sub- 
 sistence of thyself and thy family. This thou shalt not 
 thyself increase. The other shall be diminished or increased 
 as necessity calls, and the receipt, as well as disposal thereof, 
 shall be according to that which thou, after hearing the wise 
 men from the people, shall have ordained.' 
 
 " People ! I know not as yet whether what it seemed to 
 me that 1 then saw and heard was the truth, or whether it 
 was but an illusion and a dream. When the men of your 
 choice shall stand before me, we will pray with one voice 
 to the Almighty, and His will shall put aside all clouds, 
 and make the truth more manifest to our hearts. 
 
 " Thereupon, if at all, comes the charter containing the 
 Declaration of Eights which it confers or acknowledges." — 
 1822. 
 
 DEAK FERENCZ. 
 
 To unite discordant parties in a common action — to har- 
 monize hostile passions into a sympathizing enthusiasm, is 
 a privilege and a power granted but to few, and their suc- 
 cessful exercise may be accepted as evidence of high capaci- 
 ties, both intellectual and moral. Among the men who, 
 out of elements apparently irreconcileable, have produced a 
 fusion of thought and feeling, co-operative in the great work 
 of national regeneration, the name of Francis Deak stands 
 
DEAK FEKENCZ. 327 
 
 prominent, the leader in and the peace-giver to the Magyar 
 land. It is not surprising that in Hungary there should be 
 some men of merit and of mark, who stand aloof at the 
 extreme points of legitimacy and of liberalism ; men who, 
 on the one hand, have maintained the divine and inalienable 
 rights of monarchs, and, on the other, those who look upon 
 the claims of legitimacy as utterly irreconcileable with the 
 freedom and well-being of nations ; but that auy influence 
 should have been able, in the troubled political arena of 
 Hungary to have done what Deak did for the conciliation 
 of all except the most determined royalists and the most 
 inflexible republicans, is a fact which is well worthy of 
 thoughtful attention. 
 
 So little was the origin and early history of Deak known 
 out of Hungary, that his very name was ordinarily mispro- 
 nounced, and he was denominated Dih or Dah, whereas the 
 veritable representative letters to convey the proper sound in 
 English would be Deeauh. At court, when first introduced 
 to His Majesty, the Emperor made a preliminary inquiry, " 's 
 ist wohl noch ein sehr junger manu 1 " The simplicity of the 
 imperial questioner became a standing joke in evidence of 
 the extraordinary ignorance which prevailed in Vienna as to 
 the existing state of public feeling, and the individuals who 
 represented it most prominently in Hungary. It is more 
 to the influence of this supposed " very young man," who had 
 really reached the meridian of life, and whose name was in 
 every Magyar mouth, than to any other circumstance, that the 
 preservation of the Hapsburg dynasty is to be attributed. 
 But it had been the policy of Austria to extinguish the 
 Magyar name, and of her representatives of the Metternich 
 order, to absorb in the Vienna circles, or to annihilate alto- 
 gether, everything anti-Teutonic. If, in the struggle with 
 Prussia, Austria had obtained the victory, imperial Germany 
 might have subjugated, or, in the progress of centuries, 
 
328 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 have established a permanent ascendancy over the Magyars, 
 Lombards and Czechs. Happily for the peace of mankind, 
 and the progress of civilization, the higher Prussian intel- 
 lects carried off the prize of sovereignty among the German 
 races, and Austria has been compelled to remove her autho- 
 rity eastward, and may probably discover in Pesth a more 
 powerful centre of concentrated action than in the now 
 somewhat humiliated Vienna. 
 
 For more than three centuries, the policy — one might 
 safely say the passion of Austria — was directed in Hungary 
 to one simple object, namely, the extirpation of the Magyar 
 nationality, and, whether by cajoling and coercion, by bribes 
 of place, power, and title on the one side, or by the most 
 cruel oppressions and unrelenting punishments on the other, 
 to invite or to compel submission to the imperial decrees. 
 Shortsighted as the policy may be which insists on absolute 
 prostration, and brings a pitiless vengeance on all the dis- 
 obedient, its machinery is very simple, easily understood, 
 and as easily directed by its administrators. Its require- 
 ments are, " bend or be broken." 
 
 Descended from an ancient Catholic race, noble, though 
 not of the higher ranks of nobility, Francis von Deak was 
 born on the 13th October 1803 in Kahida, in the county of 
 Zala, on the hereditary estate of his family. Three person- 
 ages have been most conspicuous in the struggles which 
 have agitated Hungary for the last forty years, and which 
 have culminated in the establishment of popular repre- 
 sentative institutions, or, as the Hungarians are more wont 
 to boast, in the restitution of ancient rights and liberties. 
 These three were Count Stephen Szecsenyi, "our great 
 Count"; Dedk, "our great Dep\ity," as the Magyars call 
 them ; and Kossuth, of European fame. Szecsenyi, by an 
 act of suicide, passed from the stage ; Kossuth condemned 
 himself to exile, and to an obscurity strangely contrasted 
 
DEAK FERENCZ. 329 
 
 with the idolatry of M^hich he was the object, when a people, 
 maddened to despair, saw no hope but in the violence of 
 revolutionary explosions ; while Dedk, by the exercise of 
 more genial and conciliatory attributes, though without any 
 abandonment of purpose or sacrifice of principle, has brought 
 the great national work to a successful issue. 
 
 The sagacity of Deak consisted mainly in this, that he 
 had equally the discretion to be silent, and the courage to 
 speak, when the popular interests were best served by 
 either. Those who wisely wait are more valuable auxili- 
 aries than those who rashly act, and to wait patiently some- 
 times demands a courage more heroic and a self-mastery 
 more perfect than do the most desperate acts of 
 valour. 
 
 In 1825, Anthony, Deck's elder brother, nominated as a 
 deputy to the Diet, and summoned away by a death-sick- 
 ness, said, in taking leave of his colleagues, " Be comforted, 
 I am not he that should come. A younger brother will 
 follow me, who in his little finger has more power and 
 patriotism than I possess in my whole frame." Francis 
 Dedk was at that time only twenty-two years old, and was 
 nominated to succeed his brother as the deputy for Zala in 
 the Diet of 1825. It was in that Diet that Count Szecsenyi 
 roused the dormant nation from its long slumbers, and 
 uttered words in the hall of the magnates which found a 
 loud echo in every part of Magyar land, " Hungary is not, 
 but Hungary shall be." His were not words alone, but he 
 declared that he would devote the whole of his revenues, 
 amounting to sixty thousand guilders, to the advancement 
 of the popular cause. His example was contagious. Two 
 statesmen of influence soon associated themselves with the 
 generous movement. Baron Wesseleny (who had been de- 
 nounced at Vienna as the deceiver and betrayer of the 
 people), and the orator Paul Nagy, came prominently for- 
 
330 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ward to lend to the movement all the weight of their 
 authority. 
 
 The radical reforms which these patriotic leaders pro- 
 posed were staggering to the privileged orders to which 
 they belonged. They demanded the absolute abrogation of 
 the exclusive privileges of the nobility, equality before the 
 law, and no exemptions from the discharge of common 
 obligations, whether fiscal, social, or political. The sug- 
 gestions were denounced as madness — the suggestors were 
 deemed madmen. To call upon the untaxed nobility to 
 sacrifice one-tenth of their incomes, to require that twenty 
 thousand families of the hereditary aristocracy, of which 
 six-sevenths were of Magyar race, should mingle in common 
 citizenship with the fifteen millions of the people and the 
 peasantry, seemed a most preposterous demand. But elo- 
 quence, self-sacrifice, and popiilar enthusiasm, accomplished 
 the great work. It was not, however, without fierce strifes 
 and bitter suflferings on the part of the advocates of the 
 national emancipation, that, after a struggle of twenty- 
 three years, a majority of the Diet proclaimed the abolition 
 of exclusive privileges, and equality of all Hungarians in 
 the presence of the law. 
 
 In 1825, the overthrow of the monopolies of the nobles 
 was prophesied by an ancient senator to be " the suicide of 
 the Hungarian people." Deak then declared with great 
 emphasis that for his part he would only be satisfied with 
 the most radical reforms carried out to their remotest con- 
 sequences. Every eye was turned towards the youth whose 
 stronff words were uttered with such remarkable calmness. 
 
 o 
 
 Those strong words have been made the test of many a 
 political project, and their utterer has become the most 
 efficient and the most trusted leader of the party of progress. 
 In the years 1832 to 1836, the Diet was principally 
 occupied in denouncing the infractions of the laws, and the 
 
DEAK FEEENCZ. 331 
 
 violations of tlie constitution. Representations and remon- 
 strances were in vain addressed to the supreme authorities, 
 and the parliamentary discussions became impassioned. In 
 this session, the tranquil, thoughtful, and impressive elo- 
 quence of Deak obtained for him the never-claimed but 
 generally acknowledged leadership of the reform party. 
 The elevation of the peasantry and the equalization of taxa- 
 tion were his principal topics. The government became 
 wroth with the exhibition of the national feeling, and began 
 its despotic work. The Diet was dissolved. In 1837, 
 Lovassy and Kossuth were arrested. Lovassy died in prison. 
 Kossuth was detained for three years, their crime being the 
 publication of the debates of the Diet. A fit representative 
 of Austrian despotism, Pulsky, was nominated to the High 
 Chancellorship of Hungary. 
 
 The Diet met again in 1839. The reaction against the 
 despotism of the government had become stronger and 
 better organized, and Deak was the recognized centre of 
 the movement, which rolled with him, and revolved around 
 him. It seemed then as if the many turbulent and noisy 
 streamlets were all flowing into one majestic river, whose 
 irresistible course was onwards towards the great ocean of 
 freedom, and the year 1840 appeared to bring with it peace 
 and conciliation. 
 
 A considerable effort was made at this period, under the 
 influences of Szecsenyi, to give an impulse to the material 
 prosperity of the nation. " Let us become rich, and we 
 will make ourselves free," was the device of the hour. It 
 operated to some extent as a diversion from political action, 
 and was dexterously turned to account by the Vienna party, 
 who, if they could have absorbed a prosperous and opulent 
 Hungary into an Austrian centralization, would have done 
 much to extinguish that Magyar nationality which had 
 always been an object of distrust, if not of abhorrence. 
 
332 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Kossuth's journal, the Pesti Hirlap, helped wonderfully 
 to arouse the popular mind. The elections of 1843 were 
 conducted with extreme violence, and led to the spilling of 
 blood, and to the rejection of Dekk in his native Comitdt, 
 and he retreated for a time from the tumultuous arena. 
 He was then denounced as cowardly, though sagacious, 
 " Boles de nem bd,tor," but there is sometimes more bravery 
 in abstention than in action, and the service of waiting 
 may be more efficient than that of taking a precipitate part. 
 The retirement of Deak from the field of political action, 
 and his silence' — when speaking would neither have served 
 his country nor his country's cause — his resolve to wait for 
 better times and fitter occasions, was the dictate alike of 
 the experience of the past, and a correct foresight of the 
 future. His absence, indeed, was a more emphatic protest 
 against existing abuses than his presence would have been. 
 Even one of his most earnest opponents (Zs^ndenyi) gave 
 utterance to the words, " The purest character of the nation 
 is wanting to the Diet." If, as has been said, the ear of 
 Heaven is most open when Pii orant tacite, a nation may be 
 believed to be listening to a patriot whose dumbness was more 
 eloquent than his words. So strong was the feeling towards 
 him that, when in 1847 he was not nominated to the Diet, 
 his wonted place was left unoccupied — a voiceless protest 
 against what was thought to be a national injustice. His 
 health, however, unfitted him for any laborious exertion, so 
 he quitted Hungary for a time, and travelled through most 
 of the countries of Central Europe. Kossuth became the 
 leader of the advanced section of the Liberals. More elo- 
 quent than Dekk, he had less aptitude for the direction of 
 public aff"airs. In 1848, Deak returned, under Batthyany's 
 ministry, to take the post of Minister of Grace and Justice, 
 and never were the two attributes more satisfactorily dis- 
 played than when personified in Deak. He did more than 
 
DEAK FERENCZ. 333 
 
 any man to conciliate the non-Magyar portion of the Hun- 
 garian population. To the Magyars he said, " He who will 
 free himself must be just to others." To the Slavonians, 
 " Labour with us that we may labour for you." His func- 
 tions were exercised a little more than six months. Austrian 
 reaction had embittered the Magyar mind. Deak was one 
 of the deputation who visited Vienna to represent the 
 grievances of the Hungarians. It is known how scornfully 
 they were repelled. The Magyar capital was invaded by 
 hostile Austrian armies, and the national ministry was 
 scattered. Some of the most distinguished of the Hun- 
 garian nobles sought an interview with Prince Windisch- 
 gratz in his camp, but he refused to see them, and sent 
 back the insulting answer, " I hold no intercourse with 
 rebels." 
 
 It were sad to follow the fortunes to prison and to the 
 scaffold of the then courageous chiefs of the popular cause. 
 Only a few days ago, the official journals of Pesth announced 
 that four of the leading men of Hungary, whose death- 
 warrants Francis Joseph, the Emperor of Austria, had 
 signed, and who escaped the hands of the executioner by 
 flight, were welcomed with smiles and gratulations by the 
 same Francis Joseph, the King of Hungary. In January 
 1849, Dekk withdrew himself from public notice, to serve 
 while waiting in his rural seclusion, and for twelve years 
 appeared to be almost forgotten. In those twelve years 
 2127 persons were sentenced to death, nearly ten times that 
 number were thrown into prison, and 4652, among whom 
 were many of the wisest, the noblest, and the best of the 
 Hungarian race, were condemned to wander in foreign 
 lands. Did Deak's inaction give some hope that he might 
 be won over to forward Austrian policy ? He was invited 
 to Vienna. His answer was a memorable one to the minister 
 (Bach), who received him with words of courtesy, spoke at 
 
334 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 length of his purposes, and desired to engage the co-opera- 
 tion of Deak, who listened without the intrusion of a single 
 word ; and when the discourse was ended, calmly replied, 
 " Your Excellency must forgive me, I know nothing but 
 the Hungarian constitution. Provisionally, at least, that 
 constitution has no existence, and I have none." 
 
 And he returned to his rural abode, now and then visiting 
 Pesth, and occupying two obscure chambers. His conver- 
 sation was very reserved, though his person was accessible. 
 His moderate income of about £500 was not only sufficient 
 for all his individual wants, but enabled him to lend assist- 
 ance, not only to friends less fortunate than himself, but to 
 those of whose misfortunes he only accidentally heard. 
 Surrounded by those whose more impassioned natures often 
 led to the bitterest outpourings of hate and indignation, he 
 preserved his calmness, but did not lose his influence. 
 Szemere said of him, " He lies as if smitten in an accursed 
 land, a silent oracle, to which none can appeal, and which 
 seems wholly disregarded." But the silence befitted the 
 time. Meanwhile, misrule reigned uncontrolled, but not 
 without the complications of debts and difficulties — debts 
 that could not be paid, and difficulties that could not be 
 subdued. The Italian war sadly shook the rotten edifice, 
 and from the southern side of the Alps a light burst forth 
 upon Hungary. Pressed on both sides — by the conser- 
 vatives, who would fain have saved the Empire from 
 humiliation — and by the radicals, who saw in that humilia- 
 tion their own best hopes of redemption, Dekk resisted the 
 demands of both ; but the extreme urgency of the crisis 
 broucrht him to Vienna, where, in December 1860, he and 
 Eotvos had a private audience with the Emperor-King. 
 
 The path of efficient usefulness seemed now opening 
 before him, and the ground cleared around him. The 
 counsels he then gave led to the Eoyal Eescript of 16th 
 
DEAK FERENCZ. 335 
 
 January 1861 addressed to the Diet, to which he prepared 
 the elaborate and emphatic answer. The reformation of the 
 Civil and Criminal Codes was cordially discussed, and the 
 influence of Deak, now the representative of the Magyar 
 capital, was widened and strengthened to all the Hungarian 
 frontiers, and far beyond them, through the Austrian 
 dominions, and, it may be asserted, very far beyond the 
 extremest limits of the Fatherland. 
 
 The radical party, unwilling to make concessions, and 
 dissatisfied with the tone of. the Royal Speech, would fain 
 have avoided any response beyond the acknowledgment of 
 its utterance. Deak acted as moderator between the ser- 
 vihty of one extreme and the scornful bearing of the other, 
 and prepared an elaborate reply which, while preserving all 
 the forms of respect and courtesy, abandoned none of the 
 great principles or positions which are the basis of liberty. 
 There are few examples in the political history of nations 
 in which the thoughtful judgment and personal influence 
 of a single man have served to draw all political passions 
 into the calm receptacle of one single pure and honest mind, 
 and to mould those passions into a common action. Dekk 
 had, however, one great element to deal with — the universal 
 feeling of nationality which pervades the Magyar race. 
 Every efibrt to absorb that nationality in Austrian Im- 
 perialism had resulted in failure, and still less chance had 
 the attempts to annihilate it. The Pragmatic Sanction of 
 1729 had irrevocably associated the sovereignty of the 
 Hapsburg family with the fullest recognition of Hungarian 
 rights and Hungarian laws, and indeed the conditions were 
 but a renewed guarantee for the maintenance of the ancient 
 constitutional privileges which had been reasserted two 
 centuries before. ' But the unity of Magyar feeling was no 
 recommendation to the Viennese. Other considerations, the 
 results of many humiliations, and the dread of still greater 
 
336 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 humiliations, compelled the inexorable to yield, and the 
 " never surrender " of the obstinate was made dumb in the 
 presence of that necessity, which has for its authority no 
 law, and needs no argument for its support. 
 
