Pass . v A 
 Book 
 

 NATIONAL LIFE AND THOUGHT 
 
 J> 
 
NATIONAL LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 THOUGHT 
 
 OF THE VARIOUS 
 
 NATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD 
 
 H Series of H?>oresses 
 
 EIRIKR MAGNUSSON, M.A. ; Prof. J. E. THOROLD ROGERS 
 
 J. THEODORE BENT; F. II. GROOME ; 
 
 Mrs. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM; Prof. PULSZKY; 
 
 W. R. MORFILL, M.A. ; 
 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 MDCCCXCI, 
 
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 9 O'GC 
 
 y<* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Lectures contained in this Volume were delivered on 
 Sunday afternoon, at South Place Institute, during the Session 
 1889-90, and were designed to give information, in a popular 
 form, with regard to the national development and modes of 
 political action among the different nations throughout the 
 world, by means of sympathetic and trustworthy accounts of 
 their history, national aspiration, and modes of government, 
 it being thought that a general dissemination of such knowledge 
 would not only improve our Institutions, but, by stimulating our 
 interest in foreign countries, tend to promote international 
 amity. 
 
 The Committee take this opportunity of expressing their 
 obligations to the different Lecturers for the willingness with 
 which they have made it possible to carry on this work, and 
 trust that the general public, to whom this Volume is now offered, 
 will appreciate the information therein contained as highly as 
 did the audiences to whom the Lectures were originally addressed. 
 
 WM. SHEOWRiNG, ) Hon. Secretaries, 
 CONRAD W. THIES j Institute Committee. 
 
 South Place Institute. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 i. The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question 
 By M. Sevasly . . . . . 
 
 II. Austria. By Dr. S. Schidrowitz 
 
 in. Hungary. By Professor Augustus Pulszky 
 
 iv. Germany — Politics. By Sidney Whitman 
 
 v. German Culture. By Sidney Whitman . 
 
 vi. Russia. By W. R. Morfill, M.A. 
 
 vii. Poland. By Adam Gielgud . 
 
 viii. Italy. By J. Stephen Jeans . 
 
 ix. Spain. By Mrs. Cunninghame Graham 
 
 x. Norway. By II. L. Br.^kstad 
 
 xi. Sweden. By Eirikr Magnusson, M.A. 
 
 xn. Denmark and Iceland. By Eirikr Magnusson, M.A. 
 
 xiii. Lessons from the Dutch Republic. By Professor J. E 
 Thorold Rogers ..... 
 
 xiv. Belgium. By Alfred Wathelet 
 
 xv. Switzerland. By Howard Hodgkin, M.A, 
 
 xvi. Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks, By 
 J. Theodore Bent 
 
 xvii. Ottoman Empire. By H. Anthony Salmone 
 
 Appendix — "Why does not the Sick Man die?" 
 
 xviii. Egypt. By J. C. M'Coan .... 
 
 xix. Servia and Montenegro. By J. C. Cotton Minchin 
 
 xx. Jews in their Relation to other Races. By Rev. S 
 Singer ...... 
 
 xxi. The Gypsies. By F. H. Groome 
 
 i 
 19 
 
 33 
 
 53 
 
 69 
 
 §7 
 
 "3 
 
 135 
 
 157 
 
 181 
 
 201 
 
 217 
 
 237 
 251 
 267 
 
 323 
 343 
 
 363 
 379 
 
THE ARMENIANS, ARMENIA, AND THE 
 ARMENIAN QUESTION. 
 
 M. SEVASLY. 
 
 WHEN Mr. Wm. Sheowring, the Honorary Secretary of the 
 South Place Institute, requested me to lecture on the 
 Armenians and on the Armenian Question, he invited 
 my attention to a statement that appeared in the Diplomatic Fly 
 Sheet, in which the Armenians are classed by C. D. Collett as a 
 religious community, and not as a nation. To refute the assertion 
 will constitute the subject-matter of the first part of this paper. 
 
 The Armenians are a nation, and one of the oldest nations in 
 the world. Descended from the great Aryan race, they are as 
 ancient as the Jews, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, 
 and the Greeks. The antiquity of the Armenian nation is 
 attested by ancient writers. Thus we find that Alexander Poly- 
 histor, a Greek writer (75 B.C.), affirming that the Armenians 
 were known as a nation twenty centuries before Christ ; and in 
 support of this assertion, he says that the Armenians made an 
 expedition against that powerful maritime people, the Phoenicians, 
 whom they defeated, and that among the prisoners captured was 
 the nephew of Abraham the patriarch. Again we find the name 
 of Armenia and Ararat designated in the Bible, in Herodotus, in 
 Strabo, and others. Moreover, cuneiform inscriptions on the 
 celebrated Rock of Van also attest the antiquity of the Armenian 
 people. 
 
 According to Armenian chronology, the foundation of the first 
 Armenian kingdom dates so far back as 2540 B.C. As with the 
 history of other ancient countries, that of Armenia begins with 
 legend : " Haig, a local chief, who lived in the country of Ararat, 
 migrated with his sons and daughters to Senaar in Mesopotamia. 
 While they lived in those regions the Tower of Babel was erected, 
 and the Babylonian Empire was ruled by Belus. Haig, unwilling 
 to submit to the authority of Belus, returned with his family of 
 
2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 about three hundred persons to the fatherland, where he incor- 
 porated himself with the earliest settlers. Belus marched against 
 him with his warriors all clad in iron armour, and supplied with 
 powerful spears and bows and arrows. Yet destiny was about 
 to found a great nation and a vast empire. The small band of 
 Haig proved victorious, and Belus fell by an arrow from the bow 
 of Haig. 
 
 Victory and the spoils of war inflaming their breasts, the Haigs 
 (or Armenians) went on conquering, until a territory stretching 
 from the Caspian Sea to the east of Cilicia on the Mediterranean, 
 on the west ; and from the borders of the Pontus on the north to 
 the confines of Assyria at the south, formed one vast and powerful 
 Haiasdan or Armenia. 
 
 The name of Armenia 1 was derived from Aram, the sixth 
 successor of Haig, who became so renowned by his exploits that 
 from his time the surrounding nations designated the country as 
 Aramia, after his name, which, in course of time, has been cor- 
 rupted into the modern nomenclature of "Armenia." 
 
 The height of glory was only attained during the reign of 
 Tigranes. " It is but a few days' journey from the country of the 
 Cabiri or Sebastia, present Sivas, into Armenia," says Lucullus, 
 "where Tigranes, King of kings, is seated surrounded with that 
 power which has wrested Asia from the Parthians, which carries 
 Grecian Colonies into Media, subdues Syria and Palestine." 
 
 Again, Cicero, alluding to the same King Tigranes the Great, 
 tells us that he made the Republic of Rome tremble before the 
 prowess of his arms. 
 
 Unfortunately, the country became the prey of neighbouring 
 nations. Persians, Greeks, Romans, Tartars, each and all over- 
 ran the country. All by turns have contended for mastery. 
 
 Three dynasties maintained power in Armenia proper. 
 
 1 There is a controversy on the origin of the word "Armenia." Some also 
 attribute it to Arameen, which signifies High Land in Armenian. But it is 
 most likely that the country has been called after Aram, one of our greatest 
 kings, and who achieved fame among his neighbours. Semiramis the great 
 Assyrian queen waged war against Ara, the son of Aram, the brave and hand- 
 some Armenian chief, in consequence of his stern determination to resist the 
 offers of the" mighty Assyrian sovereign. (Read Sarchedon, by G. T. Whyte- 
 Melville. Ward, Lock, & Co., Salisbury Square, E.C.) 
 
 2 The first dynasty begins with Haig, 2540 B.C., and ends on or about 150 
 B.C. The second, or Arsacidian dynasty, under which Armenia reached the 
 height of its glory, from 150 B.C. to 428 A.D.. The third, or Pagradounian 
 dynasty, closes in the year 1080 A. n. 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. 3 
 
 In the early part of the eleventh century, after the fall of the 
 Pagradounian Dynasty, flying before the Mongolian invader, 
 thousands of Armenians left the seat, of their sires to take refuge 
 in the inaccessible fastnesses of the Taurus, and transformed 
 Cilicia into an Armenian Kingdom under the Rupenian Dynasty, 
 whose last King, Leo VI., 1 after a heroic struggle with Egyptian 
 invaders, was captured in 1375, from which dates the extinction of 
 the Armenians as an independent nation. 
 
 The Cilician Kingdom lasted three centuries ; and this really is 
 marvellous, for the Armenians had to contend not only with 
 Moslem foes, but with the Byzantine Greeks, whom they defeated 
 and worsted on more than one occasion. While in Cilicia the 
 Armenians rendered eminent service to the cause of Christendom 
 and civilisation by helping the Crusaders in their wars against 
 the Saracens. The claim of the Armenian people as a Christian 
 people upon the support of Christian Europe may be said to date 
 from the time of the Crusades. 
 
 The Armenians have been the first people who have abandoned 
 their former religion, which was that of the Magi, to embrace 
 Christianity. In fact, the introduction of Christianity among 
 them was coeval with Jesus Christ, or soon after. " Thaddeus, one 
 of the seventy, was sent to Edessa, then the capital of Armenia 
 (for the capital of Armenia has often changed), to instruct the 
 King Abkar in the new faith, which he did. He baptized him 
 and the citizens of that metropolis. 
 
 The seeds of Christianity were consequently sown ; but it was 
 not until some three centuries later, when appeared Gregory of 
 Caesarea, that a revival of the faith Avas created by him. Hence 
 the appellation given to him by the Armenians of " Gregory the 
 Illuminator." 
 
 It is, in truth, this form of national Christian Church that has 
 so far kept the Armenians together. 1 
 
 There are about 200,000 Armenians belonging to the Romish 
 Church, and 60,000 to the Protestant, out of 6,000,000 of 
 Armenians. 2 But the spirit of nationality is deeply rooted in 
 them all. 3 
 
 1 Leo died at Paris on the 29th November 1393. His remains are interred 
 at St. Denis, which has become a place of pilgrimage for the Armenians. 
 There the Armenians of Paris resort every Easter, and appropriate speeches 
 are delivered on the tomb of the last Armenian king. 
 
 2 V Armenie, by J. Broussali {Revue Francaise, June 1886). 
 
 3 The Spiritual Supreme Head of the Gregorian Armenians is the 
 
4 National Life and Thought. 
 
 The Armenians have all the good qualities to make them the 
 champions of civilisation and progress in Asia Minor. There is, 
 indeed, no other Asiatic race so capable of appreciating the 
 civilisation of Europe, or so worthy of European support and 
 sympathy. 
 
 And as to their qualities and virtues, they can appeal to an 
 areopagus of historians, poets, statesmen, travellers. 
 
 Gibbon's Roman Empire bears testimony to the mercantile 
 genius, religious fervency, and valour and prowess of the 
 Armenians in the third and fourth centuries. 
 
 " It is difficult," says Byron, " to trace in the annals of a nation 
 less crime than in the Armenian, whose virtues are those of peace, 
 and whose vices the outcome of oppression." 
 
 An exampled oppression — " The helpless nation," says Gibbon, 
 "has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquillity of servitude. 
 From the earliest period to the present hour Armenia has been 
 the theatre of war. Under the rod of oppression the zeal of the 
 Armenians is fervent and intrepid ; they have often preferred the 
 crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet." 
 
 Lamartine styles the Armenians the Swiss, while Dulaurier 
 gives them the appellation of the Dutch of the East. Lord 
 Carnarvon, in a speech in the House of Lords, equalled them to 
 the Greeks in intellectual power. Mr. James Bryce, in his 
 Transcaucasia and Ararat, tells that "when there meets you a 
 keener or more restless glance, you may be sure that it comes 
 from an Armenian eye." 
 
 They have given statesmen and men of action to famous 
 nations. Nubar Pacha, the brilliant Egyptian Minister ; Melikoff, 
 the Russian General who captured Kars, are there to bear one 
 out. Some 30,000 Armenians at Zeythoun, in Cilicia, the repre- 
 sentatives of those who formed the Cilician Kingdom, have, to a 
 score of years ago, maintained their independence. 
 
 Catholicos of Echtmiadzin, whose seat is in Russian Armenia, near Erivan. 
 The patriarch of Constantinople exercises spiritual and some sort of temporal 
 power over the Gregorian Armenians of Turkey. He is assisted by a civil and 
 ecclesiastical council, and is responsible to an "assembly of representatives," 
 in virtue of a Charter granted by the Porte in 1862, in amplification of the 
 privileges and rights conferred by Sultan Mahommed II., on the first Armenian 
 Patriarchate he instituted in Constantinople after the capture of that capital. 
 The powers of the said body end where those of the state begin. It has a 
 voice in the management and control of the educational and ecclesiastical 
 affairs of the community ; but it cannot remedy any of the evils under which 
 the Armenians are now groaning. 
 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. 5 
 
 Armenian literature is rich and varied, and history, philosophy, 
 and poetry are amply represented. 
 
 Armenia is now partitioned among three Powers : Russia, 
 Turkey, and Persia. Her limits cannot be easily defined, and 
 have undergone many a change in the course of her historical 
 vicissitudes. Armenia in older days extended from the Caucasus 
 to Mesopotamia, and to Western Asia Minor, and occupied an 
 area of about 150,000 square miles. The country is of a moun- 
 tainous character. Its plains are high, but fertile, yielding corn 
 of the finest quality, and in abundance ; as also tobacco, flax, rice, 
 and cotton ; its pasture lands sustain breeds of horses ; its valleys 
 produce the grape, the apple, and other fruits ; trees such as the 
 poplar, oak, olive, carob, and fig thrive. 
 
 Armenia is the source of several important rivers, such as 
 the Euphrates, which springs from the mountains of Erzeroum 
 (Garin), and flows into the Persian Gulf, after joining the Tigris 
 below Bagdad; the Tigris, the second river of Armenia, falls into 
 the Persian Gulf; the Araxes, after the Armenian King Aramays 
 (the Gihon of the ancients), which runs into the Caspian Sea ; 
 and the Tchorouk, or the Phison of the Scriptures, which takes 
 its source near the B-aibourt mountains, and flows into the Black 
 Sea. Where the territories of Persia, Turkey, and Russia meet in 
 North-east Armenia, Ararat (the Massis of the Armenians, after 
 Amassia, the grand-nephew of Hai'g, and upon which tradition 
 says that the Ark of Noah rested), with its summit covered in 
 perpetual snow, rises above the plain at its base, to the height of 
 14,320 feet. 
 
 Again, the Taurus and Ante-Taurus chain cover an extensive 
 area, from Armenia proper to the South-western Armenia (Cilicia). 
 
 These mountain chains contain mines of rock-salt, nitre, 
 naphtha, sulphur, iron, and copper, as also lead, silver, and even 
 gold, zinc, and other metals. The traces, however, of the gold- 
 mines have now been lost, although these were known to exist in 
 olden times. 
 
 The zoological kingdom of the country is also extremely rich. 
 On the Erzeroum plateau more than 170 kinds of wild birds are 
 known to exist. The crane and stork are the favourite birds of 
 the Armenians, and frequently form the subject of their folk- 
 poesy. Wild animals abound, and the bear, lynx, wolf, hyena, 
 leopard, tiger, buffalo, bull, wild ass and wild sheep, and others 
 cover that immense country. The domestic animals, the sheep, 
 of which more than a million are exported ; the horses and camel, 
 
6 Natio7ial Life and Thought. 
 
 while the rivers and the lakes Van, Ourmiah, and Sevan (three 
 principal lakes of Armenia, situate in Turkish, Persian, and 
 Russian Armenia respectively) abound in multifarious fishes of 
 various colours. 
 
 The climate of Armenia is essentially cold. Though in the 
 same parallel of latitude as Greece, Italy, and Spain, and parts of 
 Asia-Minor, nevertheless the severity of her winter is even greater 
 than that of the north of France and that of Germany. 
 
 The country was rich in the distant past in large and important 
 cities, such as Ani, the ruins of which attest its ancient splendour 
 and magnificence, Armavir on the Araxes, Vagharshabad, and 
 Digranakuerd. Van, Erzeroum, were then, as they now are, 
 important centres. 
 
 The Armenian Question. — Armenia is, as above stated, divided 
 among Russia, Persia, and Turkey. In the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century she was partitioned between Persia and 
 Turkey. 
 
 Towards the end of the eighteenth century the province of 
 Karabag, a fertile and mountainous country, peopled by 200,000 
 Armenians and 100,000 Tartars and Persians, and governed by 
 Armenian chiefs, under the nominal domination of Persia, was 
 conquered by Russia, and thus ever since the beginning of this 
 century Armenia is ruled by three Powers. Russia subsequently, 
 in 1828 and in 1829, extended her conquests in Persian and 
 Turkish Armenia. The Treaty of Turkmen-Tcha'i of 5th March 
 1828 delimitated the Russo-Persian frontiers, while the Berlin 
 Treaty of 1878 fixed those of Turkey and Russia in Asia Minor. 
 
 The Armenian grievances, or the Armenian Question, became 
 one of immediate international concern ever since the insertion of 
 a special Clause in the Berlin Treaty of 1878 in favour of the 
 Armenians occupying the provinces of Van, Erzeroum, Diarbekir, 
 Kharpoot, and Dersim, in Turkish Armenia, and numbering 
 about two millions. The Clause referred to, which is but a 
 modified form of Article 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano, runs thus : 
 "The Sublime Pcrte undertakes to carry out, without further 
 delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local require- 
 ments in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to 
 guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds. It 
 will periodically make known the steps taken to this effect to the 
 Powers, who will superintend their application." This Clause, 
 coupled with Article 62 of the same instrument, place the civil and 
 religious liberties of the Armenian people under the express 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. 7 
 
 guarantee of the International Law, and under the supervision and 
 control of the Powers, parties to the Treaty. Article 62 enacts 
 that "The Sublime Porte having expressed its intention of main- 
 taining the principle of religious liberty, and giving it the widest 
 scope, the contracting parties take note of this spontaneous 
 declaration. In no part of the Ottoman Empire shall difference 
 of religion be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion 
 from or incapacity for the discharge of civil and political rights, 
 and admission to public functions. All persons shall be admitted 
 without distinction to give evidence before the tribunals. The 
 freedom and exercise of all forms of worship are assured to all." 
 
 The raison d'etre of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty may be 
 explained in a few matter-of-fact sentences thus classified : — - 
 
 I. The absence of Civil and Political Equality. 
 
 II. The non-admission or non-appreciation of Armenian evi- 
 dence in the Turkish Courts of Justice (in cases where the 
 Armenian is the wronged party and the Moslem the delinquent). 
 
 III. The systematic pillage and destruction of Armenian 
 villages ; the sacking of convents ; the perpetration of all kinds of 
 crimes and oppressive acts by new-imported Circassians, and 
 especially by the Kurds — not unfrequently also by the police and 
 by the local officials. 
 
 IV. The venality of justice. 
 
 V. The systematic efforts to crush and ruin the peasant classes 
 (1) by heavy and arbitrary taxes, and (2) by dispossessing them of 
 their holdings. 
 
 These grievances exist down to the present day as they did 
 when the Berlin Treaty was signed. It would occupy too much 
 space to explain in detail the evils complained of, and bring out 
 minutely the consequences resulting therefrom. I shall prin- 
 cipally deal with Grievance II. 
 
 The positive prescriptions of Imperial Hatts and Imperial 
 Firmans issued from time to time by reigning sovereigns of 
 Turkey, ever since the reign of Sultan Abdul-Medjid, to their 
 Christian subjects promising them liberty of conscience, and 
 equality before the law, equality of taxation, and assurances of 
 reform, are mere idle words, Whatever the letter of the law 
 may say, the testimony of the Christian is not received, or if 
 received, not appreciated, with what result it will be easy to 
 understand. The attention of the civilised world has been lately 
 absorbed by the prevalence of slave trade in the Dark Continent, 
 and international conferences and a congress held to devise the 
 
8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 most efficacious means for the suppression of that immoral traffic. 
 Now in Armenia — and, I may add, in Turkey in general — slavery 
 exists and is rampant in one of its worst forms, and is connived at 
 and supported by the Moslem judges. The polygamous Kurdish 
 or Turkish Beys and Aghas, whose hitherto regular supply of 
 Circassian girls from the Caucasus has been cut off from them 
 since the annexation of the province by Russia, have recourse 
 now to a bold system of rape. They swoop down upon an 
 Armenian village, with their armed acolytes, and carry off to their 
 harems, by main force, as many good-looking girls and women as 
 they can lay hands on. This is permitted to them; and the 
 modus operandi by which the abduction of Armenian girls is 
 rendered legal by the Moslem judges may be summed up as 
 follows : — When the relatives present themselves in court to claim 
 the abducted victim, the ravishers are ready with a brace of 
 Moslem witnesses (a hundred could be produced if wanted), who 
 declare on oath that the kidnapped woman pronounced in their 
 presence the regular formula of the Moslem faith : " There is no 
 God but God, and Mahomed is His Prophet," Christian evidence 
 to the contrary being invariably rejected. 
 
 The judge thereupon dismisses the case, on the ground that the 
 stolen and ravished girl has by that profession abjured her former 
 faith and embraced Mohammedanism. And the verdict of these 
 upright judges is not to be set aside. The victims protest ; but 
 their protestations avail them nothing. They invoke in vain the 
 positive prescriptions of the Imperial Hatts, and the distinct 
 stipulations of solemn treaties, promising liberty of conscience and 
 equality before the law. The Turkish Solon is not to be moved. 
 His invariable reply is, that the Koran — source of all human and 
 Divine legislation — is the supreme law of the land, and it would 
 be blasphemy to admit or suppose that any subsequent enact- 
 ments could in any way have modified its sacred teachings. 
 
 Hundreds of Armenian girls are thus lost to their homes and 
 imprisoned in Turkish harems ; they are never set free, and if one 
 ever succeeds in escaping, the chances are ten to one that sooner 
 or later she will be murdered. 1 
 
 Again, in consequence of the non-appreciation of Christian 
 
 1 A custom prevails in Turkey whereby a Moslem is exempted from mili- 
 tary service if he elopes with a Christian girl and keeps her in his harem for 
 a time long enough to warrant the presumption that she embraced Moham- 
 medanism. 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question, g 
 
 evidence, Mahometans commit all sorts of crimes and misdeeds 
 on the Christian population, who cannot obtain justice, through 
 their evidence being ignored and contemned, and Mahometans 
 seldom coming forward to give evidence against a coreligionist. 
 Moreover, through the non-admission of Christian testimony, 
 Mahometans, Turks or Kurds, or Circassians, find the most 
 efficacious means to dispossess the Armenians from the lands they 
 inherited ab antiquo. Kurds or Circassians settle or encamp in 
 the vicinity of Armenian villages, and cultivate the lands belong- 
 ing to Armenians. Should a dispute arise, a number of Moslem 
 witnesses are produced in Court, who testify to the lands having 
 been owned by the Kurds from time immemorial. Armenian 
 evidence to the contrary is seldom accepted. And thus, under 
 the segis of the law, the Armenians are gradually dispossessed of 
 lands they inherited from their forefathers for the benefit of 
 predatory and wild tribes. The Kurds were known in the time of 
 Xenophon, who pelted his army with stones in the famous retreat. 
 They have not crystallised into a " nation " ever since. They 
 possess no literature and no learning, and most have no fixed 
 abode. They usually have recourse to Armenian or Persian 
 alphabets whenever they wish to express their thoughts in writing. 
 In olden times they inhabited the country south of the province of 
 Van, in the Hekkeari district, in close proximity to the present 
 Nestorians. The policy of the Sublime Porte, especially since the 
 Crimean War, has been to gradually replace the historic, peaceful, 
 and laborious Armenian by the predatory Kurdish element, with 
 a view, on the one hand, to radically stamping out the "Armenian 
 Question ; " and, on the other, in the event of a war with Russia, 
 to utilise the Kurds in arresting the Muscovite legions from a fur- 
 ther advance in Asia Minor. As soldiers the Kurds are useless, 
 and they amply proved it during the last Turko-Russian War. 
 They are not a brave people, nor have they any high or manly 
 qualities. Their robberies, their crimes, and their misdeeds are 
 dastardly affairs. They seldom attack armed travellers, except in 
 very superior numbers. They assault more commonly peaceful 
 caravans, or defenceless villages. Feuds and quarrels are frequent 
 among them. Mutual confidence is almost unknown. All the 
 villages from Erzeroum to Bitlis, and from Van to Salmaste, in 
 Persia, are more or less exposed to Kurdish raids and plunder. 
 Thus it will be seen that the Kurds a are, on the one hand, the 
 
 1 Through the continual usurpation of the lands the Kurds have elevated 
 
io National Life and Thought. 
 
 usurpers of the lands of the Armenians, with the connivance of the 
 Turkish Government ; and, on the other, they are brigands, and 
 high-robbers and raiders, well armed and equipped with modern 
 rifles, and left unrestrained to commit all sorts of excesses on 
 defenceless populations. 
 
 " The Kurds," says Mr. C. Wilkinson, who visited Armenia 
 and Asia Minor about a hundred years ago, and whose evidence 
 testifies that Armenia is to-day what she then was ; " the Kurds," 1 
 says the traveller, "are constantly on the watch for an opportunity 
 of plundering the caravans. If a good guard is not kept in the 
 tents, they come privately and pull out bales of goods with hooks, 
 without being perceived; and if the bales are fastened together 
 with cords, they are seldom without a good razor to cut them. As 
 caravans generally set out before daybreak, the rogues mix with 
 the drivers, and turn out of the way a few miles laden with goods, 
 which they easily carry off in the dark ; and they seldom choose 
 the worst, for they know the bales of silks as well as the owners. 
 These people own no masters, and the Turks never punish them, 
 even when they are taken up for murder and robbery." 
 
 And Mr. Wilkinson's assertions are true to the present day. 
 The case of the notorious Kurdish chief, Moussa Bey, is an illus- 
 tration of what has been said above as to the futility of Turkish 
 promises to mete out justice to Christians where they are wronged 
 by a Mahometan ; it shows that, notwithstanding all the pompous 
 Imperial enactments, Christian evidence is still either not 
 admitted or not appreciated. It shows, moreover, the tacit, if 
 not overt, encouragement given by the " Authorities " in Turkey 
 to the Kurds to pillage, burn, and slaughter the Armenians. 
 Who is Moussa Bey, whose name has now become almost a 
 " household " word in Europe ? This is what an impartial writer, 
 during the troubled times of the Turko-Russian war, said of 
 Moussa Bey, on whom the Turks have bestowed the palm of 
 martyrdom:—" Mr. C. B. Norman, Correspondent of The Times at 
 the seat of war in Armenia in 1877, in his Avork entitled ' Armenia 
 and the Campaign of 1877,' says : .' In the neighbourhood of 
 Moosh, one Moussa Bey, a son of Mirza Bey, a Kurd from Wear 
 
 themselves, in some districts, in Bitlis in particular, to the position of feudal 
 chiefs, and make the Armenians pay them tribute. Should the Armenian 
 refuse to pay, the Kurd ravages and pillages his village.— Dr. Grigor, Artzruni, 
 editor of the Mschag (Tiflis). 
 
 1 " A Tour through Asia Minor and the Greek Islands." By C. Wilkinson. 
 London: Printed by Darton & Harvey, Gracechurch Street. 1806. 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question, n 
 
 Van, has been ravaging the country at the head of a small body 
 of cavalry. The villages of Moolah Akjam, Hadogan, and 
 Kharkin, having been first pillaged, were set on fire. At Ardork 
 he extracted ^60, and at Ingrakam ^40 from the head men of 
 the village, under pretence of sparing them from destruction, and 
 straightway set the places on fire. He then proceeded to a 
 Mussulman village called Norashen, and, hearing that an 
 Armenian merchant of Bitlis was passing through, robbed him of 
 all his goods, to the value of 30,000 piastres, and then ordered his 
 men to murder him. At Khartz this monster entered the house 
 of the Armenian priest, who had lately brought his bride to his 
 father's home. Binding the old man and his son together with 
 cords, this inhuman scoundrel ravished the poor girl before their 
 eyes, and then gave orders for the murder of the three. I can 
 write no more. A bare recital of the horrors committed by these 
 demons is sufficient to call for their condign punishment. The 
 subject is too painful to need any colouring, were my feeble pen 
 enabled to give it.' " 
 
 Moussa Bey was, these crimes notwithstanding, appointed a 
 Mudir, or a petty governor, in one of the districts of Moosh. He 
 subsequently, three years ago, perpetrated other crimes of an 
 equally atrocious nature, setting fire to and destroying barns, 
 extracting money from inoffensive peasants, killing some and 
 wounding others, not sparing American missionaries. While, in 
 the spring of 1889, he committed a series of outrages, which the 
 readers will find recorded in the Blue Book, No. i, of 1889 
 (Turkey). They may be summed up thus : He carried off 
 women, massacred villagers, seized a notable, and flung him on 
 faggots, and burned him alive in presence of his followers. An 
 outcry was raised. The cry of the suffering Armenians, of 
 outraged women, of desperate humanity, the cry of desolation and 
 ruin reached the ears of Europe. Public opinion was agitated, 
 and the Turks saw that something had to be done. Moussa 
 was " invited " to proceed to Constantinople, not as a criminal, 
 but as an honoured guest. He is first conducted to Bitlis in 
 triumph, escorted by the head of the Moslem religious com- 
 munity, and a train of functionaries, soldiers, zaptielers, softas, 
 and cavaliers. On leaving Erzeroum, Moussa is escorted for 
 some miles by the governor of the province and a strong body 
 of cavalry. At Constantinople the ceremony is still more formal ; 
 and as soon as the steamer conveying the truculent brigand is 
 signalled, two generals proceed on board to receive him. In the 
 
12 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Turkish metropolis he is comfortably quartered, surrounded with 
 servants and attendants, and frequently entertained and feasted by 
 friends in authority. More than forty witnesses and complainants 
 travelled all the way from Armenia to Constantinople to give 
 evidence, and to substantiate the charges preferred against 
 him. The trial of three of the principal counts was concluded 
 on 2nd December last, and the hearing of the other adjourned 
 sine die. Moussa was acquitted by a majority of Mussulmen 
 judges, notwithstanding most direct and conclusive evidence. 
 Those who saw the trial described it as a virtual farce all through. 
 The Public Prosecutor, who represents the State and the Law, 
 and whose duty it is to protect the suffering people, bullied 
 the witnesses, and overtly acted as a counsel for Moussa Bey. 
 "Suffice it to say," writes Sir William White, Her Britannic 
 Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople to the Marquis of 
 Salisbury {vide Blue Book, Turkey No. i, 1890, page 100), " that 
 the position taken up by the Public Prosecutor savoured rather of 
 that of a lawyer for the defence than of a prosecutor on behalf of 
 the Government, and it is generally considered unprecedented in 
 the judicial annals of this country." Thus ended one of the most 
 scandalous trials on record. The case of Moussa Bey is but an 
 instance, a specimen, and serves to illustrate how justice is 
 prostituted in Turkey, even in her very metropolis, at the very 
 gates of Europe. 
 
 After the scandalous proceedings in connection with this now 
 celebrated trial, the following report from Van, which gives a 
 graphic description of the present condition of the country, 
 explains itself: " Every Armenian village is compelled, notwith- 
 standing its extreme poverty, to provide food almost daily for the 
 army of tax-gathering officials, who on their part treat the in- 
 habitants with absolute inhumanity. The peasant, reduced now 
 to the last extremity, must either sell his oxen and plough, his 
 house and fields, and clear out ; or go to distant provinces in 
 quest of work, with no prospect of returning ; or emigrate : or 
 start out and beg from door to door. Thanks to this policy, many 
 of the southern and eastern districts of Vasbouragan (Province of 
 Van) are nearly depopulated of their Christian element, whose 
 place has been taken by Kurds, Turks, Yezidis, &c. Even the 
 educational expenses of the Turks are provided out of the taxes 
 paid by the Armenians. As for the Kurd, he is under no restraint 
 of law, under no burden of taxes, and has no regular military 
 service to undergo. A chartered outlaw, he devastates, plunders, 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. 13 
 
 burns, and kills ; and no man calls him to account. Robberies 
 and outrages are committed without number; but the Govern- 
 ment neither sees nor hears, for its own officials are too often the 
 perpetrators. Forced marriages, forced conversions to Moham- 
 medanism are common, always and everywhere. In a word, civil 
 rights, justice, order, and tranquillity have, as it were, bidden their 
 last farewell, and departed from the land of the Armenian subjects 
 of Turkey. 
 
 " Corruption reigns supreme among the officials without dis- 
 tinction, from the highest to the lowest. It has become a law. 
 Every official, even the Governor himself, obtains his office from 
 the Central Government by bribery, and by this alone; and 
 throughout all the official world plunder is the great business of 
 life. In all the courts of law, cases are kept pending until the 
 litigants have been sucked dry; and as often as not an unjust 
 judgment is given in favour of the suitor who has lumped down 
 the biggest bribe. But woe to the non-suited should he venture 
 to question the judge's decision ! Imprisonment for life, or, at 
 the least, perpetual exile, is apt to be his answer. It is absolutely 
 forbidden to draw up public memorials. The Press is gagged, till 
 there is nothing left for it to print but flatteries of the persons by 
 whom the gags have been applied. Numerous houses are every- 
 where searched on the flimsiest and most impudent pretences. 
 Private detractors and calumniators are rewarded with honours 
 and offices. Young men are exiled for indefinite periods ; and 
 their defenceless and helpless families are left to shift as they may. 
 The prisons are filled with Armenians (many of whom clergymen) 
 who have been flung there without rhyme or reason." 
 
 No account of the present condition of Armenia would be 
 complete without a comprehensive statement on the numerous 
 irregularities committed and the vexatious measures adopted by 
 the fiscal officials in connection with the collection and assess- 
 ment of taxes. The Armenian Christian subjects of the Sultan 
 are exempted from military service in consideration of a poll-tax, 
 named bedelaskerie (military exemption tax), the amount of which 
 is not properly and equitably assessed. Thus the aforesaid tax, 
 which applies only to persons fit for service, is demanded from the 
 relatives of people who are dead, who have emigrated, or who are 
 infirm. In many cases the tax is levied on newly-born persons 
 and on old men. Again, with respect to the fixed taxes levied 
 upon property (emlak) and upon professions (temettu), the local 
 officials carry on unjust assessments, without regard to the value 
 
14 National Life and Thought. 
 
 of the property, to its resources, or to the capabilities and earnings 
 of the person assessed for the " professions " tax. Moreover, the 
 assessing officials, contrary to imperial orders, undervalue the 
 properties owned by Mahometans. Thus the property tax fails 
 more heavily upon Christians than upon Mahometans. Cases 
 can be quoted where lands belonging to Armenians have been 
 registered for taxation at ten times their real actual value. The 
 temettu tax (tax on professions), which should by law be levied on 
 artisans and shopkeepers, is arbitrarily extended to farmers, and 
 even to women who exercise no such profession. The tax- 
 gatherers in collecting taxes infringe the existing laws of the 
 empire by seizing and selling the most necessary household goods, 
 trade implements, wearing apparel, and bedding of the debtor. 
 They invariably, when the taxpayer is not able to satisfy the State, 
 seize objects indispensable for the proper working of any immov- 
 able property, such as animals attached to cultivation, agricultural 
 implements, seed corn, etc. The proprietor, entirely stripped of 
 all movable capital, has nothing remaining but the bare land, 
 denuded of those accessories without which it can yield nothing. 
 Tithe farming, which does not exist in theory since the promulga- 
 tion of the Hatts Houmayoun of 1856, is still in full force in the 
 Armenian provinces. It may be remembered that one of the 
 principal causes which led to the Herzegovinian insurrection was 
 due to the excesses of the tithe farmers in the Nevesinje district. 
 The tithe farmers in the Armenian provinces are generally the 
 beys or local functionaries, who, in order to avoid an overt breach 
 of the law, rent the tithes through their sons, relatives, or servants. 
 The tithes of a given province are farmed out to the highest 
 bidder. The farmers, in collusion with the governor of the 
 province, never hesitate to bid an elevated price. They calculate 
 the price they are willing to pay on the basis of more than forty per 
 cent, minimum profit for themselves. They have nothing to fear 
 in the way of incurring losses; for where the value of tithe is 
 affected by a sudden fall in the produce markets, the farmers 
 (multezims) are allowed carte blanche to recoup themselves by 
 vexatious exactions, or by over-estimating the quantity of the 
 produce. The tithe farmers compel the peasants to pay in specie, 
 although the tithe is due in kind. Should the cultivator display 
 reluctance to pay the tithe in money in lieu of in kind, the 
 multezim refuses to assess his crops, thus exposing the agricul- 
 turist to severe losses, for until the tithe is assessed he is not 
 allowed to remove his produce, which stands out in the open air, 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. 15 
 
 exposed to rain, hail, etc. The unfortunate peasant in despair 
 appeals to the tithe farmer, who assesses the crops after payment 
 of double the amount he demanded before. Even the produce 
 of gardens attached to dwellings, and used for home consumption, 
 is subjected to taxation, contrary to the existing laws of the 
 Empire. Where the tithe is paid in kind, the producer is bound 
 to. deliver it. The peasants wait day after day at the doors of the 
 Government stores, in order that their crops may be measured 
 and stored. It is, moreover, a subject of complaint that the 
 multezims do not assess the crops at harvest time, often on 
 account of the farming out of the tithes being delayed until that 
 season, although the law prescribes that they should be farmed 
 out in spring. The crops are consequently left out in the fields 
 and threshing-floors, where they not unfrequently decay and 
 perish. But the multezims compel the peasants to pay for the 
 damaged produce as if it were sound. Should the peasants 
 refuse to pay, they are subjected to all kinds of vexation. They 
 are dragged into the law courts, ill-treated, and imprisoned. The 
 officials, in secret league with the tithe farmers, only serve the 
 interests of the latter, and the poor agriculturist has to sacrifice 
 all he possesses. The villager is bound to provide the multezim 
 and his agents food and lodgings without remuneration for such 
 time as they may choose to remain in the village. Not un- 
 frequently the multezim beats the villager and sullies the honour 
 of his wife and daughter. The tithe farmers commit multifarious 
 other abuses, in the way of levying fresh taxes, assessing produce 
 exempt from taxation, etc. The complaints are more grievous in 
 districts where there are beys, agas, or Kurdish chiefs who have 
 friends in authority to cover their systematic misdeeds. Under 
 the aforesaid circumstances the peasant, unable to satisfy the 
 State, has recourse to usurious loans, and he thus becomes the 
 bondsman or serf of the usurer, who in time dispossesses him of 
 all his goods, movable and immovable. He finally has to 
 emigrate and seek a mode of living in distant climes. 
 