 This stern necessity, which again called together the so- 
 often humiliated Diet, made it so irresistibly triumphant in 
 1865, that the absolute independence of the Magyar Orzag 
 was proclaimed by the Austrian Emperor, and the funda- 
 mental conditions recognized that Hungarian Representatives 
 should alone be allowed to tax the Hungarian people, and 
 that the military forces of Hungary could only be disposed 
 of by the national will. 
 
 It was indeed a marvellous result that, immediately after 
 the battle of Konigsgratz, the Austrian Autocrat felt himself 
 compelled to summon together no less than nineteen repre- 
 sentative assemblies — seventeen on this, and two on the 
 other side of the Leitha, appealing to every fragment of the 
 Empire that was left unconquered, to help the Fatherland 
 in her sorrow, shame, and repentance. 
 
 A national ministry, amnesties for the exiled and con- 
 demned, forgiveness of past injuries on the one side, promises 
 and oaths on the other, and a general jubilee have inaugu- 
 rated a better and brighter futurity. Transylvania is united 
 with Hungary by a natural fusion of laws and languages. 
 Croatia resumes her ancient fraternal relations. As the con- 
 nection of Austria with the German element is more and 
 more enfeebled — as it must inevitably be by that longing 
 for German unity which has found its intellectual, moral, 
 and military centre in Berlin — the force of events will drive 
 Austria from her occidental weakness to her oriental 
 strength. 
 
 Deak has had his reward, far richer and more honouring 
 than the patronage and perquisites of office. A torch-light 
 ovation of the most distinguished of the Hungarian youth 
 
JEREMY BENTHAM, 337 
 
 was the becoming acknowledgment of his multitudinous 
 services, his thorough disinterestedness, and popular virtues. 
 The fate of Hungary is in the hands of the Hungarians. 
 May we not hope that their wisdom will consolidate wdiat 
 their patience and their patriotism have achieved. — 1868. 
 
 JEREMY BENTHAM. 
 
 Not to speak of all that I owed to excellent parents, two 
 men have exercised more than any others an influence on 
 the formation of my character. Dr Lant Carpenter was the 
 guide and instructor of my early youth, as Bentham was 
 the admiration of my riper years. The teachings of Ben- 
 tham were naturally of a more philosophical character, more 
 original and striking. Many of his axioms could not fail 
 to make a deep and permanent impression. The phrase 
 which he acknowledged to have borrowed from Dr Priestley's 
 writings, "the object of governments should be the greatest 
 happiness of the greatest number," has been adopted as the 
 device of a large political party. He always spoke with 
 great admiration of Lord Bacon, whom he considered to be 
 the first philosopher wdio had laid down the principle that 
 all theories should be subjected to and tested by the crucible 
 of experiment. " Let experience be fertile and custom be 
 barren " was one of his favourite phrases. " Respice Jinem " 
 was another, which he found in Bacon's works, where a 
 famous aphorism constantly attributed to the great Chan- 
 cellor, "Knowledge is powder" is not to be discovered, and 
 I am afraid that the experience of man, especially in the 
 times antecedent to Bacon, would but too frequently show 
 that knowledge was but w^eakness, and that the power of 
 superstition and ignorance was the stronger of the two. 
 
 The life of Bentham was one of singular happiness. He 
 had never a moment unoccupied, and was constantly en- 
 gaged either in writing, or in having the most interesting 
 
 Y 
 
338 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 publications, and particularly voyages and travels, read to 
 him hy one of his two amanuenses, always directing mar- 
 ginal notes to be made of the most striking and instructive 
 passages. When called to the bar, where he was a bencher 
 of Lincoln's Inn, his susceptibilities were tried by being 
 called upon to defend cases which he thought indefensible, 
 and not being satisfied with being required (using his own 
 words) to prove that black was white, or that white was 
 black, according to the usages of professional men, he found 
 it desirable to abandon his profession, and on his father's 
 death he took up his abode at the paternal domicile in 
 Westminster. He spent a few years at the beautiful retreat 
 of Ford Abbey in the west of England, having James Mill 
 and his family for inmates. Bentham seldom left his home. 
 His exercise, in which he was always accompanied by the 
 guest who dined with him (for he said that more than one 
 distracted conversation) was round his garden, and he 
 called this recreation his anteprandial circumgyration. 
 Overlooking the walk, and belonging to Bentham, was the 
 house in which Milton lived while Secretary to OHver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 A few years before his death, Bentham visited Paris, 
 where his name was universally known to the learned 
 through Dumont's translations of his writings, translations 
 which, though exceedingly popular in their style, do not 
 always accurately represent the original thoughts of the 
 author. He received in Paris the most flattering welcome. 
 His bust was taken by David of Angers, who made the 
 statue of Washington, in the capital of the United States, 
 the fa9ade of the Madeleine, and other renowned sculptures, 
 and General Foy, on being introduced to him, said, " Vos 
 moeurs et vos ecrits sont peints sur votre visage." His 
 countenance so greatly resembled that of Benjamin Frankhn 
 that David Eicardo purchased a bust of the American, sup- 
 
NOTES OF CONVERSATIONS WITH BENTHAM. 339 
 
 posing it was intended for the English philosopher. So 
 much was Bentham in advance of his age, that Sir Samuel 
 Romilly recommended him not to publish several of his 
 works, as he felt assured that printing them would lead to 
 prosecution and .imprisonment. Many of his writings I 
 have not deemed it safe to give to the world, even after his 
 death, so bold and adventurous were some of his specula- 
 tions, but they remain in the archives of the British 
 Museum, and at some future time may be dragged into the 
 light of day. 
 
 The services of Bentham as a law-reformer are now no 
 longer disputed. I have found the groundwork of some of 
 the most important improvements in our judicial legislation 
 in his writings. His masterly views on the laws of evi- 
 dence, many of his suggestions on prison discipline, on the 
 poor-laws (such a field of abuse in his days, and so much 
 ameliorated now), may, with many others, be mentioned in 
 connection with this topic. Codification, or the bringing 
 the vast and confused mass of written and unwritten law 
 into order and harmony, was one of the great objects he had 
 at heart, and he said that no glory that Napoleon had 
 ever acquired would equal that of his going down to 
 posterity with his five codes in hand. Bentham's " Defence 
 of Usury " was w^ritten while on a visit to White Russia to 
 his brother Sir Samuel, then a General in the Russian ser- 
 vice, to whom the merit is due of introducing the celebrated 
 machinery for making blocks at Portsmouth. — 1861. 
 
 NOTES OF CONVERSATIONS WITH BENTHAM. 1822-24. 
 
 I found Bentham with his fine locks— straight but silvery 
 — which used to hang over his shoulders, as if they had 
 been choppsd with a hatchet, — but that tall and magni- 
 ficently-formed forehead, that serene and playful expression 
 
340 AUTOBIOGKAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 of countenance, that earnest interest in everything which 
 bears a relation to huroan happiness, unchanged. 
 
 We talked of the Conciliatory Courts of Denmark. 
 Bentham had lent his history of them (a French edition) 
 to Horner, who promised to write an article for the Edin- 
 burgh Revieiv, but Horner died, and the book was lost. 
 In 1795 it was decreed in Denmark that no lawsuit should 
 be brought into the courts of justice, except after an 
 attempt at conciliation. Conciliatory committees were in 
 consequence established, and in 1797 they were introduced 
 into Norway. In 1798 they were formed in the colonies, 
 though, in fact, a similar plan had existed ever since 1755. 
 In the capital, the committee is formed of one of the judges 
 of the chief tribunal, one municipal magistrate, and one 
 popular representative. In other towns, and in the colonies, 
 it is composed of two individuals chosen by universal 
 suffrage out of six who are proposed as candidates by the 
 authorities. In the country, the bailiff (prefect) is com- 
 pelled to act the part of mediator, and to name two citizens 
 where he personally cannot interfere. In Norway, one of 
 the two must be chosen among the respectable peasantry. 
 In 1820 a statement was published, by which it appears 
 that of 39,777 lawsuits, 36,872 were settled by the Con- 
 ciliatory Committee, and only 2905 had been referred to 
 the tribunals. Scarcely any one example of abuse or in- 
 justice has occurred. I mentioned that when a similar 
 scheme was proposed in England, it failed merely on account 
 of its 'popularity. I believe it was at Newcastle. The 
 decisions had given so much reputation to the conciliators, 
 that the office became one of aristocratic ambition, and men 
 were introduced, not because they had aptitude to decide, 
 but interest to be selected. " A proof," said Bentham, 
 "that pecuniary recompense is not necessary to obtain 
 public services." 
 
NOTES OF CONVERSATIONS WITH BENTHAM. 341 
 
 Bentham's conversation is often desultory, but lie throws 
 into every remark such originality and power that his ob- 
 servations might serve as texts which require volumes for 
 their development. I will give a few examples. 
 
 " Good government only requires ' aptitude maximised, 
 and expense minimised.' When I first began to think, I 
 was perplexed and confounded by what seemed to be a 
 barrier to all improvement — influence. It exists univer- 
 sally, and could not be got rid of I was relieved when I 
 discovered that influence is no evil — no necessary evil. 
 The influence of one man's understanding upon another 
 man's understanding is good. It is only the influence of 
 will upon ivill that is baneful 
 
 " Lord Holland told me that the cabinet was divided 
 into three degrees or classes of confidence. The first, called 
 the cabinet, consisting of all the members ; the second, the 
 correspondence of five or six individuals, among whom the 
 despatches of the ambassadors, &c., circulate ; and the last 
 the ' post-ofiice,' consisting of only two or three members, 
 who had the privilege of stopping all letters in the post- 
 oflice. 
 
 " Utility did not communicate an idea on which all men 
 were agreed. It does not seem to have an immediate con- 
 nection with enjoyment. 'The greatest happiness of the 
 greatest number ' has superseded it in my mind. That is 
 intelligible to everybody. Eey of Grenoble said, 'the 
 definition is not perfect. It should be the greatest and 
 most pei-manent, for a whole people may be influenced by a 
 temporary delirium of joy, and yet that joy be founded on 
 circumstances leading to misery.' ' Well, then,' I replied, 
 ' that happiness is not the greatest happiness which wants 
 a permanent character.' 
 
 "George III. hated me cordially. With Pitt I was on 
 terms, but the malevolence of the former frustrated the 
 
342 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 intentions of the latter towards me, and prevented the ful- 
 filment even of the most solemn contracts. The origin of 
 the King's hatred was this : — He had written in the Leyden 
 Courant (the then European journal), a dull and prosing, 
 but most mischievous letter to induce the King of Denmark 
 to make war upon Russia, without any motion whatever. 
 The only ground — the fallacy — was the repetition of th6 
 idea 'check — check — check.' I answered the letter in the 
 indignant strain which Junius had made so popular. I 
 poured upon it a storm of contempt. I signed 'Anti- 
 Machiavel.' The King discovered that I was the writer, and 
 ever after put his veto upon everything I proposed, so that, 
 in spite of acts of parliament, in spite of the protection and 
 the warm encouragement of several ministers, I was always 
 sacrificed. 
 
 " It would be a good service to publish an edition of the 
 speeches delivered in Parliament, with a statement at the 
 foot of each of the particular fallacy employed for the pur- 
 poses of deception. People would soon learn to apply this 
 mode of judgment. 
 
 " Bingham is heartily tired of the law and of its cheatery. 
 More credit is obtained for defending a bad cause than a 
 good one. Rhetoric and delusion are the only cur- 
 rency. 
 
 " The great value of our English law-records consists in 
 their proposing almost every possible case which can be 
 the object of legal decision. The cases have wonderful 
 variety. The decisions are often unjust, absurd and decep- 
 tive."— July 1822. 
 
 Bentham pays no visits, yet when I told him that Sir 
 Robert Wilson had an interest in the Columbian loan, 
 he hurried ofi" to his house, having had information that 
 the loan would probably not be recognised. He pursued 
 him from house to house, left a note saying that somebody 
 
NOTES OF CONVERSATIONS WITH BENTHAM. 343 
 
 should sit up for him all the night through, and showed an 
 anxiety as restless as honourable.- — 1823. 
 
 Bentham said — " Botany is greatly superior to mineralogy. 
 One may distribute what one discovers and do good. Seeds 
 may be sent over the world, but stones won't grow." 
 
 Though Bentham always speaks slightingly, and even 
 insultingly of poetry, he has made verses. 1 once told him 
 I would prove to him that there was poetry in his character, 
 and talked of the enthusiasm and delight he felt in antici- 
 pating the progress of the " greatest felicity principle." 
 I endeavoured to prove that much of this was imaginative. 
 He lifted up his stick, and laid it gently on my shoulders. 
 These lines are Bentham's, and were written in 1780. 
 
 Memoriter Verses expressive of the Elements or Dimensions of Value in 
 Pleasures and Pains. 
 
 " latense, long, certain, speedy, fraitf ul, pure. 
 Such points in pleasures and in pains endure. 
 Such pleasure seek, if private be thy end. 
 If it be public, wide let them extend. 
 Such pains avoid, whichever be thy view, 
 If pains must come, let them extend to few." 
 
 " Intellectual aptitude without moral aptitude is a nuisance." 
 " What are you doing now ? " said I. " I am dragging 
 nobility through the dirt." — 1822. 
 
 He was full of the notion of having his head preserved 
 in the style of the New Zealanders, and had sent to Dr 
 Armstrong to consult him about it. Experiments are to be 
 made, and Armstrong is to get a human head from Grainger, 
 the anatomist, which is to be slowly dried in a stove m 
 Bentham's house. 
 
 Bentham was very angry with the judges, their opposi- 
 tion to publicity having wrought his mind to indignation. 
 He said, " The worst of pickpockets is better than the least 
 bad of the judges. They never open their mouths but to 
 
344 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 lie, to tell money-getting lies." He laughed again at my 
 poetry, at all poetry, at all poets. Some man had sent him 
 a volume. He said to me, " Now steal it, and publish it as 
 your own." 
 
 He looked over his memorandum-book, which he calls 
 his Facienda and Dicenda, " Let me see if there are any 
 dicenda which are not dicta." — 1824. 
 
 LORD BYRON. 
 
 I never had the advantage, during his lifetime, of a per- 
 sonal acquaintance with Lord Byron. After his death, his 
 body was consigned to me in a puncheon of rum, which 
 came from Missalonghi, Avhence it was transferred to 
 a leaden coffin, which lay exposed to the inspection of the 
 privileged for some days in Great George Street, Westminster. 
 He was buried at Hucknall Torkall, near Newstead Abbey, 
 his ancestral seat, and a curious controversy afterwards arose 
 as to the proprietorship of an album which I gave to accom- 
 pany his corpse. It became valuable in consequence of the 
 many distinguished persons who visited his sepulchre. The 
 heirs of the sexton claimed it, because he had obtained the 
 signatures ; the clergyman said it belonged to him in virtue 
 of his office, that being the position of all property brought 
 within the walls of the church ; while the wardens claimed 
 it, as trustees, under their parochial authority. The matter 
 was referred to me, but, as I had not anticipated that the 
 book would have a pecuniary value, I had nothing to say 
 imder the unexpected circumstances that had arisen. It 
 was really a curious topic for the wrangling of lawyers. I 
 believe it was ultimately decided that the property was 
 parochial, but vested in the Eector as the temporary 
 custos. 
 
 It was after some correspondence with me that Lord 
 Byron determined to proceed to Greece, and to give his 
 
LOED BYRON. 345 
 
 services, both personal and pecuniary, to a cause which 
 was at that time arousing a general European enthusiasm, 
 and which his previous visits to that country had disposed 
 him to sympathize with in all the passionate earnestness of 
 his character. He was indeed " sated at home — of wife 
 and children tired," as he himself expressed it, " sated 
 abroad, all seen, but not admired," when the Greek Ee vo- 
 lution replaced his morbid feelings by a new and unex- 
 pected excitement. He met with many vexations and dis- 
 appointments, being often deceived by the cupidity and 
 mendacity of intriguing Greeks, but he found some of the 
 Klephthoi faithful — the ragged ones, as he denominated 
 them — and found no reason to distrust Prince Mavrocordato 
 and a very few of the leading men. The history and the 
 results of the campaign are too well known to require any 
 reference from me, but few auxiliaries gave a greater 
 impulse to the patriotic movement than a Eomaic transla- 
 tion of that emphatic and touching song found in " Don 
 Juan." " The isles, the isles of Greece, where burning 
 Sappho loved and sung," the last, and one of the most 
 touching of Byron's compositions, was written on his 
 thirty-fourth birthday, a short time before his death, and 
 was sent by me to the Morning Chronicle for publication. 
 " 'Tis true this heart should be unmoved, since others it has 
 ceased to move." 
 
 I doubt if there was ever a character made up of more 
 contradictory qualities than that of Byron. He was some- 
 times generous to excess, and at others inconceivably mean. 
 He would in the course of the same day spend thousands 
 of pounds on any object that interested him, and gather 
 together and place in a cupboard the remainder of the logs 
 which had not been used. He seemed to live in a per- 
 petual vibration between what is divine and demoniacal. 
 Had his autobiography been published (and he thought he 
 
346 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 had taken every security for its publication after his death), 
 it would have thrown much light upon the aberrations of a 
 genius which seemed always in a state of transition from 
 darkness to light, and from light to darkness. 
 
 His poetry will live as long as our language endures — 
 the records of a mind agitated by the fiercest commotions, 
 and finding for them the most eloquent expressions. 
 Though bursting into violent declamations against tyranny, 
 he was essentially an aristocrat, and proud of tracing his 
 " life-blood to the parent lake." His intrinsic dislike to 
 the Tories, who were in the ascendant in his time, is every- 
 where to be seen. Nothing more scathing was ever written 
 than his " Vision of Judgment " — his picture of the reign 
 of George HI., who " ever warred with freedom and the 
 free," and his most vehement onslaught on the Poet 
 Laureate, a portion of which Mr Murray felt himself bound 
 in prudence to suppress. The expunged passages in " Don 
 Juan " contained ridicule on Romilly's death. 
 
 Byron, wherever he went, left strong impressions behind 
 him, carrying with him his eccentricities, prejudices, and 
 passions. A friend of mine at Leghorn possesses the table 
 upon which he wrote, sloped like a desk, and the bed on 
 which he slept, and where I, too, haunted by the recollections 
 of this strange genius, have often sought and found repose. 
 The bed is of somewhat fanciful form, carved and gilded, 
 while in the footboard is the family escutcheon, with the 
 motto "Creole Byron." The bed is surmounted by a dome, 
 a la Turque, from which the mosquito-curtains fall, and 
 the corners are decorated with pendant plumes. Com- 
 pared with beds usually found in Italy, it is of large 
 dimensions. 
 
 The Countess of Guiccioli, with whom Byron lived in Italy, 
 did not appear to me remarkable either for her genius or 
 her beauty, and had often to complain of the outbreaks of 
 
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 347 
 
 his violent temper. I Lave heard that a young woman at 
 Venice, whose fierce black eyes he has been known to 
 describe, held him in bondage by the impetuosity of her 
 nature. 
 
 His life was sacrificed to the ignorance of the medical 
 men who attended him in Greece, and who, in the San- 
 grado style, bled him copiously when he was in a very 
 exhausted state. He would seem almost to have foreseen 
 the result of this mis-usage, for he exclaimed on one occa- 
 sion, " I fear the lancet much more than the lance." — 1861. 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 I paid a charming visit to Sir Walter Scott at Abbots- 
 ford. It was at the time when he was struggling with his 
 pecuniary difl&culties, and he often spoke of the annoyance 
 caused him by his " domned debts." But the desire to free 
 himself from his embarrassments led to immense exertions 
 on his part, and probably to the overstraining of his in- 
 tellectual powers. The profits he made at this time by his 
 writings — it was in the hey-day of his Waverley glories — 
 were such as have rarely been realised by any other man. 
 He received in one year between £30,000 and £40,000, 
 and I recollect hearing from his publisher in Edinburgh 
 that he had paid him nearly £120,000 in all. It would be 
 a curious inquiry to ascertain what has been the greatest 
 amount of pecuniary benefit realised by popular works in 
 English. Mr Cadell once mentioned to me that the works 
 of three authors (each of whose names began with the 
 letter B) had been far more productive than any others, and 
 these were Burns' " Justice," Blair's " Sermons," and 
 Buchan's " Domestic Medicine," which left a profit of 
 £100,000. No doubt there was in Scott's case the heart- 
 sorrow of regret that he had not satisfied himself with the 
 enormous advantages his works produced, but that, to add 
 
348 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 to his income, lie should have engaged in trading opera- 
 tions, such as paper-making, leading to bill-accepting and 
 all sorts of anxieties ; but none of these cares affected his 
 outward cheerfulness, and his reception of his friends was 
 in the highest degree hospitable and generous. His style 
 of living was even luxurious, his table was covered with 
 every delicacy, and in the little usages were many charac- 
 teristics of Scotch nationality. Unadulterated whiskey of 
 the finest quality was dealt out to the guests in miniature 
 tubs called quarths, and he supplied his visitors with cigars 
 and tobacco of the rarest kinds. He had a good deal of the 
 pride of family, and was fond of saying that he stood next 
 in rank to his chief, the Duke of Buccleuch. He would 
 point out the picture of an ancestor, who was such a parti- 
 san of the Stuarts, that he vowed he would never allow his 
 beard to be cut until that family was restored to the throne, 
 so of course he went down to his tomb unshaven. When 
 Scott was dining with King George IV., whom he wel- 
 comed to Scotland in a poem which obtained a short-lived 
 celebrity, beginning, " Carle, now the king's come ! ", he 
 was somewhat embarrassed by an inquiry as to what would 
 become of his allegiance if the Stuarts were still in exis- 
 tence. He answered, that " he rejoiced that he had now to 
 decide on no such a question." It is known that the king, 
 when Prince Eegent, ventured to ask Sir Walter if he were 
 the author of the Waverley Novels — a very unbecoming 
 question assuredly, but it was evaded by something like a 
 denial. 
 
 Scott's habits were most regular. He rose early, and 
 gave several hours to literary labour before breakfast, which, 
 I think, was at ten o'clock. He would then take a ride with 
 his guests, followed by his favourite dogs, and wielding a 
 whip which he cracked with all the light-heartedness of 
 youth. His conversation on these occasions was most fasci- 
 
SIR "WALTER SCOTT. 349 
 
 Dating, and full of wit and originality. He had tales to 
 tell of every mountain, valley, plain, and stream. He 
 accompanied me to Melrose Abbey, and on my referring to 
 liis beautiful description of its appearance by moonlight, he 
 said, " Let me tell you, I never saw the Abbey after set of 
 sun." He gravely asserted that the ghost of Byron had 
 appeared in his library, and pointed out the curtain from 
 behind whose folds Childe Harold had introduced himself. 
 In that library was a silver urn containing ashes which 
 Byron had sent him from Thermopylae, and in it were origi- 
 nally some autograph verses which some scoundrel stole 
 from their place of deposit — an act of inconceivable turpi- 
 tude, inasmuch as their exhibition must have covered the 
 thief with infamy. Scott was exceedingly proud of the 
 graceful foot of his younger daughter, and in more than 
 one of his novels has spoken of a fine foot as a most attrac- 
 tive appendage to female beauty. 
 
 In Sir Walter Scott's time political hostilities were parti- 
 cularly rife, and the most violent personal vituperation was 
 the order of the day. JBlacJcivood's Magazine was the local 
 organ of the party who have since taken the name of Con- 
 servatives, though a periodical called The Beacon, to whose 
 establishment Sir Walter was a party, was the channel 
 through which individual resentments found even stronger 
 expression ; but so powerful were Caledonian hospitality 
 and kindness, that strangers found no difficulty in making 
 the acquaintance of men of all shades of party and politics, 
 and in my own case, whether among the high-flown faction 
 which rejoiced in the designation of Tory, of whom Scott 
 and Professor Wilson were the two most distinguished 
 chiefs, or among the Whigs grouped round Jefirey, who 
 spoke by the mouth of the far-famed Edinburgh Review, I 
 found a sympathy and a kindness quite as great as any I 
 received from the philosophical Radicals, with whom I most 
 
350 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 especially sympathized, and whose opinions found expression 
 in Tail's Magazine, and several newspapers which had a 
 large circulation among the working-classes. I was not 
 unfrequently invited to the singular revels well known by 
 the name of the Nodes Amhrosiance, the descriptions of 
 Avhich are among the happiest and most characteristic 
 records emanating from John Wilson, and in which I have 
 several times found myself mentioned with great kindness. 
 Strange scenes indeed they were, in which the quantity of 
 tumblers of whiskey-toddy consumed could not easily be 
 calculated. It used to be reported that the Professor's in- 
 dulgence in this favourite tipple sometimes kept him to the 
 house for several days, unshaven and unshorn, after the 
 "jollifications;" but Wilson was a most interesting and 
 intellectual man, and most popular among the students of 
 the University, all of whom did homage to his genius. He 
 was accustomed to escape from the free life of the city to 
 the mountains and the lakes, where hunting and fishing, 
 and especially the latter, braced and invigorated him. 
 
 THOMAS MOORE. 
 
 Tom Moore, the playful and light-hearted, was among 
 my acquaintances. It is superfluous to say how agreeable 
 such an acquaintance was. I scarcely know Avhether he 
 obtained most applause from those finished productions, 
 known by the name of " Irish Melodies," in which he 
 brought new words to adorn the popular music of his 
 country, or from those fugitive pieces which had reference 
 to the party politics of the day, and in which a playful wit 
 was as sparkling as in the cotemporaneous outpourings of 
 Byron, in whose writings were manifested his more intense 
 feelings of hatred to the ruling influences of the times. On 
 one occasion I experienced great generosity from the " Bard 
 of Erin." He published in the Tmes a bitter attack upon 
 
MRS OPIE. 351 
 
 me, entitled " The Ghost of Miltiades," but when a common 
 friend assured him that he had done me great injustice, he 
 immediately consented to suppress the publication of the 
 poem. He accused me, however, while I was the editor of 
 the Westminster Revieiu, of having inserted a censorious 
 article upon his " Life of Lord Byron." That article was, 
 however, written by a gentleman equally acquainted with 
 the noble bard and his biographer, and I considered it a 
 part of my duty not to refrain from publishing any honest 
 opinions on the writings of either foes or friends. Moore 
 said I invited him to my house at the very time when I 
 carried in my pocket a loaded pistol, which was to be fired 
 at him — no doubt an ingenious way of attaching blame, 
 but it is a sufficient answer to say that, if I allowed him to 
 be attacked where I deemed him worthy of animadversion, 
 there were many other occasions on which I was his de- 
 fender and advocate. — 1861. 
 
 MRS OPIE 
 
 Said, " Eichard Lovell Edgeworth was very desirous that I 
 shou.ld introduce him to Mrs Siddons. I did so, and I shall 
 never forget the magnificent stride with which he walked 
 up to her, ' Madam, I shall never forget the impression you 
 made upon me — 'twas forty years ago — when I saw you 
 act the part of Lady Townley.' The lady drew herself 
 back, violently agitated, shook her fan with the greatest 
 rapidity, and said hastily, 'Never acted the part in my 
 life, Sir ! never acted the part in my life,' and turned away 
 with a terrible frown. Edgeworth shrugged up his shoulders, 
 and walked slowly away repeating, 'J'ai manque — j'ai 
 manqu^ ! ' 'Twas a delicious scene." 
 
 Mrs Opie's habits are very singular. At Norwich she 
 lives in seclusion, attends at the Quaker meeting-house, 
 and visits nobody. When she comes to town, her house is 
 
352 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the scene of an eternal lev^e, and who is so busily gay as 
 Mrs Opie?— 1822. 
 
 MRS BARBAULD. 
 
 There was in my earlier days a very interesting group of 
 people dwelling at Newington, not far from the mansion 
 which was Dr Isaac Watts' domicile when living under the 
 protection of Sir Thomas Abney, to whom he addressed the 
 exciting lines, 
 
 " Live, my dear Abney, live to-day, 
 Nor let the sun look down and say 
 ' Inglorious here he lies.' 
 ' Stretch out thy wings, and give thy name 
 
 To immortality and fame, 
 With every hour that flies." 
 
 I believe, however, that Sir Thomas' title to immortality 
 mostly hangs upon his connection with the bard of the 
 sanctuary, and with that cemetery which bears the appella- 
 tion of Abney. William French, the actuary, and author 
 of the astronomical " Evening Amusements," who had been 
 expelled from Cambridge for his heterodox opinions, was a 
 leading personage in the attractive circle, to which belonged 
 Dr Aikin and his sons, of whom Arthur obtained some 
 celebrity in the world of science. Charles is known to 
 many juvenile readers as he for whom Mrs Barbauld, the 
 most distinguished of the family, composed a book for 
 children, beginning "Come hither, Charles, come to mamma." 
 The mother was a daughter of Gilbert Wakefield, the 
 classic, who was punished by an imprisonment of two years 
 in Dorchester Jail for a libel in saying that " a right 
 reverend prelate felt as embarrassed as a donkey whose 
 attention was distracted between two competing bundles of 
 hay." 
 
 Mrs Barbauld's prose hymns, which I heard from the 
 
ELIZABETH BENGER — HELEN MAEIA WILLIAMS. 353 
 
 lips of my parents, appeared to my cliildisli imagination the 
 perfection of pathos and poetry, and I deemed it a great 
 privilege afterwards to be in close intimacy with her, while 
 I was much flattered by some complimentary verses which 
 she addressed to me, and which will be found among her 
 published compositions. 
 
 Mrs Barbauld's hymns and devotional pieces are among 
 the most beautiful religious compositions in our language, 
 and many of the former have obtained a permanent place 
 in the collections that have been made both for public and 
 private worship. 
 
 Dr Aikin's "Evenings at Home" had much celebrity in 
 their day. Their value of course has been much diminished 
 by new scientific discoveries, yet they rendered good service 
 in popularising such topics, and suiting them to the capa- 
 bilities of youthful minds. 
 
 ELIZABETH BENGER. 
 
 Among the literary celebrities of the last generation was 
 Elizabeth Benger, who wrote memoirs of Royal Personages, 
 some novels, and other works, which obtained a fair share 
 of attention in their day. 
 
 She was a believer in a metempsychosis, and often 
 claimed me as an acquaintance in an earlier stage of 
 existence — a pleasant speculation at least, and I never re- 
 pudiated the fancy. I was young, and on most topics we 
 very cordially sympathised. She was an enthusiast for 
 truth, progress, and liberty, and her conversaziones were 
 attended by many of the London literary stars. 
 
 HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. 
 
 Among the literary celebrities of the French Revolution 
 was Helen Maria Williams, at whose house were wont to 
 assemble the most distinguished of the liberal writers of 
 
354 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 France, her own reputation giving considerable ^clat to 
 these meetings. She wrote some of the most beautiful 
 hymns in our language, was a prisoner under the reign of 
 terror, and published a work on the French Eevolution, 
 which is full of the most touching incidents, and adorned 
 with specimens of the ardent and pathetic poetry, the pro- 
 duct of French genius under the excitement of those most 
 mysterious days. A. Humboldt was much attached to her, 
 and committed to her care the publication of some of his 
 most elaborate works. 
 
 She had two nephews, Athanase and Charles Coquerel, 
 whom she educated, and who both attained considerable 
 fame, one in the theological, and the other in the political 
 field. Athanase was for some time the preacher in the 
 Protestant Church at Amsterdam, and married the daughter 
 of a Swiss gentleman, the only person I have ever known 
 on the continent to adopt the dress and profess the opinions 
 of the English Quaker. Miss Williams maintained intimate 
 relations with her English friends, was familiar with the 
 great lights of the Eevolution, and her conversation was 
 most instructive, entertaining, and varied. All her sympa- 
 thies were on the side of freedom, and though she was not 
 so prominent as to be persecuted by the Emperor, like 
 Madame de Stael, she was the object of a good deal of sus- 
 picion, and narrowly watched by the police, who are at all 
 times, unhappily, an instrument in the hands of despotic, 
 and sometimes even of representative governments. In 
 fact, they form such a part of the machinery of administra- 
 tion on the continent that the Emperor Alexander, at an 
 audience which he granted to the head of the London 
 police, expressed his astonishment, and almost his in- 
 credulity, when he was informed that the police of Great 
 Britain did no political work for the State, but were solely 
 employed in the protection of individual persons and 
 property from outrage. — 1861. 
 
THOMAS NOON TALFOUED. 355 
 
 THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. 
 
 Judge Talfourd, the author of " Ion," was in his youth a 
 zealous Unitarian. He married the daughter of John 
 Towell Pratt, who edited the large edition of the works of 
 Dr Priestley. Talfourd used in his early days to take a very 
 active part in evening discussions held by the young men 
 belonging to the Gravel-Pit Congregation at Hackney. It 
 will be remembered that he received his death-stroke on 
 the bench when he was delivering judgment. He was a 
 great admirer of the poets of the Lake School, especially of 
 William Wordsworth, and wrote several of the reviews 
 which helped to establish Wordsworth's reputation, which 
 Byron so bitterly attacked, saying of his most elaborate 
 work that it was — 
 
 " A drowsy, frousy poem called the Excursion, 
 Writ in a manner that is my aversion." 
 
 It is not the less true that Byron drew largely upon 
 Wordsworth's resources, of which abundant evidence will 
 be found in the 3d and 4th cantos of " Childe Harold." The 
 passionate verdicts given, both pro and con, in reference to 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, may now be looked 
 back upon with some wonder, but all three had made them- 
 selves obnoxious to the charge of renegadism. Wordsworth 
 had accepted the office of stamp-distributor from Lord 
 Lonsdale ; Southey, after attempting to suppress his dema- 
 gogical drama of " Wat Tyler," became a violent Tory, 
 bringing a hot partizanship into the ranks to which he fled, 
 and Coleridge, a Tom-Paineite in politics, and a preaching 
 Unitarian, ended by adopting all the doctrines of ortho- 
 doxy. Talfourd's intercourse with his " Lake " friends was 
 however never interrupted, nor was his personal attachment 
 at all cooled by the changes in their views. 
 