 Such are the unredressed Armenian grievances twelve years 
 after the passing of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty. To remedy 
 existing evils, it is not necessary to create an independent or 
 autonomous Armenia, nor do the Armenians aim either at inde- 
 pendence or at a distinct political existence. All they ask for are 
 civil liberties and the establishment of institutions calculated to 
 guarantee their personal safety, the security of their property, the 
 honour of their wives and daughters, their rights, in fact, as men and 
 
1 6 National Life and Thought. 
 
 civilised beings. The fulfilment of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, 
 as explained by the Collective Note addressed to the Porte in 1880 
 by the great Powers, will afford satisfaction, and will avert a crisis 
 which is assuming menacing proportions. To check the incessant 
 plunder and raids of the Kurds and Circassians, a gendarmerie 
 recruited among the natives and commanded by native officers 
 should be instituted. To eradicate corruption and venality, the 
 present administration of Armenia, which is essentially Turkish, 
 should be entrusted to the aborigines of the land, who constitute 
 the vital forces of the country. The provinces of Van, Erzeroum, 
 Diarbekir, Bitlis, Karpout, and Dersim, to be grouped in one 
 province, with an Armenian governor at its head, sitting at 
 Erzeroum, whose duties it will be to enforce the laws of the 
 empire, and under whose command the established gendarmerie 
 is to be placed for the maintenance of security and order. The 
 desiderata of the Armenians may be therefore defined thus : 
 An Armenian administration in Armenia. 
 
 Cast a glance on the map and see where Armenia lies, and 
 what a commanding position she holds, and what grave conse- 
 quences would result through a Russian occupation of that 
 country through its being allowed to seethe with discontent and 
 disaffection. Indeed, a Russian occupation of Turkish Armenia 
 means the practical supremacy of the whole of Western Asia. 
 In the words of the author of Greater Britain, " Russia could 
 reach Constantinople through Asia Minor, not so directly, but 
 more surely and more safely than through Europe." 1 Military 
 authorities testify to the Armenia plateau of Erzeroum being 
 the key of Western Asia. Erzeroum, moreover, the capital of 
 Turkish Armenia, is the point where converge the roads from 
 the Caucasus and of those leading into Syria, Anatolia, and the 
 Persian Gulf. If the Muscovite legions were allowed to become 
 masters of such a commanding position, they would intercept the 
 whole overland trade to India and Persia ; they may become a 
 Mediterranean Power — with Alexandretta as their commercial port 
 — and menace England in Cyprus and Egypt. The commercial 
 interests of England in those regions would be placed in jeopardy 
 by a further Russian advance ; for, to quote Lord Salisbury's 
 own words, "the existing European trade which now passes 
 from Trebizonde to Persia would be liable to be arrested at the 
 pleasure of the Russian Government, by the arbitrary barriers of 
 
 1 Present Position of European Politics (p. 161), by Sir Charles Dilke. 
 
The Armenians, Armenia, and the Armenian Question. \j 
 
 their commercial system." Lord Salisbury's views are shared by 
 Sir Charles Dilke, who adds: "There is one loss by a Russian 
 occupation of the remainder of the Turkish dominions which no 
 British Government would willingly face. It is the loss of trade. 
 In Asiatic provinces acquired by Russia at the end of the last 
 war, where there was formerly a considerable British trade, there 
 is now none ; it- has been killed by protection duties." 
 
 I have alluded to the natural wealth of the country, to its 
 valuable mineral resources, which remain unexplored and 
 dormant through want of security and safety. What an immense 
 opening for the industrial and enterprising classes of England if 
 they would devote their attention to my unhappy country instead 
 of spending millions for the exploration of the Dark Continent, 
 under guise of suppressing slave trade ! 
 
 I have endeavoured to bring out the past, the brilliant past, of 
 the Armenians, their services to civilisation and Christendom, 
 their rights, and how these rights are trampled under foot, and 
 how the distinct stipulations of treaties have remained a dead 
 letter. I have endeavoured, moreover, to show of what interest 
 it is to England — an interest commercial, strategical, and political 
 — to bring about the solution of the long-pending Armenian 
 Question. I now make a solemn appeal, on behalf of outraged 
 humanity, to the people of this country, and ask them to use 
 their legitimate influence for the amelioration of the condition 
 of a suffering nation, groaning under a most odious tyranny. I 
 may here remind England's responsibilities. Subsequent to the 
 last Turko-Russian War, Russia reserved to herself, in the 16th 
 Article of the Treaty of San Stefano, the sole Protectorate of the 
 Armenians. England refused to admit such a stipulation ; and a 
 Convention was signed between England and Russia, on May 
 30, 1878, wherein it was agreed that the Protectorate should be 
 jointly shared by the two contracting states. On the 4th June of 
 the same year England signed with Turkey the so-called Cyprus 
 Convention, which increased her responsibilities, for under that 
 instrument she actually guaranteed the introduction of reforms in 
 Armenia. In fact, by the Cyprus Convention, England is co- 
 responsible with Turkey for the effective amelioration of Armenia, 
 and she shares with that country the right of exercising a consti- 
 tutional prerogative in Asia Minor. 
 
 It is now high time that something should be done by this 
 nation, which has been rightly styled the protector of the weak 
 and oppressed, in the interests of humanity and justice, to say 
 
1 8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 nothing of interests already dwelt upon other than of pure senti- 
 ment ; and it would thereby be echoing and confirming the words 
 of a great orator, John Bright, who, in a speech delivered' in 
 Birmingham prior to the Turko-Russian hostilities, said of the 
 people of Great Britain that the lover of freedom always looks to 
 them; the oppressed everywhere turn their eyes to ask for 
 sympathy, and wish for help from them ; they feel that they make 
 this upon them — a free people. They do not deny that claim, 
 but they freely acknowledge it. 
 
 Armenians have a claim upon England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 and they are confident of the result. 
 
II. 
 
 A USTRIA. 
 
 DR. S. SCHIDROWITZ. 
 
 A FEW weeks ago I was reading in the newspapers a notice 
 to the effect that the ballet girls of Vienna are the 
 handsomest and the best performers in any theatre in Europe. 
 This is almost the only favourable notice about Austria which I 
 have seen in an English newspaper for many a year ; and I certainly 
 would not have ventured to mention it, if it had not struck me as 
 a very peculiar thing that such a small matter should be almost 
 the only one mentioned in a great London paper. But it is so. 
 Austria, though a very great country in Europe, is very little known 
 in England, much less known than many countries in Africa and 
 Asia, and perhaps the cause of it is this. One of the greatest and 
 most illustrious British statesmen said publicly a few years ago, 
 " Show me a spot on earth where Austria has done any good." 
 Of course, such a statement from the lips of one of the greatest 
 Englishmen does perhaps prejudice peoples' minds ; and editors, 
 who know how to take their cue, do not occupy themselves or 
 their readers very much with a country of which such a great 
 statesman made such a disparaging remark. Another very great 
 Englishman, an historian, in all his writings has hardly a good word 
 to say about Austria, but always to the contrary ; in fact, he does not 
 acknowledge Austria at all. He says there is an archduchy of 
 Austria, and there is a house of Hapsburg, but he really does 
 not" know Austria. Therefore the people who read his books 
 cannot know anything about Austria either. 
 
 It is a very remarkable circumstance that with some people 
 history only commences very recently. With some, let us say, only 
 in 1830 with the Reform Bill; with others perhaps only in 1867, 
 or at some other period. If politics alone constituted the life, the 
 principal mainsprings of the life of a people, then perhaps that 
 great illustrious statesman and the historian might in some degree 
 be right in saying that Austria, in comparison with a great many 
 
20 National Life and Thought. 
 
 other nations of the world, would play a very small, perhaps a very 
 poor, role amongst them ; but the political life, the political phases 
 of a people, do not constitute the main interest of ninety-nine out 
 of a hundred of the people of a nation. Election for Parliament 
 only occurs on an average about once in every four or five years. 
 Then, of course, the free citizen can vote, can do as he wishes in 
 political matters, and so forth. But the ordinary pleasures and 
 enjoyments of life, these are shared alike by every one, by the 
 poorest as well as the richest, not once during five years, but every 
 day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening ; and in these 
 enjoyments of life, in the civil enjoyments of life, in the 
 enjoyments of all liberties, the people of Austria are certainly not 
 behind any other people, and indeed in many respects perhaps 
 they enjoy the pleasures of life much more than other nations. 
 
 The rich in Austria are not so rich as the English rich, as 
 " Milor," for instance, who is supposed on the Continent to be a 
 kind of angelic being who discovers gold ; but, on the other hand, 
 the poor in Austria are not so poor, not so destitute, not so badly 
 off as they are here. I have never in my life seen in an Austrian 
 newspaper a notice headed " Died of Starvation." The Austrian 
 papers have no occasion to mention, as is unfortunately too often 
 the case in other countries, that such and such a man or woman 
 had been found dead of starvation. Furthermore, I have never 
 seen or read in an Austrian paper (and more particularly as regards 
 Vienna) of drunken women fighting in the streets. I have never 
 seen in Austria drunkenness to the extent that one sees in other 
 countries. I have never seen the disgraceful scenes that are to be 
 witnessed daily in countries where, according to the newspapers, a 
 much higher degree of civilisation exists than in poor benighted 
 Austria. The Austrians, and especially the Viennese, have always 
 had the reputation of being an easy-going, pleasure-loving people, 
 so much so, that Schiller, one of the greatest of German poets, 
 spoke of Vienna as the "lotus-eating town." The common 
 belief in Germany and other countries was, that the people of 
 Vienna did not care about anything but pleasure and enjoying life 
 as much as they could. But this is a very great error. I have 
 remarked before how it was stated of Austria, " Show me a 
 place on earth where she has done any good." 
 
 It may be true, that in the history of Austria, during, say, the last 
 fifty or sixty years, nothing very great, or stirring, or interesting as 
 compared with other nations has happened, but history does not 
 commence either in 1830 or in 1848. But Vienna and Austria were 
 
Austria. 21 
 
 for hundreds and hundreds of years the bulwark, the shield of Chris- 
 tian Europe, of Christianity, against the inroads of the Mussulmans ; 
 and to say that Austria has never done any good to the world, can 
 certainly not be quite correct, when we consider that for many hun- 
 dred years the people of Austria have had to shield and to protect, I 
 may say, Europe from the attacks and inroads of the most savage 
 enemies of civilisation which Europe and Christianity ever knew. 
 The very name of Austria should show you the origin and scope 
 of the history of that country. Austria means the Eastern country 
 or Eastern Marches, a country which was specially created for the 
 very purpose of protecting Germany and Western Europe against 
 the inroads of the people who at the time of the exodus from 
 Asia in the sixth century commenced to overrun that part of 
 Europe. The Eastern Marches, which were created by the 
 Emperor Charlemagne, were meant to be a barrier against Vandal- 
 ism. And as at that time Christianity had only commenced to be 
 propagated, and had no very deep hold in the country, the work 
 which Charlemagne had laid for this people was certainly a very 
 important and a very difficult one. 
 
 And now let us see how this people who, according to the 
 present common saying, did nothing but enjoy themselves in 
 going to the theatre. Let us see how they proceeded. On the 
 Danube there had been erected for a great many years a 
 fortified castle ; but, as had happened in other countries, as 
 had happened in England, the Roman legions, valorous though 
 they were, could not stand against the native element, and 
 they had to leave. On the very spot where Vienna to-day 
 stands Celtic tribes were living. Therefore a thousand years 
 ago Great Britain and Austria had a common nation — the Celts. 
 Celtic tribes were living where Vienna now stands, in the same 
 way that Celtic people inhabit the North of Scotland and Ireland. 
 These tribes were also subject to the attacks of the nations which 
 advanced from the south in the fifth and sixth centuries. But 
 Vienna always managed to keep her own. We have authenticated 
 statements how at that time, and especially later on in the eleventh 
 century, the people of Vienna always defended themselves most 
 valiantly against the inroads and the attacks of these people, but 
 the real object and the real purpose for which Austria had been 
 created commenced only in the twelfth century. 
 
 Well, the people of Hungary came up, and at that time the German 
 Emperor made the family of the Babenbergers Dukes of Austria, and . 
 with the Babenbergers commenced the real origin of Austria and of 
 
22 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Vienna. You will see at once what spirit these Babenbergers were 
 of, when I tell you the very first thing the greatest of the Baben- 
 bergers did — his name was Heinrich — was to lay the foundation 
 of the noblest church in Europe — the Stephen's Kirche. He knew 
 that if he wished to make Vienna a town of the future, one which 
 would last and not be ruined by barbarous invaders, he would 
 have to invoke the help of the Church, and he did that by laying 
 the foundation stone of the Stephen's Kirche. It is certainly one 
 of the finest domes in Europe, if not in the world. It took over 
 two hundred years to finish this most wonderful church dome, 
 and now this very dome is considered by all Austria, and especi- 
 ally by the Viennese, as the very centre of their life. 
 
 Seven hundred years had passed, when a very great danger 
 threatened the whole of Europe. It was at the time when the 
 Turks under Sultan " Solyman the Magnificent " were in the 
 height of their fame. Sultan Solyman had the idea that the Turkish 
 Empire and the Mohammedan religion should become not only the 
 principal, but the only power and the only religion in the world. 
 He marshalled a very great army. At that time two hundred and 
 fifty thousand men meant a much larger army than is to-day 
 represented by two millions. He advanced right up to the walls of 
 Vienna, and there again the inhabitants of that " pleasure-loving " 
 capital for months and months were besieged, and eventually 
 succeeded by their own efforts in beating back the greatest 
 warrior of the time, and drove him back to Turkey, thus saving 
 not only Austria, but Germany, and perhaps the whole of Europe, 
 from the domination of the Turks, a domination which had 
 lasted many centuries in Asia. This was in 1529. 
 
 In 1683 tne same thing happened again. Again a Turkish 
 Emperor, advised, I must say, by the Most Christian King of France, 
 Louis XIV., sent his Generals with an army still larger than the 
 previous one, and again laid siege to Vienna. Not one finger was 
 raised for several months to succour the besieged Viennese. Once 
 more the citizens of that pleasure-loving town succeeded almost alone 
 to hold the Turks at bay, until afterwards the Duke of Lothringen 
 and the King of Poland came to their rescue. Thus, again, it was 
 Vienna which saved the whole country from the domination of 
 the Turks, and who is it who does not know what the domination of 
 the Turks in a Christian country means ? I have mentioned these 
 few examples only to show that the great reproach " that there is 
 not a spot on earth where Austria has done good " is not quite 
 correct. 
 
Austria. 23 
 
 In early times, at all events, in 1529 and 1683, Austria 
 and the capital of Austria had certainly done Europe and the 
 world a service which hardly any other town or any other nation 
 has done for the continent of Europe. And' yet it is unfortunately 
 true that in some respects, especially as far as politics are 
 concerned, Austria (I may not say is) has been very much 
 backward in comparison with other nations. But other countries, 
 other nations, have also had such periods — I will not say which 
 countries. I will merely say that the development of political 
 liberty, of all political rights, general suffrage and so forth, have 
 also in other countries not always been the same, only that in 
 Austria unfortunately the period of darkness has been much 
 longer, and for the following reasons. 
 
 The House of Hapsburg had, in the sixteenth century particularly, 
 a great many enemies, who not only fought against certain princes, 
 but against the house, against the dynasty itself. Now, unfortun- 
 ately, the reigning family at that time called in the help of a power 
 which five hundred years ago had done very much to keep the 
 people in spiritual bondage. They called in the help of the 
 Jesuits, and to that order to the greatest extent is due the dark- 
 ness which reigned during two hundred years and more in 
 Austria. 
 
 The University of Vienna, which was founded in 1365, was at 
 one time the greatest, or one of the greatest, of Universities, and 
 quite on a level with the great Universities of Paris and Bologna. 
 But since the sixteenth century, and especially since the Thirty Years' 
 War, which did so much misfortune and harm to the centre of 
 Europe, the University of Vienna, as well as all the lower educa- 
 tional establishments in Vienna and Austria, came under the sway 
 of this order, and with them there was only one principle — blind 
 obedience and no progress. The Vienna University at that time,, 
 instead of cultivating science ^nd art, as it has done for more than 
 two hundred years, became nothing else than a mere machine for 
 turning out employes of the State, and this course it was which 
 brought Austria so low, and which induced everybody else in 
 Europe to speak of Austria as the China of Europe, the most 
 backward State in Europe. This state of affairs lasted very long. 
 Politics were entirely unknown. There was nothing but blind 
 obedience to the commands of superiors. Freethought, investi- 
 gation, all that was ruthlessly repressed by those who conducted 
 the education of the country from the highest university to the 
 lowest school in the Empire. But this state of affairs does not 
 
24 National Life and Thought. 
 
 exist now, and that is the great error which people at the present 
 time appear to be labouring under. 
 
 The history of old Austria closed entirely and completely so 
 far as politics, culture, education, etc., is concerned, with the year 
 1848. There is no more comparison between Austria, prior to 
 1848 and the Austria of to-day, than there could be a comparison 
 say between England under one of the Tudors, or even to come 
 nearer to the present time, say during the reign of one of the Georges 
 and the England of to-day. Indeed, I may say that the difference 
 is even greater, because in England, after all, it was more a question 
 of degree. In England certain liberties always did exist, but in 
 Austria it was not so. Everything there had to commence. The 
 history of Austria since 1848 is therefore the history of Modern 
 Austria, and this history is certainly much more cheering and 
 much more pleasant to speak about. 
 
 You doubtless all know that Austria, unlike most of the other 
 European nations, cannot be considered a nation in itself, i.e. 
 there is no Austrian, as you can say there is the Frenchman, the 
 Italian, the Englishman. Austria is a political idea, and consists of 
 a number of different peoples, a number of smaller or larger 
 nations, which are collected together under the sceptre of the 
 Imperial Family of the Hapsburgs, and they form the Austrian 
 Empire. But it is a very great error, on the other hand, to suppose 
 that because there is no such thing as an Austria in itself, that 
 therefore the Austrian Monarchy as such cannot form a political 
 union just as firm as, let us say, France or Great Britain. You 
 all know that in this kingdom of Great Britain the people are not 
 all of the same nation ; they are not all of the same sect. We 
 here have different component parts, but not to such a great 
 degree as in Austria. There the foundation was formed on the 
 creation of the archduchy of Austria, and they were Germans. 
 Germans still form to a great degree the majority of the population 
 of Austria, that is, when comparing each of its other nations 
 separately. Austria and Germany have therefore always been in 
 close accord, not only because the Hapsburgs were Emperors of 
 the Holy Roman Empire, of German Nation, as it was called, but 
 because the majority of the people in Austria are Germans, and 
 because German culture, German science, were the same in 
 both countries. 
 
 You are doubtless aware that in consequence of political events 
 the Austrian Empire, which was created in 1806, was divided in 
 1867 into two parts — Austria Proper and Hungary. Of Hungary 
 
A ustria. 2 5 
 
 I will not speak, only of Austria Proper, of the Austrian part of 
 the Empire which is called Cis-Leithanian part of the Empire. 
 Vienna, as you all know, is the capital of Austria, and a very 
 pleasant and agreeable town Vienna is. As I said before, the 
 reproach always was that the Viennese cared for nothing but their 
 pleasures. But the inhabitants of Vienna showed in 1848 that 
 they have within themselves the same fire, the same power to gain 
 their liberties, as have been shown by other nations, say in 1688 in 
 England, or in 1789 in France. One might say the whole system 
 of Absolutism in Austria was overthrown by the Viennese them- 
 selves. In imitation of the Revolution in Paris, the citizens of 
 Vienna rose in their wrath and said, " We will not longer be slaves." 
 The saying itself would have helped very little, but they added 
 the act to their word. Prince Metternich, the leading minister, and 
 the mainspring of Absolutism, had to run away, and all owing 
 solely to the deeds of a few thousand Viennese citizens, aided by 
 the students of the University, 
 
 Vienna has not been much written about by Englishmen ; but 
 when they do write about Vienna, one finds the most marvellous 
 errors stated. I have read this very day, for instance, a statement 
 that nobody who has been in Vienna has ever been invited to 
 dinner by a Viennese. Further, that the Viennese are the most 
 immoral people. Indeed, it would be impossible for me to go 
 into the details of the statements which the writer makes. But I 
 can assure you that the people of Vienna are no more immoral 
 than the people of most other towns. For one thing, they are not 
 hypocrites, nor are they hypercritical. They show themselves 
 just as they are, and do not say, "We are the most virtuous people, 
 all the rest are immoral, etc." As an example, I will tell you what 
 happened to myself the other evening. I had a gentleman friend 
 visiting me from Vienna. We went to one of the leading theatres 
 of London. We sat in the stalls, and just in front of us also in 
 the stalls were seated a gentleman and two ladies. I do not know 
 that I could, if I attempted, describe the dress, or rather the 
 undress, worn by those ladies. My friend from Vienna, however, 
 remarked to me, "What, are we really sitting in a theatre in 
 virtuous London where they do not even permit a song or dancing 
 in the Music Halls?" Well, my friend was actually ashamed. 
 Yes, he really blushed. He, the hardened sinner from "immoral " 
 Vienna, actually got red in the face. Now, the English writer 
 says the Viennese are immoral people, and here I have given you 
 an example how the most "immoral" people may be shocked 
 
26 National Life and Thought. 
 
 when they come to London. It is, I will not say all, nonsense, 
 but it is exaggeration to say that the people of Vienna are 
 immoral. They have to work hard to make a living, and they do 
 work hard ; but when their work is done, they enjoy themselves 
 thoroughly, they do not hide themselves away, they come into the 
 open air and enjoy themselves to their heart's content. I wish 
 you could see on a pleasant summer Sunday afternoon two or 
 three hundred thousand of these "immoral" people enjoying 
 themselves, like happy children, in the Prater. Vienna has the 
 great advantage of possessing the finest surroundings of any large 
 town in Europe. A half-hour's walk from the town on either side 
 brings you to the country, where you could imagine yourself say in 
 the Isle of Wight or in Devonshire, and on the opposite direction 
 the scenery resembles that of the Highlands of Scotland. Thither 
 the inhabitants go picnicing on Sundays and holidays. All the 
 inhabitants enjoy themselves almost within sight of each other. 
 How on earth, then, that high degree of immorality of which that 
 English author speaks can take place, I, for one, cannot very 
 well understand. 
 
 The Viennese are a good-natured people, and I have here a few 
 books which were edited by that most unfortunate of men, the 
 late Crown Prince of Austria. It has been said that the House 
 of Hapsburg are the most cruel and despotic of tyrants, and so 
 forth. But let me state what are the real facts. The Emperor 
 of Austria lives in a house which there is no word in the English 
 language to describe. It is like a passage, anybody and every- 
 body can go through that house ; in fact, it is the main communica- 
 tion between the inner town and the largest of the suburbs. 
 Omnibuses and cabs, etc., pass through it. Twice a week the 
 Emperor of Austria gives public audience to any one and every one. 
 Those who have any petition to make, or any grievance to state, 
 have only to send in their name in writing, and they are at once 
 admitted. There are no policemen or guards to prevent any one 
 going into the Emperor's house who wishes to have an audience 
 with him. Now this Emperor had a son whose lamentable death 
 you have doubtless all heard of. This son edited a book, in 
 which you will see there are three sketches of typical Viennese — a 
 Viennese cabman, a washerwoman, and a boy. If you will look 
 carefully at these, you will appreciate more than you could from a 
 hundred lectures what the inhabitants of Vienna are really like. 
 Do that man's characteristics and type of feature give you the idea 
 of a most awful person full of vice, etc. 
 
Austria. 27 
 
 Well, now, as I said before, the present Austro-Hungarian 
 Monarchy consists of two parts. It would be very dry and 
 uninteresting were I to tell you how many inhabitants each of 
 these provinces has, and to no purpose. Allow me only to make 
 a few remarks. The inhabitants of Austria number 39,100,000. 
 You will see, therefore, that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not 
 " une quantite negiigeable" i.e., not to be thrown entirely aside. 
 It has more inhabitants than Great Britain and Ireland. The 
 Austrian people are good natured, but they can give as good an 
 account of themselves as any other people, more especially have 
 they done so in the past when allied to English soldiers, which 
 fortunately they almost always have been. There has been only 
 a single case, in 17 16, where Austrian and English soldiers were 
 not standing shoulder to shoulder. And in the Austrian army 
 and administration several of the very highest posts are filled by 
 Englishmen, or let us say, by " subjects of Great Britain, because 
 they happen to be Irishmen.'' The present Prime Minister of 
 Austria, Count Taafe, is just as much an Irishman as, or much 
 more I should say, than even Parnell himself. He comes from a 
 very old Irish stock, and amongst the titles which he still writes 
 after his name is one connected with the Castle of Bally " some- 
 thing.'' The Emperor's first aide-de-camp, O'Donnell, is also an 
 Irishman. Lacey, one of the greatest Austrian generals, the 
 same ; and if I am not mistaken, several members of the Austrian 
 Parliament are descendants of old Irish families. One of the 
 best speeches, I think, I ever heard in the Austrian Parliament was 
 by one named Skene, who was also of Irish descent. Therefore 
 you will see that Austria and Great Britain have many sympathies 
 in common, and I am sure nobody should say very much bad of 
 Austria on that account. 
 
 I am afraid, what I have now to say will not be very amusing 
 for most of my kind hearers. But the object of these lectures 
 consists also in giving some information concerning the political 
 institutions of different foreign countries ; and, unfortunately, I 
 know that politics are very seldom amusing, except for those to 
 whom they are a stepping-stone to celebrity or wealth. 
 
 Austria, or rather that part of Austria with which I have to deal 
 to-day, namely, the Cis-Leithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian 
 Empire, is a constitutional country. Its constitution, or to speak 
 more correctly, its constitutions, for there are several of them in 
 existence, are all quite new, of very recent date. Until 1848 Austria 
 was governed by the Emperor as Autocrat, or as Despot (in the old 
 
28 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Greek sense of this word). Though there had been diets in 
 existence since the sixteenth century, they were mere shadows 
 without the slightest influence or power. They languished as 
 machines, without a will of their own, simply for the purpose of 
 registering the decrees of the Emperor. Some of the Emperors 
 governed despotically in the modern meaning of this term, while 
 during the reign of some quite a patriarchal system of govern- 
 ment was the order of the day. Poor Emperor Joseph, the son 
 of Marie Theresa, nourished quite Liberal ideas, but the clerical 
 and feudal opposition from the highest in the land was too strong 
 even for him, and he died broken-hearted. Francis the Second 
 was rather good-natured, and not at all cruel as long as nobody 
 dared to oppose his absolute system of government, but even 
 the least attempt to propagate Liberal ideas was crushed with 
 terrible rigour. The people's duty was simply to obey and not 
 to think for themselves. Public affairs were entirely "forbidden 
 fruit" for the subjects; they might discuss the theatre, the opera, 
 or the ballet; they might have given dinners to celebrate and 
 to praise all the public virtues of a Barnum of that time ; or the 
 Press might have banqueted the great Pears of the period, and 
 the greatest men in the land would have been proud to assist 
 on those occasions, but politics were entirely tabooed. Notoriety 
 hunters and self-advertising quacks among all the professions had 
 it then all to themselves. But I am treading on delicate ground, 
 and I will come back to poor benighted Austria before 1848, 
 where such occurrences might have taken place. 
 
 The February revolution in Paris in 1848, the dethronement 
 of Louis Philippe, excited the people of Vienna in the highest 
 degree. Almost over night they also made a revolution, drove 
 from power and country the all-mighty Metternich, and demanded 
 a constitution, liberty of conscience, liberty of the Press, a 
 Parliament, and all the rest of the institutions which existed in 
 constitutional countries. The Emperor Ferdinand, a very weak, 
 half-witted man, granted everything. 
 
 But it would take too much time to give you a history of the 
 development of political life in Austria. You all know, perhaps, 
 that the reaction carried on with a high hand from 1852 until 
 i860, when, after the Italian war, the Emperor again began to 
 have recourse to constitutional means in a somewhat modest way. 
 Only after the German war in 1866 the present constitutional and 
 dualistic system of government commenced in the Empire of the 
 Hapsburgs, in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 
 
A ustria. 
 
 29 
 
 Austria Proper (Cis-Leithanian) and Hungary form two separate 
 parts of the Empire, united through the person of the Emperor, 
 who is also King of Hungary, and further united by certain 
 Parliamentary institutions, which both parts of the Empire have 
 in common. Though each part of the Empire has a Parliament 
 of its own, yet certain common affairs, viz. the army and navy, 
 foreign and consular affairs, certain money matters, etc., are 
 discussed and settled by the so-called " Delegations." These 
 delegations are, so to say, committees of the two Parliaments, to 
 whom the above-mentioned matters are referred. Each delegation 
 meets and discusses separately the matters laid before it by the 
 Cabinet; they communicate with each other in writing; and only 
 when a matter cannot be agreed upon after three " opinions in 
 writing " have been exchanged by the delegations/then both dele- 
 gations meet together, and the question is discussed as well as 
 voted upon by both delegations, who ad hoc constitute then one 
 Parliamentary body. 
 
 The Hungarian as well as the Austrian Parliament possess all 
 the well-known privileges, and do the same work as most other 
 representatives of the people. There are two Houses of Parliament 
 in Austria — the House of Lords and the House of Commons ; 
 Cabinet Ministers have a right to sit and speak in both Houses, 
 even if not members of the House. The ministers are responsible 
 to Parliament. Both Houses have legislative powers, Bills can be 
 brought in either by the Cabinet or by members. The multifarious 
 business of the House of Commons in reference to matters of 
 administration, etc., are dealt with in Austria by competent 
 Government officers, and not by elected members of the House of 
 Commons. The right of questioning the Government is much 
 more limited than in England. In theory all this sounds very 
 well, but in practice Austria cannot very well be called as yet a real 
 Parliamentary country ; for, after all, in some departments, say, for 
 instance, concerning foreign affairs and certain military questions, 
 the Emperor, and not Parliament, is the supreme power, not 
 dejure, but de facto. Austria possesses also besides its Parliament 
 seventeen diets — Landtage. These small Parliaments legislate upon 
 all matters which concern the interest of the province alone, and 
 which do not touch general interests of the whole Cis-Leithanian 
 part of the Empire. They are a kind of enlarged county councils, 
 or, if you like to call them so, a species of Home Rule Parliaments 
 for the different parts of the realm. 
 
 Concerning the religion of the Austrians, it may be interesting 
 
30 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to know that out of the thirty-nine million population there are 
 twenty-nine millions Roman Catholics. Next to them come 
 Protestants, numbering 3,572,961. Orthodox Greeks (which 
 means the same as the Russians are), 2,900,000 ; but, strange to 
 say, in Austria alone are to be found Catholics who call themselves 
 Greek Catholics, and among these there has always been the 
 greatest trouble going on between Russia and Austria. This was 
 one of the greatest and most serious difficulties between Austria 
 and Russia. People think that politics are the worst diffi- 
 culties between them. But the great question is whether the 
 Greek Catholics should preponderate to Vienna or to St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 The great majority of the people of Austria live an agricultural 
 life, and until 1848 the number of manufactures was indeed very 
 insignificant compared, let us say, with England. But since 1848 
 very great progress has been made. Two-fifths of the population 
 of the Empire are now employed in manufactures. 
 
 And now let me come to a point which is much more 
 important, and that is education. After all, soldiering, wars, 
 and such things do not occur, fortunately, very often, and 
 especially do not interest many here. But the questions of 
 education, how many children go to school in the country, that 
 is perhaps for Englishmen the most important, the most interest- 
 ing question. In Austria education is compulsory; that is to 
 say, every child which is over six years old is compelled to go to 
 school. But if I were speaking in Austria, people would laugh if 
 I said a child is compelled to go to school. What, compel a 
 child to go to school ! Why, it is his great good fortune that he 
 is allowed to go. On the contrary, it would be compelled not to 
 go to school. Therefore it is not considered at all compulsory, 
 but it is considered highly beneficent for the people that it is so. 
 In Austria every child goes to school from the sixth to the 
 thirteenth year of their age. From thirteen to fifteen they have 
 Sunday schools in the afternoon for two hours. There are in 
 Austria three million children of the age of six years who ought to 
 go to school. Now, how many of these do not go to school ? 
 Only seventy. I should think you will agree with me, that is not a 
 very bad record for such a benighted country as Austria. In 
 Hungary, on the other hand, which is far superior to Austria as 
 far as politics are concerned, it is quite different. In Hungary 
 there are 1,312,371 children who ought to go to school, and there 
 are actually attending school 1,304,000, so that actually 8000 do 
 
Austria. 
 
 31 
 
 not go to school out of one million, so that the percentage is 
 worse in that politically better developed country than in Austria. 
 Now the question is this : Is it better for a nation that the children 
 should go to school, or that every man over twenty-one years of 
 age should once in five years be able to vote for a Member of 
 Parliament ? Permit me to say that the Austrians have the same 
 right to vote for Members of Parliament, for there is also a 
 Parliament for Austria. The number of Grammar Schools in 
 Austria Proper is 131, and the number of teachers 2601. There 
 are 11 Universities. In Vienna the University has 272 professors, 
 teachers, and so forth, and 5606 students, not a very bad record 
 for such a benighted town. Then, besides, there are special 
 schools, technical, high schools, etc. In Vienna there is a High 
 School for Agriculture alone. It has 31 professors and 340 
 students. There is also a School of Forestry, with 20 professors. 
 So, you will see, the question of education is not lost there. 
 
 But the greatest claim of the Austrians, and of the Viennese 
 especially, is that they are a music-loving people. You are, I 
 daresay, all aware that Vienna claims to be, and that she has been 
 and is, the seat of Music. I need only mention a few names to 
 show that this claim of Vienna is not ill founded. Every one has 
 heard the names of Mozart, of Schubert, and of Haydn. The 
 operas of Mozart, the songs of Schubert, and the music of Haydn 
 are certainly more or less known wherever civilised human beings 
 meet ; and, I am sure, no one will deny that they give more enjoy- 
 ment than the reading of all the Blue Books that have ever been 
 published by Parliament. I, for one, take the liberty of saying 
 that the country which has produced such men has given to the 
 world more enjoyment and more of the blessings of real peace 
 than any other. 
 
 The next proudest claim of Vienna to celebrity is her Medical 
 Schools. It is well known in English professional circles that 
 for twenty-five years and more that the Medical faculty in the 
 University of Vienna was far above all others. The greatest 
 English physicians have all been in Vienna and attended lectures 
 there, which is not such a bad position for a country of which 
 it has been said, "Show me a spot on earth where she has done 
 any good." 
 
 Furthermore, the Austrians are the happy possessors of more 
 good watering places than any other country in the world, such as 
 Carlsbad, Gastein, etc. Even in this minor capacity Austria may 
 be truly said to have been of much service to the sick and the aged, 
 
32 National Life and Thought. 
 
 and therefore permit me to conclude my remarks by saying that, 
 after all, Austria is not such a " poor benighted " country as it is 
 alleged to be, and that a great many benefits have been conferred 
 on the human race, not only by Austria, but by that " most 
 immoral " city, Vienna itself. 
 
III. 
 
 HUNGAR Y. 
 
 PROFESSOR AUGUSTUS PULSZKY. 
 
 ABOUT a century ago, when the sympathies of the people 
 of Western Europe were first aroused in favour of wronged 
 and struggling Poland, French writers often complimented the 
 Poles on being " the French of the North," and this allusion to 
 the similarity of character was invariably accepted as a flattering 
 expression of appreciation. At the same period, and for many 
 years afterwards, the denomination of " the England of the East " 
 was sometimes claimed with fond complacency by Hungarians 
 for their own country, desiring to impress foreigners with the 
 marked difference between the people of Hungary and their 
 unfortunate Northern neighbours. Of course, nobody dreamt 
 of seriously comparing the culture, the development, the power, 
 and the prosperity of the two nations, one of which, after centuries 
 of freedom and enterprise, had risen to become the proud mistress 
 of the seas, while the other had served as the bulwark of civilised 
 Christendom against the attacks of Mohammedan Turkey, 
 and bore resemblance rather to a shattered outlying bastion of 
 a half-abandoned fortress than to the fields of the culture of the 
 West. Still, as is generally the case with expressions that grow 
 into stock phrases, there had been and there lingered yet a grain 
 of truth in the analogy between Hungary and England. A 
 certain similarity marked the origin of both — nor is it difficult to 
 establish a parallel between the history, the institutions, nay, even 
 between the very life and modes of thought of the world- 
 renowned and splendid realm of liberty in the Western Isles, 
 and of the comparatively obscure kingdom which had just but 
 succeeded in maintaining its existence amidst the storms that 
 had ravaged Eastern Europe, and which, after all, was the only 
 state on the Continent that at the end of the last century had 
 managed to uphold unimpaired its uninterrupted traditions of 
 legal freedom. And to this very day, although the position and 
 
34 'National Life and Thought. 
 
 the destinies of the two nations are as unequal as ever, a certain 
 distant family likeness may still be detected between them. 
 None of the other countries, except England and Hungary, are 
 able to appeal to the unbroken continuity of ten centuries of 
 constitutional development ; none other have preserved a flexible 
 constitution, capable of alteration by the regular methods of 
 legislation, and not based upon any rigid written Charter; in 
 none but these two did that mixed form of government contin- 
 ually prevail in which the distribution of the powers of the 
 monarchy, and of the aristocratical and democratical elements, 
 may have actually considerably changed in the course of time, 
 without either of these having ever been entirely suppressed, or 
 the balance of power irretrievably destroyed, even at the most 
 critical juncture. 
 
 The secret of this resemblance of institutions and of the 
 concomitant ideas and feelings is easily discovered in certain 
 common features of the history of the two commonwealths. 
 From the days of Queen Elizabeth, when England definitely 
 adopted Protestant supremacy, the cause of national independence 
 was always intimately allied to that of liberty. The political 
 existence of the English nation, religious and civil freedom, were 
 alike imperilled by the Spanish Armada. During the following 
 century the more insidious but equally dangerous endeavours of 
 Louis XIV. of France, though menacing more directly consti- 
 tutional government, were none the less indirectly aimed against 
 religious independence, and against the assertion of a separate 
 national policy. Again, in the wars provoked by the aggressions 
 of the French Revolution and the ambition of Napoleon, the 
 defence of the existing constitution and the consolidation of the 
 British Empire were indissolubly connected. The same holds 
 good as to Hungary. From the day following the dire calamity 
 of the lost battle of Mohacs, where the separate and independent 
 development of the kingdom, together with King Louis II. 
 himself, fell a victim to the victorious sword of Sultan Suleyman, 
 throughout all the civil wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies, throughout the political atrophy of the eighteenth, throughout 
 the constitutional struggles in the nineteenth, the revolution of 
 1848-49 and the passive resistance offered to the attempts of Aus- 
 trian centralization afterwards, down to the period of the definite 
 arrangement with the dynasty and the so-called Cis-Leithanian 
 hereditary kingdoms and provinces of the Emperor of Austria, the 
 efforts for the re-establishment and support of a national state 
 
Hungary. 25 
 
 were at all times necessarily connected with the defence of 
 constitutional freedom, with the vindication of religious tolerance 
 and of the legal recognition of the different Churches, with the 
 maintenance of the political rights of the people, with the gradual 
 development of the liberty of the subject, and with the economical 
 emancipation of the lower orders. The national aspirations, the 
 full outcome of the traditions of the past, were never for one 
 moment dissociated from the endeavours to realise any part of 
 what constitutes moral and material progress. Elements which in 
 other continental countries were continually clashing with each 
 other, and, when fully revealed, showed themselves to be discordant 
 and antagonistic beyond remedy, were in Hungary indissolubly 
 fused into one single sentiment, leavened by law-abiding respect 
 for formal rights, by reverence for institutions which formerly had 
 been the expression of the national mind, and prompted in no lesser 
 degree by yearnings for spiritual liberty and by the instinctive 
 desire of acquiring prosperity. In connection with this prevailing 
 feeling, the idea of attaining and ensuring the complete national 
 polity of Hungary became endowed with a magnetic power that 
 attracted into its sphere, and united in it all the motives, all the 
 forces of the people, which otherwise might have impelled its 
 different sections and classes in divergent directions. 
 
 Indeed, this all-pervading, deep-rooted feeling of the supremacy 
 of the national interest is the keynote of the life and thought of 
 the Hungarian people, and furnishes a clue to the explanation of 
 the differences that strike the observer when comparing its charac- 
 teristics with those of the inhabitants of the surrounding countries. 
 For a citizen of the British Empire, which embraces the fairest 
 portions of the globe, spreads over all the latitudes of the earth, 
 and rules over countless races of mankind ; for a member of a 
 commonwealth the population and wealth of which have long ago 
 overflowed the boundaries of a merely national existence ; for an 
 Englishman sure, as he may well be, of the language he speaks 
 and thinks in, and of the civilisation in which he has been 
 nurtured, and to the pale of which he belongs, of both his language 
 and civilisation having struck root and flourishing in the most 
 different parts of the world, and serving the needs and guiding the 
 destinies of new nations which have grown equal to and are 
 perhaps overshadowing the old ; for the scion of a people that can 
 afford to be, nay, to a certain extent needs must be cosmopolitan, 
 — it is scarcely possible to realise the intensity of the spirit of 
 nationality, where all that makes life worth living, in a higher 
 
36 National Life and Thought. 
 
 sense, where all bonds of community extending beyond immediate 
 private ties and aims, where every nobler and more generous 
 impulse that stirs the blood or fires the imagination is concentrated 
 to a single object, and where, according to popular estimation, the 
 virtue of patriotism, which elsewhere, too, ranks high, but is 
 deemed to be equalled, and perhaps even overbalanced, by rival 
 qualities, is accounted as paramount and incomparable to any 
 other, because including and absorbing the attributes of all 
 excellence proper to human nature. The consolidation of the 
 German Empire, the unification of Italy, are examples of the 
 magnitude of the immanent power set free by statesmen who were 
 endowed with foresight and ability sufficient to arouse the long 
 dormant sense of nationality. Still, the most striking illustration 
 of the potency of the spell exercised by the consciousness of 
 common and single national destinies is not afforded by the cases 
 of these great agglomerations, to the perfecting of which innumer- 
 able other causes have contributed in no lesser degree, but rather 
 by the persistent and unconquerable energy by virtue of which a 
 people, comparatively weak in numbers, without racial affinity with 
 its surroundings, isolated in its language, lacking natural means of 
 communication, wealthy neither in intellectual traditions nor in 
 acquired capital, continually menaced, on several occasions 
 overrun, by enemies more numerous, more powerful, sometimes 
 more cultivated than itself, has succeeded in holding its own 
 during a thousand years, and in securing for the organism of its 
 commonwealth the recognition of an adequate and firm position 
 amongst the acknowledged civilised States of Europe. 
 
 The deep hold which the spirit of nationality has obtained over 
 the citizens of Hungary, and the matchless importance it has 
 acquired as regards all the interests of the community, the struc- 
 ture and the agency of the social fabric, comparable only with 
 the supremacy of the questions of faith in England during the 
 seventeenth century, is all the more interesting by the contrast 
 it affords to the spectacle presented by the circumstances which 
 led to the establishment of the national States of Germany and 
 Italy. Nationality based upon a community of descent, language, 
 thought, literature, and religious interest, was pre-existent in these 
 latter cases ; the aspiration towards unity, the violent irresistible 
 craving for framing a single organisation out of provinces that had 
 never been knit together, in the past, by an adequate tie, were 
 only awakened after centuries of separate existence, were the 
 realisation of an idea that had a long antecedent history. In 
 
Hungary. 37 
 
 Hungary, as with the nations of Western Europe, it was the 
 reverse process that took place. The Kingdom of Hungary had 
 been established for countless generations, national and foreign 
 dynasties had repeatedly alternated on its throne, before the full 
 requirements and consequences of a truly national life were in 
 their entirety apprehended, demanded, and enforced. Moreover, 
 to this very day it is not the exclusiveness of pride in purity of 
 race, it is not a supercilious contempt for aliens, or the separateness 
 and aloofness engendered by religious prejudice, or intolerance of 
 unaccustomed ways and expressions of thought, that form the 
 backbone of national sentiment in Hungary. There is no place 
 in the world where people belonging to more varied and 
 distinct stocks live and mingle together, where on an area of 
 equal extent more languages, so entirely unconnected, are spoken, 
 where the allegiance of faith is divided amongst religions so 
 numerous, and where true tolerance, in the sense of a ready 
 admission of equal, or, at least, of proportionately assigned rights 
 has, to such a degree, become absolutely necessary in the common 
 relations of life. Speaking in round numbers, six and a-half 
 millions of Magyars, two and a-half of Roumenes, two and one- 
 third of Croato-Serbs, nearly two millions of Germans, only a few 
 thousands fewer of Slovacks, three hundred and fifty thousand 
 Ruthenes, and about a hundred thousand of diverse motley 
 minor nationalities, such as Wends, Italians, Armenians, and 
 Gipsies, live peaceably, side by side, in a population close to 
 sixteen millions, all of them interspersed in the different sections 
 of the territory of Hungary; while the list of religions and creeds 
 includes seven millions eight hundred and fifty thousand Roman, 
 one million and a-half Greek, and three thousand Armenian- 
 Catholics, over two million Calvinists, one million one hundred 
 and thirty thousand Lutheran Protestants, fifty-five thousand 
 Unitarians, two millions four hundred and forty thousand 
 members of the Oriental Greek Churches, and six hundred and 
 forty thousand Jews. Nor do the lines dividing different races- 
 and tongues coincide with those separating the religious denomin- 
 ations. Every nationality counts members belonging to different 
 Church-establishments ; almost every creed includes adherents of 
 several distinct nationalities ; besides, persons belonging to each 
 are found in every class of society. All are equally citizens of 
 Hungary ; still, the dominant sentiment of the country is, and 
 cannot but be, the Magyar, not in virtue of any privilege in law, 
 but simply because it is the Magyar element that has formed and 
 
38 National Life and Thought. 
 
 upheld the Hungarian nation, because it has been the nucleus 
 around which the other parts of the population have rallied, 
 because the Magyars have known how to identify with their own 
 the common interests of the rest, compared with which the 
 separate aims of each were partly rendered compatible by a 
 generous policy, and partly felt to be insignificant ; because, to 
 sum up the manifold reasons in a single expression, the Magyar 
 State, culture, and law have unceasingly served as the sole possible 
 condition of the development and liberty of every fraction of the 
 people. 
 
 The causes that have concurred in producing these results may 
 easily be seen written large in the course of history. It is exactly 
 a thousand years ago, at the same period when the Northmen 
 ravaged the shores of the West, settled in Northern France, and 
 founded the houses of the rulers and the aristocracy of half of 
 Europe, that the Magyars or Hungarians entered the country 
 bounded by the Carpathians and by the flanking spurs of the 
 eastern and southern Alps, which forms the great basin of the 
 middle course of the Danube. They conquered it, settled in it, 
 and for the first time in history established a united and stable 
 realm in this part of Europe. Formerly only those portions lying 
 near its boundaries had temporarily belonged to the sphere of 
 civilised states ; the great plains between and along the Danube 
 ;uid the Theiss had never formed the seat of a nation before the 
 Hungarian immigration. A large part of the territory was at the 
 time a scarcely inhabited waste ; the mountainous and hilly 
 districts, covered by forests, were sparsely occupied in the North 
 and in the South by a Slavonic, and in the West by a German 
 population. The number, however, of the conquering Magyars, 
 though sufficient to ensure their victory and to render them 
 terrible to their western and southern neighbours, was not large 
 enough to fill the expanse of the provinces their valour had 
 acquired and their determination was able to defend permanently. 
 Hence foreign elements were introduced, first by compulsion, 
 later on, as Christianity was adopted, by invitation and grants of 
 royal privileges ; and the policy ushered in by the great King 
 Stephen, the Apostle-Saint of his people, and continued by his 
 successors, consisted mainly in inducing immigrants from all parts 
 to settle and gradually to infuse their life into that of the realm. 
 The institutions of Western countries, the ideas embodied in the 
 capitularies of Charlemagne and his successors, and in the laws 
 of the Church, were adopted and adapted to the Magyar traditions, 
 
Hungary. 39 
 
 in which the germs of self-government and of the participation 
 of the subjects in the sovereign power were deeply ingrained; 
 constitutional government was gradually developed out of these 
 rudiments in conjunction with the moral and legal conceptions, 
 which formed the common heritage of mediaeval semi-Latin civil- 
 isation under the fostering care of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Thus in the twelfth and thirteenth century the annals of Hungary 
 present an absolute parallel to those of the Western countries, 
 all the more, because the pretensions of the Holy Roman Empire 
 to over-lordship were successfully repulsed. It is therefore no 
 mere freak of history that the Golden Bull of Andrew II., analo- 
 gous both in its antecedents and contents to the Magna Charta 
 of England, was granted to the nation within a few years of the 
 success of the English barons at Runymede ; nor is it a coincid- 
 ence, occasioned by chance alone, that the demands of the Pope 
 for feudal supremacy, and his attempts at foisting a sovereign of 
 his choice on the nation, were equally resisted in Hungary as in 
 England. 
 
 Still, the increase of the population was not able to keep pace 
 with the advance of culture. The best blood of the foreign 
 settlers was continually absorbed by the ruling Hungarian 
 element, which was never chary of admitting into the pale of 
 social and political rights all those who, unreservedly, took part 
 in the tasks of the organisation and defence of the nation. As 
 to the kingdom itself, it never recognised any aristocracy of race. 
 Yet the continual drain occasioned by incessant wars — the strain 
 upon the Magyars who had principally to sustain the military 
 burdens — always rendered new immigrants welcome. Especially 
 the great Mongolian invasion of 1241 decimated the country, and 
 the Roumenian and Ruthenian populations were gradually settled 
 in their present abodes, for the most part about the second half 
 of the thirteenth century. 
 
 During the two hundred years that followed, from the four- 
 teenth to the sixteenth centuries, Hungary, under the rule of the 
 elective Kings belonging to the Neapolitan Anjou, the Bohemian 
 Luxemburg, the Austrian Hapsburg, the native Corvine, and the 
 Polish Jagellone dynasties, sought to establish itself as the centre 
 of an empire, under the suzerainty of which Bosnia, Servia, 
 Wallachia, and Moldavia were to occupy the position of feudatary 
 provinces, and these efforts were to some degree crowned with 
 success. The spirit of imperial destinies again attracted promin- 
 ent members of every minor nationality to follow the instinct 
 
40 National Life and Thought. 
 
 of the unity of the Hungarian State. At the same time, a 
 continual tendency was manifested towards forming a stable 
 union by the identity of the monarch in Hungary, and in one or 
 the other of the great neighbouring kingdoms. This was attempted, 
 as regards Poland, by Louis the Great, and by Sigismund with 
 reference to the Holy Roman Empire. Later on, as the Turkish 
 power loomed up, menacing from the South, the task of ensuring 
 assistance in defence of Christendom against the encroachments 
 of the growing Mohammedan power became more imminent, and 
 both the House of Austria and Matthias Hunyadi rivalled each 
 other in the attempt to join the hereditary eastern dominions of 
 the Hapsburgs and Hungary permanently into a single system. 
 The Jagellones at last actually succeeded in uniting the crowns 
 of Hungary and of Bohemia on their heads. But in connection 
 with these endeavours there necessarily arose in Hungary the 
 conviction of danger to Hungarian independence and to con- 
 stitutional liberty, from the Kings having under such circum- 
 stance an at least equal regard for the interests of another foreign 
 country. Hence a certain tone of legal opposition was given to 
 the national sentiment, which was destined to exercise a consid- 
 erable influence over its further development — all the more 
 because it was at this very juncture that the common law of the 
 realm was systematically collected in the so-called Tripartite 
 Institutes of the great jurist Verboczy; and that, in consequence, 
 all the elements of the State became fully conscious of the precise 
 extent and limits of their rights, and of the influence each in turn 
 could claim in the shaping and determining the course of the 
 nation's life. 
 
 Up to this period the tenor of the history of Hungary essen- 
 tially coincides with the contemporary vicissitudes of other 
 countries. But the simultaneous occurrence of three momentous 
 changes, the Turkish conquest, the separation of Transylvania, 
 and the Reformation, was to determine a novel and tragical turn 
 in the fate of the realm. Its dynasty and power were shattered 
 by the onslaught of the Turks, who subsequently for a hundred 
 and fifty years occupied the central plains, and oppressed and 
 devastated the homes of the richest and sturdiest part of the 
 Hungarian people. The rest of the country was torn into two ; 
 the western half raised to the throne and acknowledged the rule 
 of the House of Hapsburg, which was thus able to unite in the 
 person of the ruler the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire, of 
 Bohemia and of Hungary, besides disposing of the strength of its 
 
Hungary. 41 
 
 hereditary provinces, the hopes of assistance by which had con- 
 stituted the principal reason for the election of the head of the 
 Austrian dynasty to Hungarian royalty. The eastern counties of 
 Hungary, not subject to the Turks, gathered around the princi- 
 pality of Transylvania, which, under elective native dynasties, 
 organised itself separately, with the firm intent, however, of 
 joining in the reconstitution of the realm so soon as this might be 
 feasible after the expulsion of the Ottoman invaders. The Pro- 
 testant Reformation meanwhile rapidly spread over the whole 
 country ; permeated all classes of the population ; gave the people 
 a new interest in religion, in education, and in literature; supplied 
 a new opportunity for the development of self-government in its 
 ecclesiastical institutions ; but it also inevitably entailed upon the 
 coming generations the secular dissensions and bitter struggles 
 which for the moment still further weakened the enfeebled nation, 
 although destined later on to elicit its full enthusiasm in the 
 defence of constitutional rights, and ultimately to lead to the 
 establishment of religious tolerance and of the liberty of con- 
 science. 
 
 From 1526 to the end of the seventeenth century Hungary was 
 thus the scene of continual depredations, of wars, and of civil and 
 religious strifes ; and in spite of the patriotism of great leaders on 
 both sides, of the Bathorys, of Bocskay, Bethlen, and Rakoczy, of 
 the Zrinyis, of Cardinal Pazman, and of Eszterhazy, — in spite of the 
 brilliant successes achieved from time to time, which assisted in 
 keeping up the spirit of the people, and continually preserved the 
 consciousness of common interests and single national destinies, 
 the population, as well as the wealth of the country, was 
 diminishing fast; and although poetical and religious feelings 
 were aroused to a high pitch, although science was earnestly 
 cultivated, and thus the conviction of a happier future, and of the 
 assertion of the unity and independence of Hungary was main- 
 tained, yet the decrease in numbers, power, and influence became 
 undeniable, and the melancholy cast acquired by popular senti- 
 ment in those well-nigh hopeless days of darkness has ever since 
 remained a marked trait in the character of the people. 
 
 At last, in 1686, Buda, the ancient capital of Hungary, was 
 retaken, and by the end of the seventeenth century the territory 
 of the entire kingdom recovered from the domination of the 
 Turks. Not, however, by Magyar forces alone, but by the 
 imperial army, under Charles of Lorraine and Eugene of Savoy, 
 an army of which the Hungarian troops formed no small con- 
 
42 National Life and Thought. 
 
 tingent, but which otherwise was composed mainly of levies and 
 volunteers from almost all the countries of Europe, and received 
 considerable subsidies from Pope Innocent XI. The consequence 
 was that attempts were made by the ministers of the Emperor and 
 King Leopold I. to assimilate Hungary with the hereditary 
 provinces of Austria, to suspend and abolish the constitution, 
 to extirpate Protestantism, to germanise the Administration, to 
 establish the absolutism of the Court of Vienna over a people 
 that, it was supposed, would with the lapse of time forget the 
 memories of its separate existence, and be content to merge into 
 the mass of subjects, denuded of political rights, which constituted 
 the bulk of the inhabitants of the inherited dominions of the 
 Hapsburgs. But the Magyar population, although reduced in 
 strength and pride, had preserved enough of vitality and energy 
 to resist forcibly these endeavours of sanguinary proselytism and 
 of despotical centralization ; and it was only after long-undecided 
 civil convulsions, coinciding with the War of the Spanish Succes- 
 sion, that peace was secured, the constitution of Hungary re- 
 established, and the dynasty and the realm completely reconciled. 
 But a great part of the territory had been laid waste, and was 
 absolutely depopulated, and on this Serb, German, and Slovack 
 immigrants were settled, " hewers of wood and drawers of water," 
 who were a valuable addition to the resources of the country, but 
 who required a long apprenticeship before growing ripe for 
 political liberty, and being able to acknowledge as their own the 
 inspirations of national life. 
 
 As the decades of the eighteenth century succeeded each other, 
 without the internal peace of the country being disturbed, though 
 there was no lack of foreign wars and of sacrifices for upholding 
 the right of succession of the great Queen Maria Theresa, estab- 
 lished by the acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction, and for 
 advancing the interests of the Austrian hereditary provinces, the 
 community and mutuality of the defence of which, with that of 
 Hungary, had been legally provided for — slowly and gradually the 
 nation, and especially the upper and middle classes, composed 
 almost entirely of landed proprietors, attained a considerable 
 measure of material prosperity. Notwithstanding, a certain 
 torpor, like the uneasy sleep of exhaustion after feverish excite- 
 ment, crept over the minds of the people. Tied down to the 
 feeble policy of the sinking Holy Roman Empire, removed from 
 the great questions of European import, which were managed 
 exclusively by the Viennese Chanceries, deprived of the healthy 
 
Hungary. 43 
 
 stimulants of commerce and industry, which were monopolised by 
 the more advanced town-inhabitants and capitalists of Austria and 
 Bohemia, competition with whom was again excluded by an 
 elaborate fiscal system of duties along all the frontiers, and cut off 
 from immediate contact with the progress of Western Europe by 
 the system of absolutism which rendered the hereditary provinces 
 an almost impervious barrier to the entrance of novel ideas — 
 Hungary fell into a sort of fatalistic quietism, during which it 
 came perhaps nearer to losing its independence, its feeling of 
 proper personality and identity, even its very language, and thus 
 incurred a danger by far greater than had ever been the case 
 under the blows of its adverse fortunes. Its governing nobility, 
 apprehensive of the recurrence of events that might justify or, at 
 least, furnish pretexts for new schemes of subverting the constitu- 
 tion of the realm — already isolated on the Continent of Europe — 
 dreaded and warded off all legal change and reform, and became 
 attached to the doctrines and practices of extreme provincial 
 Conservatism. The technical Latin of mediaeval documents quite 
 supplanted the Hungarian language in the business of legislation, 
 of administration, of the courts of law, and often even in the 
 common intercourse of private life. The watchword of liberty had 
 by a scarcely perceptible misuse degenerated into being synony- 
 mous with the expression of aristocratical privilege, and the 
 traditions of dearly acquired rights had been corrupted into 
 jealousy of their further extension. The masses Avere looked upon 
 as the "misera plebs contribuens? a miserable populace of tax- 
 payers; the few hundred thousands of the privileged classes 
 imagined themselves to be the totality of the nation, and in their 
 ignorant scorn were fond of repeating, " Extra Hungariam non 
 est vita ; si est vita, non est ita " — " Beyond Hungary there is no 
 life; if there is any, it does not come up to ours." 
 
 The turn of the tide, however, came yet in time to arouse the 
 nation. The well-meaning but impracticable bureaucratic in- 
 novations of the Emperor Joseph II., who refused to have himself 
 crowned King, being unwilling to burden his conscience with 
 oaths of upholding a constitution he wished to abolish, dispelled 
 the dreams cherished as to the security of the ancient institutions, 
 and evoked an active opposition to the denationalizing tendencies, 
 which had been carefully fostered, and now were openly avowed 
 by the court. The supreme importance of a national spirit in the 
 development of Hungary, if it meant to retain its individuality as 
 a State, the necessity of national ideals, of a broader and more 
 
44 National Life and Thought. 
 
 enlightened patriotism, even for the leading classes, flashed upon 
 the minds of the whole people ; and the excitement occasioned by 
 the democratical doctrines of the French Revolution, which had 
 penetrated only so much as to merely touch the higher social 
 layers, soon polished off the rust that had settled on their minds. 
 
 In the memorable Parliament of 1791-92 the principles of in- 
 dependence, of political, civil, and religious liberty were asserted 
 anew, feelings of enthusiasm were kindled for the national 
 language, and for the first time again, after a secular neglect, the 
 interests of the masses began to be considered. The movement 
 was arrested, and the realisation of the more high-minded 
 proposals adjourned in consequence of the revolutionary and 
 Napoleonic Wars and of the reactionary policy all over the 
 Continent, of which the Viennese Government became the 
 stronghold. For the first quarter of the present century even the 
 manifestation of Liberal views was effectually suppressed ; and 
 later on, all legal changes were hampered by the refusal of the 
 Government to assent to them, and by the predominant influence 
 of the Court in the House of Lords. But even though the actual 
 institutions and the material conditions remained undeveloped, 
 the progress of the ideas could not be stopped ; and thus even- 
 tually, as the times ripened, the changes could be effected in an 
 easier and more even manner. Public opinion gradually grew 
 too strong to be successfully opposed any longer. Great leaders 
 of the nation arose. Count Sze'chenyi from amongst the members 
 of the Aristocracy urged economical reforms in the first place, 
 demanding laws for the establishment of credit, favouring industry, 
 developing communication, instituting social and humanitarian 
 clubs, and, above all, raising the cry for universal and equal 
 taxation. Francis Deak, essentially the representative of the 
 middle classes, but whose noble and enlightened patriotism, 
 disinterestedness, moderation, wisdom, and eloquence were to 
 render him the universally acknowledged spokesman and guide of 
 his people, the arbiter of their destinies, was the presiding master- 
 spirit of the party of reformers who prepared the ground for the 
 achievements of 1848. Last, but not least, Louis Kossuth, rising 
 from the ranks of journalism, communicated the fire of his 
 extraordinary genius to the whole country, and decided the 
 constitutional contest in favour of the emancipation and enfran- 
 chisement of the lower orders, and of the adoption of the system 
 of responsible parliamentary government. The twenty years that 
 elapsed between 1828 and 1848 were indeed the period of the 
 

 Hungary. 45 
 
 effervescence of the national spirit, which was manifested not only 
 in the brilliant debates of the Legislature, not only in the self- 
 governing activity of the counties, not only in the broad views of 
 generous religious tolerance adopted by the adherents of all 
 churches, nay, to a degree unprecedented in any other epoch or 
 country, by the clerical authorities themselves, but equally so in 
 poetry, especially by Vorosmarty and Petofi, in literature, and in 
 all the walks and occupations of life. Nor was participation in 
 public concerns any longer confined to the formerly governing 
 classes. The necessity of a democratical remodelling of the 
 constitution was openly avowed. It was clearly seen that the 
 concurrent efforts of all elements of the nation were indispensable 
 to its being raised to the eminence from which it might proudly 
 claim a position equal to that of the peoples of other European 
 States. 
 
 The fruits of these struggles and labours were reaped in 1848. 
 The peasantry was relieved of the dues it had to pay to the land- 
 lords, in work and kind, for the use of its farms ; a considerable 
 part, nearly half of the land, was made over in fee simple to the 
 tenants, the compensation of the landed proprietors being assigned 
 to the fund of general taxation. Class privileges were abolished, 
 equality before the law was asserted, equal civil rights were 
 extended to the entire population, and political rights attached to 
 a comparatively low franchise. Ministerial responsibility was 
 introduced, Transylvania reincorporated into Hungary, and the 
 sovereign independence of the State not only theoretically re- 
 established, but practically given effect to in its several institutions. 
 The royal sanction was obtained to all these measures ; and the 
 general hope seemed to be well founded, that all obstacles to 
 peaceful progress had thus been overcome by lawful means, 
 without the reproach of a single deed of violence. 
 
 Once more, however, a cruel disappointment lay in store for the 
 country. The settlement of two questions had been neglected, 
 the attendant dangers underestimated, and the inexperience which 
 thus afforded the enemies of Hungary a handle for carrying out 
 their sinister plans was dearly paid for by the nation. Parallel 
 with the expansion of Magyar sentiment in Hungary, the ambitions 
 of the southern Slav population of Croats and Serbs had also 
 developed. In spite of the prophetic warnings of Count Szechenyi, 
 no account was taken of the symptoms of separatistic tendencies in 
 Croatia. Instead of offering to this province — -the only part of 
 Hungary which was geographically and historically distinct from 
 
46 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the remainder, and which, while the rest of Hungary by its 
 natural features is mapped out as an essential unity, seems to bear 
 equally the evident marks of having been destined for a sort of 
 Federal union — some degree of Home Rule, it was fused into the 
 rest, nor was the equal use of the Croatian with the Magyar 
 language in the Legislature conceded to its representatives. The 
 feelings of dissension thus engendered, as well as the unreasoning 
 hatred felt by portions of the Servian and Roumanian peasant 
 populations, especially in the South and in Transylvania, against 
 their former landlords, were still further inflamed by the intrigues 
 of the reactionary party in Austria, and finally broke out in 
 sanguinary insurrections. On the other hand, no contrivance 
 had been effected by which the foreign and military policy, the 
 common affairs of the Kingdom of Hungary and of the hereditary 
 provinces of the Hapsburg dynasty, which constituted the Empire 
 of Austria, properly so called, might be managed harmoniously 
 and with common consent, especially since constitutional govern- 
 ment had been introduced, not without the urgent insistance and 
 assistance of the Hungarian Parliament, in Vienna, too. Besides, 
 no arrangement had been made for Hungary's acknowledging and 
 assuming any share of the burden of the public debt of Austria, 
 incurred, partly at least, in the interest of the common policy of 
 both countries. Hence misunderstandings and ill-will arose 
 between the Governments and Parliaments of Vienna and 
 Pest ; and a pretence, wearing some semblance of justice, was 
 thus furnished for meddling with the internal affairs of Hungary, 
 which the Court, anxious to do away altogether with innovations 
 and constitutional government alike, was not slow in making use 
 of. Thus, first an armed civil struggle ensued in the South and 
 in the East ; then the Imperial Austrian Government, which, after 
 quelling insurrectionary movements in Prague and Vienna, had 
 practically restored Absolutism, supported the Croatian and 
 Roumenian rebellions, and openly attacked Hungary. The war 
 lasted for one year. The armed resistance of Hungary, strictly 
 legal in the beginning, assumed a revolutionary hue when the 
 abolition of the constitution and independence of the Realm 
 became the avowed object of the Viennese statesmen. The 
 Hungarian armies, victorious so long as they were opposed to 
 the Croatian and Roumenian insurgents, and to the Austrian 
 forces alone, were unable to cope with the superadded power 
 of Russia, the intervention of which had taken place in the 
 interests of despotism. By the end of the summer of 1849 
 
Hungary. 47 
 
 Hungary was again prostrate at the feet of a relentless foe ; her 
 best blood A\ r as profusely shed on the scaffold, the flower of 
 her citizens were cast into prison, or escaped as fugitives into 
 foreign exile. 
 
 For twelve years the name of Hungary, as a State, was erased 
 from the map of Europe. Bureaucratic Absolutism ruled supreme 
 in Austria, and did its best to obliterate all Hungarian institutions. 
 Germanisation was the order of the day, the German tongue 
 being declared the exclusive language of official life as well as of 
 the higher schools. Government was carried on by means of 
 foreign, German, and Czech officials. No vestige was left, not 
 only of the national independence, but either of Home Rule or of 
 self-government of any sort ; the country was divided into pro- 
 vinces without regard for historical traditions ; in short, an attempt 
 was made to wipe out every trace denoting the existence of a 
 separate Hungary. All ranks and classes opposed a sullen 
 passive resistance to these attacks against the existence of the 
 nation ; even the sections of the nationalities which had rebelled 
 against the enactments of 1848, at the instigation of the re- 
 actionary Camarilla, were equally disaffected in consequence of 
 the short-sighted policy of despotical centralisation ; and it was at 
 this critical phase of the national life that the diverse elements 
 of the country were again welded into the unanimity of patriotic 
 sentiment, that all minor differences were sunk in the passionate 
 craving for the restoration of the realm and of its constitutional 
 rights, and that the paramount importance of the national 
 questions rendered the people definitely tolerant as to diverg- 
 encies on all other issues. 
 
 Finally, after the collapse of the system of Absolutism in 
 consequence of financial disasters and of the misfortunes of the 
 Italian War of 1859, the Hungarian Parliament was again con- 
 voked ; and after protracted negotiations, broken off and resumed 
 again, the impracticability of a system of provincial Federalism 
 having been proved in the meantime, and the defeat incurred in 
 the Prussian War of 1866 having demonstrated the futility of any 
 reconstruction of the Empire of Austria, in which the national 
 aspirations of Hungary were not taken into due consideration — 
 an arrangement was concluded under the auspices of Francis 
 Deak, Count Andrassy, and Count Beust on the basis of the full 
 acknowledgment of the separate national existence of Hungary, and 
 of the continuity of its legal rights. The idea of a centralised 
 Austrian Empire had to give way to the dual Austro-Hungarian 
 
48 National Life and Thought. 
 
 monarchy, which is in fact an indissoluble federation of two 
 equal States, under the common rule of a single sovereign, the 
 Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, each of the States 
 having a constitution, government, and parliament of its own, 
 Hungary especially retaining, with slight modifications, its ancient 
 institutions remodelled in 1848. The administration of the 
 foreign policy, the management of the army, and the disbursement 
 of the expenditure necessary for these purposes, were settled upon 
 as common affairs of the entire monarchy, for the management 
 of which common ministers were instituted, responsible to the 
 two delegations, co-equal committees of the parliaments of 
 Hungary and of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) provinces. Elab- 
 orate provisions were framed for the smooth working of these 
 common institutions, for giving weight to the constitutional 
 influence, even in matters of common policy, of the separate 
 Cisleithanian and Hungarian ministries, and for rendering their 
 responsibility to the respective Parliaments an earnest and solid 
 reality. The financial questions pending in the two independent 
 and equal States were settled by a compromise ; measures were 
 taken for the equitable arrangement of all matters which might 
 arise in relation to interests touching both States, such as duties, 
 commerce, and indirect taxation, all legislation on these subjects 
 taking place by means of identical laws separately enacted by the 
 Parliament of each State. Every device human foresight and 
 political ingenuity, sharpened by long experience, could suggest 
 to ensure the requisites of both firmness and stability of the 
 entire monarchy, as well as the maintenance of the free and 
 independent national life of each of its realms, was adopted in 
 order to harmonise the conditions of imperial dominion with 
 those of the sovereignty of the separate constituent States. 
 Simultaneously with these arrangements the political differences 
 between Hungary and Croatia were compromised by granting 
 provincial Home Rule to the latter, an expedient which has not 
 quite done away with the difficulties that crop up from time to 
 time, but which still, on the whole, has diminished the chances 
 of direct collision, and, up to the present, has prevented the 
 occurrence of irreconcilable conflicts. 
 
 Thus the organisation of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy on 
 the basis of dualism, and the compromise entered into between 
 the two halves composing it, whilst uniting for the purposes of 
 defence the forces of two States of a moderate size and extent 
 into those of a great empire, able to cope with the exigencies of 
 
Hungary. 49 
 
 an adequate position amongst the first-class Powers of Europe, 
 restored also to Hungary its independence and its unfettered 
 sovereignty in all internal matters. On this solid foundation it 
 was rendered possible for the country to devote its attention 
 chiefly to the reform of its institutions, and to the development 
 of its resources, moral as well as material. The pressure, which 
 for centuries had directed the efforts of the people mainly 
 towards upholding constitutional rights, and had concentrated the 
 national thought into opposition to absolutistic attempts in the 
 service of foreign ideas, having been removed, new channels 
 were opened out for the energies of the community in all those 
 directions in which the modern life of civilised nations demands 
 their activity. All the great human and social interests, scientific, 
 educational, administrative, sanitary, and economical, which by 
 the side of the paramount claims of the national cause upon the 
 people, necessitating practically the sacrifice of all minor, though 
 important, aims, had formerly received merely a partial, and 
 rather theoretical than actual recognition, have thus obtained 
 their due position in the public view, and are able to attract the 
 amount of attention and devotion they deserve; indeed, the 
 proper balance of national life in Hungary has been, in conse- 
 quence, re-established. 
 
 A full picture of the life and thought of Hungary in the present 
 would, therefore, merely repeat the well-known outlines of the 
 social, industrial, mental, and moral features of other civilised 
 communities in Europe. The Magyar has ceased to be a so-called 
 " interesting nationality," Hungary has neither an eastern nor an 
 antiquated character, but has simply resumed its position amongst 
 the factors of Western culture. There are doubtless certain 
 differences between its condition and that of other nations, but 
 rather of degree than of kind, and manifesting themselves no 
 longer in salient outward traits. Hungary is still far more of an 
 agricultural than of a commercial, and perhaps more of a com- 
 mercial than of an industrial country. Its acquired capital is not 
 yet proportionate to its natural wealth, nor are its investments 
 commensurate to the talent, skill, and industry of the nation. It 
 is only by persevering efforts, with due patience for the accumul- 
 ation of results in course of time, that essential and indubitable 
 progress can be accomplished. There are, however, already 
 certain social conditions as to which Hungary, even at this day, 
 stands well nigh unrivalled. The bulk of the population in 
 the plains and midlands is composed of a freehold peasantry, 
 
 D 
 
5<D National Life and Thought. 
 
 endowed with the franchise, accustomed to communal, and 
 participating in county self-government, entirely independent in 
 thought and bearing, who for public spirit, education, working 
 power, and for their standards of life and comfort and wealth, 
 may favourably compare with any other similar class on the face 
 of the earth. The cities and towns, too, are rising fast, have 
 become almost entirely Magyar in character, and are growing to 
 be more and more centres of intellectual activity. 
 
 Political life, although happily no longer occupied by con- 
 stitutional questions, has not lost its attraction for the people, 
 and, as is natural in a free country, absorbs a great part of public 
 attention. An enormous mass of political work has been done 
 since 1867, and is still going on. Elementary education has 
 been rendered universal and compulsory, and the institutions for 
 higher and University courses have been taken charge of by the 
 State, and rendered national. The system of railway communica- 
 tions has been perfected to a high degree, and the State has 
 obtained direct control of almost all the lines. The franchise for 
 the House of Commons, and the election of the members, has 
 been regulated, and the House of Lords reformed, without, 
 however, any elective element being introduced into it. Agri- 
 cultural, industrial, and commercial laws have been passed in 
 great numbers. The administration of justice has been assured 
 by a system of an independent judiciary appointed for life, and 
 removable only for cause, and even the great task of legal 
 codification has been begun, and is in a fair' way of being 
 accomplished. 
 