356 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, AND WORDSWORTH. 
 
 Our judgments of those who differ from us are often 
 more uncharitable and severe than just and discriminating. 
 Coleridge always seemed to live in the dreamy regions of 
 cloudland, and it was difficult to follow him through the 
 mazes of his misty eloquence. At table, his harmonious 
 periods fell from his lips like water from a fountain. Every 
 now and then he was observed to put his finger and thumb 
 into his waistcoat-pocket, from which he took an opium 
 pill, which he clandestinely conveyed to his mouth, and so 
 he seemed to feed his gentle, and often most touching 
 oratory. But Southey was above all men the man who 
 made literature his business. He toiled without intermis- 
 sion from day to day. History, biography, reviewing, prose 
 and poetry, were receiving daily contributions from his inde- 
 fatigable pen. The last time I visited the Lakes, Words- 
 worth dissuaded me from paying a visit to the shattered 
 and broken man. " If he remember you," said he, " it will 
 be with thoughts of pain, in reference to the breaking up 
 of his mind. If he do not, the interview will be yet less 
 desirable." Wordsworth had formed a very exalted opinion 
 of his own poetical merits, and when the " Ettrick Shep- 
 herd " visited him, and began a sentence with the words, 
 " We poets," Wordsworth interrupted him, and exclaimed, 
 " Poets ! " laying a strong emphasis upon the terminating 
 letter, as if it were a profanation for any other man in his 
 presence to share his bardic glories. He was fond of having 
 his poetry quoted, received even extravagant laudation as 
 a fit tribute to his genius, loved his sister the more dearly 
 because she often recited his verses, and himself not unfre- 
 quently pointed out the beauties of his own versification to 
 his listening guests. — 1861. 
 
N. T. CAEKESTGTON. 357 
 
 N. T. CARRINGTON. 
 
 My recollections of Carrington are of a modest, melan- 
 choly man, who sought rather encouragement to converse 
 than to manifest any disposition to be heard. He did not 
 give me the impression of his being happy, nor indeed 
 was he, for he said he sought the relief of poetry from the 
 monotony of a schoolmaster's life. His verses, though flow- 
 ing and correct, are somewhat monotonous, and in many 
 of them he borrows the thoughts, and employs the identical 
 words of the leading poets of the day. What follows is a 
 favourable specimen, 
 
 " I love the summer calm, I love 
 Smooth seas below, blue skies above, 
 The placid lake, the unruffled stream, 
 The woods that rest beneath the beam. 
 I love the deep, deep pause that reigns 
 At highest noon o'er hills and plains, 
 And own that summer's gentle rule 
 Is soothing, soft, and beautiful. 
 
 " But winter, in its angriest form 
 Has charms, — there's grandeur in the storm, 
 When the winds battle with the floods, 
 And bow the mightiest of the woods. 
 When the loud thunder, crash on crash, 
 Follows the lightning's herald flash. 
 And rocks, and spires, and towers are rent — 
 'Tis startling, but magnificent. 
 
 And yet it may be remarked that thunder and lightning 
 are not characteristic of the winter season. These verses 
 are formed on the model of Thomson's " Seasons." 
 
 One of the most characteristic of Carrington's poems, 
 called " Holiday," is given in the notes to his " Dartmoor." 
 It is really pathetic, such as only a poet and a schoolmaster 
 could have written. There is a pretty local description of 
 
358 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 the port of Plymouth, of a June morning, of the wanderer 
 who, without anxiety, enjoys the beauties of nature, and the 
 contrasted personal application closes in these flowing 
 strains: — 
 
 " What are his joys to mine ? The groves are green, 
 And fair the flowers, and there are ever seen 
 By him the mountain's breast, the hills, the woods, 
 Grass-waving fields, and bright and wandering floods. 
 The lays of birds are ever in his ear, 
 Music and sylvan beauty crown his year. 
 But if to him the rural reign have power 
 To fill with joy the swift-revolving hour, 
 What rapture must be mine, so seldom given 
 To feel the beam, and drink the gale of heaven ! 
 For, ! I love this nature, and my eye 
 Has felt the witchery of the soft blue sky. 
 Bear witness, glowing summer ! how I love 
 Thy green world here, thy azure arch above. 
 But seldom conies the hour that snaps the chain. 
 To me thou art all beautiful in vain. 
 Bird, bee, and butterfly are on the wing. 
 Songs shake the woods, and streams are murmuring. 
 But, far from them, the world's unwilling slave. 
 My aching brow no genial breezes lave ; 
 Few are the gladsome hours that come to cheer 
 With flowers and songs my dull unvarying year. 
 Yet when they come, as now, from loathW night 
 The bird upsprings to hail the welcome light 
 With soul less buoyant than I turn to thee, 
 Prized for thy absence, sylvan liberty ! — June 1825. 
 
 1861. 
 
 DR WOLCOT. 
 
 If not to be reckoned among the purest, Dr Wolcot was 
 in his day one of the most popular of verse makers, and 
 some of his hits upon George III. were of the hardest the 
 " good old king " ever received. He was born at Dod- 
 
DR WOLCOT. 359 
 
 brook in 1738— indeed he lias told tlie world tliis in the in- 
 scription for his tomb, when he announced that— 
 
 " On this shall future generations stare, 
 Who come to Dodbrook, and to Kingsbridge fair." 
 
 Dodbrook is a sort of appendage to Kingsbridge, in which 
 latter place he received his early education in the Free 
 School founded by Crispin, the prosperous Exeter mer- 
 chant. He went afterwards to a grammar-school at Bod- 
 min, in Cornwall, but nothing interesting or important 
 marked his early life. He was apprenticed to a medical 
 uncle, who sent him to Normandy, that he might acquire 
 the French language. He visited a London hospital as a 
 becoming close to his professional studies, but seems to 
 have had more passion for poetry than for physic, a pas- 
 sion not favoured by his uncle and aunts, his father having 
 died when his son was eleven years old. 
 
 When, in 1767, Sir William Trelawney was made Gover- 
 nor of Jamaica, he patronized Wolcot, who accompanied 
 him to the island, having obtained the decree of M.D. from 
 the University of Aberdeen. But the whites were too few 
 and too poor to give him much encouragement, and the 
 Governor suggested that he might be appointed to a lucra- 
 tive living, if the incumbent, then seriously ill, should leave 
 a vacancy. So the doctor came to England, and was ordained 
 by the Bishop of London, but, on coming back to Jamaica, 
 found that he had waited in vain for the shoes of the dead 
 man, who had recovered from his illness and resumed his 
 duties. Dr Wolcot obtained the small curacy of Vere, but 
 his principal employment — no doubt the more attractive — 
 was to act as master of the ceremonies to Sir William. A 
 man less fitted for a religious teacher could scarcely have 
 been stumbled on. His clerical duties were wholly 
 neglected, and he returned to England in 1768, accom- 
 panying the widowed Lady Trelawney. 
 
3G0 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 He was as little fitted for a doctor of medicine as for a 
 doctor of divinity. He could better epigrammatize tlian 
 prescribe, preferred ridiculing to healing, and had a keener 
 eye for mental or personal obliquities than for corporal 
 infirmities. He located himself in sundry places in Corn- 
 wall as a practitioner, but was a practitioner without prac- 
 tice. One good service he did while living at Truro. He 
 found out Opie the painter, whose chalk figures on a barn- 
 door arrested the attention of the observant critic. He 
 sent some of his songs to William Jackson, the eminent 
 organist of Exeter, whose 
 
 " Time has not thinned my flowing hair, 
 Nor bent me with his iron hand," 
 
 and some other glees, will not be permitted to die. In 
 1778 he published his "Epistle to the Reviewers." 
 
 The doctor was a very discontented man, and gave ex- 
 pression to his dissatisfaction in many ways, especially in 
 his " Tristia, or the Sorrows of Peter," where he pours out 
 his grievances on the attention of the King, his Ministers, 
 the Bishop of London, and sundry political celebrities, — 
 heading it with Horace's complaint, 
 
 " Ploravere suis non non respondere favorem 
 Speratum meritis," 
 
 he (Peter) being the genius and the virtue rewarded by 
 cold neglect. His complaints are amusing enough, but 
 somewhat exaggerated, the theme being that, generally, 
 poets get less of solid pudding than of empty praise. 
 George IH. is, as might be expected, the principal target 
 against which his arrows are directed. He professed to 
 have no very soaring ambition — 
 
 " Dread sir ! your bard's ambition soars not high, 
 To take Pitt's place, or join the Privy Council, 
 But yet a warbling goldfinch, such as I, 
 
 Might pick some hemp-seed, taste a little groundsel." 
 
DR WOLCOT. 361 
 
 He petitions most imploringly for a pension, wliich 
 indeed he obtained and lost. His silence could be 
 purchased, but not his song. He pleads his poverty, 
 dilates on his merits, shows that he had served his 
 country, and his country's statesmen, consoles himself that 
 Erskine has been made Lord Chancellor, but that all sorts 
 of unworthy men have been advanced to high honours. 
 He, the poet, passed over, while catgut-scrapers, and can- 
 vas-daubers are elevated to dignities. Then he abuses the 
 reviewers who had abused him, the paltry paragraph- 
 spinners whose want of discernment had depreciated 
 Pindar. He forgives Charles Fox, because he is William 
 Pitt's opponent, bu^t reminds him that while he had the 
 distribution of the loaves and fishes, nothing whatever had 
 been flung into the poet's plate. Pitt had threatened to 
 hang him, but he scorned the Willip-p'ics of the Premier. 
 He has a friendly word for Sheridan — belabours " Cobbler 
 Gifford," and such " cobbling " fellows — calls Eldon " Old 
 Puzzle," " who cannot distinguish a fly's foot from a tiger's 
 paw," — " full of wig-wisdom and deep doubts," — laments 
 that in hunting Dame Fortune, he had been taken in by 
 Miss Fortune — asks the sympathy of Porteous, the Bishop 
 of London, as a brother poet, and tells him to order the 
 parsons who are lodged in the British Museum, to abandon 
 the lousy birds and quadrupeds, and the musty manuscripts, 
 and to attend instead to the souls of their parishioners, 
 offering himself as a practical curator. He consults the god- 
 dess, who tells him that he is entitled to a high seat on 
 Parnassus, for with golden lines he instructs, illumines, and 
 adorns her pages, but recommends him to get a seat in a 
 Cornish rotten borough if he wants advancement — tells his 
 Cynthia that he is merciful, uses his toe and not scorpion- 
 whips — tells the Bee that their fates are similar, one to be 
 smoked, and the other starved to death. He pursues the 
 
362 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 same career for more than one hnndrecl pages of self-lauda- 
 tion and abuse of other people. He is worse treated than 
 the organ-grinder, or other street exhibitor, and says the 
 discoveries of gold have not relieved his poverty, and 
 opines they will prove a curse to the nation. 
 
 Then he laments his celibacy. He could afford to keep 
 a wife, but had poetized and pleaded with many fair ones 
 in vain. They were venal, and he had discovered that 
 they were vain and valueless. He was a virtuous man, 
 and why should he seek alliance with the vices of woman- 
 hood ? He has discovered that critics are bats, but of an 
 inferior race, as they live upon damnation. The world is 
 going to the dogs, and all that is good — his poetry espe- 
 cially — is condemned. Eloquence is aped. Statuary is 
 stoned to death. What's the use of his speaking ? The 
 Court is his foe. AVhy did he mock the Sovereign ? He has 
 suffered, but he must eat and drink. Why don't they take 
 pity ? He has praises and sighs to sell. In his " Tristia " 
 the following verse is good. It is to Lord Nelson with 
 his Lordship's night-cap, that caught fire on the poet's 
 head at a candle as he was reading in bed at Merton : — 
 
 " Take your night-cap again, my good lord, I desire, 
 For I wish not to keep it a minute. 
 What belongs to a Nelson, where'er there's a fire 
 Is sure to be instantly in it." 
 
 Lord Nelson was one of his heroes, but his eulooium on 
 Shakspeare is one of the finest ever \^Titten : — 
 
 " Here while I wondering turn o'er Shakspeare's page, 
 I read, midst visions of delight, the sage 
 
 High o'er the wreck of worlds who stands sublime. 
 A column in the melancholy waste. 
 Its cities ruined, and its glories past, 
 
 Majestic in the solitude of time." 
 
 His vanity breaks out in multitudinous forms. He will 
 
DR WOLCOT. 363 
 
 have it that Cornwall and Devon will claim the honour of 
 being his birthplace, as the cities of Greece fought for that 
 of having cradled Homer, and cries out — 
 
 " Ye men of metre, 
 Hide your diminished heads at Peter." 
 
 His " Odes to Academics " show generally a very sound 
 appreciation of the merits and demerits of the painters of 
 his day. He recommends West not to attempt things 
 beyond his reach — laughs at Fuseli for attempting to rival 
 Sir Joshua, and for dreaming that he has caught a shred 
 from the mantle of Michael Angelo — chastises Tjoutherbourff 
 for his volcanic eruptions — hails young M'Lean as an 
 artist of promise — expresses high admiration for Wilkie, 
 who will imitate Hogarth in wit and humour — Turner, he 
 says, will leave his rivals far behind — lauds Bacon, the 
 sculptor — rejoices that Garrard can and ought to despise 
 Academic honours — sees the muse of Sculpture awakened 
 in NoUekens, and laughs at " The Heads " who seek dis- 
 tinction by exhibition on the R.A. walls. 
 
 He pours out his diatribes on the once renowned Mrs 
 Clarke, the heroine of ducal story. He celebrates the 
 Carlton House fete, to which he was not invited, and thinks 
 that, as Sheridan is taken in favour, Peter shotdd not be 
 neglected. 
 
 Wolcot's vanity is irrepressible. Peter is always the 
 prominent picture. He writes to everybody about himself, 
 and he is the central orb round which kings and subjects, 
 and indeed the whole creation, move. His pension, his 
 prophecy, his paintings, his praise, his censure, and his 
 criticisms are to annihilate all other topics. The desire to 
 silence such a critic was quite natural. Nobody likes to be 
 laughed at, and it is not all laughter, for he sometimes 
 uses a whip of scorpions, and lashes sore places with the 
 
364 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 delight of a Mepliistophiles. That in those libel-hunting 
 days he should have escaped unscathed can only be 
 attributed to the fear of giving wider circulation to his 
 incisive jokes, many of which remain indelibly associated 
 with the blunderings and stutterings of the " Good King 
 George." In our days much of the licentious boldness 
 which characterises his verse would not be tolerated. 
 Moore laid it on with a lighter and more graceful hand, 
 but opinion compelled the " Little Tom " to suppress much 
 that he had written, and in his later days he became more 
 refined and decorous. It is amusing now to read the adu- 
 lation — " fulsome " used to be the word — with which 
 Peter belauded the Prince of Wales, merely to spite his 
 royal father and mother. All the tittle-tattle of the Court, 
 every bit of scandal he delights in, expatiates on, and 
 versifies. Except that he was a favourite at Court, one 
 can hardly explain his vituperation of Sir Joseph Banks, 
 whose chace after a butterfly called the Emperor of 
 Morocco is humorously told. William Pitt is delivered to 
 damnation in the epistle to a falling minister, and to him is 
 devoted a clever imitation of Horace's Ode XII. (Book I.). 
 The " heaven-born " could hardly complain of having 
 applied to him — 
 
 " Quid prius dicam solitis parentis 
 Laudibus ; qui res liominum ac deoruiu 
 Qui mare et terras, variis que mundum 
 Temperat lioris 1 " 
 
 His " Subjects for painters " has Fontenelle's motto — 
 
 " Qui veut peindre pour rimmortalit6 
 Doit peindre des sots." 
 
 The " Ode to the Devil," complimenting his Satanic 
 majesty on his successes, is full of variety and fun. 
 
 Mrs Levi demanding from the theatre-manager the 
 shilling back because her son had fallen into the pit, and 
 
DK WOLCOT. 365 
 
 had "not seen the show," is very good. His expostulatory 
 " Odes to the Peers," though overlaboured, has many pun- 
 gent stanzas. Poor Sylvanus Urban is very shabbily 
 treated, but this is a natural return for the criticisms of the 
 Gentleman's Magazine. In his " advice to a future 
 laureate," he suggests, with what propriety, the honour 
 might be conferred on him. The complimentary epistle to 
 James Bruce, Esq., the Abyssinian traveller, has some 
 interest now when Abyssinia, the sources of the Nile, and 
 Dr Livingstone occupy so much of public attention. The 
 " Rights of Kings, or loyal odes to disloyal academicians," 
 is in the usual stream of obloquy. There are eighteen 
 such odes, followed by one to Thomas Paine, and another 
 to " My Ass," honoured with his own name Peter. He 
 laughs at Dr Parr, whose vanity was flattered when he 
 praised himself Of the king's ignorance and precipitancy 
 he gives an instance, which if " non vero e ben trovato "• — 
 
 " "Who's tliis 1 who's this 1 who's this fine fellow here 1 " 
 
 " Sesostris," howing low, replies the Peer. 
 
 " Sir Sostris ? Hey ! Sir Sostris ! 'pon my word, 
 
 Is he a Knight or Baronet, my Lord 1 " 
 " One of 7ny making ? what ? my Lord ! 7111/ making ? 
 
 This, with a vengeance, was mistaking." 
 