 Of course, a considerable amount of the strength of the nation 
 has been devoted to military armaments. Indeed, the sacrifices 
 demanded by the circumstances of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy 
 for keeping step in its military organisation with the immense and 
 unprecedented development of the armed forces of the neighbour- 
 ing empires, have proved a severe strain upon the finances, and 
 have taxed to the uttermost the ingenuity of Hungarian statesmen, 
 and the forbearance of the taxpayers, in order to be enabled to incur 
 permanently the attendant expenses, without the utter ruin of the 
 country. Compulsory universal military service for the men of 
 all classes has been adopted, and besides the common imperial 
 and royal army, the Hungarian Honve'd-army has been Constituted 
 and fully equipped. But though nothing has been spared to 
 enhance the means of the defence of the monarchy, the even 
 balance of receipts and expenditure in the Hungarian budget, 
 
Hungary. 5 1 
 
 which at first was endangered by the necessity of profuse state- 
 investments and by the expenses for the army, has been re-estab- 
 lished, and all political parties are unanimous in their determina- 
 tion of not allowing it to be disturbed. 
 
 As to social and political tendencies in general, the overwhelm- 
 ing majority of the Hungarian people is neither Conservative nor 
 Radical, but adheres to tenets which in England would be termed 
 the views of moderate Liberalism. The aristocracy has preserved 
 a certain amount of prestige, and no one dreams of abolishing the 
 House of Lords. The bulk of the political power is in the hands 
 of the middle-class landed proprietors, whom the peasantry at 
 this day, too, willingly accept as their political leaders. Demo- 
 cratical ideas have acquired a permanent hold over the minds, 
 but not so far as to obliterate traditions, which in Hungary bear 
 no tinge of reactionary associations, but rather point to devotion 
 to the cause of national rights. There is no virulent sectarian 
 feeling, nor any possibility of the success of ultramontane 
 doctrines, Church matters being essentially regarded from the 
 standpoint of broad tolerance. In consequence of all these 
 circumstances, there is no strongly marked line of division between 
 any sections of the people ; and although party feeling at times 
 inevitably runs high, the implacable spirit of faction is seldom 
 entertained, and then but by very few ; nor is there any important 
 body of citizens advocating any doctrines other than those of 
 steady and gradual progress in consonance with popular ideas. 
 
 Especially with regard to the foreign policy the whole nation 
 is absolutely unanimous in favour of peace, not only for the 
 moment, but on principle, so far as possible, for all times. Every 
 one in Hungary knows that the country has nothing to gain, and 
 much to risk, by any extension or conquest whatever. There can 
 be no greater mistake than to suppose that the Hungarian people 
 are eager for military glory, or desirous of revenge, because their 
 ancestors have fought well on many a field, or because the last 
 generation has given brilliant proofs of its valour in the wars of 
 past decades. On the contrary, there is probably no nation in 
 Europe in which any interference with foreign affairs is less popular. 
 Even the occupation of Bosnia was accepted with reluctance, and 
 only because it became evident that it was indispensable for the 
 defence of the southern frontier, and as a counterpoise to eventual 
 offensive plans of Russia, Naturally there is a resolute determin- 
 ation throughout the people to be ready for any sacrifice, in order 
 to resist aggression, and to maintain the independence and the 
 
52 National Life and TJiought. 
 
 conditions of the free internal development of the nation. But 
 war in any case would be regarded as the last measure of dire 
 necessity. The consciousness that the strength of the realm' is 
 continually increasing in peace, that the welfare of the people 
 requires all the combined efforts of the citizens of Hungary, is 
 much too deeply ingrained by the lessons of the past to be 
 lightly forgotten or set aside. It is universally felt that Hungary 
 is, though quietly, on the road of progress ; and in our days it is 
 not the communities which know they are progressive that are 
 likely to embark upon perilous adventures, or to jeopardise the 
 benefits derived from the harmonious advance of the peaceful 
 co-operation of mankind. 
 
IV. 
 GERMANY— POLITICS. 
 
 SIDNEY WHITMAN. 
 
 I FEAR it is only a sad repetition on my part if I begin by 
 repeating what has been referred to each Sunday I have 
 been present here, namely, our deplorable average ignorance of 
 foreign countries in general. But I must even add to that, and 
 mention our strange want of interest in other European countries. 
 
 Some years ago an excellent standard work on France, by an 
 eminent German author, was translated into English and published 
 by one of the leading London publishers. Now, although the 
 book was published at a moderate price, although neither the 
 author nor the translator received one penny for their work, the 
 book at the end of an eight years' sale showed a loss of ^28 on 
 the bare costs of publication ! Not a very encouraging speculation 
 for author or publisher, you will admit. 
 
 One of the most ambitious of our monthly reviews lately treated 
 a book on Germany by a person I am acquainted with to this 
 nice little criticism : "A dull book on a dull subject." It is this 
 arrogance which, inculcated by a certain section of our snobocracy, 
 settles down in wider circles, and does us more harm than making 
 us disliked ; it keeps us in ignorance. Though, of course, this is 
 an isolated flagrant case, still, if this same author had written a 
 book in German on England, although many German reviewers 
 might have called the book itself dull, I venture to say that in the 
 whole of Germany it would be impossible to find one educated 
 critic who could be such a self-satisfied Pharisee as to call the 
 subject of England a dull one. 
 
 But it is only fair to state that we are by no means alone in our 
 ignorance of our neighbours. I remember seeing the letter of a 
 French prisoner during the war of 1870, who was interred in the 
 city of Stuttgard, the capital, as you are doubtless aware, of a 
 petty German kingdom nearly adjoining France. He wrote home, 
 "lama prisoner here in Stuttgard, on the frontier of Russia." 
 53 
 
54 National Life and Thought. 
 
 I have found very strange ideas prevailing in Russia with regard 
 to us, and even with regard to Russia's immediate neighbours, the 
 Germans. Even the Germans themselves, by far the best 
 educated of Europeans, have some very strange notions about 
 us, although, as I shall have occasion to notice later on, their 
 acquaintance with other nations as a rule is extraordinary. 
 
 But it is not the ignorance of the untutored many that is so 
 surprising as that of men in high and responsible positions. It is 
 a well-known fact that the belief of Napoleon III., at the 
 outbreak of the '70 war, that South Germany would join France, 
 a belief shared by a great number of educated Frenchmen, could 
 only have been the result of most culpable ignorance. 
 
 At that very time an exceedingly able Frenchman, Baron 
 Stoffel, was military attache at the French embassy in Berlin, and 
 only too truly gauged the real state of affairs, but he was not 
 listened to. Unhappily for France, the politicians of Paris did not 
 want enlightenment ; they preferred to follow the blind impulse of 
 passion and hatred. 
 
 In our own country, the biographies and memoirs of political 
 personages during this century again and again reveal an 
 astonishing ignorance of the most simple facts regarding other 
 countries — ignorance which, fortunately, has not involved us in 
 any of the disastrous consequences above referred to, although 
 more than once it has brought us very near to serious international 
 complications. 
 
 Against the above, it is pleasing for us to know that the 
 authors of the standard works on Germany's two greatest men of 
 the last century were Englishmen. Carlyle wrote the History of 
 Frederick the Gnat, and G. H. Lewes the best History of Goethe. 
 These two works are each accepted in Germany as the standard 
 ones in their respective subjects. That shows us what we are 
 capable of doing when we set ourselves to familiarise our minds 
 with the doings and thought of other countries. 
 
 It is indeed a start the Germans have over us that, firstly, 
 through their superior general education, and, secondly, through 
 the wonderful hunger for information and knowledge of all kinds 
 that pervade that people, from the highest to the humblest, they 
 possess an acquaintance with other countries that is perfectly 
 unequalled. 
 
 This knowledge has assisted their leaders enormously in shaping 
 their policy ; it has assisted the mass of the nation in their 
 unceasing efforts to rival other nations, and particularly us, in 
 
Germany — Politics. 55 
 
 commerce and manufacture, as well as in science ; in fact, in every 
 branch of national striving and activity. 
 
 The history of our time affords a very striking instance of this 
 intimate knowledge the Germans possess of other countries. 
 
 During the Secession War in America we English, even leading 
 politicians and the wealthy classes (I do not like the words upper 
 and lower classes), were entirely at sea as to the aspects and 
 prospects of that struggle. The masses of this country — to their 
 honour be it said — sympathised with the North. The well-to-do 
 classes not only sympathised with the South, but, a proof of great 
 ignorance of the realities of the struggle, believed in the success 
 of the South, and even invested their money in their belief. 
 
 In Germany there was perhaps less barren sympathy spent 
 (the Germans, unlike us, are not in the habit of squandering that 
 commodity broadcast) ; but every servant girl, every boots at an 
 inn had his savings snugly invested in green-backs. Millions and 
 millions of money were made in Germany by the population at 
 large in this one instance, not to mention what larger capitalists 
 made — a striking instance, I hold, of the usefulness of geogra- 
 phical and political information about other countries beside our 
 own ! 
 
 So much for the drawbacks of ignorance ! Now let me draw 
 nearer to the subject of my lecture. 
 
 Of course, in the short time at my disposal, the limits of which 
 I promise you not to exceed, it is quite impossible for me to tell 
 you much about Germany ; anything, in fact, at all compre- 
 hensive. Nor can it be my sole aim to-day to point out to you by 
 a series of parallels where the Germans are deficient or where 
 they shine to advantage by comparison with us. The most 
 I can do is to endeavour to give you some faint notion of 
 the general political history that has gradually, after a lapse of 
 over a thousand years, brought Germany to the position she 
 occupies to-day. 
 
 All I can hope for is, that the subject may interest you suffi- 
 ciently to warrant your pursuing it yourselves more fully to some 
 purpose. 
 
 The Germans have reaped great benefits from studying us. It 
 is high time we endeavoured to gain some more solid advantage 
 by studying them and their institutions ; for we have reaped 
 many advantages already by so doing. For instance, our wonder- 
 ful progress in industrial art and manufacture, our technical 
 schools that are springing up everywhere, not to mention our 
 
56 National Life and Thought. 
 
 greatly improved educational status of late years, is almost solely 
 owing to what we have learned of Germany. 
 
 But, believe me, there is still more to be learned from that 
 source, particularly in the present day, than is dreamt of in our 
 philosophy. I need only refer to the great problems of 
 social progress which clamorously await solution with us. 
 The study of Germany offers us valuable hints, believe me, in 
 this important branch of politics. 
 
 With your kind permission, I should iike to begin by dwelling 
 for a few moments on the word politics itself, the one science 
 everybody seems to think he understands without having learned it. 
 
 I presume the word itself is derived from the Greek — 7roAis : 
 polts = a city. iroXires : polites = a citizen. 
 
 Politics, then, in the original acceptation, might perhaps be 
 termed the science that shall treat in a broad aggregate sense of 
 the wellbeing and the prosperity and progress of the units of a 
 nation — the citizens. 
 
 That must have been in remote ages when civilisation was 
 simpler than it is to-day, and when the wellbeing of the citizen 
 was, except for occasional interruption by war, famine, or flood, 
 the whole concern of the rulers of a people. The greatest 
 happiness of the greatest number is an ideal state of things. 
 
 In our time politics has come to mean in its full sense that 
 vast and complex science which deals with the balance of power ; 
 the supremacy of one people over the other ; the predominance of 
 one race over another ; the dominion of one continent, or of one 
 small island, over a great part of the inhabited globe. 
 
 That is what politics have come to in our time. Now, although 
 it is a wise saying that you should not prophesy unless you know, 
 I will venture to prophesy that we have reached an epoch in 
 the history of civilisation when politics will have to go back to 
 their primitive occupation and busy themselves more earnestly, 
 devotedly, and unselfishly with the welfare of the unit — the citizen; 
 the poor citizen; the weak, who cannot fight the battle of life 
 in a callous world rolling with wealth, and side by side with 
 misery, poverty, and degradation. 
 
 And let me tell you, that the first step towards attacking — I 
 do not say solving, that is still far distant — this most pressing 
 political problem of our time was taken by the late Emperor 
 William, assisted by his great minister Bismarck, in his proposals 
 for the care of the aged, the sick, and the wounded in the grim 
 battle of life — the life of the working man. 
 
Germany — Politics. 5 7 
 
 The science of politics, as I have endeavoured to point out to 
 you, has mighty problems to solve, and yet we are daily in the 
 habit of receiving and giving opinions on them with a very slender 
 foundation of knowledge or experience. 
 
 What would the specialist think if we were to give a confident 
 opinion, and back it by our vote, on an important point of a 
 science which we have never specially studied ? And yet we do 
 this daily with regard to that most intricate of sciences — the 
 science of politics. 
 
 Believe me, the question of home politics requires a close study, 
 not only of our own social conditions of life; in our time I 
 think, I may safely say, it is also necessary to study and profit by 
 the experience gained, through much individual effort and 
 suffering, by other countries also. 
 
 But as for some of the broader questions of international 
 politics, I make bold to say, it is unlikely for us to have three 
 consecutive logical ideas on the subject, unless we are more or 
 less familiar with the past history of other countries beside our 
 own. 
 
 Now for a glance at the past history of Germany, in order the 
 better to understand its product — the present. 
 
 The centre of Europe had been inhabited by a number of 
 German tribes even before the time of Csesar, nineteen hundred 
 years ago, but it was not until the year 800 of our era that they 
 were united into one great empire. 
 
 It was on Christmas Day of the year a.d. 800 that Charle- 
 magne, the head of the Franks, was crowned at St. Peter's, in 
 Rome, as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Ger- 
 many, and Arch Protector of the Christian Faith. 
 
 Thus over two hundred and fifty years before the battle of 
 Hastings, from which our modern English history dates, we find 
 Germany a great power — the central constituent of the greatest 
 power in Europe. 
 
 I must pass over the history of centuries in leaps and bounds, 
 merely mentioning that the dissensions of the sons of Charlemagne 
 and their successors ultimately resulted in dividing the centre and 
 west of Europe into three distinct monarchies : — 
 
 i. France, the least powerful, but the foundation of the 
 France we all know. 
 
 2. The kingdom of Lorraine, a great part of which, together 
 with Burgundy, is now merged in the France of to-day. 
 
 3. Finally, the kingdom of Germany, ruled by elective monarchs, 
 
58 National Life and TJiought. 
 
 who at the same time were only crowned as Emperors of the 
 Holy Roman Empire, by this fact of being kings of Germany. 
 
 The time at my disposal does not allow me to do more than 
 refer to the splendour of the Empire of Germany during the 
 Middle Ages, when she was practically supreme over the whole 
 of Christianity, except independent little England. The dawn 
 of the Reformation found the German King or Roman Emperor 
 virtually ruler over a realm on which the sun never set. 
 
 We require an effort of the imagination even to recall that 
 there was a time when the ships of the Hansetowns brought over 
 unrivalled wealth to their harbours, and had a larger seaboard than 
 the whole of England, when Germany was the home of merchant 
 princes who helped their monarchs from their own private means, 
 when German architecture was most splendid, when German life 
 was most luxurious, and German manufacture the most renowned. 
 
 The greatness of Germany found its apogee in Charles V., and 
 began to decline immediately after his death. 
 
 Charles the Fifth lived 1520-55, and was cotemporary 
 with our Henry VIII. , who, in fact, as well as Francis the First of 
 France, both competed for the German crown, which, as I have 
 already pointed out, was elective. Charles the Fifth practically 
 ruled over the whole of Central Europe, Spain, and those 
 parts of America which had been discovered by Spanish naviga- 
 tors and explorers. 
 
 France, who has within the memory of living men — though only 
 of the very aged — held sway over the whole of Europe, always 
 excepting England, was a comparatively small Power in these 
 days. But it was not to be very long before she should profit by 
 the most potent causes of decay of the German Empire — internal 
 rivalries, selfish family policy, and religious dissension — and rise 
 to power at its expense. 
 
 And this brings me to that part of the history of Germany — the 
 period of the Reformation, and one of its results, the terrible 
 Thirty Years' War, without knowing something of which, I think, 
 it is almost impossible to form a fair idea of the political aspira- 
 tions of Germany of the present day. 
 
 We must bear in mind that it was Germany that bore the 
 brunt of the fierce struggle on the Continent against the 
 intellectual bondage of the Roman Catholic priesthood of those 
 days. 
 
 It was a German peasant's son, Martin Luther — whose birthday 
 it is this very day — who stood alone with the Bible in his hands, 
 
Germany — Politics. 59 
 
 before the Imperial Court at the Diet of Worms, and with the 
 prospect of death before him, sooner than yield one inch of 
 his convictions, held by these memorable words, " I cannot 
 do otherwise. God help me. Amen ! " When warned not to 
 go to Worms, for fear of assassination, this mighty peasant's son 
 replied, " And yet I will go to Worms if the house-tops were 
 crowded with devils." 
 
 This battle cry of conviction, pitted against the power of Rome, 
 backed, as was that power, by all the immense might of the 
 Catholic Emperor, Charles V., found an echo far and wide among 
 the best blood of the Fatherland. Thus began the dawn of a 
 new era in Europe, the Reformation initiated in Germany by 
 Martin Luther, although it took nearly seventy years to grow strong 
 enough to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by Charles V.'s suc- 
 cessors, backed as they were by the whole weight and power of 
 Catholicism. 
 
 This led, in its consequences, to the Thirty Years' War, 
 perhaps the most dreadful curse and calamity that ever befell a 
 people. In that war the northern and central part of Germany 
 fought for thirty long years, at times assisted by the Swedes, the 
 French, and other foreigners, against the power of the Houses of 
 Austria and Bavaria. 
 
 We in England also have our glorious pages of Protestant 
 history connected with the Reformation. We need only recall 
 Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada. But with us its 
 inception was more of a political and aristocratic character. In 
 Germany the dawn of modern times sprang from the very heart 
 of the best of the people, and they also it was who suffered most 
 in its furtherance. We always had the advantage of being safe on 
 this tight little island we love so much. Our country has never 
 been invaded, and our population decimated, as was the case in 
 Germany during the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 Before that war Germany had a population of over sixteen 
 millions ; at its close less than five millions remained. Before 
 that war broke out Germany was perhaps the wealthiest country in 
 Europe ; at its close the population was on the verge of starvation. 
 
 To give you some faint idea of the horrors of the Thirty Years' 
 War, reliable chronicles of the time inform us that towns which 
 were only visited by it when it was half over lost seventy-five per 
 cent, of their population. 
 
 For years hordes of robbers and thieves, disbanded troops, 
 traversed the country from one end to the other, burning and 
 
60 National Life and Thought. 
 
 stealing and murdering in broad daylight. Prosperous manufac- 
 turing towns with 10,000 inhabitants had a population of 500 left 
 after the war. Hunger and famine led the people, in many 
 instances, to tear the newly-buried from their graves and devour 
 them. Disease carried off what the sword had spared. 
 
 When the Peace of 1648 put an end to the war, the country 
 itself was one mass of waste, fields not tilled for a generation, 
 whole towns swept away, burned or razed to the ground. 
 
 The Peace of Westphalia, as it is known in history, stripped 
 Germany of the fruits of centuries of labour and effort, which even 
 now she has only partially recovered. 
 
 It left the Protestant part of Germany impoverished, helpless, 
 unable to defend itself, in the centre of Europe. France profited 
 by a large extension of territory, and from that time onwards found 
 it more and more easy to turn German soil into the battlefields of 
 her ambitious rulers. 
 
 From that time down to our own, excepting the brief period 
 of the French Revolution, when German sovereigns — not their 
 people — endeavoured to coerce the French people, and paid 
 dearly for it, — from that time the policy of France, the policy, 
 in common fairness, it should be said, of French rulers and 
 statesmen, not of the French people, has been the spoliation of 
 Germany. 
 
 Any student of history can tell you that the whole of Germany 
 is marked by mementoes of French battlefields and burnt ruined 
 castles. 
 
 If I refer to Frederick the Great, it is to point out that with 
 him rose in the last century a Protestant great Power in the north 
 of Germany which in our time has crowned the long-longed-for 
 edifice of National Unity. 
 
 He it was who, with a population of five millions — one quarter 
 more than London to-day — held the determination to stake every- 
 thing sooner than run the risk of falling back into the hideous 
 political nightmare of the past. 
 
 In England we cannot understand the strength of this resolve ; 
 we have practically never known a foreigner on our soil for eight 
 hundred years ! But the Germans have hardly known anything 
 else ! And I contend, not only that they are justified in holding 
 on to the armaments ; but, I maintain, their whole history proves 
 — even that of the last twenty years as well — that the Germans are 
 a peaceful, non-aggressive people. 
 
 You may answer to this, that their government has lately 
 
Germany — Politics. 6 1 
 
 shown itself occasionally aggressive with regard to the African 
 Colonies ! 
 
 True, perhaps ; but what a paltry matter that is compared to 
 the enormous annexations of territory we have accomplished 
 during the last ten years ! 
 
 And yet, even those small, but, I hold, perfectly justifiable, 
 efforts to have colonies of their own, have met with great opposi- 
 tion from the German people. Believe me, the Germans do not 
 aspire to rival us beyond the seas ; and if they did, they could 
 not ! No more than, I honestly believe, they will ever beat us in 
 the long run in commerce with all their cheapness. 
 
 But I do not say we should indulge in any sentimental feeling 
 with regard to them. If Germany trespasses on our interests, let 
 us defend them ; but do not let us cant over it. But England 
 and Germany have every interest to remain at peace ; and thus, 
 without any entangling alliance, they are both at one in the 
 interests of peace as against all peace-breakers, and so will 
 remain. 
 
 Further than this, I say we should try and inform ourselves as 
 to the history and the qualities of a great nation, whose interests, 
 whereas they nowhere seriously clash with our own, go hand in 
 hand with them in many important matters. 
 
 We should try to look at such a nation, which is bound to 
 play a great part socially, with judgment intellectually, as well as 
 politically, unbiassed, without favour, but without prejudice, in 
 order, if possible, to gain some benefit to ourselves, some ex- 
 perience in many important matters, social, intellectual, and 
 political, by so doing. 
 
 How comes it that we find the united armies of Russia, Austria, 
 and France, representing a population of over a hundred millions, 
 at bay more or less for seven years ? 
 
 And when he passed away, it was not long before the greatest 
 soldier of modern times, an avenging Attila in modern form, I 
 mean Napoleon the First, appeared on the scene ; and profiting 
 by the dissensions and incapacity, yea, even the want of character 
 of German rulers, again turned Germany into the battlefield of 
 Europe, and preyed on the vitals of the impoverished German 
 people for nearly twenty years ! 
 
 The history of the last two hundred years, and the sufferings the 
 people of Germany underwent all through that long period, explains 
 the readiness of Germans to-day to bear any taxation, to put up 
 with any strain, even poverty if you will, and to stand and fall 
 
62 National Life and Thought. 
 
 with their Emperor to retain the position they have bought with 
 their blood. 
 
 If I have especially dwelt on the misery revealed in the history 
 of the last two hundred years, it is because it affords an explanation 
 of the central idea that governs the politics of Germany. If 
 we find such difficulty, as we undoubtedly do, in appreciating that 
 main principle, may it not be more or less in consequence of 
 some such frame of mind as this : — If a nation prospers by different 
 methods to our own, we do not regard them exactly so much with 
 envy as with a certain diffident incredulous irritability that their 
 prosperity must be " delusive," as it has not been secured by our 
 own hallowed, patent process ? 
 
 The success of Germany in our time can be distinctly traced to 
 the initiative of great men. Our democratic age does not believe 
 in great men ; it is rather inclined to sneer at them — at least at its 
 own great men, who have yet to face the verdict of posterity. I 
 would venture to say there is a time for great men ; everything in 
 its proper time; great men, majorities, and ballot boxes; but 
 nothing final, for all illnesses — like a patent medicine — in this 
 great world of ours, in which nothing is final but change. 
 
 Our attention is drawn to the affairs of other nations. We 
 know little of them. We have a hazy idea that they are some- 
 how not so free as we are ; hence, we take our stand by the magic 
 word " Liberty " — itself only a means to an end — and judge others 
 by our standard of that magic quantity ! 
 
 It is perhaps true that we do enjoy the greatest amount of 
 political liberty of any country, consequently some of us think we 
 are in a position to look down upon others and to pity them, 
 their status and their aims, forthwith ! 
 
 I am sorry to say that I am unable to endorse this view, much 
 less to believe in its finality. And if I had not restricted the 
 limits of my lecture to-day to the politics of Germany — after all, 
 only one phase of a nation's life — I think I could easily prove to 
 you that, as far as the comparative amount of happiness is con- 
 cerned, that is to be found here and in Germany, we are by no 
 means in the position to pity our neighbours or look down upon 
 them. 
 
 I am sorry to say that the frame of mind which enables a man 
 to call out, " I thank my stars that I am an Englishman," is one I 
 cannot share. I hold that not only to be a reprehensible senti- 
 ment, savouring of the Pharisee of the New Testament, but one 
 precluding any possible fair estimate of other countries. In this 
 
Germany — Politics. 6 3 
 
 case it is doubly so, at least from my point of view, holding, as I 
 do, that although we owe our first affections to the land of our 
 birth, we do not owe it blind idolatry, which prevents the critic 
 recognising where there is something beyond our seas to admire 
 and to learn from. 
 
 I hope I cede to no man in my pride at what England and 
 Englishmen have achieved and are achieving, but there my 
 feelings stop ; for if they did not, I should consider myself 
 perfectly unfitted to address you on the subject before us. In 
 fact, I might never have taken the trouble to study it ! 
 
 But you may say, Yes, that is all very well, but you cannot deny 
 that it is a sad state of things that, with all admitted prosperity 
 and military success of Germany, there should be so little liberty 
 there, that thousands and thousands of emigrants flee their native 
 shores year by year in order to escape the hated conscription. 
 
 Well, I do deny the latter part of that contention. I even am 
 of opinion that it is a libel on the manhood of Germany ! I even 
 believe that, without any conscription at all, emigration would be 
 just as great, for it is the natural consequence of that mysterious 
 law that seems to govern mankind since thousands of years to 
 steer from east to west in search of fortune ! 
 
 It is disproved by the thousands and thousands of Germans 
 who hurried back to their native shores at the trumpet call of war 
 in the memorable year 1870 ! It is indirectly disproved by 
 analogy by the enormous emigration from Ireland ! Is that caused 
 by the law of compulsory military service ? 
 
 Now, as regards individual political liberty, the contention 
 must be admitted to be partially true. But what does it amount 
 to ? Everything gained on earth is the result, it would seem, of 
 a compromise. 
 
 Must we not ourselves admit that, notwithstanding our boasted 
 political liberty, we have a greater amount of social slavery, of 
 drunkenness, of bigotry, of human misery to show than military- 
 ridden Germany. 
 
 If you will not admit it, I pledge you my word of honour it is 
 so, nevertheless. 
 
 The facts are simply these : The Germans had to accept 
 national independence — the first condition of national life — 
 whence and under what conditions it was possible. If they had 
 waited until public opinion — I do not deny that public opinion 
 was partially for it — a free press and the ballot-box had beaten off 
 their enemies and cemented their hopeless internal differences, 
 
64 National Life and Tkouglit. 
 
 surrounded by enemies, as they always were, they might have 
 waited in vain until the day of judgment ! 
 
 Strong men had to come, but, mind, honest, fearless,' self- 
 sacrificing men ! And they came, and led, and conquered the 
 right of a great nation to regulate its own affairs, without let or 
 hindrance, from outside. 
 
 These advantages must remain ; their comparatively trivial 
 drawbacks must yield gradually to the spirit of the time. You 
 must remember in judging Germany that she has only just 
 emerged from a life struggle for her very existence as an inde- 
 pendent united nation ! 
 
 What are twenty years in the life of a nation ? A day, a week 
 in the life of a man ! 
 
 Germany in some senses can only fairly be compared to 
 England as it was centuries ago, and that comparison involves no 
 disadvantage to her. She will soon be found in touch with, if 
 not ahead of her time, believe me ! 
 
 It is the policy of Germany to-day to retain the fruits of the 
 sacrifices that have been brought. These fruits are necessary 
 for her existence as a strong, independent, peace-loving Power in 
 the centre of Europe ; she does not wish to add to these fruits 
 from the mere lust of conquest. 
 
 At present, it must be admitted, there are many inconveniences 
 to be met in Germany that jar on our unaccustomed nerves. 
 
 The officials are in many cases arbitrary, and inclined to think 
 themselves the masters and the public their servants. These are 
 disadvantages, I admit; but against these, and sundry others, 
 believe me, there are many things to be met with in Germany for 
 which we might well envy the Germans, police-ridden, military- 
 ridden as they are ! 
 
 If they enjoy less political liberty than we, they suffer less from 
 heartless social tyranny, from ostracism of the poor, than we do. 
 If their educated men frequent the churches less than ours do, 
 on the other hand, when you enter a German church you will 
 find the rich sitting beside the poor. 
 
 If their system of administration is somewhat cumbersome, 
 irksome, and inquisitorial, on the other hand, the Government of 
 Germany protects the poor from the unprincipled adulteration 
 of articles of food, which is the curse of Italy, England, and 
 America. 
 
 Imprisonment and enormous fines await the adulterators in the 
 Fatherland; here in the land of liberty an eminent statesman 
 
Germany — Politics. 65 
 
 once told Englishmen that, according to these wondrous laws of 
 supply and demand, adulteration is a mild form of competition ! 
 A nice creed for the working-man with £1 a week and a family 
 to console himself with when he is half-poisoned with whiskey 
 adulterated with sulphuric acid. 
 
 I will only add, for your information, that many of the stoutest 
 planks of your Radical platform — a long way off practical applica- 
 tion in this country — are already accomplished facts in poor 
 Germany. For instance, local government, which exists all over 
 Germany in excellent working order, side by side with, but subor- 
 dinate to, the Imperial Parliament at Berlin. 
 
 I fancy I could tell you a deal more -about Germany that would 
 be new to you, but it is slightly outside the scope of my lecture 
 of to-day. 
 
 With your permission, however, I should like to conclude with 
 a word regarding the general acceptation of militarism and 
 war — a subject we cannot overlook in dealing with political 
 Germany. 
 
 We may like it or not, but the sad truth it is, nevertheless, that 
 mankind is always at war. 
 
 The battle of life is one of the inexorable conditions of 
 existence all the world over in the whole animal kingdom — man- 
 kind at its head included. 
 
 And, among mankind, let me tell you, there are few more per- 
 sistent fighters than the entire Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 In fact, we who now indulge in dreams of peace, we owe our 
 very existence to our capacity for fighting and beating our 
 enemies all over the world. 
 
 The Americans, our kinsmen, are at present silently at war with 
 the North American Indians ; we ourselves are at war with the 
 Maoris in New Zealand, the aborigines in Australia, who, all in 
 measurable distance of time from now, will as surely be cut off 
 from the face of the earth, as the extinct bird, the dodo • as surely 
 as if they were cut off by the sword in one single night. 
 
 The ordeal of battle is by no means the most terrible one 
 humanity has to face, particularly if it has to be faced in an 
 honourable cause by a whole nation in arms ; the rich fighting 
 in the ranks side by side with the poor ; both equal, under the 
 directing hand of genius. And the nation which shirks this 
 ordeal when its honour and its existence are at stake is sure to go 
 towards decay and ultimate obliteration. 
 
 Is that not war we see in our midst ; the grim fight of the 
 
 E 
 
66 National Life and Thought. 
 
 dockers for a bare existence ; the constant fight of the Sheffield 
 grinders with death, which vanquishes them invariably before the 
 prime of life ; the struggle of the stokers on board the American 
 liners, which finishes them in three to five years. Go into the 
 slums of Salford and Manchester, and look at the population 
 there, and come back and tell me whether you have not seen 
 one of the most hideous struggles amidst dirt, improvidence, 
 and poverty ? 
 
 Let us endeavour to see things as they are, not as an over- 
 excited, though kindly, imagination would picture them to us. 
 We are told of the cruel wrong of taking men away from the 
 blessed productive labour of peace ! I cannot see much blessing 
 or much happiness in a family during peace starving on ten 
 shillings a week. 
 
 It is, doubtless, a grand achievement of our time that the 
 desire to arbitrate should have arisen, even when only compara- 
 tively trivial interests and imaginary honour are at stake; but, 
 believe me, as surely as we owe our national and racial pre- 
 dominance almost exclusively to successful fighting, so surely will 
 it ever be in the future, that we must be prepared to back our 
 arguments, in the last resort, by the sword. 
 
 The lessons of history teach us that it is imperative that a 
 nation should be able to fight. Humanity teaches us to be 
 merciful and just in the hour of victory. 
 
 To those who look at politics without illusions, and yet with a 
 full belief in the onward progress of humanity, there can be few 
 more cheering and consoling items in our time than the history 
 of the great American Secession War of 1 86 1-68, in which, 
 although the passions were inflamed as much as ever in times 
 gone by, yet in the moment of victory a new spirit of mercy and 
 forgiveness came over the victors, that would not allow a drop of 
 blood to be spilt, but sought to heal the wounds an unavoidable 
 struggle had struck. 
 
 Why is America at peace now ? Because she is humanitarian ? 
 No ; because nobody dare touch her ! 
 
 We hear of a war that throws a nation, and with it civilisation, 
 fifty years back. 
 
 But this is not always the case. Even an unsuccessful war has 
 before now been an admitted benefit, in some instances, to a 
 nation, let alone a legitimate and successful one. Witness the 
 case of Austria in 1866. That war acted on Austria like a storm 
 that swept away the miasmas of stagnation. Austria since that 
 
Germany — Politics. 6j 
 
 period has become one of the most liberally constituted countries 
 in Europe, if that is of any benefit to a nation. 
 
 Frederick the Great, on his return to Berlin after the Seven 
 Years' War, could not restrain his tears when he heard the loyal 
 cheers of the half-starved and beggared population that had 
 suffered so much. And yet, who shall deny to-day that those 
 sufferings of the Seven Years' War, as well as later those of the 
 War of Liberation against the First Napoleon, steeled the nerves 
 of the nation to do and die in our time ? 
 
 And to-day, if you read the newspapers, you will find that every- 
 where the German Emperor goes he is received with enthusiasm. 
 If you think that the poor enslaved Germans cheer their chains, 
 you are very much mistaken. Whatever socialistic malcontents 
 and opponents of every form of royalty may think, yet among the 
 vast majority of the nation he is immensely popular, because he 
 represents the national aspirations — if not all of them, at least the 
 principal ones. When he said that eighteen army-corps would 
 bite the dust before the ground which had been won by such 
 sacrifices should be yielded, he gave vent to a sentiment which we 
 Englishmen can only understand, if we imagine the eventuality 
 of Ireland being threatened by a foreign Power ! 
 
 To hear people tell about the peace of the world, the sympathy 
 between peoples, etc., does credit to the illusions of those that 
 propound these ideas, and credit to the heart of those that take 
 them up and applaud them. But from the point of view of the 
 student of politics, the hope of practical realisation of these senti- 
 ments has little basis in the history of the world ! 
 
 I think it would be a little more natural to look for more sym- 
 pathy between ourselves, as man to man, as class to class, before 
 we go far afield in our desire to embrace the whole world in one 
 bond of union and cheap sympathy. 
 
 We allow our politicians to make party capital out of the 
 wrongs and sufferings of nations and races at the other end of 
 Europe. I have never yet seen any benefit accrue to my country- 
 men from such doings ! 
 
 Believe me, there is more real unhappiness, more hopeless 
 misery to be met with within a mile of London Bridge than in 
 the whole of Asiatic Turkey ! 
 
 Let us drop our artificial sympathy with the sufferings of 
 others. We cannot afford it. Let us strive to find out where 
 there is something to admire in others ; where they are ahead of 
 us ; where they are better off than we. And if we can gain some 
 
68 National Life and Thought. 
 
 of the advantages others possess without their disadvantages, let 
 us make up our minds that we will have them too, or know the 
 reason why ! 
 
 Before we indulge in dreams of cosmopolitan sympathy, our 
 aristocracy, and particularly our middle classes that are led by 
 the clergy, must get rid of the suspicion of looking upon poverty 
 as next door to a crime. 
 
 Our democracy must get rid of that " envy and hatred " which 
 it vents "sometimes" against those who do not share its views. 
 
 Listen to the tone of some of our democratic organs against the 
 so-called military despotism of Europe. 
 
 What do they usually know of those countries, and their vital 
 necessities ? Very often but little, I fear. 
 
 Then let us strive and add to our knowledge all round, so that 
 we may be better able each of us to fulfil that little part in the 
 battle of life unconsciously assigned to each of us, namely, each 
 to contribute, according to his opportunities, his mite towards the 
 solution of that great social political problem — to leave the world 
 a little better than we found it ! 
 
V. 
 GERMAN CULTURE. 
 
 SIDNEY WHITMAN. 
 
 IF I venture to submit a few words on German Culture for 
 your consideration, it is that I was partly educated in that 
 country, and have been lastingly impressed by much I saw and 
 learnt whilst there. 
 
 I shall not be surprised if you even opine that my picture of 
 German culture be rather a favourable one. If so, I can only 
 say I am dealing with the spirit of things, and not with any 
 preference for the nation as individuals. 
 