 " More money " is a remonstrance with Mr Pitt for new 
 demands for the king. There is an amusing dialogue be- 
 tween George HI. and the Head Master of Eton, to whom 
 his Majesty addresses all sorts of ridiculous questions as to 
 the domestic habits of Caesar. It is called " The Progress 
 of Knowledge." The Eton boys turn the king into ridicule, 
 so that the monarch " bade to schools a long adieu."* 
 Dr Wolcot could say bitter things. He liked to be 
 
 * " Bade to schools a long adieu ! 
 
 Of Eton journeys gave the idea o'er, 
 And, angry, never mentioned Caesar more." 
 
366 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 thought a sarcastic wit. A friend of mine who was intro- 
 duced to him, was not of the most perfect shape, and on 
 receiving him he said to the introducer, " You have 
 brought me a greyhound in a dropsy." He was wilhng 
 only to wound, but was not afraid to strike, and he was 
 careless of the wound inflicted if he could obtain the credit 
 of being able to shoot a poisoned arrow. 
 
 Many characteristic anecdotes are told of Peter. On one 
 occasion, there was a large party gathered together for a 
 picnic, to which he Vk^as not invited. As he deemed him- 
 self the most important person in the locality, he was very 
 angry, and determined to find some way of exhibiting his 
 displeasure by annoying the guests. He learned where 
 the basket was that held the provisions for the festivity, 
 the most prominent object being a large apple-pie. He 
 took off the crust, devoured the apples, and rej)laced 
 them by stones, placing upon them an abusive piece of 
 poetry, a mode of revenge in which he was accustomed to 
 indulge. 
 
 On another occasion, when he had returned from Portu- 
 gal, he told two venerable aunts that, being desirous of 
 giving them something better than an ordinary present, he 
 had managed to obtain two angel Seraphim and Cherubim, 
 and had carefully preserved them for the service of his 
 highly respected relatives. They expressed great delight 
 at the novelty and value of the gift ; " but, alas ! " he said, 
 " a melancholy accident has happened. We had a terrible 
 storm at sea. There was a great uproar among the crew 
 and the passengers. The angels quarrelled, took to fight- 
 ing, and pulled out one another's eyes. I could not ofi"er 
 you the dilapidated relics." My informant said that the 
 ancient ladies believed every word of their nephew's com- 
 munication. — 1 8 72.'" 
 
 * This article on Dr Wolcot was ^\Titten in October 1872, and appears to 
 have been Sir J. Bowring's last composition. 
 
ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT. 367 
 
 ALEXANDER, HUMBOLDT. 
 
 Alexander Humboldt's name will hold an exalted place 
 among the celebrities of the first half of the nineteenth 
 century. My personal acquaintance with him began at the 
 dinner-table of Cuvier in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, 
 and I may mention by the way, with reference to the great 
 French naturalist, that his brain, when weighed after death, 
 was reported to be the largest upon record. I sat next to 
 Humboldt, and was struck by the excursive character of 
 his conversation. I was not aware of the name of my 
 neighbour, but having asked Cuvier for an introduction to 
 him, he revealed the fact that it was with Humboldt that I 
 had been engaged in a colloquy which interested me much. 
 Not to speak of his travels with Bonpland, his " Cosmos " 
 is one of the most comprehensive and suggestive of con- 
 tributions to literature and science, not only bringing a vast 
 amount of knowledge from regions he had himself visited, 
 but drawing from the researches and experience of others 
 deductions the most valuable. Yet it was somewhat strange 
 to me to find how much the habits and duties of a courtier 
 were mingled with the condition and abstract studies of the 
 sage. Singular was the contrast between Humboldt in his 
 own residence, surrounded by philosophical instruments, 
 pursuing the most profound investigations, and the same 
 Humboldt transferred to the presence of kings and queens, 
 and learned in the strict and rigid ceremonials of a German 
 Court. I have been more than once extricated from em- 
 barrassment as to my own conduct by the kind and judi- 
 cious advice which 1 received from him. Independently of 
 his thorough mastery of the discoveries of science, he was 
 fond of the belles lettres, of works of art, and not unfre- 
 quently referred to the great geniuses of the Italian schools. 
 Dante was one of his favourite authors. His correspond- 
 
368 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ence with learned men was most extensive, and it lias been 
 seen by the publication of some of his writings that he could 
 now and then indulge in a strain of sarcastic bitterness. 
 He certainly, had his opinions prevailed with the late King 
 of Prussia, would have given to the politics of that govern- 
 ment a liberal tendency. Such may be the future career of 
 the Prussian monarchy, and it would undoubtedly be accept- 
 able to the higher intellects of the nation. It seems scarcely 
 natural that Austria should take the lead in popular re- 
 forms, and thus occupy a position higher than that aspired 
 to by the more cultivated spirits of northern and eastern 
 Germany. There were certain ideas in the mind of the 
 late King of Prussia, which showed a disposition to assimi- 
 late the constitution of his monarchy to that of Great 
 Britain. He once discussed with me the desirability of 
 creating an hereditary peerage resembling our own, the 
 elements of which would, however, certainly not be found 
 in the Prussian dominions. Probably the more intimate 
 union with the English Court, and intercourse with British 
 subjects, may lead to beneficial changes. At all events, the 
 flow of opinion is in that direction, and to it we may con- 
 fidently look for the solution of many a political problem. 
 —1861. 
 
 NIEBUHR AND SCHLBGEL. 
 
 Niebuhr was one of the most interesting men with whom 
 it has been my lot to hold intercourse. Those who are 
 acquainted with his history of Rome need no evidence of 
 his industry and erudition, but what struck me most was 
 the extraordinary sagacity with which he spoke of Irish 
 affairs, at that time so complicated and embarrassing. The 
 son of a distinguished father, he inherited all his activity 
 and more than his knowledge, turning to excellent account 
 advantages given him by a long residence in Rome as 
 
BUNSEIJ-. 369 
 
 Pru sian Minister, so that he had occasion by his own 
 observation to form an excellent estimate of the value of 
 tradition, and to compare the existing monuments with the 
 tales of the remotest times. There was sometimes a good 
 deal of asperity in his criticisms, and in one of his con- 
 troversies with A. W. Schlegel he used the phrase, " May 
 he eat the bread of bitterness. " His home was one of the 
 greatest simplicity, the supply of furniture small, and alto- 
 gether of an uncostly style, in which there was a great con- 
 trast to his adversary Schlegel, who was quite a man of the 
 world, and lived somewhat ostentatiously. I remember a 
 suite of servants, all clad in light-blue liveries with silver 
 facings, and have seen their master at many of the Courts 
 of Europe representing all the fashion of the passing hour. 
 German literature owes much to Schlegel for his transla- 
 tions of the dramas of Shakspeare, which gave the latter's 
 name a wonderful popularity in Germany, a country where 
 it is at least as highly appreciated as at home, and the reac- 
 tion has extended far and wide, for no man now in France 
 or Italy would venture to represent the bard of Avon as 
 merely an inspired barbarian, a title with which he was 
 frequently honoured down to the beginning of the present 
 century. Since the time of Homer, no man has ever held 
 the mind in such enchantment as " our great heir of fame," 
 and it is no profanation to say that neither the Iliad nor 
 Odyssey, nor the Eneid of Virgil, are likely to leave impres- 
 sions so lasting on future generations as the works of our 
 own Shakspeare. — 1861. 
 
 BUNSEN. 
 
 Bunsen was not only a most learned, but a most religious 
 man, devout sympathies being a part of his very nature. 
 In his domestic relations no man was ever more loved. My 
 acquaintance with him began more than a quarter of a 
 
 2 A 
 
370 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 century ago when he was Prussian minister at Eome, where 
 he succeeded Niebuhr. The legation was then on the top 
 of the Tarpeian rock, where Protestant service was regu- 
 larly held. Bunsen's speculations have been deemed bold 
 and sceptical, but they are such as must approve them- 
 selves to all attentive students of ancient history. As no 
 men of intellectual cultivation would in these days accept 
 the Mosaic account of the creation in its literal sense, so it 
 is impossible to deny that Bunsen has demonstrated from 
 the Egyptian annals that four thousand years at least must 
 be added to the period given in the Old Testament as the 
 epoch between the time of Noah and the Pharaonic dynas- 
 ties. The date of the erection of the pyramids can be 
 pretty accurately ascertained, and it took place within a few 
 generations of the deluge. Now, it is quite impossible that 
 such an innumerable quantity of workmen (Herodotus repre- 
 sents them to have been seven or eight hundred thousand) 
 should have been collected among the descendants of a 
 single family. There are many theories by which the facts 
 may be accounted for. The flood was perhaps partial, for 
 there is no reference to it in the most undoubtedly ancient 
 histories, those of China. 
 
 Bunsen has furnished many materials for serious thought 
 in the field of historical inquiry, and has helped to rescue 
 Protestantism from the charge of being as intolerant in its 
 claims to infallibility as the Church of Rome itself He is 
 but one of many interpreters, and the example of men like 
 him whose attachments to the teachings of the Gospel, and 
 whose reverence for the character of the Saviour cannot be 
 for a moment doubted, must exercise a permanent influence. 
 Bunsen had much at heart a federal union between the 
 German and Anglican Churches, but the elements are far 
 too heterogeneous. They have small sympathy for each 
 other, and little that is common in their constitution. It is 
 
LAMARTINE. 37l 
 
 not likely that the Germans would ever recognize the high- 
 flown pretensions of the English Episcopacy, or reconcile 
 themselves to the incredible distinctions between the salaries 
 of the bishops and those of the subordinate clergy. Nor 
 does the union of Church and State find much approval on 
 the Continent, where in most Protestant, and even in some 
 Catholic countries, the clergy of all denominations are 
 looked upon with an equal eye. — 1861. 
 
 LAMARTINB. 
 
 In the year 1831 I was engaged with Lord Clarendon 
 (then Mr George Villiers) as Commissioner for the negotia- 
 tion of a Commercial Treaty with France. At that time 
 Louis Philippe professed an earnest desire to increase inter- 
 course, and to extend trading relations with England. A 
 grand opportunity was lost at the Congress of Vienna 
 when, if our statesmen had had the slightest idea of the 
 best means of securing the peace, and advancing the pros- 
 perity of nations, they would have removed the barriers 
 which Custom-house legislation placed in the way of the 
 friendly exchange of those articles for the production of 
 which different localities have their various aptitudes. But 
 the statesmen of the day were occupied in far less popular 
 negotiations. They were settling dynasties, they were 
 parcelling out nations, and were dealing with millions of 
 men to whom they promised freedom as if they were serfs 
 or slaves. But the progress of time has undermined, and 
 the tempests of agitation have blown down the Ul-conceived 
 and hastily-constructed edifice. The French Bourbons, 
 whom it was the main object to establish upon the French 
 throne, have been driven out, and the Buonapartes, whose 
 exclusion from that throne was the primary object of the 
 then victorious sovereigns, are now reinstalled by an irre- 
 pressible determination of the popular will. Belgium has 
 
372 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 been wrested from Holland, Italy from Austria, and the 
 records of those arrangements which seemed so triumphant 
 have, in the course of less than half a century, been torn 
 into pieces and scattered to the winds. The voices which 
 cried out to the enthralled universe, " This is to be your 
 future condition ! " the decrees which proclaimed to the 
 advancing tide of civilization and progress, " Thus far shalt 
 thou proceed, and no further," have been issued in vain. 
 The world moves on in its grand cycle of advancement, and 
 the triumph of Free Trade must be deemed one of the 
 noblest evidences of that advancement. 
 
 But already, in France, sinister interests had created, and 
 public legislation patronised and protected many a perni- 
 cious monopoly, and our mission met with small success. 
 The French Commissioners were not ill-affected. One, the 
 Baron Freville, was a man of little strength of character, — 
 the other, Duchatel (afterwards a Cabinet Minister), an 
 intimate friend of Guizot, was a doctrinaire, more desirous 
 of making himself agreeable to the king, than of promot- 
 ing any great national object. The king himself was a 
 deceiver throughout. He was a large forest proprietor, 
 and could not reconcile himself to the losses he anticipated, 
 should the importation of English iron lessen the value 
 of the timber employed in the manufactures of the French. 
 Then, in the House of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies, 
 were the most potent possessors of those privileges which 
 excluded foreign articles from fair competition with the 
 national productions. They maintained that the markets 
 of France belonged by rights to Frenchmen, and that 
 foreigners were but intruders there. Independently of the 
 resistance we met with in the highest quarters, almost all 
 the subordinate functionaries were bitter enemies of com- 
 mercial liberty, and the remembrance of the old quarrels 
 with Great Britain made the introduction [_of our goods 
 
LAMARTINE. 373 
 
 particularly obnoxious to French policy. It was in north- 
 ern France, however, that this hostility was principally 
 displayed. The Lyons Chamber of Commerce, much 
 influenced by that enlightened man Aries Dufour, the 
 representative of the silk manufacture, an industry the 
 least protected and the most prosperous in France, never 
 failed to proclaim the sound doctrines of political economy. 
 In Bordeaux also spoke out most eloquently the vineyard 
 proprietors, having as their organ Henri Fonfrede, whose 
 father perished on the scaffold with his friend and leader 
 Brissot. One of the most important and valuable of the 
 agricultural interests of central and southern France had 
 been long sacrificed to the manufacturing interest of the 
 north, but the hope that the English market might be 
 made accessible to them gave a great impulse to their efforts, 
 and there was a moment in which many of the Gascons 
 openly avowed a desire for fiscal separation, and that they 
 should be subjected to tariffs less inimical to their well- 
 being. 
 
 About this time I visited most of the wine-districts of 
 France, and will mention a few facts as amusing as instruc- 
 tive. The average production of the four clarets of the 
 first quality does not exceed about 400 tons per annum. 
 These are called premiers cms, and are represented by the 
 M(^doc vineyards of Lafitte, Latour, Chateau Margaux, and 
 Chateau Haut Brion. It is a curious fact that, while the 
 English were possessors of Gascony, the wines now univer- 
 sally recognised as of the best order were so inferior that 
 it was made a condition, in order to dispose of them, that a 
 certain quantity should be taken by those who desired to 
 purchase the then superior wines of Blaye. It is believed 
 that more than 30,000 tons are sold in the different mar- 
 kets of the world under the favoured names. In Cham- 
 pao-ne, the two most distinguished vineyards — that of Ai 
 
374 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIOlSrS. 
 
 for the sparkling, and that of Sillery for the still cham- 
 pagne — produce very small quantities, though there is no 
 wine-merchant who will not agree to provide a supply to 
 any extent. I was informed that there are five countries, 
 England, Russia, France, Turkey, and the United States of 
 America, any one of which consumes more than the whole 
 of the genuine produce of Champagne, so that at least 
 four-fifths of the wine drunk under that name is either 
 made in other districts, or artificially manufactured. 
 While on a visit to M. Ouvrard, the proprietor of the most 
 celebrated of the Burgundy vineyards, that of Eoman6e 
 Conti, he informed me that, though the wine was nominally 
 sold at every restaurant in Paris, and is to be found in the 
 lists of all the principal dealers in wine, he never sold a 
 bottle, the vineyard producing only a few tons which he 
 kept for his own private use, and for presents to a small 
 number of privileged personages. 
 
 At this period I made the acquaintance of Ijamartine, 
 and visited him at St Pol, a beautiful estate he possessed 
 in the neighbourhood of Macon. His father was originally 
 in the service of the Court, and Lamartine received a 
 thoroughly monarchical education. It is not for me here 
 to follow the stages of thought which ended in his becoming 
 the most distinguished of French Republican advocates. 
 Study and travel developed and adorned the rich resources 
 of his mind, and I believe his integrity to have been as 
 incorruptible as his intellect was bright and glowing. 
 Nothing in political history is grander than his display of 
 courageous eloquence at the Hotel de Ville, when a furious 
 mob flouted the red flag in his face, and he bared his breast 
 to the menaced attack on his life. Sufficient justice has not 
 been done to this most remarkable man, but his name will 
 stand out hereafter among the most prominent bas-reliefs 
 of heroic story. I can never forget, when 1 was the object 
 
MADAME BE STAEL. 375 
 
 of an intemperate attack from M. Joubert in the Chamber 
 of Deputies for having acted as an incendiary on my visit 
 to the wine-departments, with what an earnest enthusiasm 
 1 was defended by my illustrious friend. Like Scott, he 
 had been visited by great reverses, and, like Scott too, had 
 been moved by those reverses to incredible mental labours. 
 He has had some family sorrows. He married an English 
 lady, and they lost their only child while travelling in the 
 Holy Land. Of his adventures there, the account of his 
 visit to that strange personage. Lady Hester Stanhope, is 
 singularly amusing. Nothing flattered her vanity more 
 than to be the object of attention from a great celebrity. 
 It would be too long and laborious a task to criticize, or 
 (more becomingly) to eulogize the multitudinous contribu- 
 tions to literature which have emanated from Lamartine's 
 pen. Examples are not rare in France where men of letters 
 are leading actors in the field of political strife. Among 
 the most illustrious will Lamartine be ranked. — 1861. 
 
 MADAME DE STAEL. 
 
 Madame de Stael was a perfect aristocrat, and her sympa- 
 thies were wholly with the great and prosperous. She saw 
 nothing in England but the luxury, stupidity, and pride of 
 the Tory aristocracy, and the intelligence and magnificence 
 of the Whig aristocracy. These latter talked about truth, and 
 liberty, and herself, and she supposed it was all as it should 
 be. As to the millions, the people, she never inquired into 
 their situation. She had a horror of the canaille, but any- 
 thing of sangre azul had a charm for her. When she was 
 dying she said, " Let me die in peace ; let my last moments 
 be undisturbed ; " yet she ordered the cards of every visitor 
 to be brought to her. Among them was one from the Duke 
 de Eichelieu. "What ! " exclaimed she indignantly, " What ! 
 have you sent away the Duke ? Hurry. Fly after him. 
 
376 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Bring him back. Tell liim that, though I die for all the 
 world, I live for him." — 1822. 
 
 JULLIEN, M. A. 
 
 No man's mind was ever so completely occupied with 
 one idea as JuUien's with the Revue Encyclopedique. He 
 runs over the chimes ten times a day, and scarcely relieves 
 the dullness with any note of variety. The Revue is to 
 him the very centre round which all civilization turns. He 
 knows everybody, and presses everybody into the service 
 of his book. " You can do this and that," as if all men's 
 hands and all men's talents waited his bidding. JuUien 
 said, " When Mercier wrote his vehement and eloquent 
 book against lotteries, Bonaparte said to the Minister of the 
 Interior, ' Give Mercier a good place in the lottery-depart- 
 ment.' — ' Quoi ! Votre Majesty ne sait elle pas qu'il a ecrit 
 contre la loterie ? ' — ' Oui. II dit qu'elle n'est bonne a rien. 
 Prouvez lui qu'elle est bonne a quelque chose.' " — 1822. 
 
 ERANZEN, F. M. 
 
 In a little secluded village of Sweden (Kumla, near 
 Orebro) I found this sweet poet and most amiable man. 
 He was surrounded by the children of the peasantry, to 
 whom he communicated daily instruction. His large and 
 interesting family delighted me. The eldest daughter, who 
 had never seen an Englishman before, spoke our language 
 with singular purity. We read Shakspeare together, and 
 she seemed to feel every sentiment, whether touching or 
 sublime, of our master of the stage. I have seldom passed 
 a happier day, for it was passed in witnessing happiness and 
 in communicating it. 
 
 KARAMZIN, H. M. 
 
 I expected to see an affected and self-complacent man. 
 
KARAMZIN, H. M. — ADELUNG. 377 
 
 In his early writings there is such an overstrained and 
 exaggerated sympathy, such a parade of sentimentality and 
 exquisiteness, that I had no idea such a mind would become 
 robust and energetic. He talked of his travels with anima- 
 tion and eloquence. He introduced his children, to each of 
 whom he had given the name of a nation. There was a 
 little round-faced Tatar-like child whom he called " The 
 Chinese." Another, with a curly flaxen head, and cheerful 
 rosy cheeks, was "My English Boy." Karamzin's wife 
 pleased me by the readiness of her wit, and the variety of 
 her conversation. Of Alexander, Karamzin spoke in terms 
 of unqualified eulogy, and said he had sent for him, before 
 his "History of Russia" was written, to command that no 
 respect for his imperial person should on any occasion warp 
 his views, or induce him to deface the fair and honest repre- 
 sentations of truth. — 1822. 
 
 ADELUNG. 
 
 At Adelung's table, at St Petersburg, there were often 
 most interesting individuals. I there first met Hepites, the 
 Greek Physician, who so often risked his life in seeking 
 remedies for the plague. Our intercourse, though irregular 
 and broken, still continues, and I have had many occasions 
 to admire the ardent zeal and patriotism which he has been 
 for years directing to the enfranchisement of his country. 
 His friendly feelings towards me were thus expressed : — 
 
 " 2f iSct Hi rag o^6ag ryji Ns/3ag, 
 2s ^avaida ag rag o-^Sag rrjg livag, 
 'Ejui iig Tov TafiriTog rag oySag ai^rirovaa, 
 KaXcij avTa,/j,oi)oiv tig rag ay&ag rov Evfura.' 
 
 " I saw you (first) on the banks of the Neva, 
 I recognised you on the banks of the Seine, 
 I sought you on the banks of the Thames, 
 I invite vou to meet me on the banks of the Eurotas." 
 
378 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 The particular attention whicli has been paid in Russia 
 to the history of languages is well known. There is a 
 curious book by Adelung on the subject. The laborious 
 undertaking of Pallas originated with Catherine, and Ade- 
 lung showed me the first conception of the work in the 
 handwriting of that most extraordinary woman. It is a 
 list of words, nearly similar to that adopted by Pallas, which 
 was sent wherever Russia possessed a channel of communi- 
 cation. After Pallas came the elder Adelung, whose 
 " Mithridates " has become a standard book on language. 
 F. Adelung's catalogue is far more extensive, and is no 
 doubt the most perfect list that has hitherto been formed. 
 It is rather a strange fact that nations seem to attend to 
 this subject in the very infancy of their literature. Next to 
 those of Russia, the writers of the United States (Du Ponceau, 
 for instance) have done most to advance the inquiry. 
 
 When Voltaire had published his history of Peter the 
 Great, there were such innumerable errors in the ortho- 
 graphy of the proper names, that Catherine directed her 
 secretary to write to the witty Frenchman. His reply was 
 laconic enough : " Je lui desire moins de betises, et a sa 
 langue moins de consonnes." — ^1822. 
 
 CRAS, H. C, AND MEYER. 
 
 Among the many interesting men whom I met with in 
 Holland, Cras was one of the most interesting. He must, 
 I think, have been more than an octogenarian, but there 
 was a power and a cordiality about him which delighted 
 me not a little, and I regretted that I could not accept the 
 offer, which he had come in person to make, of sharing an 
 English ' bif stek ' at his table. But I did sit at his table 
 when he was surrounded by the most learned men of his 
 country, and I shall not forget the enthusiasm with which 
 an ancient cup passed round on which was a Latin inscrip- 
 
CRAS, H. C, AND MEYER. 379 
 
 tion, repeated by all the guests, consecrating the principles 
 of, and renewing the pledges to truth and liberty. Cras' 
 Latinity was remarkably pure. He died soon after 1 quitted 
 Holland in 1819. 
 
 The introductions I took from my old and venerable 
 friend Bishop Gregoire led me very much among the Jews 
 of Holland. I found them strikingly intelligent, their 
 minds richly stored with languages and literature, but 
 almost universally sceptical. The families of Peninsular 
 descent were well acquainted with the fine language of 
 their ancestors, and they talked with singular enthusiasm 
 of the renowned romantic land, the love of which has 
 always been one of my passions. Meyer, whose history of 
 jurisprudence has become a standard book, was Secretary 
 of State to Louis Buonaparte. His person, if my recollec- 
 tion deceive me not, was very fine, and his power over 
 language remarkable, as were his shrewdness and pointed 
 conversation. He talked with raptures of the French lan- 
 guage as being of all others the best adapted for legislation, 
 the most refined, and the most pliable. My opinion is 
 quite the reverse. I regard the Gallic branch as the mean- 
 est and the poorest derived from the Eoman root. It 
 borrowed little from Franks and Normans, it has enriched 
 itself from no local or provincial sources, and a bar has been 
 erected against all improvement by the stupid decree that 
 no word shall be considered legitimate which did not exist 
 in the time of Louis XIV. To our language hundreds and 
 thousands of words have been added since then, and it 
 marches onward with the march of knowledge. Let any 
 one take the compounds of our nervous and flexible idiom, 
 and endeavour to transfer them into a French form, and he 
 will find it impossible ; e.g., belief — unbelief — misbelief — 
 disbelief The shades of distinction cannot be conveyed to 
 a Frenchman in his own tong-ue. The tenses of French 
 
380 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 verbs are feeble and inexpressive, they confound necessity 
 with free-will, and are metaphysical monsters. To have 
 made the French language universal, as Buonaparte pro- 
 jected, would have been as baneful to the interests of 
 science and wisdom as universal empire would have been 
 to public security and happiness. — 1819. 
 
 CONDE, JOSE ANTONIO. 
 
 I never saw a man so modest and retiring as Conde. 
 How should I ? There was scarcely ever perhaps an in- 
 stance of such trembling diffidence as his mind exhibited. 
 He was frank and communicative, and though his com- 
 munications were of a singularly original character — for the 
 Arabic literature of Spain, to which he was devoted, has 
 found no modern writer to rival him — they were always 
 made with striking simplicity. He wanted only poetical 
 feeling to be the non plus ultra of European Arabic scholars. 
 The MSS. of the Spanish Moors are full of verses, and the 
 soul of poetry is diffused over the whole of these most in- 
 teresting records. Conde felt their strength, and could 
 convey it to others, but he had no sense of harmony beyond 
 the mere vibration of the rhymes. His friend Moratin's 
 elegy on his death is one of the sweetest Ijaical produtions 
 of modern times. 
 
 1. 
 " Te vas, mi dulce amigo, " My friend, and dost thou luave me 
 
 La luz huyendo del dia ; In darkness and despair ? 
 
 Te vas, y no conmigo. And am I left to grieve me 
 
 Y de la tumba pia, While thou art mouldering there 
 En el estrecho limite, In mute and sad forgetfulness 
 Mudo tu cuerpo esta ! Within thy narrow bed ? 
 
 Y a mi que debil siento I, 'neath the burden bending 
 El peso de los anos, Of long and sorrowing years, 
 
 y al cielo me lamento My plaints to heaven ascending 
 
 Di ingratitud y engaiios Of toils, deceits, and fears, 
 
 Para Uorar te ; misero ! And mourning thee, life's pilgrimage 
 
 Largo vivir me da. Is dark, long, full of dread. 
 
CONDE, JOSE ANTONIO. 
 
 381 
 
 fueramos unidos 
 Al seno deleitoso 
 Que en sus bosques floridos 
 Guarda eterno reposo. 
 A aquellas almas inclitas, 
 Del mundo admiracion ; 
 solo a mi llevara 
 La muerte presurosa, 
 
 Y tu virtud gozdra 
 Modesta, ruborosa, 
 
 Y tan ilustres meritos 
 Ufana la nacion. 
 
 ' Al estudio ofreciste 
 Los anos fugitives, 
 
 Y joven conociste 
 Cuanto le son nocivos 
 Al generoso espiritu 
 El ocio y el placer. 
 Veloz en tu carrera, 
 
 Al templo te adelantas, 
 Donde moral severa 
 Dicta sus leyes santas, 
 
 Y en ellos, digno interprete, 
 Llegas a florecer. 
 
 " would we were united 
 In those celestial bowers, 
 Where we might rest delighted 
 Midst ever fragrant flowers. 
 Among those spirits glorified, 
 Whose memories here remain. 
 Or had I gone before thee. 
 To see the hand of fame 
 Shed all its laurels o'er thee. 
 And thy retiring name 
 Blushing beneath the gratitude 
 Of our maternal Spain. 
 
 3. 
 
 " Thy early spring-tide given 
 To study and to thought. 
 Pleasure and luxury driven, 
 As things which profit nought. 
 Thou didst withstand their blandishments 
 In steady dignity. 
 That fane of glory seeking 
 Where sternest virtue lives. 
 And there, sublimely speaking. 
 The law of wisdom gives ; 
 And thou wert her interpreter. 
 And she was proud of thee. 
 
 ' Ginieronle corona 
 De lauros immortales 
 Las nueve de Helicona — 
 Sus diafanos cristales 
 Te dieron, y benevolas, 
 Su lira de marfil. 
 Con eUa renovando 
 La voz de Anacreonte, 
 Eco amoroso y blando, 
 Son6 de Pindo el monte 
 Y te cedi6 Teocrito 
 La caiia pastoril. 
 
 " The smiling muses wrought thee 
 A fadeless laurel crown ; 
 Their sweetest songs they brought thee, 
 And made those songs thy own. 
 And in thy hand, obsequiously, 
 They placed their ivory lyre. 
 Thy touch anew created 
 Anacreon's joyous strain. 
 And Pindus' Mount repeated 
 Its former notes again. 
 And then we saw Theocritus 
 Salute thee and retire. 
 
382 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 " Febo te di6 la ciencia 
 De idiomas diferentes, 
 
 Y el resono y afluencia 
 Que usaron elocuentes 
 Arabia, Roma, y Atica 
 Su piste declarar. 
 
 Y el cantico festivo 
 Que en belica Armorica 
 El pueblo fugitive 
 
 Al numen dirigia, 
 Cuando al feroz ejercito 
 Hundi6 en su centro el mar. 
 
 ' La bistoria, alzando el velo 
 Que lo pasado oculta, 
 
 Entrega a tu desvelo 
 Bronces que el arte abulta 
 
 Y codices y marmoles 
 Amigo, te explic6. 
 
 Y de alii de las que ban sido 
 Cuidades poderosas 
 
 Se cuantas di6 al olvido 
 Acciones generosas. 
 La edad, que vuela rapida, 
 Memorias te dictd. 
 
 5. 
 
 " Thine were the countless treasures 
 Of many a varying tongue, 
 And music's sacred measures 
 And eloquence of song ; 
 Arabia, Rome, and Attica 
 Brought all their gifts to thee. 
 Thou heard'st the anthem glorious 
 Erom Egypt's shore resound. 
 While onward passed victorious 
 That wondrous sea which drowned 
 The chariot and the charioteer, 
 'Tvvas Israel's victory. 
 
 6. 
 ■' Where proud inquiry falters, 
 Securely thou didst lead. 
 Midst pyramids and altars, 
 And memories of the dead. 
 It was the pride of history 
 To lift her voice for thee. 
 She told of many a ruin. 
 The strange vicissitude. 
 She saw thine eye pursuing 
 The generous and the good. 
 And bade her favourite rescue them 
 From dark obscurity. 
 
 ' Desde que el cielo airado ' 
 Mostrd en Xerez su sana 
 
 Y al suelo derribado 
 Cay6 el poder de Espana 
 Subiendo al trono Gotico 
 La prole de Ismael ; 
 Hasta que rotas fueron 
 Las ultimas cadenas , 
 
 Y tremoladas vieron 
 
 De Alhambra en las almenas 
 Los ya vencidos Arabes 
 Las cruces de Isabel. 
 
 ■ She took thee to the ages. 
 When victory led the Moor, 
 And read those chequered pages 
 Of joy and sorrow o'er. 
 When the dark sons of Ismael 
 Sat on the Gothic throne, 
 Until the chains of slavery 
 Were broken by the enslaved. 
 And the red flag of bravery 
 Above the Alhambra waved, 
 And our triumphant Isabel 
 Called rescued Sjpain her own. 
 
CONDE, JOSE ANTONIO. 
 
 383 
 
 " A ti fue concedido 
 Eternizar la gloria 
 De los que han distinguMo 
 La paz la vitoria 
 En dilatadas epocas 
 Que el mundo v6o pasar. 
 
 Y a ti de dos naciones 
 Ilustres enemigos 
 Eeferir los blazones, 
 Hazanas, y fatigas, 
 
 Y de candor historica 
 Dignos ejemplos dar. 
 
 ■ Europa que anhelaba 
 De tu saber el fruto, 
 
 Y ofrecerle esperaba 
 En aplausos tributo 
 
 La nueva de tu perdida 
 Debe primero oir. 
 La parca inexorable 
 Te arribatd d la tumba 
 En eco lamentable 
 La boveda retuniba, 
 
 Y alia en tu centro lobrego 
 Sono ronco gemir. 
 
 " Ay ! perdona ofendido 
 Espiritu, perdona ! 
 Si en la region de olvido 
 Ciiies aurea corona, 
 Y sus virtudes solidas 
 Tienen ya galardon. 
 No de una madre ingrata 
 El duro cefio acuerdes 
 Que nunca se dilata 
 La existencia que pierdes 
 Sin que la turben perfidias, 
 Envidia, y ambicion." 
 
 " And thou hast given to story 
 Eternal being now, 
 And stamped of shame or glory 
 The signs upon her brow. 
 O'er the vast desert wandering 
 Of long departed days. 
 Alike the friend and foeman, 
 Thy honest judgment share. 
 And Moor, and Goth, and Eoman, 
 Thy stern reproof must bear. 
 And honour, valour, chivalry, 
 Obtain thy glowing praise. 
 
 9. 
 
 " The world, of thee unworthy, 
 Stood gazing on thy pen, 
 And wreathed a garland for thee 
 In smiling pride — and then 
 Was told thou had'st abandoned her, 
 And that thou wast no more. 
 Alas ! for death hath swept thee 
 Into its depth of gloom. 
 We saw the eyes that wept thee, 
 We heard thy echoing tomb. 
 And ! they now close o'er thee 
 The heavy grating-door. 
 
 10. 
 
 " Forgive, offended spirit ! 
 Forgive — for, where thou art, 
 The golden crown of merit 
 Is thine — thy gentle heart 
 Shall soon forget thy destiny, 
 While here a wanderer. 
 Of thy ungrateful mother 
 Forgive the frowns austere. 
 And wounds of friend and brother. 
 While thou wert lingering here. 
 But envy, hate, or perfidy 
 Can never enter there." — 1822. 
 
384 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 ST. SIMONIANS. 
 