 There seems to be little doubt that a certain unpopularity of 
 Germany has of late years made itself felt, not only in this country ; 
 but history fails to show that temporary popularity, much less 
 unpopularity, as distinct from the verdict of posterity, has much to 
 do with the merits or demerits of a people. Every nation in its 
 turn comes in for a gust of international dislike. The weaker a 
 power, the less likely she is to earn foreign animosity; but that 
 does not prove her to be any the better on that account. 
 
 About the year 1848, Lord Palmerston, our Foreign Secretary, 
 was so disliked all over the Continent, that they used to sing a 
 ditty in the streets of Vienna ending — 
 
 " And if the devil has a son, 
 He surely must be Palmerston." 
 
 Yet we are not told that this did Lord Palmerston any harm in 
 his own country. 
 
 Now, as regards the partial unpopularity of Germany of to-day, 
 all I can say is that, as a student of the German nation, I do not 
 join in that feeling. Not that I deny there may be some cause 
 for it ; but whatever it may be, I do not let it affect my judg- 
 ment of the nation, which I respect, nor of its culture, which I 
 greatly admire. 
 
 If the Germans try to beat us in politics, my common sense 
 69 
 
JO National Life and Thought. 
 
 tells me that we, as a great power, are perfectly well able to 
 stand up and defend our own interests if they are trespassed upon. 
 
 As for the poor German princes whom we think fit to call over 
 to our shores, and endow with money and position, and who at 
 our Radicals are constantly railing, my common sense again tells 
 me that it is we who are to blame for being so liberal, not they 
 for accepting our bounty. I know of one or two impecunious 
 English noblemen who pass through the bankruptcy court with 
 amiable regularity, and who would only be too delighted to go 
 and live in clover in Germany, if that country were so foolish 
 as to pay them to do so. I also know of a few German 
 princes who are almost as wealthy as our wealthiest peers, and 
 who would not care to come over here and accept our favours. 
 
 As for German competition in the labour markets, there are 
 undoubtedly pushing traders in Germany as there are here. 
 Well, competitors in trade are never congenial acquaintances. 
 But as for the Germans underselling us, and living on nothing in 
 doing so, I do not believe these are the causes that need make 
 us fear German competition. I believe there are as many poor 
 Englishmen at the present time forced to live on starvation wages 
 as any German. No, believe me, the main cause of German 
 success in the labour markets is to be found in the superior 
 culture and education of the masses ! 
 
 I cannot hope to prove that to you to-day ; I can only ask you 
 to accept it at present on trust, to be proved, perhaps, with your 
 kind permission, on some future occasion. All I can do to-day 
 is to draw your attention to some features of German culture 
 which I think may interest you, and to be impartial in doing so. 
 
 In the first place, the very subject of my lecture, " Culture," 
 almost precludes an exact division of light and shade, of 
 advantages and drawbacks. These are to be found everywhere and 
 in everything. We do not all believe in the Old Testament notion 
 of the " chosen people." It smacks too much of privilege and 
 favouritism for our taste. It seems more natural to believe that 
 every people has its special failures and its compensating virtues. 
 And if it happens to be my set task to-day to illustrate a bright 
 side of the German people, that does not mean that you cannot 
 find the same amount of envy and uncharitableness in Germany 
 as we can show of cant and hypocrisy in England. 
 
 But we do not analyse shadows when we are dwelling on the 
 characteristics of light. And those must be left to take care 
 of themselves to-day, even at the risk of your fancying that I ignore 
 
German Culture. yi 
 
 their existence. It is well known that in Berlin and elsewhere 
 the struggle of life is becoming as severe as with us. In Germany, 
 as elsewhere, there are social problems to be solved which 
 culture alone can neither solve nor put out of sight. But I 
 believe firmly that there are hardly any political or social 
 problems the solution of which will not be ultimately facilitated 
 for any nation by widespread education and an exalted standard 
 of thinking. 
 
 Culture, in its higher sense, has hitherto with us been the 
 privilege of the few. I maintain that in the future many of its 
 attainable features must become accessible to all. For when I 
 speak of the adhere of a nation, I do not mean an artificial 
 refinement, nor do I refer to a privileged, cultured class. I 
 refer to the thought and aspirations of many millions, including 
 the best of all classes. 
 
 In this sense, I look upon "culture" as the very sun that 
 brightens the daily life of a nation. And if on this point I am 
 guilty of partisanship for Germany, it springs from the belief that 
 I have sometimes seen more true dignity of life and enjoyment 
 among the population there than here, strange as this statement 
 may appear to you. 
 
 Only the other day I was talking to a friend, a hard-headed, 
 matter-of-fact London solicitor. He said to me that he could 
 not understand why I often seemed so favourably impressed by 
 Germany. " Well," I replied, " you yourself have often been 
 there. Tell me honestly, where has it struck you that there seems 
 to be more happiness among the people — here or there ? " His 
 immediate reply was, " Undoubtedly in Germany." " Well, then," 
 I answered, "that is my justification." 
 
 Let me take an incident at random from Christmas time in 
 Germany as evidence of what I mean. The Standard contained 
 a telegram the other day from Berlin stating that over 400,000 
 Christmas trees had been disposed of there. That means practically 
 a Christmas tree in every family in the capital. That means a 
 gathering of good-will and an exchange of presents, however 
 trifling, in every family, down to the humblest working-man of 
 the community. 
 
 Surely no insignificant sign that, notwithstanding blood-tax and 
 heavy money taxation, there exists in Germany a universal feeling 
 of culture in a family sense, and the means to gratify it in an 
 almost unparalleled proportion. If I have admired the beauties 
 of nature in Germany, the culture of the educated ; if I have 
 
J 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 participated in the enjoyments of the wealthy, as well as in 
 the simpler pastimes of the humble, my enjoyment has seldom 
 been spoilt by the sight of the hard, cold, cheerless life of ■ the 
 many. And I adhere to this, notwithstanding the important 
 fact that the masses in this country hardly pay any direct taxes at 
 all, whereas they are almost always paying petty taxes in Germany. 
 
 These may seem strong statements to you, who mostly only 
 hear of foreign countries as so much behind our own, and of their 
 people as only deserving pity in their thraldom; but what is 
 more, I am morally certain, that if you had lived in Germany or 
 France, and knew these countries as I fancy I do, you would 
 share my views. I have found plenty of travelled Englishmen 
 who feel even stronger on this subject than I do. 
 
 And now I must ask your indulgence for the apparent egoism 
 of these few preliminary personal remarks. But I judged them 
 necessary, in order to enable you the better to understand the drift 
 of my lecture. For it is really no easy matter to give you even a 
 faint idea of German culture in the sixty minutes at my disposal. 
 
 To begin with, what is culture? Like most terms of far- 
 reaching application, it is somewhat difficult to give a concise 
 definition of it. The word itself would seem to mean simply the 
 process of cultivation ; something that is cultivated; a soil that has 
 been ploughed, that is eager to produce. The Germans even use 
 the very term Kultur, as applied equally to a high state of mental 
 education and also to a tilled soil — Culturboden. And I think you 
 will find the same wide application of the word in some English 
 dictionaries. 
 
 And yet that will not give us a sufficient indication of the 
 word's meaning. For the Americans, with all their excellent 
 school training, are in some respects less cultured than the 
 uneducated Italians. The French, again, although vastly inferior 
 to the Germans in book knowledge, are, from some points of view, 
 perhaps more cultured than the Germans. 
 
 The explanation of the above contradiction must be sought and 
 will be found in the fuller explanation of the meaning of the term 
 itself. Culture does not stand alone for the amount of exact 
 knowledge or talents we possess, be they artistic, practical, or 
 scientific. It includes in its significance the feeling for refine- 
 ment, for the fitness of things in general. Thus a man who. 
 with imperfect mental attainments, combines a refinement of 
 feeling for the sufferings or the wants or susceptibilities of others 
 
 a fulness of true sympathy, as opposed to a false, hysterical, 
 
German Culture. 73 
 
 diseased sentiment — is in many respects more cultured than a 
 walking encyclopaedia of knowledge, combined with coarseness of 
 manner and feeling. 
 
 Self-respect, in its best sense, is part of all true culture, even 
 when possessed by the unlettered. And this speciality of culture 
 will be found most prevalent in those countries in which the 
 dignity of labour is most generally recognised. That rare quality, 
 tact of the heart, which enables us to respect ourselves in showing 
 a proper regard for the feelings of others, is a part of true culture 
 that may be learnt by mixing with the world, but which is ever 
 best exemplified when it is inborn. I have seen it in some of very 
 humble station, and found it wanting in many holding exalted 
 position. 
 
 Again, a proper respect for women is a special feature of true 
 culture, and one in which, I make bold to say, Englishmen are 
 perhaps second only to our own race beyond the seas. 
 
 Another point of culture, in which the long stability of our 
 political system has undoubtedly given us a striking pre-eminence, 
 is the great respect we have in England for established law. This 
 feeling extends even towards the law's humblest representative. 
 The moral ascendency of the English policeman I hold to be 
 unparalleled in the world. 
 
 Another point, which I venture to think is not unconnected 
 with our prosperous and great national history, is a certain 
 generosity and breadth of mind we often meet with in England 
 in judging others. I may be biassed in this, but it has struck 
 me in comparison with the rapidity and ease with which I 
 have found slander and misrepresentation travel and propagate 
 in some other countries. Bigotry and intolerance, class pride 
 and class selfishness, are incompatible with true culture, which 
 itself is synonymous with a broad and generous cast of mind. 
 
 Again, the mere jQ s. d. utilitarian, whose narrow mental horizon 
 does not enable him to discern even the indirect money value of 
 knowledge, let alone its power of adding to the dignity of our 
 life, he will pooh-pooh our ideas of culture, and simply ask, " What 
 is your bank balance?" "Very little." "Well, then, you are a 
 pauper, with all your culture." 
 
 Such was the frame of mind of an otherwise worthy citizen, to 
 whom a friend of mine showed a complimentary letter he had 
 been honoured with by Mr. Gladstone, whose birthday it is to-day. 
 Now, I think you will agree with me, that whatever political 
 party we may belong to, we may look upon a personal compli- 
 
74 National Life and Thought. 
 
 ment from an intellectual giant such as Mr. Gladstone as a high 
 honour. But our Avorthy citizen thought otherwise, and merely 
 asked, t: Is there a cheque in the letter ? " This man was slightly 
 wanting in the sense of reverence — an important one in all 
 culture. 
 
 It is true the apostles of culture do not often amass riches. 
 The late Mr. Matthew Arnold died the other day little better than 
 a pauper, from a banker's point of view. He did not write books 
 that were read by the million. But the day may come when such 
 books, though on a broader basis, will touch the minds of the 
 million as Dickens' works now touch their heart ; and then it 
 will be plainly seen that the one goes hand in hand with the 
 other — the heart with the mind — in educating us to feel the beauty 
 and dignity of life on this earth. However, I will not tax your 
 attention any farther by vague generalisations, but rather try and 
 make my meaning clear by explanation as I go along. 
 
 To begin with, I think I can discern three distinct, broad lines 
 of culture — that of the mind, that of the heart, and, thirdly, the 
 culture of the body. Now, taking the last first, if we accept the 
 splendid advertisements of " Pears' Soap," of " Sunlight Soap," 
 of " Brooke's Soap" that " won't wash clothes," and many others, 
 as any criterion to go by, we must either be dreadfully in want of 
 soap, or we really ought to be bodily the cleanest nation on the 
 face of the earth ; and if you believe it, no word of mine shall 
 cast a doubt on your faith. 
 
 In that other important branch of body-culture — namely, our 
 outdoor sports, and hygienic science in general — I think it is less 
 open to doubt that the Anglo-Saxon race is really the first in the 
 world. Indeed, the indomitable spirit of emulation and rivalry 
 shown in the practice of athletics is not unconnected with our 
 mighty history of colonisation and world-power. But as I do not 
 believe in the uncompensated superiority of any people all round, 
 so also I cannot help remarking that the prevalence of the spirit 
 of gambling and betting is a direct outcome of some forms of sport, 
 and goes far to moderate our complacency. 
 
 As for the culture of the heart, the splendid record of individual 
 unselfish effort for the good of others that is stamped on every 
 page in our national history, the charity of the wealthy, the 
 devotion of the humble, — these show us what our race is capable 
 of, and make me feel it unnecessary to stray at large under this 
 heading in order to point a moral or adorn a tale. 
 
 Now, let us note what the great Russian novelist Turgenieff has 
 
German Culture. 75 
 
 to say on German Culture. He expresses his views very unmis- 
 takably in a letter dated 1 8th August 1862: — " When you leave 
 muddy Poland and arrive on German soil, you find yourself, as it 
 were, in a radiant land. The poor Slavonic race ! We blame 
 Hegel for having assigned to the Slavs a less illustrious mission 
 than to the German family. Alas ! every one can convince himself 
 that Hegel was right. Civilisation is worked out, not by ideas, 
 but by manners. Yes, here es wird behaglich zu muthe (a sense of 
 comfort comes over me) ; this is mainly because my intellectual 
 development is associated with Germany. Not to mention philo- 
 sophy and poetry, even German humour is after my own heart. 
 Alas ! our Russian so-called education disposes us to imitate 
 rather French morals, and the more is the pity. Moreover, what 
 pleases us in French education are its bad sides — notably its 
 licentiousness and its slipshod ways ; it is mostly these things 
 that the Russian selects and assimilates. The German spirit, 
 which is made up wholly of discipline, is not in harmony with our 
 nature. What a pity that Russian tourists merely pass through 
 Berlin, without entering into the spirit of the place ! Only good 
 schools can cure us of our superficiality." 
 
 It is to some aspects of the German spirit that I wish to draw 
 attention, and particularly to one special feature thereof — the 
 unconscious endeavour to make the everyday aspect of life less 
 cold and cheerless, particularly to those who are not blessed with 
 wealth and other worldly advantages. This special German 
 feature seems to me to be a joint product of heart and mind, 
 acting for generations past in rare unison, in a direction already 
 marked out for us, although on somewhat different lines, by 
 the ancient Greeks, the most cultured people of antiquity. 
 
 That truly great and good man, Abraham Lincoln — in my 
 humble opinion one of the most cultured men we have seen in 
 our time — had a jocular habit of illustrating his most important 
 utterances by the following playful words : " Now, let me tell you 
 a little story." 
 
 Among my memories of Germany, few have retained such a firm 
 hold of my thoughts as a little woodcut taken out of an American 
 illustrated paper. It represented an elderly German citizen in 
 bed, reading by the light of an enormously long candle, stuck into 
 a small shaky candlestick. The bedcover, one of those dreadful 
 feather-bed counterpanes to be met with perhaps only in Germany, 
 reached from his chin down to somewhere a little below his knees. 
 Underneath this realistic sketch the following words were printed ; 
 
7 6 National Life and TJwught. 
 
 "The candle too long, the bedclothes too short ; but what does it 
 matter as long as you are happy ? " 
 
 It seems to me there is a world of fact and of food for thought 
 in that little sketch and in those accompanying words. In the 
 first place, note the small, shaky candlestick. Could there be a 
 more apt illustration of the one great drawback of much we might 
 otherwise admire in Germany — namely, the want of practical 
 ability in everyday matters ? — one of the qualities the possession of 
 which has long given the Anglo-Saxon people such a start in the 
 race for wealth. I never remember seeing a properly-fitting candle- 
 stick in Germany, and it is only lately that German beds are 
 anything like the practical coaxers to rest that we are accustomed 
 to here. The political misery and the poverty of the past have 
 undoubtedly had a deal to do with the neglect of this depart- 
 ment of culture — namely, the culture of " comfort." But in this 
 respect Germany has made great strides within the last twenty years. 
 
 Now, coming back to my woodcut, let me draw your attention 
 to the fact that this man is in bed — at first sight a trivial circum- 
 stance, but in reality a most instructive one. He might be sitting 
 up and drinking, or, worse still, be out at some music hall or 
 public-house. Not that this German is a henpecked husband, 
 who dare not go out and enjoy himself; or that he, like an English 
 blue-ribbonite, never indulges in malt liquor. Far from it. He 
 polishes off his mug of beer at his favourite beer-house, where the 
 humblest, and some of the high and well-born too, mingle and 
 behave themselves. He whiles away an hour there in the 
 congenial company of the educated men of the town, for he is no 
 psalm-singer, who denies himself the harmless enjoyments of life. 
 But he keeps early hours, he goes to bed at a reasonable time — in 
 fact, he is a moral man. 
 
 Oh, you may say, it is late, and the public-houses are closed ; 
 and there you would be sadly mistaken. In the first place, there 
 are no public-houses in Germany. The culture of the German 
 people would prevent their patronising such dens of adulteration 
 and cold-blooded drink. In the second place, there are no 
 Draconic early-closing laws in Germany. It is even a great 
 question whether the politically down-trodden German would 
 tamely submit to such tyranny, let alone local option or total 
 prohibition. Only some years ago there was a riot, attended with 
 bloodshed, merely because of an attempt to raise the price of 
 beer. It would want a bold legislator indeed to dare to tell the 
 humblest German to give up his harmless glass of beer, and turn 
 
German Culture. jj 
 
 out at the strike of the clock into the street like so many children. 
 But as there is no coercion, so there is little drunkenness, 
 although no teetotalism, and that notwithstanding the unlimited 
 hours the beer-houses are allowed to remain open. The case of 
 Germany goes to show, that it is self-respect, and not prohibition 
 or enforced pledges of teetotalism, that will make a nation sober. 
 
 As I said before, the subject of my sketch is in bed, and even 
 risking to set fire to the bed-clothes and to catch rheumatism in 
 his lower extremities, in order to improve his mind before courting 
 the slumbers of the just ; for I feel convined that he is reading 
 some instructive book — perhaps Darwin's Origin of the Species. 
 Yes, it is this wonderful thirst for useful knowledge which 
 distinguishes the whole German people, and mentally ennobles 
 them. This is one of the most striking features of their wide- 
 spread culture ; for the Germans look upon intellectual know- 
 ledge as something almost divine, something to be regarded with 
 reverence, to be worshipped for its own sake. 
 
 It is this trait in the national character which explains the 
 extraordinary influence the poet Goethe, as a man and as a thinker, 
 has exercised over the minds of his countrymen. And here the 
 Germans possess a great advantage over us, who unfortunately 
 know next to nothing of the personality of our greatest countryman, 
 Shakespeare. We can only judge what an immense loss this is to 
 English culture, when we know what Goethe's personality has been 
 to Germany. 
 
 Take away the poet Goethe, who, perhaps, of all moderns, has 
 best rendered and revived the Grecian ideals of the beauty and 
 dignity of life, and there remains the intellectual character of the 
 man, to whom every fruit from the tree of knowledge and truth 
 was a prize to live for, and the search of which was its own 
 reward. " Oh," he once exclaimed, " that I could come again in a 
 hundred years, if only to see and enjoy the sight of the progress 
 mankind will have made in that time along the path of truth." 
 And these words strike the key-note of the best culture of 
 Germany — the love of scientific truth, of mankind, the unselfish 
 interest in its progress and happiness. 
 
 No field of learning but what Goethe strove to work in it ; not 
 in a spirit of vanity, or with a feverish longing for worldly honour 
 and the noisy recognition of the multitude ; no, from pure love of 
 truth itself, of which our own poet Keats so aptly says — ■ 
 
 "Beauty is truth, truth beauty ; 
 That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." 
 
-A 
 
 78 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Goethe, as is well known, foreshadowed the conclusions since 
 drawn from Darwin's works, which in our time have revolutionised 
 our conception of cosmogony. It was Goethe, the friend of 
 princes, who, in the character of Faust, teaches the highest 
 philosophy to all— namely, that happiness is only to be found in 
 the fulfilment of duty, useful work done for the benefit of all. 
 Faust, after passing through every stage of worldly power and 
 enjoyment without obtaining rest, at last finds contentment as a 
 tiller of the soil ! But even where his efforts were incomplete 
 or unproductive, his example has remained a constant spur to 
 the intellect of Germany. Well might such a man exclaim, 
 without vanity, on being created a noble: "The dignity of 
 nobility has nothing surprising in store for me ; I was not con- 
 scious of an addition to my standing." For him there could 
 only exist the truly aristocratic distinctions of mind and character. 
 
 To Goethe is in great part owing the wonderful appreciation of 
 Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Burns, and Byron we find all over 
 Germany. Of Shakespeare he once said, "When I think of 
 Shakspeare, I cannot understand how I can have the audacity to 
 attempt anything." And yet Goethe knew that he, too, was 
 destined to be immortal ; but, like all true greatness, it is ever 
 found hand in hand with the recognition of kindred genius. 
 It is reserved for the Liliputian to cavil at those whose size 
 makes him doubly conscious of his littleness. 
 
 I have travelled much in Germany, and I think you would be 
 surprised if I could tell you of the widespread admiration and 
 knowledge to be met with everywhere of our English literature, 
 and of our English greatness of thought and action. The 
 Germans stand first in their eager recognition of the best 
 in foreign countries. We might well learn from them in this. 
 A German schoolmaster once told me : " I always urge my pupils 
 to read Sir Walter Scott. In the first place, he is a glorious 
 novelist ; and then the perusal of his works inculcates a nobility of 
 aim and feeling that are only too rare nowadays in this money- 
 making age." 
 
 Shakespeare is known to all in the Fatherland, and I might 
 even say the same of Dickens — that great poet of the human heart, 
 as an eminent German man of letters once styled him to me. 
 The other day I read in the Times (Nov. iS, 1889) respecting 
 German theatres: "The stage interpretation of Shakespeare is 
 rapidly rising to a higher level in Germany even than in England." 
 How neatly put, " even than in England " ! I cannot under- 
 
German Culture. yg 
 
 stand these circumlocutions, when it is so easy to speak the truth. 
 Why not state the plain truth — namely, that the stage interpretation 
 of Shakespeare in Germany is not "rapidly rising," but rather that 
 it lias long been far above that, " even " in England ? There are 
 at least a dozen towns in Germany in which you may any day 
 witness not only as good representations of Shakespeare as our 
 best, but many masterpieces of Shakespeare that are never 
 performed in England at all, because they don't pay. But they 
 pay in poor, military-ridden Germany, because the Germans love 
 Shakespeare. The mind of Shakespeare' is one of the corner-stones 
 of German culture. They have fairly gained a right to love the 
 greatest Englishman that ever lived. They have won him for 
 themselves by studying and reverencing his divine spirit — perhaps 
 the proudest conquest in the field of intellect to be met with in 
 the history of the world, this conquering love of a foreign 
 nation of forty millions for a humble Englishman who lived three 
 hundred years ago ! If I wished to pay the spirit of German 
 culture, in one sentence, the highest encomium I can think of, 
 it would be that it is worthy of sharing the proudest boast of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race — namely, the possession of Shakespeare. 
 
 The other day I was reading an account of the foundation of 
 Cavendish College, Cambridge. I may add that its peculiar 
 feature is to consist in its cheapness, and in the desire to help 
 forward the industrious but poor student — a most praiseworthy 
 intention, no doubt, and one which is hailed by a public organ 
 with pleasure as a new endeavour to bring the universities and 
 the people into closer communion. But it is somewhat strange 
 to read such a mouthful about so little in the freest country in 
 the world ! 
 
 Why, in poor despotic Germany there are twenty-two univer- U" 
 sities, some of them far larger in number of students than any of 
 our English ones. Talk of our tiny, new-fangled thread of 
 communion between the universities and the people ! Why, the 
 German universities are almost identical with the German people ; 
 the former are part of the latter, as the heart is part of the human 
 frame. The youth of the German people, in their twenty-two 
 universities, are not the representatives of the respectability of a 
 class, but have long been the torchbearers of every national ideal 
 striving towards independence and culture. The German nation 
 did not want the threatening wave of democracy in order to open 
 up the portals of instruction to the poor. Education has been 
 gratuitously open to the poorest in Germany for generations. 
 
8o National Life and Thought. 
 
 If it be true, as a thinker has said, that "the elevation and 
 expansion of the individual is the true aim of government," then 
 I say, without fear of contradiction, that, as far as culture is 
 concerned — the beautifying of our daily life, its dignity and its 
 happiness — even the petty German governments of the past have 
 in many ways more to show than we, with all our boasted 
 machinery of ballot-boxes — which, by-the-by, the Germans have 
 now got into the bargain, as well as universal suffrage. 
 
 It is but lately that it has been thought worth while to educate 
 our people at all. The word education is not to be found in 
 the gospel of the Manchester school of middle-class money-bags, 
 with their ten commandments summed up into one, "Buy in 
 the cheapest, and sell in the dearest market." Sell your soul 
 to the devil, if necessary; but keep a bank balance, be 
 respectable, and court popularity if you can. Germany has its 
 unscrupulous devotees of the laws of supply and demand as well 
 as we have. It has its greedy traders, who would adulterate every 
 article of food if they dare— the only difference being they dare 
 not; but they do not rule Germany, much less represent German 
 culture. 
 
 We have certainly secured the almost unlimited political liberty 
 of the subject. That is undoubtedly a great gain, though due as 
 much to our favoured geographical position as to our matchless 
 national virtues. But we have, up to the present, lived under an 
 almost despotic social tyranny. We have hitherto neglected the 
 mental and moral well-being of the helpless unit, and been content 
 to leave him unfettered to fight the battle of " the devil take the 
 hindermost " without much care of his mental status. 
 
 I do not deny that this hard struggle has done a great deal to 
 foster that manliness and energy for which the English national 
 character is noted throughout the world. I do not deny that our 
 political freedom has given us, in some sense, the supremacy of the 
 individual, as against a fussy bureaucracy. But I think well enough 
 of my countrymen to believe that we might retain these qualities, 
 and yet pour a little light on the lives of those whose fight in the 
 battle of life is at best but sunless and dark. 
 
 Hitherto it is the strictly practical that has guided us most. I 
 think it is time to mix a little ideality with the elixir of life. 
 Fortunately, we are tending in that direction, but more through 
 the initiative of private individuals than through the action of our 
 responsible authorities. It is by means of such societies as that 
 before whom I am lecturing, and of which so many have spontane- 
 
German Culture. 81 
 
 ously sprung up in this country, that charitable individuals seek 
 to make up and atone for a ruthless system of neglect. 
 
 We thought little of education as long as it only meant to us a 
 higher perception of life to the people, a weapon to emancipate 
 us from social and mental slavery. Not that I mean we are 
 forcibly enslaved by others, but rather by ourselves, through our 
 ignorance and want of true culture. Unlike some politically 
 backward people, we are undoubtedly free in a political sense — the 
 pity is that want of culture often prevents our using the freedom 
 which the franchise has given us. For I contend, that being so 
 favoured through our geographical position in our past political 
 history, we ought to enjoy every advantage other nations possess, 
 and a deal more besides which they have been unable to attain. 
 In money we are the richest nation in the world ; I see no reason 
 why we should not be the happiest and the most cultured, which, 
 I maintain, we are not. 
 
 We only adopted popular education when we adopted breech- 
 loaders. When the German wars of 1866 and 1870 suddenly 
 revealed to our surprise that education also helped to make a 
 nation fight successfully ; and when it had fought, to compete 
 with us in commerce, and to send over its better-educated sons 
 here, and take the bread out of the mouth of our neglected, 
 untutored countrymen. And this may show you what I 
 omitted to refer to at the beginning — namely, that superior 
 education may also assist us to prosper in an jQ s. d. sense. 
 
 Now, you may say this is all very well, but seeing is believing. 
 Where are the tangible proofs and results of all this culture to 
 be seen? How can you trace their connection with the well- 
 being of the community ? 
 
 Well, then, let us cast a glance at the outward aspects of the 
 country. It is not so very long ago that the poet Coleridge 
 referred to Cologne as the town of ugly wenches and nasty 
 stenches. Now, I am not going to say that the physical beauty 
 of the modern representatives of the mythical eleven thousand 
 virgins — God bless them ! — has improved since the days of Cole- 
 ridge, nor do I say that sanitary science is as yet as far advanced in 
 Germany as it is with us. This, as I said before, is a branch of 
 culture in which we are still ahead of the Germans, though it may 
 not be for long. For there at least we witness the honest and thor- 
 ough application of old-fashioned principles by the corporations, 
 whereas with us the best scientific systems are sometimes negli- 
 gently and dishonestly applied by our parochial authorities. 
 
82 National Life and Thought. 
 
 However, I do say I only wish, in order to prove the truth of 
 a few of my contentions, that I could accompany some of you 
 on a fortnight's trip through the Germany of to-day. 
 
 It would be doubly instructive to you at the present time, when 
 we read daily of the dishonest extravagance of our hospitals ; the 
 jerrybuilding of our board schools, and its consequences of typhoid 
 fever and diphtheria ; the dirt of our metropolitan bakehouses, 
 swarming with vermin ; the dirt of our military barracks, of our 
 police-cells, and sundry other unsavoury little indications that 
 our institutions are not yet all that they might be. 
 
 I would only ask you to come in a fair frame of mind, not in 
 that of a lamented club friend of mine, whom I once met in one 
 of the most picturesque of the many lovely German watering- 
 places. " How do you like Kissingen ? " I asked. " Why, they 
 haven't got a decent glass of brandy at the hotel, and I can't get 
 up a rubber of whist in the whole blessed place ! " 
 
 I think I could show you dozens of towns in Germany with 
 finer and better-kept streets and public buildings than our own. 
 The town of Frankfort, for instance, one of the most beautiful 
 and most wealthy towns of Europe, has as low a death-rate as 
 even our most favoured seaside health resorts, and that not- 
 withstanding a drainage system that does not come up to our 
 standard. Or, take a typical smaller town, such as Hildesheim, in 
 Hanover, a coloured print of which I have brought for your inspec- 
 tion. This is a town of about 20,000 inhabitants ; and if you look 
 at the print, you will see among its sights five different buildings 
 of public schools, every one of which is of interesting, if not of 
 commanding architecture. 
 
 Walk through the streets of any one of these German towns 
 on a Sunday. You will find them as clean as a new pin. You 
 will find the shops closed after mid-day, and the people enjoying 
 themselves in a sensible, healthy fashion. In larger towns, 
 where there are museums and picture-galleries, they are open 
 from early in the day. In the afternoon the population has 
 flocked out to the numberless coffee and beer gardens in the 
 suburbs, where they are sitting in family groups, all classes inter- 
 mingled, listening to the military bands. Suddenly the people 
 rise from their seats and take off their hats, but no one leaves 
 their places. It is only the king and queen taking an afternoon 
 walk with their children, and passing along the country road 
 adjoining the beer gardens. The king's family has reigned 
 over the country more than 800 years in one unbroken line. 
 
German Culture. 83 
 
 He himself is acknowledged to be one of the best military 
 leaders of the country. The people, although strongly demo- 
 cratic in feeling, have a great respect for their ruler and his 
 tamily ; but they don't rush after them and mob them. Their 
 tact, their self-respect, prevent them doing so. Also, the royal 
 family is to be seen almost daily walking among the people, 
 and returning their respectful silent greetings. Towards evening 
 many stroll back to town and crowd the theatres, where, on a 
 Sunday, almost always some classical plays or high-class operas 
 are given. 
 
 In few things is the culture of Germany more apparent 
 than in the sound character of their amusements, inviting all 
 classes alike by their excellence and cheapness. 
 
 It is true you are reminded everywhere of the military charac- 
 teristics of the nation. The whole nation is in arms ; it is a 
 sad fact, but at least it is not for conquest. But even here the 
 effects of "culture" are strongly visible. Go back to the 
 Franco-German war, and history — I believe even French 
 history — will tell you that, during a six months' influx of nearly 
 a million men in an enemy's country, flushed with the 
 excitement of victory, there is not one single authenticated 
 instance recorded of insult to a woman. If you want to know 
 what that means, you can take the trouble to read up the detailed 
 records of a few previous struggles in the history of this century. 
 
 I remember being present in Berlin at the triumphal entry of 
 the troops, 45,000 men, in July 1871. The town was so crowded 
 that I had to pay 15s. a-night for being allowed to lie down 
 at night on the floor with several others in a fifth-rate hotel. 
 I think I was on and off the pavement that day from five in the 
 morning till nearly five the next morning, and I can assure you 
 that I did not see one single drunken person. 
 
 But let us come back to our times. Look in on a German town 
 on a week-day, and pass the public schools. You will be struck by 
 the palatial buildings, situated on the finest sites, reserved for 
 the education of all classes alike, at which instruction is given 
 free to all alike. Come nearer, the windows are wide open, and 
 you may just happen to witness the singing lesson, and hear the 
 youthful voices sing one of those glorious choral songs of Martin 
 
 Luther : — 
 
 " God is a mighty citadel, 
 A trusty shield and weapon." 
 
 Let us come away out for a stroll in the open country. You 
 
84 National Life and Thought. 
 
 may not see many mansions of the immensely wealthy nobility ; 
 but what there is will not be walled round with bricks and 
 ornamented with boards advising you that you will be prosecuted 
 by the lord of the manor if you dare try to look at and trespass 
 on the choicest bits of scenery of your country, the private 
 property of a few. I say, it was want of culture of the heart that 
 originally made landowners surround their property with brick 
 walls, broken bottle glass, and iron fences. In Germany you can, 
 as a rule, at all times walk, unhindered and unheeded, in the 
 private grounds and gardens of the great. You can see and 
 rejoice in all — gardens, orchards, and vineyards ; and nobody will 
 be there to watch you, and warn you that you are a trespasser. 
 But also nobody would dream of robbing an orchard in Germany. 
 A people is backward in culture, discipline, and self-respect that 
 cannot be trusted to pass under a tree without pilfering its fruit. 
 But the sight of fruit is no incentive to theft in Germany. A 
 numerous peasant class exists. They are landowners and fruit- 
 growers. In fact, throughout the greater part of Germany the 
 public high roads are lined with fruit-trees, and passers by are 
 kindly allowed to pick up whatever falls to the ground. 
 
 Walk on. You may come upon some big factory, nowhere a 
 very picturesque sight ; but in Germany sometimes anything but 
 an ugly one. You may even chance to come when work is 
 stopped. The workmen are all marshalled in military fashion in 
 a large courtyard, for they have all been soldiers, workmen, clerks, 
 and employers alike, and as often as not the latter as privates in 
 the ranks. You ask, What is the matter ? It is the fifty years' 
 jubilee of an old workman. There is going to be a little speech- 
 making, and a concert afterwards by the band of the men. The 
 head of the firm is going to hand a gold watch to the workman in 
 question ; more important still, the reigning prince of the petty 
 state has sent down one of his own ministers in person to deliver 
 the gold medal for faithful service to the humble workman. 
 
 This may be a bit of the comedy of paternal government ; it 
 may be mere sentiment. Then all I can say is, the world is the 
 poorer for the lack of a little of such sentiment. Now, if you are 
 not already tired of my company, then come back to the German 
 town with me. It is already dark, but we are met by a vast 
 surging concourse of people. A brilliant torchlight procession 
 marches past, followed by a large crowd and a band playing — 
 ■ not one of those wretched German bands you see, and unfortun- 
 ately hear too, in London, which do not hail from Germany at 
 
German Culture. 
 
 85 
 
 all, which are in fact forbidden there. No, it is a band composed 
 of citizens, some of whom have fought in twenty pitched battles 
 in defence of their country, and have the medal on their breast 
 to testify to it. What is it all about? we ask. Oh, it is the 
 twenty-five years' jubilee of a popular lady-teacher at one of the 
 public schools, and the different trade-unions have turned out to 
 do honour to her, and to bring her a serenade ! Stand still a 
 moment in the crowd, and let your thoughts wander. I fancy it 
 would take a strong dose of insular prejudice to make you 
 believe that you are standing in midst of the unhappy population 
 of a down-trodden, despotic, military-ridden country ! 
 
 Now, in conclusion, let me come back to the little woodcut I 
 mentioned to you, and the words inscribed beneath it, " What 
 does it then matter as long as you are happy ? " There you have 
 the key-note of my thoughts on the culture of Germany — the wish 
 to point out a few items illustrative of the dignity, self-respect, and 
 happiness of the greatest number ; and I cannot but think that, 
 notwithstanding the unavoidable blood-tax of a so-called, but 
 wrongly so-called, despotic government, in some respects the 
 Germans are happier than we are, if not than we might be J and if 
 so, their culture, fostered by their government, has largely con- 
 tributed to that result. 
 

VI. 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 W. R. MORFILL, M.A. 
 
 MY hearers may imagine that in the short space of an hour 
 I should never be able to exhaust all that can be said 
 about Russia — certainly one of the most interesting of European 
 countries. All I can hope to do is to set before you on this 
 occasion some of the most noteworthy points in the political, 
 historical, and social life of this great people. 
 
 I have some fear that I shall not carry the sympathies of all my 
 audience with me, and there will be some who will find my lecture 
 dull, when I say frankly at the beginning that I have no stories 
 of Socialists or Nihilists, no revelations of "underground Russia," 
 as it is called, to communicate. 
 
 In the first place, we shall probably be best able to realise the 
 importance of Russia as a -factor in European politics if we 
 consider the area of the country and the number of its population. 
 The former exceeds 8,500,000 square miles, and, according to the 
 valuable article contributed to the last edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, the gross total of the inhabitants is one hundred and 
 six millions. Of course in this aggregate a great number of races 
 are included, the Slavs largely predominating. The Russians, 
 if we add the Malo-Russians in the South, and the White Russians 
 in the West, amount to more than sixty-three millions. These 
 form the dominant race, and the dominant tongue is the Great 
 Russian, which is now the only language allowed to be spoken at 
 court, and has been so since the days of Nicholas. During last 
 century and the early part of the present, French was in vogue — 
 just as it was at the German court and in Sweden ; but when a 
 people have risen to self-consciousness, they don't caie any longer 
 to talk in the idiom of the foreigner. Such a habit argues a 
 degraded condition in a nation, and it speaks well for the English 
 that during last century, when the French language had such 
 world-wide influence, our grandfathers and great grandfathers 
 87 
 
88 National Life and Tliought. 
 
 never tolerated anything else than their native Saxon. At the 
 present time, no one can hold any office in Russia who is not 
 acquainted with the national language in which all business is 
 transacted. 
 