 When I was in Paris after the Eevolution of 1830, I 
 made the acquaintance of a remarkable group of men, the 
 St. Simonians, who were then exciting much public atten- 
 tiou, and exercised no small influence over the press. The 
 formula round which they were gathered was to this effect, 
 " To each his work, and to each according to his work." 
 Sceptics they all were, but though they held the writings 
 of their founder in great reverence, they never pretended 
 that they represented a supernatural revelation. They 
 were a set of socialists, bound together by the strong bonds 
 of brotherhood, and recognising as their head Pere Enfan- 
 tin, their father and high-priest, who was encircled by a 
 kind of priestly hierarchy. They had their church and a 
 regular service in the Rue Taitbout, but their doctrines 
 were deemed so subversive, that they were suppressed by 
 the intervention of state authority. Among their leaders, 
 were many men who afterwards reached high distinction in 
 the state, and occupied important social positions. Michel 
 Chevalier, who is well known as the enlightened and gene- 
 rous judge of British institutions, and the honest interpre- 
 ter of British interests and British policy, to whom the 
 initiative of the movement which resulted in Cobden's 
 famous treaty of commerce is mainly due, and who had 
 been rewarded by the Emperor in being called to the 
 Senate — and Emile Perrain, the head of one of the 
 great commercial associations of France, who has amassed 
 a colossal fortune, were among the eminent names. 
 Various public functionaries, directors of departments, and 
 some of the principal managers of railway companies, and 
 other industrial undertakings, owed their first reputation to 
 their connection with the St. Simonian movement. 
 
 In the pursuit of a chimera, which they caUed woman, 
 
ST SIMONIANS. 385 
 
 great numbers of the St Simonians migrated to the Levant, 
 especially to Egypt, where they obtained employment 
 under Mehemet Ali Pasha. Some professed Mahommed- 
 ism, submitted themselves to Moosulman rites, and took up 
 their abode in the Turkish quarters of Cairo, while some 
 even accompanied the caravans in the pilgrimages to the 
 holy cities, and one of them, whom I knew, was denounced 
 as an untrustworthy convert, and was cruelly ill-treated on 
 on his way to Medina. The profession of Islamism no 
 doubt furthered ambitious views, and the general commander- 
 in-chief of the Syrian armies, well known as Sooleiman 
 Pasha, was a Colonel Seve, formerly an officer in Napoleon's 
 legions. Whether the fascinations of the harem, or curio- 
 sity respecting Mahommedan inner life, or other motive was 
 the cause, it is an undoubted fact that several Englishmen 
 have become renegades to their Christian faith. One man 
 I knew at Constantinople, the son of a respectable London 
 merchant. At Aleppo the head of the dancing dervishes 
 was a Scotchman, and in Alexandria the dragoman of the 
 British Consul- General openly professed Mahommedanism, 
 married women of that creed, and directed that his children 
 should be educated in the faith of the prophet. At Cairo 
 our Consul-General ascertained that great preparations were 
 being made for the reception of an Englishman, but he 
 managed to get him arrested for debt and sent away from 
 the Egyptian capital, in order to avoid scandal, especially as 
 the conversion of an Englishman was deemed a most 
 memorable triumph. Among the Maltese, great numbers 
 have been found ready enough to abandon their Christian 
 calling, and it is most strange, yet not less true, that 
 scarcely an instance can be fouDd of the conversion of a 
 Moosulman to any of the forms of orthodox Christianity. 
 
 The appearance and disappearance of St Simonianism 
 among the cultivated minds of the French is a phenomenon 
 
 2 B 
 
386 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 worthy of remark. Unlike Mormonism, and the impostures 
 of Brothers and Joanna Southcote, which made their way 
 wholly among the most ignorant and credulous of profess- 
 ing Christians, St Simonianism may be said to have num- 
 bered high intellects. This can only be attributed to the 
 fact that, amidst much dross, there were grains of pure 
 metal, and that their field of teaching was not wholly 
 covered with tares. It were well indeed if Christians would 
 recollect that there never was a religion exercising any influ- 
 ence among thoughtful and philosophical men which had not 
 in it some element of truth, and, consequently, of stability. 
 —1861. 
 
 REV. ROBERT ASPLAND. 
 
 Mr Aspland was the Unitarian minister at the Gravel-pit 
 Chapel at Hackney. He was, I believe, the son of a Cam- 
 bridgeshire farmer, was educated in orthodox opinions, 
 which he abandoned, and became one of the most distin- 
 guished preachers, and a recognised authority among the 
 religious body with which he was connected. He was the 
 Secretary to the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 
 and the editor of the " Monthly Eepository," which was 
 for many years the principal literary organ of the Unita- 
 rians. In all movements for the extension of religious 
 liberty, such as the repeal of the Corporation and Test 
 Acts, he took a most energetic part. He was the founder 
 of the Nonconformist Club, a body of Unitarians, mostly 
 men of letters, who met monthly to discuss the religious 
 phases of the times, one of them usually being charged with 
 the preparation of a paper on some historical or polemical 
 topic. Many of these papers were published in the 
 " Monthly Eepository." There were in the Club some 
 remarkable men, namely, Edgar Taylor, who translated the 
 " German Popular Tales," and published an admirable ver- 
 
HEV. THOMAS BELSHAM. 387 
 
 sion of the New Testament, founded principally upon 
 Griesbach's text, — his cousin Richard, known by the name 
 of the Classical Printer; Samuel Parkes, author of the 
 " Chemical Catechism," a popular work in its day, which 
 gave the writer for many years an income of £500 ; William 
 Johnson Fox, whose talents were afterwards transferred from 
 the pulpit to the senate ; Dr Southwood Smith, then best 
 known by his " Essay on the Divine Government," and 
 afterwards by his public services at the Board of Health ; 
 Christopher Richmond, a barrister, and an able and interest- 
 ing man, and some others unknown to fame beyond the 
 circle of their religious community. There was a strong 
 bond of union between those who professed an unpopular and 
 heterodox faith, and who were the objects of no small 
 amount of opprobrium from their orthodox brethren. But 
 time has somewhat modified the harshness of condemna- 
 tory judgment. When I was in the House of Commons, 
 of fourteen Dissenters, I think thirteen belonged to the 
 Unitarian community. — 1 861. 
 
 REV. THOMAS BELSHAM. 
 
 The chapel in Essex Street, London, was originally built 
 for the use of Theophilus Lindsay, one of those excellent 
 men to whom their conscience is a law, and who resigned 
 the vicarage of Catterick, in Yorkshire when his convic- 
 tions could no longer reconcile themselves to the ritual and 
 the doctrines of the Anglican Church. He was succeeded 
 by the Rev. Thomas Belsham, and the congregation became 
 one of considerable influence, numbering some members of 
 the Peeraofe, amonw whom was the Duke of Grafton, and 
 others of the aristocracy. It is notorious that there is in 
 the bosom of the Church itself a great amount of hetero- 
 doxy, and no one can have been admitted to intimate and 
 confidential intercourse with the higher intellects of the age 
 
388 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 without failing to discover that there is mucli heretical 
 pravity among them. An indifference to religious questions 
 in general, a yielding to the tide of tendency, and a wish to 
 maintain a social status in a country where a certain amount 
 of opprobrium and degradation has been generally associ- 
 ated with dissent, are among the causes and the apologies 
 for much real dishonesty. Mrs Barbauld used to say that in 
 opulent families the carriages of the third generation always 
 carried their possessors away to the national Church. The dis- 
 abilities and persecutions however, to which Nonconformists 
 were subjected had some advantages, for, in consequence of 
 their exclusion from official positions in the State, those who 
 were not members of the Establishment usually devoted 
 themselves to commercial pursuits, in which they were 
 mainly successful. The Jews became traffickers in money, 
 while the Huguenots, persecuted in France, brought with 
 them in their flight to England the silk manufactures of 
 France, and in Spitalfields, Norwich, Coventry, and other 
 places introduced new industries. In the great manufac- 
 turing towns dissenting families were at the head of many 
 of those vast establishments which have given to our fabrics 
 their world-wide reputation, and which are the great aliment of 
 commerce abroad, the means of employment to busy millions 
 at home, the source of enormous wealth, and the impellers of 
 a growing civilization. In Manchester the Heywoods, con- 
 nected with the cotton ; in Leeds, the Marshalls represent- 
 ing the flax ; in Derby the Strutts at the head of the local 
 fabrics, were only the principal Presbyterian or Unitarian 
 families of those places. I recollect when I was very young, 
 that, in the chapel where my ancestors were wont to wor- 
 ship, the principal merchants and manufacturers of the 
 staple woollen trade at Exeter were members of the 
 congregation, but at the moment when I write, not one of 
 thsir descendants, myself excepted, occupies a place in thai 
 
REV. THOMAS BELSHAM. 389 
 
 once distinguished seat and school of heterodox Christianity. 
 My own family professed, and were persecuted for their 
 Puritanism. When the intolerance of the times prohibited 
 their assembling for religious worship either in public 
 edifices or private dwellings, they held their gatherings in 
 remote and secret places. I have found a representation 
 from the Bishop of Exeter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 in the time of James I., denouncing a turbulent and unman- 
 ageable nonconformist, one John Bowring, from whom T 
 am directly descended. I possess a licence granted to a 
 John Bowring, in the time of William and Mary, authoris- 
 ing him to use his house at Chulmleigh for the purpose of 
 religious worship. He was in the woollen trade, and issued 
 a token, bearing the date of 1670, and an inscription, 
 " John Bowring, Chulmleigh, his halfpenny," which is orna- 
 mented with the device of a wool-comb, to designate his 
 business, which was that of my progenitors down to my 
 father's days. No less than three Directors of the Bank of 
 England, leading partners in great London houses — the 
 Barings, the Gibbs, and the Heaths — are descendants of men 
 formerly engaged in the Exeter woollen trade. In my earlier 
 days, I found the name of Exeter (Exon was its usual 
 designation) familiar as a household word among foreign 
 traders. In China, the long ells, a species of coarse serge, 
 still manufactured by the hand-loom in Devonshire, are 
 greatly preferred to the power-loom productions of York- 
 shire. They are used, not only for winter clothing, but for 
 the lining of carriages, for flags and ornaments, and for 
 many domestic purposes. Such was the reputation of the 
 East India Company that bales of long ells, bearing the 
 marks of that great association, were received in every part 
 of China unopened, and passed as currently as coin at an 
 understood value. 
 
 In the United States of America, where no privileges or 
 
390 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 disabilities of any sort attach to the profession of any special 
 religious views, the open avowal of Unitarian opinions is 
 far more generally diffused than in Great Britain. The 
 most distinguished university, that of Harward in New 
 England, may be deemed the principal school for the teach- 
 ing of Unitarian doctrines, but, though Boston is the locality 
 in which the most eminent of their preachers and professors 
 have had their residence, there are a considerable number 
 of Unitarian churches in other great cities of the Union. 
 The chaplains to Congress have not unfrequently been 
 ministers attached to that creed, and the most eminent of 
 all American authors, Dr William EUery Channing, has 
 been most probably the man of all others instrumental in 
 giving to the faith he professed a reputation through the 
 literary world. His writings have been translated into 
 several languages, and long before his remarkable sermons 
 attracted such general admiration, his essays on Napoleon 
 and Milton, which, if I mistake not, were published in the 
 North American Revieiv, had given him extensive fame. 
 George Canning pronounced upon Channing's works a high 
 and emphatic eulogium, and E^musat has borne similar 
 testimony in his preface to his life written in French, and 
 published in Paris, by an English lady. I saw much of 
 him on his visit to England. He had been staying with 
 Southey at the Lakes, who had influenced him most un- 
 favourably and unfairly against the whole body of English 
 Unitarians, whom he was taught to consider as wearing a 
 cloak of Christian profession for the concealment of a latent 
 scepticism and infidelity. He then, as always, held negro 
 slavery in utter abomination as the stain and stigma of his 
 native land, but he excused himself from giving vent to his 
 opinions, on the plea that such avowal would destroy the 
 influence which he exercised over his fellow-citizens. After- 
 wards, however, he came to the nobler and bolder decision 
 
ABBE GREGOIRE. 391 
 
 that it was his bounden duty not to conceal his views, and 
 he gave to them a full and fervid expression, and assuredly 
 the events that have occurred in the American common- 
 wealth have demonstrated how important it is that the 
 convictions of the wise and the good on a subject so full of 
 sin and shame should not be suppressed. 
 
 The favourite theme of Mr Belsham was that Unitarian- 
 ism, while it repudiated the doctrines which have been the 
 subject of controversy in the Christian Church, recognized 
 all the great outlines on which all Christians are agreed. 
 Many have denied the Trinity, but all admit the unity of 
 the Godhead ; many repudiate the divinity, but all recog- 
 nize the humanity of Jesus Christ ; some deny the orthodox 
 interpretation of the miraculous conception, but all admit 
 that he was the son of his mother Mary. The doctrines of 
 original sin and the terms of salvation have been the sub- 
 ject of much controversy, but no Christian denies the frailty 
 of man, the resurrection of Christ, and the benefits which 
 his mission has conferred upon the world. 
 
 Mr Belsham was a most agreeable, social companion, and 
 was an object of great personal esteem among a large circle 
 of friends. His sister married the Rev. T. Kenrick of 
 Exeter, a distinguished preacher belonging to the school of 
 Dr Priestley, and the father of one of the most eminent scho- 
 lars of our day, the Rev. John Kenrick of York. — 1861. 
 
 ABBE GREGOIRE. 
 
 The Abbe Gregoire, Bishop of Blois, well known by the 
 title of " L'ami des noirs," was one of those great moral 
 powers which repose, as it were, in the silence of seeming 
 inaction till the day of change. He was feared, and dreaded, 
 and harassed more than others, because his influence was 
 not of a tangible character. Pure and unpolluted amidst 
 all changes, he was a stern, unswerving, yet gentle and 
 
392 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 exemplary Eepublican. No man was more vehemently 
 abused than he during the period when the restored Bour- 
 bons occupied the throne of France. He was denounced 
 by the Royalists as the regicide — the episcopal regicide — 
 but I believe he neither voted for the death of Louis XVI., 
 nor for any other penal sentence of death, for he was in 
 favour of the abolition of all capital punishments ; and I 
 have heard him again and again aver that he wished the 
 king to be the first example of the abrogation of the right 
 of society to dispose of human life. He was a firm advo- 
 cate of the liberties of the Gallican Church, called a Jan- 
 senist, but associated with a large body of clergy who, 
 though avowing themselves Catholics, were and are de- 
 sirous of circumscribing and limiting the Papal power. 
 Gregoire was a most eloquent man, and was mainly occii- 
 pied with the question of negro emancipation, his enthu- 
 siasm on behalf of the blacks being exhibited in impassioned 
 and emphatic expressions. His sympathy for them was 
 intense, and he was one of the most courageous and active 
 coadjutors of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Allen, and the other 
 abolitionists. He had gathered together a large library of 
 works written by people of colour, and a very curious 
 collection it was, consisting, if I recollect aright, of two or 
 three hundred volumes, among which were books of which 
 female negroes were the authors. Hayti furnished large 
 contributions, and the newspapers of that island were cer- 
 tainly conducted with no small ability. In Gregoire's 
 house the most interesting people of colour were habitually 
 congregated. I remember many who had a considerable 
 reputation ia France and Europe. Pescay, the physician 
 under whose care and keeping Napoleon placed Ferdi- 
 nand VII. of Spain while a prisoner in France, was a black 
 man, and as there is no doubt that he was expected to play 
 the part of reporter and spy, his appointment may be 
 
ABBE GREGOIRE. 393 
 
 deemed good evidence of the value attached to his capacity 
 by the sagacious French ruler. General Roche was a half 
 caste, but I have heard his military talents extolled. To 
 say nothing of Dumas, there has been one instance at least 
 of a man of colour having carried off a prize at the French 
 Institute, but my experience would not enable me to en- 
 dorse the opinion of the good Bishop that the intellectual 
 aptitudes of the blacks are equal to those of the whites. I 
 believe, however, that in some regions they are superior to 
 those of the long-haired inhabitants. When I was in Egypt, 
 a Nubian had to undergo the operation of losing his leg. 
 He showed extraordinary courage while in the hands of the 
 surgeon, and, on being complimented on his self-possession, 
 exclaimed, " Did you suppose me to be no better than a 
 fellah (native Egyptian) ? " In the boats on the Nile, black 
 men are often in command, and exercise a somewhat des- 
 potic authority over the indigenous crews. Having had a 
 good deal to do with black youths under the process of 
 education, I conclude that, though up to a certain point, 
 they are even more teachable and ready than Europeans of 
 the same age, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to raise 
 them above that point, so as, for example, to bring them to 
 understand complicated mathematical problems, and to 
 pursue high studies in astronomy, or any of the abstract 
 sciences requiring long and profound attention. I remem- 
 ber that when the King of Hayti was compelled to abdi- 
 cate, and his queen with his daughters fled to Europe for 
 safety, Gregoire set his heart upon bringing about a marriage 
 between one of the ebony beauties and a young and favourite 
 literateur, Benjamin Laroche, who was compelled to seek an 
 asylum in England when the Bourbon police was pursuing 
 him. He was well known in the literary world by his 
 translations of Shakspeare into French. He did not fall 
 into Gregoire's views, and, to say the truth, the young lady 
 
394 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 was of a somewliat passionate temperament, and would have 
 led her husband an uneasy life. 
 
 Gregoire was an object of great dislike and suspicion, 
 and, unless my recollection fails me, was expelled from the 
 Chamber of Deputies after the Bourbon restoration, but he 
 went on in his forward path undaunted and unmoved, his 
 mind always occupied by some plan and purpose of benevo- 
 lence, every species of human sympathy and virtuous exer- 
 tion being in turn the object of his thoughts and cares. 
 The slave trade, prisons, schools, hospitals — everything, in 
 short, which excited his beneficent solicitude — the inde- 
 pendence of his church, the enfranchisement of Jews, and 
 the abolition of persecution, all were subjects for his reli- 
 gious exertions — his mind, as well as his pen, being extra- 
 ordinarily active. — 1861. 
 
 RAM MOHUJSr ROY. 
 
 Strange changes have been going on in most religious 
 communities, and the spirit of reformation seems to be 
 making its way alike in the Oriental and the Western 
 world. There is a general conviction that, whether due to 
 the craft of kings or of priests, the teachings of the great 
 instructors have been distorted and corrupted, and that the 
 nearer we approach them and their times, the more purity 
 will be found in their doctrines, and a closer adhesion to 
 the principles of truth and morality. Among the Bood- 
 dhists, tens of thousands of volumes exist, the depositaries of 
 unauthorized traditions and incredible theories ; the re- 
 formed Jews are repudiating the writings of many Hebrew 
 commentators ; and Christian churches are refusing to 
 admit the testimony of the "Lives of the Saints" and the 
 untrustworthy records of miracles, the belief in which may 
 have well suited an ignorant age, but which will not bear 
 the test of critical examination. The reformed Brahmins 
 
eIm MOHUN ROY. 395 
 
 contend, and with much reason, that the Vedas contain 
 nothing derogatory to the Divine character, and give no 
 sanction to the idolatrous rites now practised in the Indian 
 temples. When I attended the worship of the Vedantas 
 in Calcutta, I saw nothing and heard nothing to which a 
 believer in the unity of God could object. There are, I 
 believe, at this moment from three to four hundred temples 
 in M^hich reformed Brahminism is professed. 
 
 Rdm Mohun Roy was perhaps the most illustrious, and 
 certainly the best known of these Brahminical reformers. 
 I do not believe that he was a Christian, or that he 
 really admitted the evidence of the miracles, and especially 
 of the resurrection of our Saviour ; but his " Precepts of 
 Jesus" is a beautiful testimony to his admiration of the 
 character of the Messiah, of whom he always spoke with 
 reverence, as one of the greatest instructors of our race. 
 When he determined to visit Europe, he did not dissolve 
 the link which bound him to Brahminism, or repudiate any 
 observance necessary to the maintenance of his position. 
 His family violently opposed his leaving Calcutta, his wife 
 especially, and his son, Rim. Prasad Eoy, was compelled by 
 the strong influences exercised to remain in Bengal, where, 
 by the way, he is an eloquent pleader in the Supreme 
 Court, and a Vakeel of the Government in British India. 
 He speaks English, as did indeed his father, with admirable 
 purity. 
 
 Eam Mohun Roy naturally found his sympathies drawing 
 him more closely to the Unitarian than to any other religious 
 body. He did not avoid controversy, but, in order not to 
 give offence, he perhaps sometimes allowed it to be supposed 
 that he was making concessions which were far indeed from 
 the convictions of his own mind. In fact, I have heard 
 him called orthodox by those who knew little or nothing of 
 his genuine opinions. No one could be more desirous than 
 
396 AUTOBIOGEAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 he to strengthen the bonds which unite India to Great 
 Britain, and he would have been glad to have been the 
 herald of a succession of Brahminical visitors. Another 
 followed him, Dwd,rkd,ndth Tdgore, whose presence made 
 some sensation in England. He was a merchant, but as 
 his commercial adventures were not fortunate, he naturally 
 enough lost much of his influence. At this moment I 
 believe the best known of the Bengal Vedd,ntas is the Eaja 
 of Burdwan, but all Rdm Mohun Roy's schemes were 
 thwarted by his death, which took place at Stapleton 
 Grove, near Bristol, while on a visit to Miss Castle, in 
 whose grounds he was buried, but when the property 
 passed out of the hands of the family, the corpse was 
 removed to the cemetery at Arno's Vale, where he rests in 
 peace. — 1861. 
 
 MEZZOFANTL 
 
 Knowledge of languages is a very vague expression, 
 meaning everything between what is little — more — much — 
 and up to such perfect knowledge as is possessed by a 
 cultivated native. The list presented to the Philological 
 Society at their meeting of the 2d inst. (Jan. 1863) by Mr 
 Watts is an ill-digested assemblage, sometimes of the same 
 languages under different names, but, altogether, exhibiting 
 the utmost confusion, both as to the character and the 
 classification of difi'erent tongues. 
 
 Mezzofanti had studied with greater or less attention 
 most of the idioms taught by the Propaganda, and those 
 idioms are far more numerous than those cited in the 
 Athenceum. What struck me in my intercourse with the 
 Cardinal was the accuracy of his ear, and the correctness of 
 his pronunciation, together with his acquaintance with 
 many obscure dialects confined to small localities. Of those 
 of Spain, for example, only two are mentioned, viz., Spanish, 
 
LANGLES. 397 
 
 i.e., Castilian, and Catalan, whereas he certainly liad know- 
 ledge of thrice that number of dialects spoken in the Iberian 
 peninsula. Of Italian, three are reported — Italian, i.e., 
 Tuscan, Sicilian, and Venetian — a small proportion only of 
 those with which he was familiar. So, again, he had 
 attended to several of the Philippine dialects, only one of 
 which, namely Tagal, is spoken of. Mezzofanti, I am sure, 
 never pretended to know the various dialects of the Chinese, 
 of which the names are (very confusedly) given. He knew 
 the Mandarin, i.e., the court or literary language, well, but 
 I remember when a friend of mine, who had been conversing 
 with him in that language, broke off into Cantonese (one in 
 the list), Mezzofanti said, " That is not the Hwan-hwa" (the 
 literary tongue), but he could not carry on the conversation 
 in the Canton dialect. The most profound philologist whom 
 I have known was Eask of Copenhagen. The philologist 
 who made himself acquainted with the greatest number of 
 dialects was the elder Adelung. — 1863. 
 
 LANGLES. 
 
 France is the country of false and undeserved reputations. 
 Literary and conversational piracy is universal. Every 
 man appropriates to himself whatever he can lay hold of, 
 and everything is exhibited on the surface. They all wear 
 the clothes of then: intellectual wardrobe on their backs, 
 and carry about in ready money all their knowledge of 
 books or things. 
 
 Langles lived and died with a prodigious reputation for 
 erudition, yet he was an ignorant quack, who supported 
 himself by what he stole from others ; but, in transferring 
 it to himself, he had the cunning either to alter its character, 
 or now and then to conciliate its owner by a puff. The 
 secret of his reputation was to talk with every man on the 
 subject of which that man was particularly ignorant. He 
 
398 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 would talk to a Persian of English books, and drive an 
 Englishman per force to Ispahan. 
 
 Raynouard is another man whose fame is out of all 
 squares with his deserts. He has published five volumes 
 on the Troubadour poetry, yet he knows little about it — of 
 the best of the Troubadours, those of Spain, he knows 
 nothing, nor of the Minnesingers of Germany. 
 
 There are men in France, however, whose talents are 
 infinitely above their reputation. Fauriel is one of these. 
 He was for years the cher a?iii of Madame Condorcet. He 
 overflows with gentleness, kindness, and wisdom. A new 
 race of men has grown out of the French Eevolution. 
 Sedateness and quiet thought have planted themselves 
 deeply, and are spreading widely. The tumultuous ones 
 are the old and the young, but the generation now in its 
 ripe manhood is admirable. — 1824. 
 
 J. MILFORD. 
 
 John Milford was the descendant of a family which 
 migrated to Exeter from Thorverton, where they possessed 
 an estate called Dunsallis. They had been connected with 
 the staple manufactures of the county. The first of whom 
 records now remain was Richard, who was born in 1704. 
 Among his sons was Samuel, who was the father of Samuel 
 Frederick, born in 1759, and John, born in 1761. The 
 latter had eight children, the eldest of whom was John, the 
 present possessor of Coaver. It was John Milford who, in 
 1812, sent me to Spain as his representative. He was a 
 man of singular expression of countenance, with large bushy 
 powdered chevelure. He had a habit of putting up his 
 spectacles on his forehead when about to say something 
 severe — a power not wanting to him — and his energy found 
 now and then expression in terms somewhat intemperate. 
 He had certain canons which he laid down for his 
 
LOUD ERSKINE. 399 
 
 commercial code. Among them were, " Obey orders " — 
 " There is no resisting force major." He rather prided 
 himself on the incisive character of his correspondence. 
 There was in those days a sort of rivalry between men of 
 business as to who could write the best style of letter. 
 An Exeter merchant, John Cole, had a great reputation on 
 this score, and boasted that he put the eloquence of Junius, 
 of whose compositions he was a diligent and devoted 
 student, into his epistolary mercantile intercourse. It was 
 a grand thing to get hold of a few antitheses, and to bring 
 a little political sagacity into the regions of profit and loss. 
 Few men more enjoyed the pleasures of the table than 
 John Milford. He drank his port- wine out of an enormous 
 glass, and was fond of introducing double-quart bottles, 
 called magnums, which were appropriated to wines of the 
 highest reputation — the bees-wing representing age (often 
 a great delusion and a fraud), and body, meaning strength, 
 the produce of alcohol, a characteristic which has little to 
 do with real vinous excellence, and is, indeed, incompatible 
 with it. 
 
 LORD ERSKINE. 
 
 In the latter part of his life. Lord Erskine was accustomed 
 frequently to come to my counting-house, and to sit there 
 for a long time discoursing on his " travel's history," but 
 there was little left of that fine and fiery eloquence which 
 characterized his youth. Only once do I remember any- 
 thing particularly striking in his conversation. We were 
 driving to my house in a hackney-coach, and he began to 
 talk of the evidences of Christianity, He became greatly 
 excited, his mind expanded more and more, and at last he 
 burst into such a strain of oratory as I never heard. His 
 eye flashed with light, and he spoke as if inspired, the tones 
 of his voice too being singularly beautiful. 
 
400 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 He was a most zealous and elEcient labourer in tlie cause 
 of the Greeks, not that he had much knowledge or judg- 
 ment — for what he wrote on the subject was vague and 
 declamatory — but there was a charm about his name which 
 was transferred to the cause, and the master-string of his 
 mind, vanity, had been touched, its vibrations trembling to 
 the very end of his existence. I believe one of his latest, 
 perhaps his last letter, was addressed to me from Scotland 
 on the Greek insurrection. 
 
 Lord Erskine said, " When the Emperor Alexander 
 came to England, Lord Granville told me that the 
 Emperor wished to see me. I went. He received me 
 with particular attention, and said he was very anxious to 
 make my acquaintance. He spoke English as well as you 
 do. ' You are a friend and correspondent,' he said, ' of my 
 most valued friend La Harpe.' ' Yes, sire.' ' Is he a regu- 
 lar correspondent V ' Yes, a very kind one.' ' Has he 
 been so of late 1 ' ' Well, if your Majesty wUl cross-examine 
 me, I must own that he owes me a letter.' He put his 
 hand into his pocket, and drew forth a letter addressed to 
 me. ' Yes, there is his answer. I intercepted it that I might 
 have the pleasure of making it the means of knowing Lord 
 Erskine.' I gave Alexander all my writings and speeches, 
 which he received with many expressions of satisfaction. 
 
 " Once when I was with La Harpe at the Emperor's 
 Court, it was an hour before dinner time. La Harpe said, 
 ' You cannot dress here. Go into that alcove, and you will 
 find some papers to amuse you.' There was a box of letters 
 from Alexander, one of them written immediately after his 
 accession to the throne. It said, ' I tremble when I think 
 of the responsibility which weighs upon me — that the 
 happiness of so many millions depends upon my conduct. 
 I should be wretched if I did not hope that the instruc- 
 tions which you (to whom I owe more than to any other 
 
LORD ERSKINE 401 
 
 living being) — the instructions you have given me, would 
 influence my conduct. 
 
 " At the time when I assisted Lady Huntingdon to resist 
 the interference of the church-bigot who put her into the 
 Ecclesiastical Court for opening her place of worship in 
 Clerkenwell, the present king used often to abuse me for 
 
 encouraging sectarians, saying, ' God d n it, Tom ! you 
 
 are the wickedest fellow in existence. I wonder God 
 Almighty suffers you to live.' And now the King is a 
 Methodist himself. My sister, Lady Anne Erskine, sent 
 for me in 1778 to defend Lady Huntingdon, who ima- 
 gined that, as a peeress of the realm, she had a right 
 to be protected in her worship, but I told her that the 
 Toleration Act gave her no protection. ' What shall I 
 do ? ' said she, looking at her shabby dress, ' I who have 
 spent all for the promotion of the Gospel ? What shall I 
 do ? I who have reduced myself to this ? ' I told her she 
 must shelter herself under the Conventicle Act, which she 
 did, and sent me an inkstand of pure gold as a mark of her 
 gratitude. 
 
 " The king was accustomed to pour out such voUies of 
 abuse on Lord Eldon, that I once took the liberty of saying, 
 ' Forgive me. Sir, but you should not use language so 
 violent of a gentleman in such a situation.' 
 
 "When Ashhurst was said to 'throw light upon the 
 laws ' by his decisions, I replied, 
 
 " ' Ashhurst throw light upon the laws ! 
 Yes ! 'tis through his lantern-jaws.' " 
 
 1823. 
 
 2 C 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WRITINGS OF SIR JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 1. Contestacion a las Observaciones de Don Juan B. Ogavan sobre la 
 
 esclavitud de los Negros — 1821. 
 
 2. Observations on the Eestrictive and Prohibitory Commercial System 
 
 from MSS. of Jeremy Bentham— 1821. 
 
 3. Details of the Arrest, Imprisonment, and Liberation of an English- 
 
 man— 1823. 
 4 Kussian Anthology— 1820-23, 2 Vols. 
 
 5. Matins and Vespers — 1823. 
 
 6. Batavian Anthology — 1824. 
 
 7. Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain — 1824. 
 
 8. Peter Schlemihl (translation from Chamisso) — -1824. 
 
 9. Hymns- 1825. 
 
 10. Servian Popular Poetry — 1827. 
 
 11. Specimens of the Polish Poets — 1827. 
 
 12. Poetry of the Magyars— 1830. 
 
 13. Cheskian Anthology— 1832. 
 
 14. Deontology— 1834. 
 
 15. Minor Morals— 1834, 35, 39—3 Vols. 
 
 16. Observations on Oriental Plague and Quarantines — 1838. 
 
 17. Jeremy Bentham's Life and Works — 1843, 11 Vols. 
 
 18. The Decimal System in ISTumbers, Coins, and Accounts — 1854. 
 
 19. The Kingdom and People of Siam— 1857, 2 Vols. 
 
 20. A Visit to the Philippine Isles— 1859. 
 
 21. Translation from Petofi— 1866. 
 
 To the above may be added a great number of Articles in The West- 
 minster Review, The Foreign Qiiarterhj, The Cornhill Magazine, Once a 
 Week, The Monthly Repository, All the Year Round, The Fortnightly 
 Review, The Theological Revieiv, and other periodicals. He also contri- 
 buted several articles to the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 
 of which he was the first President. 
 
404 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 LIST OF DIPLOMAS AND CEETIFICATES 
 
 GRANTED BY VARIOUS SOCIETIES TO SIR JOHN BOWRllSIG. 
 
 1. Accademia Costante d' Italia, 
 
 2. Turin Unanimium Societas, 
 
 3. Philanthropic Society of Greece, . 
 
 4. Leeuwarden Constanter Genootschap, 
 
 5. Groningen Academy, 
 
 6. Islenzka Bokmenta Felag, . 
 
 7. Abo University, .... 
 
 8. Eclectic Society, .... 
 
 9. Soci^te Fran^aise de Statistique Universelle, 
 
 10. Sociedad Economica de Guatemala, 
 
 11. Academie de 1' Industrie, 
 
 12. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, • 
 
 1 3. Hull Literary Association of the Friends of Poland 
 
 14. Soci6te Montyon et Franklin, 
 
 15. Schleswig-Holstein Lauenburgische Gesellschaft. 
 
 16. American Antiquarian Society, 
 
 17. Institut Historique, 
 
 18. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 
 
 19. Schweitzerische gemeinniitzige Gesellschaft, 
 
 20. Bataviaasch Genootschap van Wetenschappen, 
 
 21. Nordiska Oldskrift Selskab, 
 
 22. Royal Geographical Society, 
 
 23. Institut d' Afrique, 
 
 24. Societe Imperiale d' Horticulture, 
 
 25. Ne'w York Historical Society, 
 
 26. Eeal Sociedad Economica de Filipina, 
 
 27. K. Konigliche Geologische Eeichsanstalt, 
 
 28. Anthropological Society of London, 
 
 29. Zoological Society of London, 
 
 30. Ancient Order of Foresters, 
 
 1821 
 
 1824 
 1828 
 1829 
 
 1830 
 
 1831 
 1832 
 
 1833 
 
 1834 
 
 1836 
 
 » 
 1853 
 1854 
 
 1857 
 
 1858 
 1859 
 
 1863 
 
 1867 
 
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