 After the Slavs come the Litu-Lettish, the Ural-Altaic, and 
 Tatar races. These populations cannot be said to affect the 
 solidarity of the Russian Empire. The first amount to about 
 three millions. They are an ancient people, who have been 
 driven, as it were, into remote corners by advancing races. They 
 have been receding since the commencement of the historical 
 period. They remained pagans longer than any other of the 
 European populations. They were converted in a rather violent 
 manner in the fourteenth century, but when Herberstein travelled 
 among them at the beginning of the sixteenth, he found them in 
 some places still worshipping lizards. 
 
 Russia, as early as the time of Peter the Great, had acquired a 
 portion of Finland ; the rest of the country was ceded by Sweden 
 to Russia by the peace of Frederikshamm in 1809. Up to this 
 time the Finns have been able to preserve their diet, and have 
 enjoyed autonomy, but we have been hearing latterly that these 
 valuable privileges are going to be taken away from them. Let 
 us hope that the report will not prove true. Certainly the Finnish 
 language has developed under Russian protection ; under the 
 Swedes it had been depressed, but now the professors in the 
 University of Helsingfors deliver their lectures in it. 
 
 The Turco-Tatar races inhabiting Russia are numerous, amount- 
 ing to 3,629,000. They are in a backward state, and offer little 
 to our notice that is interesting. They do not exhibit any dis- 
 loyalty to Russia, and indeed do not seem to have any powers of 
 cohesion. During the last Turco-Russian war, as Leroy-Beaulieu 
 has told us, prayers were offered up in all the mosques of the 
 Caucasus for the success of the Russian arms. Perhaps it is true 
 of Russia, as it is also true of us with regard to our own Mussul- 
 man subjects, that they would rise against us, if we showed any 
 weakness ; but this is the nature of subject-races, especially of 
 the conceited and ignorant Mussulman, when he is under the 
 dominion of the giaour, whom he is pleased to think his inferior. 
 I remember reading years ago, in a book on the Indian mutiny, 
 how changed the manner of the native servants became towards 
 their masters, when they thought that the raj of the Europeans 
 was coming to an end. 
 
 A few words must now be said about the Poles and Germans. 
 
Russia. 89 
 
 Of the former there are many in Russia, not only in the old 
 kingdom of Poland, now divided into Russian governments, but 
 also in the Ukraine and Lithuania, where they form the landed 
 proprietors. They amount to nearly six millions. The feud 
 between the Russians and Poles is of long standing. We have it 
 as early as the time of the wars between Stephen Bathory and 
 Ivan the Terrible, in the sixteenth century, and the occupation of 
 Moscow by the Poles under Wladyslaw or Ladislaus the Second. 
 The latter by force of arms caused himself to be elected Tsar, and 
 held the supreme power for two years, owing to the exhausted 
 state of the country, for it is impossible to conceive the Russians 
 tolerating for any lengthened period a sovereign of the Latin faith. 
 The iniquitous dismemberments of Poland which took place last 
 century are well known. I shall say nothing to attempt to 
 exonerate Russia in this matter, but we must remember that the 
 blame is to be shared by the Prussians and Austrians. The 
 spoliation was not begun by Russia, as must be acknowledged in 
 all fairness. The plan was suggested to Catherine by Frederick 
 the Great, through the agency of his brother Prince Henry, when 
 he visited St. Petersburg. Austria has treated her Polish subjects 
 well, but the same cannot be said of Prussia. A Polish gentleman 
 once complained to me of the complete Germanisation of the 
 province of Posen : the names of villages and small towns, some 
 of which are of historical celebrity, are changed into Sedan, 
 Weissenburg, and Bismarckdorf ; the porters at the stations are 
 Germans, and the apparent Germanisation of the country is 
 complete, but you have only to step a few yards from the railway 
 station and you will frequently find yourself in a country where 
 hardly a word of German is understood. As I have said before, 
 it is impossible on the present occasion to enter into a discussion 
 about these melancholy events. I can only say that the Pole, 
 in his relations with the Russian, is dealing with a brother Slav, 
 who does not regard him as an inferior being, as the German 
 affects to do. Some of my hearers will perhaps remember the 
 sarcastic verses of Heine on the Poles, who, although by origin 
 a Jew — a people who, we must confess with shame,, have been 
 grossly ill-treated and despised — still writes with the most 
 aristocratic race-hatred when dealing with the Slavs; such is 
 the inconsistency of human nature. 
 
 There is another powerful alien element in Russia — the 
 German. Now we hear a great deal about the Germans in the 
 Baltic provinces, and the Russian encroachments upon them. 
 
90 National Life and Thought. 
 
 The Germans have plenty to say about the Muskovitischer, 
 Byzantinismus, and other things of the kind ; but, of course, the 
 Germans dwelling in these provinces have no more to do in 
 reality with the German Empire, than the inhabitants of the 
 Channel Islands have to do with the French Republic. Prince 
 Kropotkin, in his valuable article already alluded to, tells us that, 
 in the Baltic provinces, the prevailing population is Esthonian, 
 Curonian, or Lettish; the Germans (landlords in the country or 
 tradesmen and artizans in the towns) in the three provinces, Riga 
 included, hardly reach a total of 120,000 out of 1,800,000 
 inhabitants. The relations of the Esthonians and Letts to their 
 landlords are anything but friendly. 
 
 I must here quote an anecdote which my friend, the late Yuri 
 Samaun (one of the most eminent of Russian patriots), told me, 
 which illustrates the spirit in which the Baltic Germans have but 
 too often acted towards the native population. Some years ago 
 an Esthonian Finn emigrated from one of these provinces to 
 America and made a considerable fortune there. Being, I 
 suppose, at length overcome by a sort of nostalgie or mal de pays, 
 he resolved to return to his native country, and on coming back 
 spent a part of his fortune in founding a handsome Finnish club. 
 The German inhabitants, who had always considered the Finns a 
 kind of proletariat, were highly indignant ; such a thing had never 
 been known before. What right had a semi-civilised race to such 
 social privileges ? I merely quote this anecdote to show what has 
 been the state of feeling there, and not to engender race-hatred, 
 still less to speak disrespectfully of a race with which Englishmen 
 are so closely connected, and which has furnished to the world so 
 many eminent men. 
 
 The Semitic race is represented by three millions of Jews, 
 chiefly in Poland, in west and south-west Russia, and the 
 Caucasus. There is also the peculiar sect of the Jews called the 
 Karaites in the Crimea ; they are found in considerable numbers 
 in the picturesque city of Baktshi-Serai, once the residence of the 
 Khans. It is deeply to be regretted that in the last few years 
 some obsolete laws to the prejudice of the Jews should have been 
 revived in Russia. Some of them, however, have already been 
 abrogated. I can only join with the eminent Frenchman 
 Leroy-Beaulieu, who has written so well upon Russia, in his 
 eloquent appeal to the Czar to grant complete religious freedom 
 throughout his dominions — a policy especially necessary in a 
 country which can show such varieties of belief among its 
 

 Russia. 9 1 
 
 inhabitants. Certainly the feudal maxim, '• Cujus est regio ejus est 
 religio," is long since obsolete. Whatever the policy of the 
 government may be, the Russian peasant cannot be accused of 
 intolerance. He is found living peaceably side by side with 
 Mohammedans in many parts of Russia. If there is any antipathy 
 felt towards the Jews by the peasant, it is because he thinks he 
 is exploited by him. Careful observers of the matter all concur in 
 this view. It is more the Kahal, or Jewish economic society, 
 that the peasant fears than any dogma. In some periods of 
 Russian history Judaism has actually made many converts. 
 
 Russia has not many populous cities. The list is headed 
 by St. Petersburg with 929,090, but many of the so-called towns of 
 Russia are in reality little better than villages. Catherine 
 created several, which after her death fell into insignificance. 
 The fact is, the Slav, where he is not mixed with other races, is a 
 pure agriculturist, and has few trading tendencies. It was the 
 want of an active middle class which threw all the trade of 
 Poland into the hands of Germans and Jews, and was one of the 
 main causes of the fall of the Republic. It has been truly 
 remarked of that unhappy country that there was no sympathy 
 between the nobility and peasantry, and therefore no national 
 spirit. The Jews who busied themselves with commerce sold at 
 the same time to the serfs and their masters, and thus prevented 
 the two classes from coming in contact with each other. They 
 carried on the economic functions of everyday life, and yet 
 could not be considered a part of the nation. 
 
 I have but little time for anything more than a few general 
 remarks on the physical geography of Russia, but something must 
 be said, because it is only from realising this that we are able to 
 explain some of the facts of the history of a nation. 
 
 Russia, as a whole, is a vast plain ; high plateaus and mountains 
 are only met with in the Asiatic parts of the Empire. These flat 
 lands vary in their characteristics — sometimes they are dry deserts 
 or low table-lands, or lake regions, or marshy plains. There is 
 the splendid Caucasian range which separates Europe from Asia, 
 and in the east of Siberia there are volcanoes. When in 1224 
 the Mongols invaded the country, the vast plains of Russia assisted 
 them in their incursions. There Were no mountain fastnesses in 
 which an heroic people could make their stand ; the cities were, 
 for the most part, small and poorly fortified, and thus the country 
 lay at the feet of these barbarians. Wordsworth has told us in a 
 beautiful sonnet that liberty has two voices, that of the mountain 
 
92 National Life and TJwught. 
 
 and of the sea, but both mountain and sea were equally wanting 
 to Russia. Of course, Russia has abundance of water power in 
 lakes, huge rivers, and canals, and great diversities of climate. 
 
 When we consider the varieties of race in Russia — Slavs, Finns, 
 Germans, Tatars, Georgians, Armenians, and many others — we 
 can see that it must be no easy task to unite all these peoples, 
 with their different religions and languages, under one government ; 
 and perhaps this difficulty may furnish some slight excuse for the 
 slow progress of Russia in constitutional development with the 
 Aryan portion of her population. Her course is smooth enough, but 
 it is difficult to imagine, at all events at present, a Parliament in 
 which Chukches, Bashkirs, and Samoyedes would be members. 
 
 It does not come within the scope of my lecture to give any 
 detailed account of Russian history ; too much of this would be 
 merely of antiquarian and academic interest ; but in order to 
 understand a nation we must see what forces underlie it, what 
 stages of experience it has gone through, and these I shall en- 
 deavour to trace. 
 
 No one can say anything with much certainty about the Slavs 
 till the times of Procopius and Jordanes, in the sixth century a.d. 
 The ancients knew nothing about them ; perhaps the Russians 
 are to be found in the Budini and Neuri of Herodotus. There 
 seems to be some continuity of the population there, because on 
 the splendid electrum vase which was discovered in the tomb at 
 Kertch, we find figures represented with the same expression of 
 face and dressed in the same way, especially with their trousers 
 tucked in their boots, as one may see any day among the peasants 
 of Russia at the present time. 
 
 We have a lot of Sagas in the picturesque chronicle of Nestor, 
 or that which is attributed to him. He was a monk of Kiev who 
 lived in the eleventh century. It would be difficult to say how 
 much of this has any historical value; certainly we meet with 
 many replicas of his stories among the Norse legends. We hear 
 of Scandinavian adventurers coming and making themselves 
 masters of the Slavonic tribes. Novgorod and Kiev rise into 
 importance, the former the great commercial city, and the latter 
 the first to be Christianised. Round it gather the religious tradi- 
 tions of Russia. She receives her civilisation from Constantinople, 
 and it is the Greek, not Latin, form of our common faith. We 
 must thus recognise what some people are unable or unwilling to 
 understand — how Russia to all the Eastern Christians is really the 
 head of their Church. We owe her some gratitude for her 
 
Russia. 
 
 93 
 
 protection of them. So great was the power of the Turks, and so 
 apathetic were the Western sovereigns — -as shown among other 
 things, by allowing these barbarians to take Constantinople — that 
 in a short time all South-Eastern Europe and the Christians of 
 Asia, such as the Georgians, would have followed the example of 
 the Bosnian Beys and gone over to Islam en masse. But Peter 
 the Great turned the tide by showing the raya/is, groaning under 
 the Turkish yoke, that they could look to Russia for protection. 
 It is to her that the new nationality of Bulgaria, which gives such 
 excellent promise, owes its existence Granted that her conduct to 
 the Bulgarians at the present time is ungenerous — and I am 
 sorry to confess it — still no Bulgarian can forget that, had it not 
 been for Russian blood and treasure, he would still be treated 
 as a dog by a Mussulman master — still, withal, the smallest rights, 
 politically and socially. We cannot, therefore, be surprised that 
 the Christians of the East have felt grateful to Russia. Have we 
 not played into her hands by refusing to recognise the young 
 states rising upon the ruins of the decrepit and moribund Turkish 
 Empire ? We must reach out a hand to them unless we wish to 
 lose our influence in the East. 
 
 In this early and half-legendary period of Russia, we have 
 Vladimir of Kiev, the first Christian sovereign, the nine-hundredth 
 anniversary of whose baptism was celebrated at Kiev in 1888. 
 Yaroslav is the first legislator, and we have a specimen of his law- 
 making in the Rtisskaya Pravda, which has come down to us in 
 a manuscript of the chronicles of Novgorod. One of the great 
 features of this early code is, that we see in it the Russians wholly 
 unaffected by those Mongolian corruptions which afterwards 
 vitiated them. 
 
 Russia was at that time a purely European country, and on a 
 level with the other European nations. At this time the rural 
 peasants were not bound to the soil; they were not in that 
 condition till the sixteenth century. As yet Moscow has not 
 arisen : the history of the country groups itself round Kiev and 
 Novgorod. For nearly two hundred years after this, we have the 
 most dreary period in the Russian annals. The country is 
 divided among a lot of princelings. These little Slavonic princi- 
 palities, like the small Saxon kingdoms of the heptarchy, are not 
 destined at first to be united, although joined in brotherhood by a 
 common language and common institutions. They have not the 
 instinct of nationality, and at first the desire of private aggrandise- 
 ment impedes unity. Thus they are ripe for the attacks of the 
 
94 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Mongols, who waste them with fire and sword. All Russia except 
 Novgorod was under Mongol rule. During this gloomy period, 
 there was little national life ; but a great many monasteries were 
 built, and in them the monks were cloistered, and busied them- 
 selves with the compilation of a series of chronicles. 
 
 The yoke of the Mongols was indeed humiliating, but it can- 
 not be said to have had a great influence upon the country. 
 They made no attempt to turn the people into Tatars. They 
 were satisfied with the homage of the princes, with the poll-tax 
 which was exacted, and the military contingents which were fur- 
 nished. Intermarriages took place between the upper classes 
 occasionally, and thus the Muscovite nobility received a certain 
 Oriental admixture, although the amount of it has been greatly 
 exaggerated. Napoleon is reported to have said : " Scratch a 
 Russian and you will find a Tatar," but, like most epigrams, it is 
 only half a truth. There is nothing of the Tatar in the tall, blonde 
 men, with blue eyes, and frequently red or yellow hair, whom we 
 see forming the bulk of the population of so many parts of Russia. 
 They look more like Scandinavians than Tatars. 
 
 Many of the Russian customs — such as the seclusion of the 
 women, and the dress, the long, loose, flowing caftan — now became 
 Oriental, but this was altered by Peter the Great. People are apt 
 to imagine that the Russian language contains a great many 
 Tatar words, but in reality such is far from being the case. They 
 are confined to a few expressions for clothing and names of 
 material objects. To the Mongols is probably owing the intro- 
 duction of the knout, the use of which is now illegal. The word, 
 however, appears to be of Scandinavian origin, the same as our 
 knot. 
 
 The little principality of Moscow during this gloomy period con- 
 tains the germ of the future Russian Empire. It reminds one of 
 the fine lines of Cowper on Yardley Oak. When speaking of the 
 magnificent tree, he tells us there was a time when it was an acorn, 
 and the thievish jay might have swallowed 
 
 ' ' All its close-woven latitude of boughs 
 And all its embryo vastness at a gulp." 
 
 It is in 1147 that the city of Moscow first appears in the 
 Russian chronicles, but for a hundred years after its foundation 
 it remains an obscure dependency of the principality of Suzdal. 
 Gradually the little state which has grown round it receives 
 constant accessions of territory. During the Mongol invasion 
 Russia lost much — Kiev, together with Volhynia, Podolia, and 
 
Russia. 95 
 
 Galicia ; and the last of these she had never regained. When 
 Ivan III. and his two vigorous successors are seen holding the 
 reins of power, and emerging from the chaos of the Middle Ages, 
 Russia has the powerful principality of Lithuania on the west — the 
 official language of which we must remember was White Russian — 
 stretching almost from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and by the 
 marriage of Jagiello, its prince, with Jadviga, the heiress to the 
 Polish throne, it has become united with that country. Thus 
 Russia comes into conflict with Poland; the former symbolises 
 the Greek Church, the latter Catholicism. Their rivalries are to 
 last for two centuries ; nay, they are not terminated at the present 
 day. Russia is kept from the sea in the north by the Swedes, and 
 in the south by the Turks, in whom her old enemies the Mongols 
 are merged. She lies like a sluggish mass, cut off from commun- 
 ication with the outer world. When Ivan IV. wants artificers to 
 help him in his plans for civilising Russia, the Poles can block their 
 entrance into his dominions. Hence we shall not be surprised 
 at the welcome he gives to English seamanship, which brings 
 ambassadors to him by way of the White Sea. He has his idea of 
 getting an outlet into the Baltic, but it is too early. However, he 
 has some success in the south, and gets Astrakhan on the Caspian. 
 He also stretches his empire to Siberia. This cruel but far-sighted 
 man died in 1584. 
 
 The press had been introduced into Russia twenty years 
 previously. The country at this time swarmed with Englishmen, 
 who have left us some very amusing stories about Ivan. I only 
 wish I had time to tell some of them here. 
 
 The vigorous rule of the usurper Boris Godunov (1598-1605) 
 was on the whole beneficial to Russia. He also was a far-seeing 
 man, and had the courage to break with the exclusive traditions of 
 his country, for he sent some young Russians to England to be 
 educated. After his death Russia is again put back for nearly fifty 
 years by internal struggles and rival adventurers ; but Alexis, father 
 of Peter the Great, finally turns the tide ; the Western provinces, 
 including historical Kiev, are got back, and the transfer by the 
 Zoporoghian Cossacks of their allegiance from the Poles to Russia 
 brings her closer to the Black Sea. The country is full of useful 
 adventurers, including many Scotchmen. 
 
 Peter the Great comes before us as a titanic figure. Inheriting 
 all the traditions of autocracy, we must not feel surprised if, like 
 our own Edward I., he had no scruple about removing any 
 obstacles which appeared in his path. To the same cause must 
 
g6 National Life and Thought. 
 
 be traced his lack of self-rule. He was descended, we must 
 remember, from a long line of semi- Asiatic sovereigns ; and if he 
 had not been a man of powerful genius, would have been content 
 as they were, with the idleness and luxury of a palace. 
 
 He was willing to abandon all these pleasures, so captivating to 
 the ordinary mind, to put himself, as it were, to school ; to endure 
 privations and labour, in order to break with a system against 
 which his intellect rebelled. At the beginning of his reign, Peter 
 found Russia Asiatic, he left her European. He created a navy, 
 and gave her an outlet in the Baltic ; instead of the disorderly, 
 badly-accoutred regiments of the Streltsi, he gave Russia an army, 
 clothed and disciplined on the European model. He added 
 many provinces to the Empire, constructed canals, developed 
 industries, and caused useful books to be translated into Russian, 
 so that his ignorant subjects might be instructed. By the way, it 
 is a curious fact, and not generally known that the first Russian 
 grammar was printed in 1696 at Oxford, while Peter the Great 
 was in England. He gave Russia libraries and museums, galleries 
 of painting and sculpture ; and finally, from an obscure barbaric 
 power, isolated from her European sister kingdom, he created a 
 powerful Empire, able to make its voice heard in the councils of 
 Europe. 
 
 The feeble reigns of Catherine L, Peter II., Anne, and Elizabeth 
 effected little. A worthy successor to Peter did not appear till 
 Catherine II. ascended the throne. Russia then advanced to the 
 Black Sea, and gained the Crimea, and Odessa and Sevastopol 
 were built. 
 
 There is no need of going through the well-known events which 
 make her prominent in nineteenth century history — the great 
 Napoleon War, the burning of Moscow, and the retreat of the 
 French in 18 12. Familiar to us are also the wars of Nicholas, 
 especially our own conflicts with him, when the fields of the Crimea 
 were soaked with our blood. With what sad feelings have I 
 walked over the site of these fiercely-contested battles — 
 " How that red rain has made the harvest grow ! " 
 
 The most noteworthy event of later times has been the great 
 emancipation of the serfs in 1861. I have already said that the 
 rural peasants were only fixed to the soil so late as the time of 
 Boris Godunov, at the close of the sixteenth century. The 
 krestiane, as they were called, had been personally free up to 
 that date, and had the right of quitting their masters. This right 
 was especially put in practice on St. George's Day, and the recol- 
 
Russia. 
 
 97 
 
 lection of it has survived among the peasantry till the present 
 time, in a solitary proverb, " Vot iebe, babushka, yuriev dyen." 
 "Here's St. George's Day for you, old woman." After this time, we 
 find serfdom gradually developing. The first suggestion of their 
 emancipation belongs to Prince Golitsin, the favourite of the 
 Tsarevna Sophia, towards the close of the seventeenth century. 
 In his conversation with the Polish Ambassador Neuville, he 
 spoke to him of the necessity of putting Russia upon the same 
 footing as other more civilised nations, and he thought that the 
 first step towards this was the emancipation of the peasant, and 
 the transference to him of the land which he cultivated. Nothing, 
 however, at that time resulted from these intentions, and they did 
 not get their liberty till the time of Alexander II. 
 
 At the emancipation, twenty-three millions were set free. It 
 is now pretty generally known, that according to the system of 
 the Russian Mir, the land in a village is divided among the 
 peasants in proportion to the number of their families, and that 
 the re-distribution takes place at certain intervals, this and other 
 points concerning the Mir being settled by the village parliament, 
 at which not only men but women are allowed to vote. 
 
 My hearers will find all this clearly explained in the excel- 
 lent work of Sir Mackenzie Wallace. Subsequent researches 
 on the subject have shown that this land system is of great 
 antiquity, and can be traced thoroughout Europe — to say nothing 
 of Asia. In India the English met with it as soon as they 
 had become well acquainted with the country, and were at first 
 puzzled by it. In Switzerland and Servia it is still found 
 flourishing, and there are traces of it in England and Scotland. 
 The subject is too vast to be treated here ; in fact, to do it justice, 
 I should require the time allowed me for the whole lecture. 
 Many persons have thought that in this institution the Russians 
 have the germ of self-government, but in other respects the 
 peasants and artisans show ideas of co-operation : thus the artel 
 or confederation of workmen, whereby they lodge and board 
 together, each contributing his quota, is very curious and inter- 
 esting. People see in these things a certain, power of cohesion 
 and independent action among the Russian lower classes ; and, 
 as Leroy-Beaulieu very truly remarks, the number of religious 
 sects among them, which suffered considerable persecution in 
 old time, and even now are put under disabilities, shows that in 
 matters of conscience the Russian will have his individual 
 opinion, and will not be dictated to. 
 
 G 
 
 \ 
 
98 National Life and Thought. 
 
 I shall say something about these religious sects further on, 
 but will now proceed to consider the condition of the serf in 
 his newly enfranchised position. At the emancipation the com- 
 mune (Mr) received the village land, and might either pay as 
 before by so many days' personal labour from the inhabitants, 
 or might elect to redeem the allotments by the help of the crown, 
 and they then became free from all obligations to the landlord. 
 The crown paid the landlord, and the peasants have to pay the 
 crown for forty-nine years six per cent, interest on the money 
 advanced, that is, nine to twelve roubles on allotment. Each 
 village commune received 13! acres (five desiatiue) for each 
 male member. 
 
 For many interesting facts on the condition of the peasantry, 
 I recommend my hearers to read the little work of Mr. Ling 
 Roth, entitled, Agriculture and Peasantry in Eastern Russia. 
 
 As regards the government of Russia, which is a pure autocracy, 
 I need say nothing ; it is well known to all of you. Concerning the 
 Church, as I have said before, it follows the orthodox or Greek 
 faith. An excellent book has been recently written on Religion 
 in Russia, by M. Leroy-Beaulieu, which forms the third volume of 
 his opus magnum, L 'Empire les Tsars et les Russes. He does not 
 consider the religion of the muzhik or peasant a mere system of 
 fetish. Because it is overlaid with so many gross superstitions 
 and ceremonies, it does not follow that there is no real piety or 
 feeling underneath it. Tried by the same standard, the Italian 
 and Spanish peasant, and, we might add, the Roman Catholic 
 Irish, might be considered pagans. One of the most striking 
 facts in the history of the Russian Church is the raskol (lit. 
 cutting asunder, or splitting), the great religious schism which 
 began when Nikon, the primate, corrected the errors which had 
 crept into the religious books. This priest was a remarkable 
 man ; some have not hesitated to call him the greatest man 
 produced by Russia before the days of Peter. When summoned 
 before the council, his answers exhibited remarkable boldness. 
 Nikon was the Beckett of Russia, and might have carried the day 
 with the superstitious Emperor Alexis, whose ecclesiastical pro- 
 clivities have been noted for us in the quaint book of the 
 physician, Samuel Collins, but the Boyars were too much for 
 him. They talked the Tsar over, and Nikon lost his ecclesiastical 
 dignities and ended as a simple monk. Thus came the staro- 
 obriadtsi or old believers into existence, and since that time sects 
 have multiplied in Russia down to their latest development — that 
 
Russia. 
 
 99 
 
 of the Stundists — a kind of offshoot of German Protestantism, who 
 derive their name from the word Stunde. There are many 
 striking parallels to these sects in America and England. When 
 we see the shakuni or leapers, who make religious dances a great 
 part of their ritual, and the molokani, or milk-drinkers, we are 
 reminded of the Shakers and Quakers. Other sects recall the 
 Plymouth Brethren and the Irvingites. M. Leroy-Beaulieu does 
 not consider that the Tsar is as much the head of the Russian 
 Church as Queen Victoria of the English. Neither Moscow nor 
 St. Petersburg, he says, has ever seen an assembly of laymen like 
 the English Parliament legislate in Church questions. 
 
 Much has been said about the ignorance of the Russian rural 
 priest, but we must remember the laborious life he leads, the 
 great extent of the parishes which are under his care, and the 
 privations to which he is subject. Poor and half-educated as he 
 frequently is, he is the consoler of the muzhik in his troubles, and 
 the partaker of his joys, as the Irish priest has been in the sister 
 isle; he is like the "soggarth aroon" of Banim's pathetic songs. 
 We must all hope that Russia may advance gradually in the path of 
 constitutional progress, but it is difficult to see how she can move 
 in any other way than slowly and by degrees. The peasants are 
 at the present time too illiterate and the middle class is too small, 
 so that all power would necessarily fall into the hands of the 
 nobility. 
 
 The late Emperor Alexander II. did a great deal for Russia ; 
 his assassination was not merely a crime, but a blunder. I 
 cannot do better than quote the words of Dr. George Brandes, 
 the Dane, the author of Moderne Geister, and other works (p 
 129): — "Nothing has set Russia further backward than this last 
 occurrence, which was pregnant with misfortune. It immediately 
 prevented the formation 'of a sort of parliamentary constitution, 
 which had just then been promised. It frightened the successor 
 to the crown back from the paths his father had entered upon at 
 the beginning of his reign, and it seemed to justify the rulers in 
 reprisals and measures of persecution of every kind." With these 
 words I turn from a part of my subject which suggests painful 
 reflections, and gladly leave the heated atmosphere of politics to 
 say a few words on Russian literature. 
 
 Russian authors are at the present time coming into fashion, 
 and my audience may care to hear a few remarks upon them. 
 
 Beside their written literature the Russians have abundance of 
 folk-song, legend, and folk-tale. The former are called bilini, 
 
 L«rc 
 
IOO National Life and Thought. 
 
 which may be roughly translated, "tales of the olden time." 
 They have been divided into various cycles, as, for instance, those 
 of the older heroes, siarshie bogatiri, those of Vladimir, the Prince 
 of Kiev, of Novgorod and Moscow. The heroes of the first cycle 
 are Titanic beings, who have the power of assuming various 
 shapes. A great hero of the time of Vladimir is Ilya Muromets, 
 an unwieldy giant, in whose history some writers have seen a 
 symbolism of Russia herself. The cycle of Novgorod has stories 
 to tell us about rich merchants, but perhaps the cycle of Moscow, 
 with its legends about Ivan the Terrible, is most interesting. 
 
 An Englishman named Richard James, a graduate of Oxford, 
 who for some reason was in Russia at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, either copied out, or caused to be copied 
 out, some curious contemporary bilini, or historical ballads. 
 His pocket-book containing these pieces is preserved in the 
 Bodleian Library. Beside the bilini, there are many collections 
 of skazki, or prose tales, some of the most interesting of which 
 were made known to the English public by my late friend Mr. 
 Ralston. 
 
 As regards their written literature, the Russians have a series of 
 chronicles, compiled by monks in their cloisters, and extending 
 from that attributed to Nestor in the eleventh century to the 
 time of Peter the Great, in the latter part of the seventeenth. 
 In the earlier period of her history, in fact, down to the time of 
 Peter the Great, the traditions of Russian literature were wholly 
 Byzantine. We have sermons and lives of the saints in abun- 
 dance, and perhaps there is more to please the antiquary and 
 the philologist than the man of taste. There are a few exceptions, 
 such as the prose-poem on the Expedition of Prince Igor in the 
 twelfth century, and the Zadontschina of the fourteenth, which 
 describes the great victory of Dmitri Donskoi over the Tatars. 
 The fashion imitated was nearly always Byzantine, and that, it 
 must be confessed, was not a noble school in which an infant 
 literature could be formed. The Byzantine Greeks have been 
 sarcastically called the European Chinese ; their civilisation has 
 been said to be the corpse of antiquity laid out in state, and all 
 this is more or less true. Poetry was dead among them, unless 
 we are to find it in the tvoXltlkol o-riyoi of Tzetzes, and history 
 had degenerated in the veriest drybones of chronicles. But 
 changes were coming, even before the time of Peter, when the 
 Russians got back Kiev in 1686, which, although the cradle of 
 their nationality, had for upwards of three hundred years been 
 
Russia. IOI 
 
 in the possession of Lithuanian and Pole. Something of the 
 culture of the West was communicated to them by the Academy 
 which had been founded there, and Simeon Polotski, who came 
 to Moscow in 1665, and in 1672 was appointed tutor to the 
 children of Tsar Alexis. He began to write verses on the Latin 
 model and sacred dramas. With the reforms of Peter the Great 
 commences an entirely new period in the history of Russian 
 literature. From her Byzantine traditions, from legends of saints, 
 confused chronicles and orthodox hymnologies, Russia was to 
 pass, by one of the most violent changes ever witnessed in the 
 literature of any country, into epics moulded on the Henriade 
 and tedious odes in the style of Jean Baptiste Rousseau. 
 
 Then appeared Lamonosov, the son of a poor fisherman of 
 Archangel, who forms one of the curious band of peasant authors, 
 of very various merit, it must be confessed, who present such a 
 singular and unexpected phenomenon in Russian literature. The 
 life of this man, who died full of honours, exhibits the most 
 startling contrasts. The reign of Catherine II. (1762-1796) saw 
 the rise of a whole generation of court poets. The maxim, 
 ■'' Un Au°ustc peutaisement faire un Virgile" was seen in all its 
 absurdity in semi-barbarous Russia. These wits were supported 
 by the Empress and her immediate entourage, to whom their 
 florid productions were ordinarily addressed. Macaulay has 
 somewhere a homely but very vigorous simile to express the 
 relations in which a writer stands towards his public in countries 
 where education is little diffused. He says that the patron, if 
 he wants to have the odes of a poet, must support the poet — 
 just, he adds, as when you go to out-of-the-way countries, if 
 you want a mutton-chop, you must buy the whole sheep. In the 
 strict sense of the word, at that time there was no reading 
 public in Russia ; only in the dreary huts of the peasants, through 
 the long winter nights, the wandering rhapsodist kept up the 
 tradition of their popular legends. But the Gallicised courtiers 
 of the epoch of Catherine regarded these productions with 
 contempt, as the babble of savages. They were only to be 
 collected in the present century, when the great reaction against 
 the pseudo-classical school had set in. 
 
 The classicists, who numbered some prominent poets, Derz- 
 havin among them, lasted till some way on in the present century. 
 Then came the introduction of the romantic school by Zhukovski, 
 who survived to a good old age, dying in 1852. Alexander 
 Pushkin (1799-1857) symbolises this school at its height, with 
 
102 National Life and TJiouglit. 
 
 strong influences of Byronism, in spite of which he has written 
 poems national to the core, and was followed by Lermontov and 
 others. 
 
 It was in Alexis Koltsov that the real voice of the Russian 
 people first spoke, which up to that time had only been heard 
 in the national songs. I will give some of the details of his life 
 as it illustrates Russian society. 
 
 Lemonosov, Pushkin, and Zhukovski, were in one sense artificial 
 poets, well acquainted with the literatures of Western Europe ; but 
 in the new writer all Russia recognised a man of the people, who, 
 like Burns, could tell their aspirations and griefs, and whose songs 
 had been awakened by the influence of the popular lays of the 
 country. It is in this sense that Koltsov is the most national 
 of the Russian poets. 
 
 Alexis Koltsov was born at Voronezh, in the government of 
 the same name, October 2nd (old style), 1809. His father traded 
 in sheep, whose carcases were to be boiled down for the tallow 
 factories. The family had been engaged in this calling for some 
 generations, and were fairly substantial people of the burgher 
 class. Still, educationally speaking, his condition was a low one. 
 If Russian tradesmen show but little culture now, it was still more 
 the case seventy or eighty years ago. Voronezh was once an 
 active place, especially in the time of Peter the Great, but it is 
 now dull and decayed. Koltsov grew up amid coarse and vulgar 
 associations, and received a poor education. Till his death he used 
 an ungrammatical style, and his orthography was capricious. 
 Prosaic as some of the features of his life were, political acces- 
 sories were not wholly absent. He was occasionally sent to tend 
 his father's sheep on the steppe, and thus found himself in 
 communion with Nature. The account given by his biographers 
 reminds us very much of some of the details of the life of the 
 Ettrick Shepherd, and the days he spent upon the solitary Scottish 
 hills. It is of this steppe that the Russian poet is never weary of 
 singing, and he has consecrated to it many of his most beautiful 
 poems. His fancies were first stimulated by reading the works of 
 Dmitriev, a poet of the classical school, who flourished in the 
 interval between Lomonosov and the romantic revival under 
 Zhukovski. Soon afterwards he was able to purchase some of 
 the works of the Russian poets, but he did not make much 
 progress in the art of composition till Kashkin, a good-natured 
 bookseller, had given him a work on Russian parody. 
 
 There is a sad love episode in the life of the poet. His father, 
 
 
Russia. 103 
 
 although a mere burgher, owned some serfs, and among them was 
 a young girl who had grown up in the house, and had become 
 half servant and half companion to Koltsov's sisters, and indeed 
 there would not be much difference between them in matters of 
 education. The girl appears to have been a beauty of the South 
 Russian type. The poet fell in love with her, and his passion 
 was reciprocated. His father, however, determined to put an end 
 to such an attachment, which he thought little conducive to his 
 son's interest. He accordingly took advantage of the absence of 
 Alexis in the steppe, and sold Duniasha, as she was called, and 
 her mother, to one of the landed proprietors dwelling in the district 
 of the Don. The father of Koltsov appears in most of his actions to 
 have been a hard, money-loving man ; but it is not easy to forgive 
 him for this act of brutality. This sad instance of the abuse of 
 parental authority occurred when the poet was twenty-two years 
 of age. We are told that Duniasha soon fell into a consumption, 
 and died through grief at parting. 
 
 In 1835 eighteen of the poems of Koltsov were published through 
 the agency of his friend Stankevich, the son of a landed proprietor 
 of Voronezh, and the book soon made its way. In 1836 Koltsov 
 had occasion to visit St. Petersburg and Moscow, with a view to the 
 settlement of some of his father's affairs. It was on this occasion that 
 he was introduced to the chief literary lions of the two capitals, 
 and the salons of the aristocracy were thrown open to him. The 
 memoirs of Koltsov are full of painful details of the constant 
 squabbles of the poet with his father, a coarse, selfish old man. 
 After his return from Moscow in March 1841, Koltsov first began 
 to show signs of that disease which was to carry him off in the 
 following year. The disagreeable condition of his life is made 
 only too apparent in his letters to the critic Bielinski. Fortunately, 
 the poor poet fell into the hands of a kindly and sympathetic 
 doctor. Life had, however, become distasteful to Koltsov ; he 
 used to say to his medical man, " If my disease is inevitable, if 
 you are only protracting life, I implore you not to do so. The 
 sooner it is over the better, and I shall give you less trouble." 
 On the advice of his medical attendant, Koltsov went to a friend 
 in the country, so that he might bathe regularly in the Don, and 
 for some time his health improved. " But this improvement," 
 remarks Bielinski, "was only deferring death." For the re-estab- 
 lishment of his health rest was necessary, and that was denied 
 him. As happened in the case of Burns, some of his friends, 
 "flies of estate and sunshine," to use the words of George 
 
104 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Herbert, deserted him in his declining days. The poet died on 
 the 19th of October 1842. 
 
 The volume of verse which Koltsov has left us is not great in 
 extent, but its contents are valuable. He has all moods, but the 
 melancholy one is predominant. And we must remember that 
 the sorrows of Koltsov were real ones, and his desponding 
 utterances are not like the expressions of Weltschmerz of the 
 poets of the Byronic school, who too often show their self-inflicted 
 wounds to the world, as mendicants do for an alms. We cannot 
 say of him that he is 
 
 "Sad as summer night for wantonness." 
 
 Another poet, whose life has great interest, and gives us a 
 genuine picture of Russia, is Taras Shevchenko, the Cossack. 
 He wrote a short autobiography, from which I shall borrow some 
 incidents. 
 
 He was born on the 28th of March 18 14, in the village of 
 Mornitsa, in the Government of Kiev. His parents were serfs on 
 the estate of a certain landed proprietor named Engelhardt. He 
 has told us that he never knew any happiness after his ninth year. 
 He appears to have been a dreamy child, full of strange impulses ; 
 thus he was always gazing at the distant mountains, which he 
 could see from his village, and thought that they must be iron 
 pillars which supported the sky, He accordingly wandered from 
 the village to put his belief to the test, and would perhaps have 
 been lost if he had not been brought back by some pedlars. 
 In the year 1823 he lost his mother ; his father married again, and 
 the new wife proved a severe stepmother to the children. Taras, 
 with his little sister Irene, who was his constant companion, used 
 to go to the neighbouring Lebedinski monastery. Here he saw 
 an old monk who had been an eye-witness of the struggle between 
 the Malo-Russians and the Poles in 1768. This man had many 
 a story to tell of the period, and gave the youth the material for 
 his striking poem, Haidatnak. The father of Shevchenko sent 
 him for instruction to a certain Hubski, but died soon afterwards. 
 The stripling was then intrusted to a drunken priest named 
 Buhorski, who treated him with brutal severity. "This was the 
 first despot I ever had to deal with," says Taras, in his auto- 
 biography, "and he instilled in me for the rest of my life a 
 loathing for every sort of oppression which one man can commit 
 against another." He also narrates his adventures with two 
 other persons of this sort by whom he was instructed, and from 
 
Russia. 105 
 
 whom he learned something of the art of painting, for they were 
 employed in the preparation of icons, or sacred pictures. Thus, 
 besides a genius for song, an inclination for art was developed 
 in Taras. 
 
 But his fortunes were to undergo a change. In the year 1823 
 his old master, Engelhardt, died, and his son and heir took the 
 youngster as his page. This new position, although at first it 
 seemed to cripple his freedom, was, in the end, advantageous to 
 him. His duty was to remain in an ante-chamber, to await the 
 summons of his master. The poor youth, to wile away his time, 
 was accustomed to copy the pictures hanging on the wall. This 
 practice, however, on one occasion, brought him into trouble. 
 He accompanied his master to Vilna on the occasion of a festival 
 in honour of the Tsar. During the absence of M. Engelhardt 
 and his family at a ball, given in honour of this fete, young 
 Shevchenko set himself to copy the pictures which were hanging 
 on the walls. While the rest of the household slept, the young 
 artist secretly rose, lit a candle, and began drawing. He became 
 so engrossed in the pursuit that he did not perceive when his 
 master returned, and was rudely awakened from his artistic dreams 
 by his ears being pulled by the angry nobleman, who terrified the 
 young painter by telling him that by his sitting with a candle 
 among the papers, he had not only nearly set on fire the house 
 but the whole city. The unfortunate Shevchenko received a 
 beating. A better time, however, was in store for him. M. 
 Engelhardt resolved to send him to a house painter, with the 
 idea of employing him on his estate. To a decorator of this sort 
 he accordingly went, and luckily found a kind-hearted man. 
 
 In the year 1832, the master of the poet went to live permanently 
 at St. Petersburg, and Taras followed with the rest of the servants. 
 His talent for painting became more and more developed, and finally 
 in 1838 some benevolent men raised 2500 roubles, the sum 
 required to purchase him from his master, and set him free. 
 Shevchenko now became a member of the Academy of Arts, and 
 everything promised a successful career for him. In 1840 
 appeared his Kobzar containing a collection of lyrical pieces 
 in the Malo-Russian language. But unfortunately, while staying 
 at Kiev, he got mixed up with some secret societies, and was 
 denounced to the Government. He was sentenced to serve as a 
 soldier at Orenburg, on the Asiatic frontier of the empire, and 
 remained in exile from 1847 to 1857. His fate was the more 
 severe, because he was forbidden to amuse himself with painting. 
 
106 National Life and Thought. 
 
 He, however, contrived to secrete materials, even carrying a 
 pencil in his shoe, and his proceedings were winked at, through 
 the good nature of the officer in command. 
 
 The following story is told by the great novelist Turguehiev : 
 — " One general, an out-and-out martinet, having heard that 
 Shevchenko, in spite^of the prohibition, had made two or three 
 sketches, thought it his duty to report the matter to Perovski (the 
 commander-in-chief of the district) on one of his days of reception ; 
 but the latter looking sternly on the over-jealous informer, said in 
 a marked tone, ' General, I am deaf in this ear, be so good as to 
 repeat to me on the other side what you have said.' The general 
 took the hint, and going to the other side, told him something 
 which in no way concerned Shevchenko." 
 
 The poor poet during his captivity lamented his fate in some 
 sad poems. But a day of deliverance was at hand. In 1855 the 
 Emperor Nicholas died, and soon afterwards Shevchenko, through 
 the influence of his friends, was released. He returned to St. 
 Petersburg in 1858 ; in the summer of the following year he paid 
 a visit to the Ukraine, and saw his sister Irene in her native village. 
 But he was so poor, that he was only able to give her a rouble ; 
 at that time all the rest of the family were serfs. Towards the 
 middle of July he again made his appearance in St. Petersburg, 
 and occupied apartments in the Academy buildings. A new 
 edition of his Kobzar also appeared. He now became anxious to 
 settle down in the Ukraine, but his health was breaking up. On 
 the 26th of February 1861, the poet died suddenly in his studio. 
 He had expressed a wish to be buried in the Ukraine — 
 
 ' ' When I die, one thing I crave, 
 Lay me by the Dnieper, 
 That his broad and rushing wave 
 Lull in rest the sleeper." 
 
 His friends resolved that his wish should be carried out, and 
 he was buried in a picturesque spot, in the presence of a great 
 crowd of people. In imitation of the old Cossack tombs, a vast 
 mound of earth was piled on the grave, which was surmounted by 
 an iron cross. This tomb is an object of reverence among his 
 countrymen, and a little while ago it was spoken of in one of the 
 Polish journals as the Mecca of the South Russian revolutionists. 
 I have unfortunately no time for a detailed criticism of the writings 
 of Shevchenko. He loves to describe the wild exploits of the 
 Cossacks in their independent days. He has in a clever manner 
 interwoven with his poems the popular superstitions and customs 
 
Russia. 107 
 
 of his countrymen, hence his pieces are full of national colouring 
 and racy of the soil. 
 
 The Russians began early to write historical novels, under the 
 influence of Scott — that wizard whose genius pervaded Europe. 
 But it is in the realistic novels of modern life that they have 
 been destined to achieve their greatest success. We might per- 
 haps say that Nihilism, the exiles in Siberia, the supposed pro- 
 gress of the Russians towards India, and the Russian novel are 
 the only Russian subjects about which the ordinary English- 
 man feels any curiosity. In the stream of realistic fiction the 
 Russian mind has flowed ; and this is only what we must expect, 
 when we reflect that in the nineteenth century the epic and the 
 drama, as forms of fresh creative literature, are dead throughout 
 Europe. The novel of everyday life, in its higher development, 
 giving scope for fine psychological analysis, is everywhere trium- 
 phant. It was introduced to the Russians by Nicholas Gogol 
 (1809-1852), a writer of striking talents. As he was a native 
 of Malo-Russia, the colouring of his tales is taken from that 
 picturesque part of the empire. But even he, great as were his 
 merits, hardly during his lifetime succeeded in making himself 
 known beyond the boundaries of his native country. This was 
 done by Ivan Turgueniev, who died in 1883. Much has been 
 written by way of criticism upon the writings of Turgueniev, but 
 of his biography little is yet known, especially in this country. In 
 the latter part of the year 1884, there appeared in the pages of the 
 Russian Review, ■ Viestnik Yevropi, some interesting papers by a 
 Madame Zhitov, who had been adopted by Turgueniev's mother 
 during her long widowhood. We get from them a curious view 
 of Russian domestic life in the earlier part of the century, 
 and the sketch forms a fitting pendant to the biographies of 
 Koltsov and Shevchenko. 
 
 The mother of the novelist, Barbara Lituvinova, was descended 
 from an old and wealthy family. Unfortunately, her mother, who 
 became a widow at an early age, married again ; and both she and 
 her second husband ill-treated the daughter, for whom she never 
 seems to have felt any affection. The poor girl, persecuted by 
 her family, at last took refuge with a rich uncle, who treated her 
 well in the main, although he seems to have been a man of harsh 
 character. With him Barbara remained till his death, at which 
 time she was nearly thirty years of age. He left her all his 
 property, which was considerable. She soon afterwards married 
 Sergius Turgueniev, a man of noble family and handsome appear- 
 
io8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 ance, according to tradition. By him she had two sons, Ivan 
 and Nicholas. Her husband died early, and Madame Turgueniev 
 appears for the rest of her life to have vented her spleen and 
 melancholy upon the unfortunate serfs in her power. It was from 
 what he saw on his mother's estate that Turgueniev drew the 
 vigorous pictures of serfdom to be found in his works, especially 
 that which was the earliest to become celebrated, Zapiski Okhov- 
 nika — The Memoirs of a Sportsman. In his mother's house 
 occurred the pathetic incident of the dumb porter — a man whom 
 Madame Turgueniev had chosen for the post on account of his 
 gigantic stature, and who consoled himself in his desolation by 
 the companionship of a dog. His cruel mistress had the animal 
 removed, because he occasionally made a noise. Ivan, the future 
 novelist, was continually devising means whereby the cruelty of 
 his mother to the serfs could be baffled. Thus, when she ordered 
 the child of one of her female serfs, whom she employed in 
 attendance upon herself, to be sent to another estate, because it 
 diverted the attention of the mother from her mistress, Ivan, to 
 spare the poor woman's agonies, caused the child to be secretly 
 brought up on a part of the estate where the mother could visit it, 
 and Madame Turgueniev never discovered the trick which had 
 been played upon her. 
 
 She had educated one of her serfs as a medical man. He 
 had acquired such skill that his services were in great request in 
 the families of the district, when Madame Turgueniev was willing 
 to lend them. The serf-doctor was employed to attend the young 
 protegee of his mistress (Madame Zhitov) ; but as the little girl got 
 no better, Madame made up her mind to send to some doctors in 
 the neighbouring town. But the serf, whose name was Porphyry, 
 would not agree to this. The rest shall be told in the words of 
 Madame Zhitov : — 
 
 ' "With his air of imperturbable quiet and heavy step he entered 
 the room of his mistress, at the very moment when she was 
 writing a letter to invite the physician to attend. 
 
 " ' Do not trouble yourself, madam, to write to any one. I am 
 attending the young lady, and I will cure her.' 
 
 " Madame Turgueniev cast her eyes upon him, put her letter 
 aside, looked closely at the audacious speaker, and said, 'Re- 
 member, if you don't cure her, a journey to Siberia awaits you ' 
 — whither in old times rebellious serfs were sent as a punish- 
 ment. 
 
 " But this did not trouble our good doctor. He went out of the 
 
Russia. loo 
 
 room as slowly and quietly as he came, sat behind my bed, and 
 never left me day or night till the disease had taken a favourable 
 turn. Then, in the same phlegmatic manner, expressing neither 
 triumph nor joy (although he was very fond of me), he went into 
 the room where he had been threatened with Siberia, and said 
 'The young lady is now alive and safe, only it will be some 
 time before she is convalescent.' " 
 
 With Turgueniev, Count Leo Tolstoi and Dostoievski (who 
 died in 1881) divide the honours at the present day. Tolstoi 
 allures his readers by his vigorous portraiture and the strange under- 
 current of socialism which runs through all his writings. Dostoi- 
 evski has an overpowering realism. This realism in art, which is 
 so great a characteristic of the Russian mind, besides appearing in 
 the novelists, is conspicuous in the paintings of Verestchagin, and 
 also in the poetry of Nekrasov, who died a short time ago. Count 
 Melchior de Vogue, who has written a powerful book on the 
 Russian novel, says very truly the Russian thinker goes with a 
 bound to the depths of things. He sees the contradictions, the 
 vanity, the great nullity of life ; and if his artistic temperament 
 urges him to reproduce it, he does it with a disdainful impartial- 
 ity, at times with a frigid despair, most often with the fatalism 
 which is inherent in the Oriental parts of his soul. It is this 
 fatalism which makes the Russian accept with such apathy and 
 even with apparent cheerfulness whatever misfortunes he finds 
 himself compelled to undergo. Thus in spite of his exile and the 
 many physical and mental sufferings which he underwent, Dostoi- 
 evski returned from Siberia with an unbroken and loyal faith in 
 the political and religious institutions of his country. Aksakov 
 has told us that once Dostoievski, together with Mackenzie 
 Wallace and others, were spending the evening with him, when in 
 the course of a conversation on the Emperor Nicholas, the 
 novelist warmly eulogised him. After his departure the English- 
 man came up to Aksakov and asked, 
 
 " Did you not tell me that was Dostoievski ? ' 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " The author of Memorials of the House of Death " ? 
 
 " The same." 
 
 " But it cannot be he who was exiled to the mines ?" 
 
 "No other; and pray why not?" 
 
 "Why, how could he eulogise the very man who sent him to 
 the galley?" 
 
 "You, as a foreigner," replied Aksakov, "may find it difficult 
 
no National Life and TJwught. 
 
 to understand, but to us it is intelligible, and is thoroughly 
 Russian." 1 
 
 A few words are due about the Russian press. Many of the 
 newspapers are known in England by name, but little more. 
 Thus there is the Novoye Viemya, the proprietor of which is 
 Suvorin, the publisher. At Moscow is published the Russkia 
 Viedomosli, probably the most widely circulated paper in Russia, 
 edited by Sobolevski, formerly a professor, and the Moskovskia 
 Viedomosti, which used to be the organ of the celebrated Katkov. 
 There is also the Grazhdaniu. The Golos has, we believe, come 
 to an end. 
 
 Of the Reviews, the most noteworthy are the Viestnik Yevropi, 
 edited by Stasiulevich, in which some of the novels of Tur- 
 gueniev first made their appearance. There is also the Moscow 
 periodical, Russkaya Mist, Russian Thought, and to these may be 
 added the Russkaya Starina, Russian Antiquary, and Istoricheski 
 and Viestnik, both of which are published at St. Petersburg. 
 The former is an invaluable magazine to all who study Russian 
 history, containing, as it does, articles relating solely to the life 
 and thought of that country in previous times. It is edited by 
 Semevski. The Istorie/ieski Viestnik has a wider range, inasmuch 
 as it includes also the histories of other countries besides Russia. 
 The articles are of a very substantial character. It is edited by 
 Shubiaski, the author of some very interesting historical mono- 
 graphs. 
 
 So vast a subject as Russia it would be impossible to fully treat 
 of in a single lecture. All I have attempted to do is to put before 
 you some of the landmarks of the history and literature of this 
 strange country, which has only lately been studied among us. 
 
 Let us hope, as I have previously said, that Russia may advance 
 slowly and safely in the path of constitutional progress, and play 
 the great part which she seems destined to do in the history of the 
 nations. Nor need any of my hearers be terrified by the bugbear 
 of Panslavism, which is so often brandished before us like a red 
 rag. There seems to be an idea that Panslavism was invented by 
 the Russians, but as every one properly informed on the subject 
 knows, such is far from being the case. The first person to start 
 the idea was a certain Yuri Krizhanich, a Serb, who was in Russia 
 for some time during the reign of Alexis, the father of Peter the 
 Great, but from unknown causes was banished to Siberia, and is 
 supposed to have ended his days at Tobolsk. His works are full 
 1 Turner's Modern Novelists of Russia. 
 
Russia. Ill 
 
 of interest, and show great acuteness ; he carried his enthusiasm 
 so far that he believed in the possibility of a common Slavonic 
 language. 
 
 It seems to me impossible that a political union of the Slavonic 
 races should ever be formed. That there should be a certain 
 amount of sympathy among them is not to be wondered at, but 
 language and religion alone will prevent their complete fusion. 
 The Eastern Slavs are members of the Orthodox or Greek Church, 
 the Western of the Latin ; and each clings to his special alphabet, 
 in one case leading to the almost ludicrous result that the Serbs 
 and Croats, practically the same people, are divided into two 
 families, one of which uses the Latin and the other the Cyrillic 
 letters. Nay, we may actually see literary journals, one column 
 of which is in Cyrillic, and the other in the Latin alphabet. 
 Moreover, although the various Slavonic languages have roots, and 
 forms in common — as must necessarily be the case from their 
 belonging to the same family — yet the people who use different 
 languages are not mutually intelligible. In the same way, show 
 an Englishman a page of Dutch or Swedish, and he will immedi- 
 ately point out a great many words, obviously the same as English, 
 with slight modifications, but we hardly expect to hear an English- 
 man engaged in easy conversation with a Swede or a Dutchman, 
 unless he has learned their languages. And just as this Panslav- 
 istic idea is a mere " scare," so the result of all my reading has 
 been to find that the will of Peter the Great "is a fond thing vainly 
 invented;" but I have no time to go into a discussion upon it 
 here. The subject is far too lengthy. 
 
 In conclusion, I can only say of Russia, in the words of one of 
 her own poets, which I have attempted to versify, who is listening 
 to the peasant as he sings : — 
 
 "More boldly those songs of half-sadness are flowing, 
 And full of a strength that is young ; 
 They tell of a soul that triumphant is growing, 
 Tho' for years it was tortured and wrung. 
 
 "Maybe, thou hast bowed, native land, 'neath thy sorrow, 
 And harsh was thy fortune to bide, — 
 But nay — I'll believe not that freedom's glad morrow 
 And her songs to these fields are denied." 
 
k • J 
 
VII. 
 
 POLAND. 
 
 ADAM GIELGUD. 
 
 IT was, I think, a happy inspiration which prompted the Com- 
 mittee of this Institute to include Poland in the series of 
 lectures on the European nations now being delivered to you. 
 There is certainly no country that has played an important part 
 in European history of which so little is known among the 
 present generation of Englishmen as Poland. I have often heard 
 people, fairly educated people too, ask whether such a nation 
 as Poland still exists, and whether the Poles are not the same 
 as the Russians. Nor, indeed, is this very surprising. It is now 
 a hundred years since, by an act of spoliation unexampled in 
 history, Poland was divided among three great powers — Russia, 
 Austria, and Prussia — which have exercised every means of 
 persuasion and violence to wipe out the Polish national spirit, 
 and to assimilate their Polish to their other subjects. A hundred 
 years is a long time even in the life of a nation, and only a very 
 sturdy and patriotic one cculd have survived this disintegrating 
 process, carried out with steady persistence by some of the greatest 
 statesmen of Europe, with vast armies, ample funds, and all 
 the resources of civilisation at their command. No wonder that 
 people conclude that Poland must be dead, and that the Poles 
 have accepted their fate and made friends with their rulers, as, 
 looking at the matter from a purely material point of view, it was 
 obviously their interest to do. 
 
 It is, perhaps, a little singular that a nation which inspired 
 English poets, historians, and orators — whose cause was supported, 
 within the memory of many now living, by splendid entertain- 
 ments, in which the chief members of the English aristocracy, 
 with the Duke of Sussex, the Queen's uncle, at their head, took 
 a leading part, and by public meetings of Conservatives, Liberals, 
 and Radicals, addressed by such representative men as Edmund 
 Beales and Lord Dudley Stuart, who may be said to have lived 
 
114 National Life and Thought. 
 
 and died for Poland — that a nation whose valour and misfortunes 
 have been the subject of endless debates in Parliament, and 
 nearly caused a war between this country and Russia in 1864 — 
 should now be almost entirely forgotten. Possibly this may be 
 explained by the advance of what is called materialism. These are 
 not times when men's pulses are stirred by such names as Kosci- 
 uszko, Garibaldi, and Kossuth. We are a more practical age ; our 
 admiration and sympathy are for success, not for misfortune ; 
 and Bismarck and Moltke have eclipsed the heroes of our youth. 
 The unfortunate, like the absent, are always in the wrong, and 
 it has become the fashion to say that Poland fell because she did 
 not deserve to live, and that the Poles are a turbulent, imprac- 
 ticable race who will never be capable of self-government. Such 
 wholesale accusations against a nation are very un philosophical, 
 and are generally falsified by events. It is not very long ago that 
 the general notion in England about the Germans was that they 
 were a nation of dreamers; about the Italians, that they were either 
 mere dilettanti or visionary conspirators ; about the Roumanians, 
 that they were sunk in luxury and corruption ; and about the 
 Bulgarians, that they were ignorant boors with not enough spirit 
 to turn out their Turkish oppressors. Yet we now know that 
 the Germans and Italians are among the most practical politicians 
 in the world, and that Roumania and Bulgaria have not only 
 obtained their independence, but successfully resist even the 
 bullying of a great power like Russia. The fall of Poland, we 
 are told, was to a great extent brought about by her internal 
 dissensions. This is undoubtedly true. Internal dissension is 
 a bad thing for a country, especially when it is surrounded by 
 three great powers who are eagerly waiting for an opportunity 
 of pouncing upon her and seizing her territory ; but people who 
 look for a reason for the fall of Poland, are too apt to forget that 
 countries which are now the greatest and most flourishing in 
 the world, have been the scene of internal dissensions as bad as 
 those of Poland, though, owing to their more favourable geogra- 
 phical position, they have not been punished for them as she 
 has been. This has, indeed, for centuries been the chronic 
 disease of all Europe. Look at England : from Wat Tyler's revolt 
 and the persecution of the Lollards to the wars of the Roses, 
 from the wars of the Roses to the blood-stained annals of the 
 Tudors and the dynastic civil wars of the Stuarts and the Georges, 
 her history has been an almost unbroken succession of internal 
 struggles; and even now, though Englishmen have ceased to 
 
Poland. 115 
 
 settle their differences by the sword, we all know that political 
 adversaries in this country attack each other as bitterly in 
 Parliament, at public meetings, in the press, and even in the law 
 courts, as they ever did on the battlefield. In French history we 
 see the risings of the peasants and traders against the nobles in the 
 fourteenth century, the civil war between North and South in 
 the fifteenth, the thirty years' war between the Huguenots and 
 Catholics in the sixteenth, the wars of the Fronde in the seven- 
 teenth, and the horrors of the Great Revolution in the eighteenth ; 
 Germany had the Hussite war in the fifteenth century, the nobles' 
 war in the sixteenth, the thirty years' war in the seventeenth ; and 
 the Italians, after the hundred years' war between the Guelphs 
 and the Ghibellines, continued to fight each other almost 
 incessantly until Italian unity was finally established in 187 1. 
 
 Now no one would be so foolish as to say that the English 
 are a turbulent nation incapable of governing themselves, 
 because during some three centuries of their history they were 
 chiefly occupied in cutting each other's throats. Why, then, 
 should this be said of the Poles— unless, indeed, it be that having 
 failed to help them, we try to console ourselves for the failure by 
 saying that they did not deserve to be helped ? The radical error 
 of this view of Polish history is, that it passes a sweeping condem- 
 nation on the Poles for faults which were not specially Polish, but 
 were those of Europe generally before the great French Revol- 
 ution. It is all very well for us in England, at the end of the 
 nineteenth century, to hold up our hands in horror on reading 
 of the anarchy which prevailed in Poland a hundred and fifty 
 years ago. There was plenty of anarchy at that time in the other 
 countries of Europe. The condition of Germany, for instance, 
 is thus described by one of the most recent of our radical 
 historians, Mr. Fyffe, author of the History of Europe: — "A 
 system of small States, which in the past of Greece and Italy had 
 produced the finest types of energy and genius, had in Germany 
 resulted in the extinction of all vigorous life, and in the ascend- 
 ancy of all that was stagnant, little, and corrupt. If political 
 disorganisation, the decay of public spirit, and the absence of a 
 national idea, are the signs of impending downfall, Germany was 
 ripe for foreign conquest." Germany, France, Italy, Holland, 
 escaped the fate of Poland, not because they were more orderly 
 and peaceful, but because they were not, as Poland was, 
 surrounded by despotic powers, each with far greater resources 
 than herself, which not only coveted her fertile plains, but hoped 
 
1 1 6 National Life and Thought. 
 
 in crushing Poland to stem the rising flood of liberty on the 
 Continent. The truth is, as the poet Campbell indicated in his 
 famous lines, that Poland was the victim of her love of freedom ; 
 in signing the Constitution of the 3rd of May 1791 — that 
 Constitution at whose promulgation Burke said that "humanity 
 must rejoice and glory" — she signed her death-warrant. That 
 this was the case, is proved out of the mouth of Frederick 
 William himself, who, after complimenting the Poles through 
 his ambassador on their Constitution, sent an army into their 
 country, and justified himself before the other powers by asserting 
 that "the principles of Jacobinism were gaining ground in the 
 country, and the spirit of the French democracy was taking deep 
 root among the Poles." Catherine, less Jesuitical, simply protested 
 against the Constitution, and backed up her protest with an 
 army of 100,000 men. I will not here give any more details of 
 the sad and well-known story of the intrigues of the Fredericks 
 and Catherine ; it will suffice to quote the words of our last and 
 greatest historian on the subject, Mr. Lecky, who, in his 
 History of England in the Eighteenth Century, says : — 
 
 ' ' It was the deliberate and systematic policy of Russia and 
 Prussia to maintain anarchy in Poland in order that it might 
 never rise to prosperity or power or independence. The policy 
 of Russia towards Poland was one of cynical, undisguised rapa- 
 city; while the King of Prussia not only broke his word and 
 betrayed his trust, but took an active part in the partition of the 
 defenceless country which he had bound himself in honour to 
 protect." I know that Carlyle takes a different view ; but hero- 
 worship was one of the defects of that great and rugged genius, 
 and he chose his heroes from among the mighty ones of the 
 earth, who are not always the noblest or the most generous. 
 
 What I would specially call your attention to is, that Poland has 
 from the beginning of her history been the land of liberty, and 
 that it was because she was the land of liberty that the 
 despotic governments which surrounded her have always been her 
 enemies, and have always striven to compass her destruction. It 
 is the fashion to blacken the idols and to glorify the villains of 
 our forefathers ; and that clever apologist of Russian despotism, 
 Madame Novikoff, has probably persuaded many people that 
 Poland was not a free country after all, but was ruled by a 
 turbulent aristocracy who, when they were not fighting among 
 themselves or with the neighbouring States, were chiefly occupied 
 in oppressing the peasants. The latest disciple of this ingenious 
 
Poland. 1 1 7 
 
 lady is, I see, a writer in the current number of the Quarterly 
 Review, who affords a good illustration of the ignorance which 
 prevails, even among writers in reviews, with regard to Poland. 
 With a complacent dogmatism, which is the usual accompaniment 
 of imperfect knowledge, he boldly asserts that Poland will never 
 again be an independent nation ; that the Poles were politically 
 imbecile, because in 1811 they hesitated to join their old enemy 
 Russia against France, in whose army there were whole regiments 
 composed of their countrymen ; that one of the causes of the fall 
 of Poland was the "lowness of the suffrage" (a bad look-out for 
 England); and that the Polish nobles were slaveholders. In support 
 of the latter assertion, which, as I shall show presently, has no 
 foundation in fact, he produces a bit of philology which will make 
 those who know the Polish language and people stare. "The 
 common appellation for the peasant," he says, "in the language of 
 the upper classes (chlop), is equivalent to 'the dirt of the earth.'" 
 Now the word " chlop," as any one who has resided in Poland will 
 tell him, is the appellation for the peasant used not only by what 
 are called the upper classes, but by the peasants themselves. Its 
 precise origin is unknown, but it was certainly never equivalent to 
 "the dirt of the earth," except in the sense in which bad landlords 
 everywhere treat the peasants as the dirt of the earth. The word 
 is, indeed, usually derived by philologists from "leb," head, and 
 it originally meant the head of the family, the kindred word 
 " chlopiec " meaning " boy " to this day. 
 
 But to resume our subject : According to Madame Novikoff, the 
 partition of Poland was not a crime, but a good deed, as it put an 
 end to the tyranny of the minority over the majority — an assertion 
 which sounds somewhat strangely in the mouth of the principal 
 advocate of a system of government under which all power is 
 concentrated in the sovereign, whose mere word is sufficient to 
 consign any one of his subjects — whether innocent or guilty, 
 whether a murderer or a political writer — to those horrors of exile 
 in Siberia of which we are now again hearing so much, and which 
 Mr. Kennan has so graphically described in the Century 
 magazine. Now let us look into this charge a little more closely. 
 There is a certain air of plausibility about it, for it is unquestionable 
 that political power in Poland was, until the passing of the 
 Constitution of 1791, entirely vested in the hands of the nobles. 
 But here we see the danger of employing words which bear a 
 different signification according to the country in which they are 
 used. In England a nobleman belongs to a small class of persons 
 
1 1 8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 with " handles to their names," whose town and country residences 
 and ancestry are recorded in Burke and Debrett ; in Poland there 
 were no titles of nobility ; and when a man became a noble, he 
 simply acquired the right of bearing arms, together with certain 
 political privileges, of which the most important was the right of 
 voting at elections. Among the nobles were lawyers, doctors, and 
 merchants; and a Polish proverb said that "a noble on his field 
 is equal to a lord in his castle." 
 
 In the eighteenth century the number of " nobles " in Poland was 
 so great that it constituted a fifth of the whole population, which is 
 a much larger proportion than that of the people who enjoyed the 
 franchise in England after the first Reform Bill. And this Polish 
 patent of nobility — the right to take part in the government of the 
 country — was not, as with us, given indiscriminately to all who 
 were above a certain standard of material prosperity ; it was the 
 reward of the peasant for services, civil or military, rendered to 
 the State ; in a word, for noble actions. It is absurd, therefore, to 
 talk of Poland having been ruled by an aristocracy in our sense of 
 the term. The poorest noble, that is to say, the poorest voter, 
 had precisely the same amount of political rights as the richest ; 
 and to the exaggerated development of political individualism, 
 which made every voter an active politician, was partly due the 
 anarchy from which Poland suffered. 
 
 I have already stated that the main cause of the partition of 
 Poland was that she enjoyed free institutions such as at that time 
 were not possessed by any other continental nation. Towards the 
 end of the eighteenth century revolution was in the air, and the 
 despotic sovereigns of Europe were trembling on their thrones. 
 In the midst of them was a country as large as France, with a 
 people brought up in the principles of freedom, having the widest 
 powers of self-government, and under a king whose power was 
 even more strictly limited than those of the present sovereign of 
 England. What wonder that the despotic rulers of Russia, Prussia, 
 and Austria should have feared that the "canker of liberty," as a 
 Russian writer has called it, might spread to their own down- 
 trodden subjects? No doubt they were influenced to a great 
 degree by the greed of territory; but they were much more 
 influenced by the instinct of self-preservation; and Campbell 
 and the English statesmen of the time rightly judged that the 
 fall of Poland was a deadly blow to the cause of freedom all 
 over the world. 
 
 We now come to the second count of the indictment — the 
 
Poland. 119 
 
 oppression of the peasants. But where were the peasantry not 
 oppressed in the eighteenth century ? All modern civilised nations- 
 have gone through the same phases of equalisation of the rights 
 of the various classes in the State. First, all political power and 
 privilege is concentrated in the sovereign ; then some of it passes 
 down to the great feudal lords or barons ; then it is extended to 
 the professional and mercantile classes ; and, finally, it descends, in 
 a very attenuated form, it is true, to the artisans and peasants. 
 In the eighteenth century this process was barely in its initial 
 stage in every great country of Europe, except England and 
 Poland. In Russia all power was, as it is still, in the hands of 
 the sovereign, and the peasant was nothing but a slave, as he 
 could be sold like a dog, separated from his family, and moved 
 about from one estate to another. In Germany and Austria the 
 monarch was also practically absolute ; while the peasants, under 
 the system known as "Leibeigenschaft," were serfs attached to 
 the land and forced to work for the landowners. In Poland, 
 much the same system prevailed as in Germany; the Polish 
 peasant was entirely maintained by his master, who had consider- 
 able powers over him, which were, however, to some extent 
 restricted by law and custom ; he had no political privileges, but 
 was frequently rewarded by the diets for services to the State by 
 being made a noble ; he was obliged to work for his master during 
 a certain number of days in the week, and he could not, as in 
 Russia, be moved from the estate to which he belonged. That 
 the Polish landowners, like those of other countries, often terribly 
 abused their power over the peasants is unquestionable. But 
 landlords were no better in other parts of Europe, as we know 
 from the statements of French and German writers — which may 
 be mythical exaggerations, but must have been based on a 
 substratum of fact — about such monstrous practices as that of the 
 droit du seigneur, and the still more atrocious one of the bauchrecht, 
 i.e., the right of the master to warm himself, when hunting on a cold 
 day, by stabbing his serf in the stomach and placing his hands 
 in the wound. In Poland, at least, the more enlightened people 
 publicly denounced landowners who ill-treated their peasants; 
 and with the general advance of humanity and civilisation, the 
 peasants of Poland have long since shared in the improvement 
 which has taken place all over Europe in the relations between 
 the various classes of the agricultural population. In 1760 
 Count Zamoyski and several other wealthy Polish landowners 
 substituted the payment of a money rent for the old system of 
 
120 National Life and Thought. 
 
 forced labour; and the Constitution of the 3rd of May 1791 made 
 the peasants equal to all other citizens in the eyes of the law. 
 The relations of the peasant to his master then became those of 
 landlord and tenant; and this system worked so well that, 
 according to M. de Lavergne, the eminent French economist, 
 one-fourth of the property of the country passed into the hands 
 of persons not of the noble class, and the value of land 
 trebled. Many of the Polish landowners in Lithuania, which 
 was then under the Russian government, proposed that their 
 peasants should be made proprietors of their holdings ; but the 
 Emperor Nicholas steadfastly rejected these proposals, though 
 they were made to him by some of the most eminent personages 
 in the country. Then came Alexander II., who, after introducing 
 peasant proprietorship in Russia, could hardly persist in the 
 refusal of his predecessor to grant it to Poland. But an ingen- 
 ious method was adopted by which the grant of compensation to 
 the landlords was arranged without any expense to the Imperial 
 Treasury. The compensation allowed them was fair enough; 
 but, at the same time, they were ordered to pay a special tax, the 
 amount of which rather more than covered the sum due to them 
 as compensation. They were compensated as landlords but 
 taxed as Poles. What would our Irish landlords say to such a 
 scheme? It would be a very convenient way, no doubt, of 
 settling the thorny question of land purchase in Ireland, for it 
 would absolutely save the English taxpayer; but the Irish 
 landowner would certainly not bear as tamely as his Polish 
 colleague had to do, what in England would be called sheer 
 robbery, though in Russia it bears the more euphonious appella- 
 tion of "an administrative measure." 
 
 But to return to the Polish peasants. In Prussia the peasants 
 remained serfs until 1809 ; in Austria until 181 1 ; in Russia until 
 1 861; while in Poland they were placed on the same legal footing 
 as the landowners in 1794. There could not, therefore, have been 
 any reason for political antagonism between the Polish nobles and 
 peasants, and as a matter of fact they have always acted together 
 in the great national movements which have taken place since the 
 first partition. The notion industriously propagated by the ene- 
 mies of Poland that the nobles are a class apart from the rest of 
 the population, that they alone wish for the restoration of Poland, 
 as it would restore to them the privilege of oppressing the peas- 
 ants, and that the other classes are content under Russian and 
 Prussian rule, is a silly fable which will not stand a moment's 
 
Poland. 121 
 
 examination. Is it credible, I would ask not only the student of 
 history, but any man who knows human nature, that the tens of 
 thousands who, from the insurrection of Kosciuszko in 1794 to 
 the last disastrous rising of 1863, escaping the vigilance of the 
 Russian police, went out at night into the woods to fight for their 
 country armed only with a scythe or a knife and stick, and kept 
 the whole Russian army at bay for months, belonged to the 
 aristocratic class? No, gentlemen, these unknown heroes who 
 silently died a soldier's death against the enemy, or disappeared 
 from among their relations and friends to linger in the nameless 
 tortures of Siberian exile, were for the most part what we would 
 call working men, that is, artisans and peasants. Kosciuszko, 
 himself a noble, was followed in the memorable rising of 1794 by 
 4000 peasants armed with scythes ; and his first achievement with 
 this little band was to attack 12,000 Russians near Cracow, who, 
 after a battle of five hours, in which the Polish peasants captured 
 the Russian artillery and turned it against the enemy, were beaten 
 with a loss of 3000 killed and many prisoners. The insurrection 
 which broke out shortly after at Warsaw was headed by a banker, 
 Kapostas ; a shoemaker, Kilinski ; and a butcher, Sierakovski. 
 The revolution of 1830 was begun by the non-commissioned 
 officers and privates of the Polish army; that of 1863 by the arti- 
 sans of Warsaw. The fact is that in Poland, as everywhere 
 else, revolutions were made by the middle and poorer classes, and 
 not by the aristocracy, who knew too well the fearful odds to take 
 the responsibility of leading the nation to almost certain destruc- 
 tion, though when the people had once risen, they cheerfully 
 sacrificed their lives and their properties for the cause of their 
 country. The working men had only their lives to give, and had 
 not even the prospect of leaving to their children a glorious name ; 
 but they emulated none the less their more fortunate countrymen in 
 the brilliancy of their courage and the purity of their self-devotion. 
 Thus we had the noble spectacle of a whole nation struggling 
 with its oppressors, never knowing when it was beaten, but 
 rising again and again to resume the unequal conflict. 
 
 Nor is it only in insurrections that the peasantry of Poland 
 have acted in unison with the other classes of the nation. In the 
 Polish parliament of the Austrian province of Galicia, peasants 
 sit and speak side by side with landowners, lawyers, and 
 merchants — a consummation at which we have not yet arrived 
 even in our Parliament at Westminster, since Mr. Arch sat in the 
 House as the representative of the agricultural labourer. In 
 
122 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Prussian Poland, too, the most sturdy opponents of Germaniz- 
 ation are the peasants, who at large meetings in the country 
 districts have made eloquent speeches protesting against the efforts 
 of the Prussian government to suppress the Polish language, and to 
 swamp the Polish population by German settlers. 
 
 The result of the elections which have just taken place in Ger- 
 many, and which are carried on under a system of universal 
 suffrage, shows that the number of Polish deputies in the 
 Reichstag has been increased to 16; and although (Prussian 
 Poland being an agricultural country) the great majority of the 
 voters must have been peasants, the whole of the sixteen deputies 
 whom they have elected belong to the class of so-called nobles, 
 and one of them is a member of the aristocratic family of the Czar- 
 toryskis. The unity shown by these Polish voters, all going like 
 one man to the poll to vote for their candidate, is held up by the 
 German press as an example to the German voters, who are split 
 up into numerous parties, each with its own candidate, and 
 whose votes consequently often neutralise each other. 
 
 I may add, to show the growth of the Polish nationality irt 
 Prussia, that while in 1881 the number of Polish voters voting for 
 Polish candidates was 194,894, in 1890, it was 245,852 — an 
 increase of nearly thirty per cent. 
 
 Undoubtedly the political system of Poland was very defective. 
 The Poles had the faults of a warlike and high spirited race ; they 
 were impatient of restraint, fond of luxury, and demoralised by 
 the dissolute manners introduced by their Saxon kings ; and the 
 result was a laxity in the machinery of government which in 
 the eighteenth century almost stopped it altogether. That this 
 did not arise from the incapacity of the Poles for self-govern- 
 ment (they had governed themselves for 800 years) was 
 proved by the constitution of 1791, which was admitted by the 
 greatest statesmen of the time to be the most masterly measure 
 of the kind which had yet been devised, and which, if Russia and 
 Prussia had not crushed it in the bud, would certainly have 
 proved an effectual remedy for the anarchy from which Poland 
 suffered. I have shown that in this respect, and in the oppression 
 of the peasants, there was at that time no great country on the 
 Continent which could have cast at her the first stone. But,, 
 it might be said, a mere negative admission of this kind is 
 hardly a sufficient justification for a country's claim to exist. 
 England, the first home of liberty, " the mother of parliaments," 
 the saviour of Europe from the tyranny of Napoleon, the 
 
Poland. 123 
 
 propagator of civilisation in three Continents ; France, the apostle 
 of ideas and literary culture ; Germany, the school of philosophers ; 
 Italy, the nursery of the Arts, — all these countries have established a 
 right to the gratitude of humanity, and we should all be losers by 
 their extinction. What has Poland done for the good of the world ? 
 
 We have all heard that Sobieski saved Vienna from the Turks, 
 but it is not so generally known that this event was only one of a 
 series of similar ones. Poland had for centuries been the van- 
 guard of European civilisation against the incursions of barbarous 
 invaders from the East ; and to her it was mainly due that our 
 modern Europe was preserved from the withering scourge of 
 an Attila or a Brennus. While Russia was groaning under 
 the yoke of the Mongols, who utterly defeated her in the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, and ruled her with a rod of iron for two 
 hundred years, Poland was an insuperable barrier to their advance 
 southward, thereby rendering, at the price of her blood and of some 
 of her richest towns, which were repeatedly destroyed by the Tartar 
 hordes, a service to Europe which can hardly be over-estimated- 
 Yet though warlike, the Poles were not aggressive. In the earlier 
 part of their history, when they had to build up the Polish State, 
 they did it by conquest, as such things are always done. But 
 from 1333 to 1587, when Poland was at the highest point of her 
 prosperity and greatness, she did not add a single inch to her 
 territory ; not once did she make an aggressive war, and though 
 there was a great deal of fighting, it was only to repel the attacks 
 of the Germans, the Russians, and the Tartars. " Defence, not 
 Defiance," was her motto, like that of our Volunteers. And she 
 was not only the defender, but the propagator of civilisation. 
 As early as the fourteenth century the Poles were celebrated in all 
 Europe for their learning and literary culture. Latin was the 
 language, not only of the universities and of diplomacy, but of 
 good society, and in the Polish Parliament the debates consisted 
 of Latin orations worthy of the best period of ancient Rome. 
 The University of Cracow, founded in 1364, was attended by about 
 15,000 students yearly from all parts of Europe. It was here that 
 one of the first printing-presses was established, and the original 
 wood blocks of a very early edition of the Bible are still preserved 
 there. Copernicus, the great astronomer, and Veit Stoss, the 
 famous sculptor of Nuremberg, were both Poles, and did most of 
 their work at Cracow ; the best Latin poets of the Middle Ages 
 were a Scotchman, Buchanan, and a Pole, Sarbievius. 
 
 I have said that Poland was the land of liberty. The great 
 
1 24 National L ife and Thought. 
 
 principle of our Habeas Corpus Act, that no man should be 
 imprisoned without trial, was the law in Poland so early as the 
 fourteenth century. Feudalism did not exist among the Poles; 
 there was no vassalage nor holding of the land subject to the 
 lord. Personal liberty and the independence of every citizen in 
 the State was the leading principle of the social organisation, and 
 even prisoners of war became proprietors of the land on which 
 they were placed after they had cultivated it. Among the 
 freemen, or nobles, as they were called, the feudal idea of 
 personal service was unknown ; no man was another man's 
 servant, he was only the servant of the State. The result of this 
 principle was naturally to give the people a predominating share 
 in the government from the earliest ages. The first Polish 
 Parliament, composed of the bishops, the high state dignitaries, 
 and the freemen of the lower class, met as early as 1331, and for 
 two hundred years before that date no decision of any Polish King 
 was held to be valid without the consent of his council, composed 
 of the leading men in the country. A Prussian once said to a Pole, 
 in astonishment at the limited power of the Polish sovereigns, 
 "Why, you have no king!" to which the Pole answered, "Yes, 
 we have, but your king has you." The drift of public opinion 
 on any question of the day was ascertained at conventus or public 
 meetings, at which all men freely expressed their opinions, and 
 the parliamentary representatives learnt the views of their con- 
 stituents. There were three estates of the realm — the King, the 
 Senate, and the House of Representatives, or, as we should 
 say in England, King, Lords, and Commons ; but all real power 
 was in the hands of the House of Representatives. There was not 
 a single case of a Polish king rejecting a proposal made by his 
 Parliament, or acting in opposition to its wishes. On the contrary, 
 the Polish kings often had to listen to some very plain language 
 in the House of Representatives, where they were obliged to be 
 present during the debates. In 1459 King Casimir II., after 
 opening Parliament, was thus addressed by one of the deputies : — 
 "Sire, our calamities are notorious, and you are the author of 
 them. If the nation had not been protected by Providence, it 
 would have perished. We have been obliged to demand the 
 convocation of the present assembly in order to ask for reform ; 
 we are your subjects and your sincere friends, but we deplore 
 your hostility to our country, and we are not afraid of saying so, 
 in spite of the army you have brought to coerce us. We demand 
 your protection for those who claim justice ; we ask you to cast 
 
 

 Poland. 125 
 
 off your indolence, to show that you are a man, and are ready 
 and willing to defend the country against its enemies. If 
 you do this, you may reckon on our fidelity, we will hasten to 
 obey your orders, we will sacrifice our fortunes for you and the 
 State, and we will watch over your happiness ; if not, you may 
 rely upon it that we will not give the smallest part of our wealth 
 to assist you." This threat to refuse supplies soon brought the 
 king to his senses, as similar threats have done in English history. 
 Even the great Sobieski, during a debate in which he was accused 
 of intriguing to appropriate to himself property belonging to the 
 State, was addressed by one of the deputies in these bold words, 
 ''Sire, either reign justly, or (ease to reign." What a contrast 
 between this free country, where r.ny man could speak his opinion 
 of the government and criticise the sovereign to his face, and its 
 neighbour Russia, even in this nineteenth century ! After the 
 speeches I have just quoted, it is curious to read the account 
 given in the Times last December of the late General Trepoff by 
 an Englishman who lived at St. Petersburg when the General was 
 chief of the police there. " He was a typical specimen," says the 
 writer in the Times, "of the Russian military despot, and the 
 policemasters of other Russian towns set themselves to imitate his 
 example. When he walked along the streets, the cabmen took off 
 their hats and crouched before him with fear. . . . When the Czar 
 returned to his capital after a long absence, Trepoff drove at a 
 gallop in front of his Majesty through the crowded streets, stand- 
 ing erect in his open carriage, glaring round with knitted brows, 
 and commanding the people to cheer." 
 
 Such a scene would be impossible in any other European 
 country except as an incident in a burlesque, yet it is not un- 
 common in Russia, where you constantly hear people of the most 
 unblemished reputation speak with bated breath of the power of 
 the police ; and one can only account for the submission with 
 which the Russians bear so outrageous a state of things, by the 
 assumption that they must have had the spirit of independence 
 and self-respect, which is the natural birthright of every man, 
 knocked out of them by seven centuries of barbarous and 
 tyrannical government. I have not a word to say against the 
 Russian people — they are kind-hearted, intelligent, and intensely 
 patriotic ; they have a fine literature, and they have shown wonderful 
 enterprise and determination as soldiers and administrators; but 
 they are to be pitied for having a detestable government, and 
 for not having the spirit to shake it off. 
 
126 National Life and Thotcght. 
 
 To return to our subject — There were two other points in 
 which Poland was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries far 
 ahead of any other country in the world. These were religious 
 freedom and freedom of trade. While the Huguenots were being 
 massacred in the streets of Paris; while in England, France. 
 Spain, men were being dragged by hundreds to the stake and 
 the scaffold for their religious opinions; while the Jews were 
 being hounded out of nearly every country in Europe, Poland, 
 though the great majority of her people have always been 
 devotedly attached to the Roman Catholic Church, opened her 
 gates to the persecuted of all creeds. 
 
 "The people of Poland," wrote an Italian traveller in the 
 fifteenth century, " have among them a multitude of Jews who 
 are not, like in most countries, reduced to a life of misery as 
 usurers or menials. Several have fields and offices of their own, 
 in which they transact business as merchants; others adopt 
 literary and scientific pursuits, chiefly astronomy and medicine. 
 The Jews in Poland often become rich and celebrated, and are 
 treated on the footing of freemen ; there is no distinction made 
 between them and Christians ; in fact, they are in all respects on 
 a footing of equality with the other inhabitants of the kingdom." 
 
 The Protestants, after the Jesuits had obtained a footing in 
 Poland, were under certain disabilities, like the Roman Catholics 
 in England up to the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill 
 in 1829, but they were never persecuted as the Protestants were 
 in France, Germany, and Austria, and they were admitted to the 
 franchise like all other freemen, which was not the case with the 
 Catholics in England before the Emancipation. 
 
 One of the chief articles of the pacta conventa, or contracts 
 made by the Poles with their kings on their election, was, that no 
 person should be oppressed on account of his religious opinions, 
 and that full liberty should be accorded to every man in Poland 
 to practise the rites of his religion. It was on account of this 
 stipulation that Henry of Valois, Duke of Anjou, when the Poles 
 sent a delegation to Paris to offer him the Polish crown, hesitated 
 to accept it, as he had just been fighting the Huguenots. But the 
 Polish delegates declared that if he did not agree to the stipulation 
 he would not be their king ; and it was only when he thus became 
 convinced that he could only get the Polish crown by binding 
 himself to give equal rights to the members of all religions that he 
 gave way. Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek sectarians, Mahomedans, 
 Armenians, and Jews flocked into Poland, where alone they could not 
 
Poland. 1 27 
 
 be molested on account of their creed ; and you can now see in the 
 Tudor Exhibition in Regent Street the portrait of the Duchess of 
 Suffolk, who, being a Protestant, fled from the persecution of our 
 Catholic Queen Mary, and was received with the utmost kindness 
 by the Catholic King of Poland, who gave her an estate, where she 
 lived until the accession of Queen Elizabeth enabled her to return 
 to England. 
 
 As regards freedom of commerce, it was England that chiefly 
 profited by the free admission of foreign goods into Poland. A 
 treaty of commerce was concluded between England and Poland 
 so early as 1386, under the reign of Richard II. In the fifteenth 
 century great numbers of English and Scotch merchants settled in 
 Poland, and established their offices there. In 1579, under the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, a British Eastern Company was founded 
 for the purpose of trading with the ports on the Baltic ; and a letter 
 from the Queen to King Sigismund of Poland, dated Greenwich, 
 1 6th January 1589, is still extant, in which she begs the king to 
 extend his protection to British trade in his dominions. So 
 friendly, indeed, were the relations between England and Poland, 
 that in 1650 the Polish Parliament decided specially to relieve all 
 English merchants in Poland from the payment of taxes, in order 
 to enable them to pay a contribution of 10 per cent, on their 
 incomes which had been imposed by the Government of Great 
 Britain, and which was duly handed over to the British Minister 
 •at Warsaw by the Polish tax-collectors for transmission to London. 
 Another treaty was concluded by Queen Anne in 1707, for the 
 purpose of acquiring very advantageous commercial privileges for 
 English trade with the Polish harbour of Dantzig ; and this treaty 
 was fully confirmed by Article 13 of the Treaty of Utrecht in 
 1713. The Poles were, however, always opposed to monopolies, 
 ■even when they would have been highly advantageous to the 
 Polish Treasury. Thus Philip II., King of Spain, offered to pay a 
 very large sum for the exclusive right of buying corn and wood from 
 Poland, but his offer was rejected. The rule was to treat all foreign 
 states alike as regards commercial privileges, and England was the 
 only exception to that rule. The consequence was, that in the eight- 
 eenth century the trade of England with Poland was greater than 
 it was with France. From 1697 to 1773 tne trade of England with ^ 
 Poland amounted to ^22,65 1,901, while that of England with 
 France was ^19,013,818. Burnett, in his View of the Present State 
 rf Poland, 1807, says — " England is the best customer of Poland. 
 
 . . . Almost every article of manufacture imported is either 
 
128 National Life and Thought. 
 
 really or nominally English. Having occasion to buy a hat at 
 Lemberg, I found the name and ticket of a well-known London 
 hatter, on it, though I perceived plainly that it was of foreign 
 manufacture." 
 
 After the partition, owing to the obstacles imposed by Russia 
 and Prussia on Polish trade, all commercial relations between 
 England and Poland ceased ; when part of Poland gained a sort 
 of autonomy after the Congress of Vienna, they revived; and 
 when her liberties were finally extinguished by the Emperor 
 Nicholas, her trade with England also disappeared. Indeed, this 
 sympathy between England and Poland, for centuries the only 
 two great nations in Europe that were free, is of very old date, 
 and it was a common practice with the wealthy families of Poland 
 to send their sons to complete their education in England, where 
 they studied constitutional law at Oxford, and witnessed some of 
 the most memorable debates in English parliamentary history at 
 St. Stephen's. 
 
 I have, I think, now shown what Poland has done for mankind. 
 She protected Europe from Tartar invasions ; she alone for many 
 centuries held high the banner of freedom amid the despotic 
 States of the Continent ; she was the patron of learning and the 
 arts ; she was the refuge of all who were oppressed on account of 
 their religious opinions ; she was the first State that practised free 
 trade, a system which, though in some countries it may be in- 
 applicable, has undoubtedly been of great advantage to the world 
 at large. I have shown you what Poland was; I will now 
 endeavour to show you what she is. Among the historical fables 
 which, though they have been amply proved to be untrue, are still 
 generally believed, is the saying " Finis Polonicz ! " — Poland is no 
 more — which was put into the mouth of Kosciuszko at the time 
 when, himself wounded by the Russians, he saw his faithful 
 followers being cut down by the conquering enemy. I do not 
 know whether the similar saying attributed to Lord Chesterfield 
 after the capitulation of the Duke of Cumberland's army to the 
 French in 1757 — " We are no longer a nation " — was as fictitious 
 as that alleged to have been uttered by the Polish hero. But of 
 one thing I am quite certain, from my personal knowledge of the 
 country — that Poland is still living; is indeed very much alive. 
 Her population has nearly doubled since the partition a hundred 
 years ago; it is now 31-i millions. The number of Polish news- 
 papers and other periodicals published in Poland is nearly 300 ; 
 of Polish books, 150c a year. The Poles have a very varied and 
 
Poland. 1 29 
 
 extensive literature, but it is almost entirely occupied with national 
 subjects, and is therefore not of much interest to people of other 
 nations. Their greatest writers, however — Mickiewicz and 
 Krasinski among the poets, and the contemporary novelist 
 Sienkievicz — have been translated into all the European languages. 
 Two of their painters, Mateyko and Siemiradzki, stand in the front 
 rank among artists of the Continental schools ; and among the 
 chief singers at the opera in London within the last few years 
 have been the two Reszkes, Mierzwinski, and Madame Sembrich, 
 all Poles devoted to their country. Notwithstanding the obstacles 
 imposed by the Russian frontier authorities on importation and 
 exportation, there has in Poland been a considerable development 
 of trade and industry. The chief articles of export are wood, 
 meat, skins, and eggs. The country is mainly agricultural, but 
 the exports of wheat have much diminished, owing to the compe- 
 tition of the United States and other non-European countries. 
 There is, however, a large manufacturing industry; the number 
 of workmen employed in manufacturing establishments, in coal 
 mines, and on the petroleum oil wells in Galicia, is about 200,000. 
 The chief articles of manufacture are textile fabrics, employing 
 45,000 workmen ; machinery ; beer ; spirits ; and sugar ; and the 
 total value of the manufactures of Poland is about ^35,000,000 a 
 year, not an inconsiderable sum for a country whose industry on 
 the greater part of its territory is impeded at every step by a 
 Government whose object is to crush the Polish nationality at any 
 price. 
 
 The tyranny of the Russian government is indeed a byword ; and 
 when Mr. Chamberlain in 1885, and Mr. Gladstone in 1888, 
 compared the conduct of the government in Ireland to that of the 
 Russian Government in Poland, they doubtless considered that 
 no comparison could be more opprobrious. I am not going to 
 say one word about the Irish question; this is not a political 
 meeting, and party politics would be out of place in a lecture 
 which deals mainly with facts and not with arguments. But I 
 would point out that any comparison between the system of rule 
 in Ireland and that in Poland must be fallacious, because the 
 circumstances are entirely different. Poland lost her independence 
 at the end of the eighteenth century, when she was a civilised State 
 and one of the great powers of Europe ; Ireland was conquered in 
 the twelfth century, when all the countries of Europe were more or 
 less barbarous, and Ireland not the least. Poland has a language 
 and a literature of her own, not inferior to those of the most 
 
 1 
 
130 National Life and Thought. 
 
 ■cultivated nations ; the Irish language has practically disappeared, 
 and the language of all educated Irishmen is English. In the 
 Polish province of Lithuania, the Poles are fined for speaking Polish, 
 and any person teaching the Polish language is subject to a fine of 
 300 roubles (^30) or two months' imprisonment ; if Irishmen paid a 
 fine each time they spoke or taught English, what a handsome source 
 of revenue it would be for the Treasury ! In Russian Poland a Pole 
 is not allowed to buy land. In Ireland the government assists the 
 Irish tenants to become proprietors by purchase of their holdings. 
 In Russian Poland a man suspected of conspiracy against the 
 government is seized in his own house in the middle of the night 
 and dragged away without trial of any kind to Siberia, where he 
 may linger for years without his family knowing what has become 
 of him. In Ireland there is at least no secrecy ; the man is openly 
 tried by a magistrate, and we have long ceased to transport our 
 criminals, political or other, to distant parts of the Empire. Again, 
 in Russian Poland whole villages of peasants have, by a liberal use 
 of bribes, and failing these, by shooting down all objectors, been 
 converted, as it was called, en masse to the Russian Church, and 
 members of other religions are impeded in every way in their 
 business and family relations, so that many Jews have found it worth 
 •their while to pay fifty roubles to a priest to make them orthodox 
 Russians. I need hardly say there is nothing of the kind in Ireland. 
 Finally, in Russian Poland not a word can be printed in any 
 newspaper or book without the permission of the government, and 
 English newspapers often arrive with whole columns ruthlessly 
 obliterated with printer's ink when they contain any remarks likely 
 to be disagreeable to the Czar or his officials ; while in Ireland, as 
 you know, the most violent fulminations against the government 
 in the Pall Mall Gazette or the Star are admitted without even a 
 pencil remonstrance in the margin. 
 
 In a word, there is not a single point in which what is most 
 characteristic of Russian rule in Poland exists in Ireland. 
 Whether the government in Ireland is bad or good is quite another 
 question ; all I say is that that government is utterly different from 
 the government of Russia in Poland, and that the two things 
 cannot be compared. We are, happily, a free country (though we 
 don't seem to appreciate the blessing as much as we used to do), 
 and it would be absolutely impossible for any English Government, 
 however bad, to do in Ireland what the Russian Government 
 is doing in Poland. 
 
 The oppression of the Poles in the German part of Poland is, 
 
Poland. 
 
 131 
 
 of course, not so barbarous ; but it is far more insidious. There 
 is a show of constitutional government, as Polish deputies sit in 
 the Prussian and German parliaments ; but they are naturally, as 
 the representatives of three-and-a-half millions of people out of the 
 fifty millions that constitute the German Empire, in a small 
 minority ; and the German majority have cheerfully voted, under 
 the inspiration of the wily Bismarck, laws for the exclusion of the 
 Polish language from courts of law and schools in Prussian Poland, 
 and large sums of money for colonising with Germans estates 
 vacated by Polish proprietors. These ingenious schemes, however, 
 are not so successful as was hoped by their promoters. Not being 
 allowed to have their children taught Polish in the schools, the Poles 
 in Prussia have them taught at home ; and every number of every 
 Polish newspaper published in Prussia contains in large capitals 
 an exhortation to its contributors to teach their children Polish. 
 The attempts of the Prussian Government to settle Germans on 
 Polish land, too, are counteracted by a bank, founded by Poles 
 from all parts of Poland, which helps landowners when they are 
 in financial difficulties, and bids for Polish estates that are in the 
 market so as to prevent their getting into German hands. 
 
 One of the strongest witnesses to the vitality of the Polish 
 nation is the great Bismarck himself, who, in a speech which he 
 made in the German Parliament, declared that the three-and-a- 
 half millions of Poles in Prussia constitute a danger, by their 
 indomitable patriotism, to the vast German Empire ; that they are 
 much more prolific than the Germans ; and that, when a German 
 marries a Polish woman, he almost always becomes a Pole himself — 
 not a very cheering prospect, one would think, for the promoters of 
 German colonisation among the Poles. His statement is, how- 
 ever, perfectly true. Like France, England, and other vigorous 
 European nations, Poland has a force of assimilation which draws 
 to itself the members of other nationalities living on its soil; 
 and experience shows that Ruthenians, Lithenanians, Germans, 
 and Jews, residing on Polish territory, become Poles not only in 
 language, but in national feeling. Poland, like England, is made 
 up of many races ; but it is one nation, with the same history, the 
 same literary language, the same literature, and the same political 
 traditions. 
 
 I have mentioned above that the greater part of Poland is still 
 under governments which use all the immense power at their 
 command to crush out the Polish nationality. There is a small 
 part of Poland — the Austrian province of Galicia — where a more 
 
I3 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 humane and enlightened policy is pursued. This province is not 
 small in itself, for its area is 29,937 square miles, and its popula- 
 tion six millions, but it is small compared with the whole of 
 Poland, whose area is 300,000 square miles, somewhat larger 
 than that of France, and whose population is thirty-one and a 
 half millions. Now Galicia, though relatively not so rich in. 
 industrial establishments as Russian Poland, is a very fair 
 illustration of what Poland would be if it were independent. 
 Since Austria lay at the feet of Prussia after the disastrous war of 
 1866, the western half of the empire has been organised on the 
 federative principle, and Galicia practically governs herself, 
 subject to the central authority at Vienna, where she has a 
 minister and delegates of her own. It is interesting to see 
 how this Poland in miniature is governing herself. She has a. 
 council of administration and a parliament, with Polish officials,, 
 a Polish university, and other local institutions which are just the 
 same as if she were an independent State. To judge by the- 
 statements of the enemies of Poland, who represent the Poles as- 
 h-redeemable revolutionists and anarchists, one would suppose 
 that Galicia is a sort of cockpit of political factions all fighting 
 together, oppressing the peasants, and without the slightest regard, 
 either for law or order. But what are the facts ? The Galician 
 Parliament, or diet, is composed of men of all nationalities, classes, 
 and religions. Jews, Ruthenians, united Greeks, peasants, sit side by 
 side with Roman Catholics, Poles, great landowners, and professors. 
 Yet the debates in the Polish Parliament, though they are often 
 very animated and show plenty of party spirit, are conducted with 
 an order and regularity which might serve as a model for several 
 representative assemblies nearer home. Poles and Ruthenians 
 quarrel a good deal — there was even a duel between a Polish and 
 a Ruthenian member the other day, on account of a speech made 
 by the former in the House — but there is no obstruction, no 
 "talking against time," no disturbance of the order of debate by 
 frivolous motions whose only object is to wear out one's opponents. 
 And as to respect for the law, there is no nationality in the Austrian 
 Empire which is so law-abiding as the Poles. Crime is rare, and 
 the streets of Cracow and Lemberg are much safer than those of 
 Vienna or Prague. Owing to the poverty of the country, ex- 
 hausted by incessant wars and the oppression of former Austrian 
 Governments, trade is not very flourishing, but the petroleum 
 industry is gradually developing itself, and it would become a 
 mine of wealth to any foreign capitalists investing in it. The. 
 
Poland. 
 
 133 
 
 want of capital is, indeed, the chief obstacle to the development of 
 Galicia, which is very rich in natural resources, and the con- 
 struction of railways, of mills, of dyeing establishments, and of 
 manufacturers of textile fabrics on a large scale would be very 
 profitable. 
 
 And finally, as to the political capacity of the Poles, who have 
 never been wanting in statesmen, I need only mention the fore- 
 most, next to the Prime Minister, of the members of the Austro- 
 Hungarian Cabinet, M. Dunajevski, the Minister of Finance, who 
 is universally acknowledged as a man of extraordinary ability, 
 endowed with the highest qualities of statesmanship, and by his 
 skilful management of the Austrian finances has now for the first 
 time for many years produced a budget with a surplus. 
 
 We have now seen the past and the present of Poland. What of 
 her future? To prophesy in politics is foolish and dangerous, 
 but the field of speculation is wide, and stranger things have 
 happened than even the restoration of Poland, the only great 
 historical country (now that Hungary, Italy, and Greece are free) 
 which still lies in bondage. What a blessing it would be to 
 humanity if " the canker of liberty " could be made to revive in 
 Northern Europe, and by eating away the accumulated slough of 
 centuries of despotic rule, leave the great Russian and German 
 nations free to pursue their natural development — if a nation like 
 Poland, independent, high spirited, not aggressive, but with the 
 highest qualifications for self defence, and nurtured in traditions of 
 freedom from its infancy, could show the Russians that servility, 
 with her handmaid corruption, is a curse, and the Germans that 
 there are higher things to strive for than mere empire — if there 
 would then be an end of the Russian greed of conquest, carefully 
 fostered by the Russian officials in order to divert the minds of 
 the people from the scandalous abuses and oppression of their 
 government at home ; and if the nations of Europe, relieved of 
 the incubus of Russian aggressiveness, were enabled to reduce 
 those enormous armaments which are among the most crying 
 evils of our time ! You will say that this is a dream ; but the 
 dreams of nations sometimes come true, and the friend of liberty 
 will never despair of Poland ; for if the world's progress is not a 
 mere phrase, Time and Education, the great levellers, must 
 gradually undermine the great absolutisms of the Continent, and 
 Poland will surely then be called to resume her place and her 
 beneficent mission among the fraternity of European nations. 
 
■VIII. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 J. STEPHEN JEANS. 
 
 IT is not too much to say that no nation of either ancient or 
 modern times has played so distinguished a part on the 
 stage of history, has had a more varied and chequered career, 
 has contributed more to the advancement of laws and learning, 
 arts and sciences, commerce and colonisation, than Italy. There 
 is not an inch of her soil that is not classic; there is not a 
 hamlet, village, or town in her whole extent that has not its 
 story of pillage and slaughter, resistance to oppression, feudal 
 customs, priestly tyranny, high purposes, and noble achievements. 
 "The rude forefathers of the hamlet" have often, in Italian 
 history, lit beacon fires of freedom that have been reflected 
 throughout the world. Italian art remains the envy and the 
 despair of the art of all other nations and of all other times. 
 Italian jurisprudence, whether in the form of Roman law, or 
 in the later phases of mediaeval codes adapted to altered 
 conditions, has been the foundation on which most of our 
 legal precedents rest even to the present day. Italian navigators, 
 Columbus, Marco Polo and his brother, and their antetypes, 
 have been the pioneers of travel and commerce all the world 
 over. Italian liberty, as enjoyed by the Free States of Venice, 
 Florence, Genoa, and Lucca, has been the basis of later political 
 systems that recognise equality before the law as the first principle 
 of just government, and have upon that foundation reared a 
 superstructure that is indestructible. Education and literature 
 have been equally under obligation to Italian minds. The 
 Universities which were founded at Bologna, Naples, Padua, 
 and other Italian cities were the forerunners, and in many 
 cases the types of those that have since been able to achieve 
 perhaps a more illustrious name in other lands. The great libraries 
 of the Vatican and of the Florentine Republic preceded by 
 many years the establishment of most of the other libraries of 
 
136 . National Life and Thought, 
 
 Europe. Municipal Institutions are equally indebted to this 
 remarkable country. Buried for generations in the grossest of 
 superstitions,, and under the most galling tyranny, municipal 
 freedom every now and again, even while the unbridled license 
 of personal rule seemed to be the only alternative available for 
 the whole of Europe, assumed a certain definite form which at 
 least kept it alive, and interposed some sort of check, however 
 feeble and ineffectual in the main, to the autocracy of the Popes, 
 the dukes, and the other powers of the period. Eager in the 
 pursuit of commerce, and adventurous beyond nearly every 
 other nation, the citizens of Florence, followed by those of 
 Venice and Genoa, established some of the first trading com- 
 panies and guilds for mutual protection and the advancement of 
 material interests. In an age when railways were not, before the 
 principles of road-making were understood as they now are, and 
 when engineering was almost entirely neglected elsewhere, the 
 Italians not only provided themselves with excellent roads, but 
 with navigable waterways as well, of which the Canal between 
 Milan and the Ticino is one of the most striking examples. The 
 Roman aqueducts, whereby water supplies were conveyed to the 
 towns and villages from the adjoining hills or mountains, are 
 masterpieces of art and of engineering skill, and many of them 
 are in constant use even at the present day. The architectural 
 skill and taste of the early Italians is attested by many examples, 
 alike in churches, palaces, and other buildings, scattered up and 
 down the face of the country, and making the Italy of to-day 
 perhaps the most interesting land to visit that the world can 
 show. These are but a few of the considerations that throw a halo 
 of romance around the name of Italy, and compel the admiration, 
 if not the adoration, of all time. 
 
 In undertaking to speak of such a country, the difficulty is, of 
 course, to know how and where to begin. But as we must 
 begin somewhere, and as it is necessary to a correct appreciation 
 of the subjects to be afterwards dealt with that we should have 
 the position and form of the country clearly in our minds, I may 
 at once proceed to say that Italy is mainly a peninsula, to 
 which is added the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia, the 
 island of Elba, and about sixty-six minor islands. It has a total 
 area of nearly 111,000 square miles, or about 12,000 square 
 miles less than the United Kingdom, while its population at 
 the last census amounted to about thirty millions, being about 
 eight millions less than that of our own country. 
 
Italy. 1 37 
 
 One of the most striking physical features of the country is its 
 immense length in proportion to its breadth. The total length 
 of the Peninsula is about 700 miles, but its breadth in some 
 places does not much exceed 20 miles. This, of course, involves 
 another remarkable physical characteristic — namely, the ex- 
 ceptional extent of coast line, which in Europe is only equalled 
 by that of our own country, and amounts for the mainland to 
 about 2000 miles, and for the islands to nearly 2000 miles more. 
 Another prominent feature of the country is that it is traversed 
 throughout the greater part of its length by the chain of the 
 Apennines ; and as its northern limits are formed by the chain of 
 the Alps, which separate it from France, it is obvious that the 
 country must have a considerable extent of mountainous territory. 
 This is not only the case, but it is the case to so considerable 
 an extent, that less than one-half of the total area is under 
 cultivation, so that relatively to her size, Italy can hardly be 
 regarded as a productive country in the same sense as that term 
 may be applied to the much more prolific and densely-populated 
 countries of Belgium and Holland. 
 
 In a country extending from north to south through ten degrees 
 of latitude, there must be a great difference of climate due to 
 position alone ; but besides that, the climate of Italy is influenced 
 by the proximity of the lofty mountain ranges referred to in some 
 of its divisions, and by the influence of the air from the sea, which 
 almost surrounds the other parts. If we follow the classification 
 of Saussure, we may divide the climate of Italy into four regions. 
 The first extends from latitude 46.28 to 43.30, and thus com- 
 prehends the whole of the Austrian and Sardinian dominions, and 
 the other territories to the north of the Apennines, with Bologna, 
 Ferrara, and Romagna. In this region the quicksilver in 
 Reaumur's thermometer descends to ten degrees below zero ; the 
 lagunes at the mouths of the rivers are frozen ; and sometimes in 
 January and February the snow remains from ten to fourteen days 
 on the ground. Delicate plants do not grow except in sheltered 
 situations ; but the mulberry trees flourish, and rice is grown. The 
 slight night-frosts appear in November, and some years as late as 
 April. Even in summer a benumbing cold is brought down from 
 the Alps by a violent storm of northerly wind. The second region 
 extends from 43.30 to 41.30, comprehending Tuscany, Lucca, the 
 Papal States, the Abbruzzis, and the whole of the western shore to 
 the south of the Apennines, though some part of the latter does 
 ■ extend as far north as 44, but, from being sheltered by the moun- 
 
138 National Life and Thought. 
 
 tains, has a climate similar to the southern part. This is the 
 appropriate climate for the growth of the orange, the lemon, and 
 the olive ; but even in this region the snow is occasionally to be 
 seen on the fields. The third region extends from 41.30 to 39, 
 and comprehends the greater part of the continental dominions 
 of the former kingdom of Naples. Here snow is rarely seen, 
 and never remains ; the quicksilver seldom falls below three 
 degrees, and all plants of the agrumenous tribe flourish in the 
 open air. The fourth region extends from 39 to 35.50, and 
 comprehends the southern part of Caiabria and the island of 
 Sicily. The quicksilver rarely falls below zero, and snow and 
 ice are unknown except on the summits of the mountains. The 
 tropical fruits come to perfection in the open air, the sugar-cane 
 flourishes, the cotton plant ripens, the date trees are seen in the 
 gardens, and the enclosures of the fields are formed by aloes. It 
 will be obvious that this classification cannot be universally 
 applied, and principally attaches to the flat land of Italy. 
 
 Thus the positions on the sides of high mountains, the vicinity 
 of the sea, and the volcanic nature of the soil, all have an 
 influence which must cause many local variations in any classifica- 
 tions, and form exceptions to what is generally correct. The 
 tops of the Alps in Savoy and Piedmont are covered with perpetual 
 snow. 
 
 The Apennines are also commonly clothed with snow from the 
 middle of October till the beginning of April ; and on the highest 
 mountains of Abbruzzo, the Majella, and the Velino it remains 
 from September till May. 
 
 The northern part of Italy, including Tuscany and the Papal 
 States, does not generally present that charming aspect which 
 people from the North picture to themselves of the garden 
 of Europe ; and they are only introduced into that region on 
 proceeding to the east from Manfredonia, or to the west 
 from Terracina. There the winter is scarcely colder than our 
 September; vegetation proceeds without interruption; and the 
 air is filled with the most aromatic odours. 
 
 There are many ways of writing history. If I were called upon 
 to give you, in an hour's lecture, a historical sketch of the 
 development of Italy, I should probably be expected to occupy at 
 least one-half of that time with references to the rulers who had 
 at one time or another misled, oppressed, and deteriorated the 
 people. But I do not so read the functions of history. The 
 nations of the world are no doubt very much what their rulers. 
 
Italy. 139 
 
 make them, but they are also largely responsible for the making of 
 their rulers. In my view, the ruler of a nation is the embodiment 
 for the time being of the acts, aspirations, and characteristics of 
 the people over whom he wields authority. That is no doubt the 
 case to a much larger extent now than it was in former days. It 
 is due to the electric telegraph, the newspaper press, the railway, 
 and other modern institutions, that a national sentiment can be 
 diffused and acted upon much more quickly than formerly. One- 
 man power is now only wielded so long as it is permitted. The 
 will of the people is the potent and sovereign factor; not the 
 will of the ruler, who is only their temporary mouthpiece and 
 agent. 
 
 The real circumstances of a country are, therefore, to be sought 
 for not in the pomp and pageantry of courts, nor the tread of armed 
 men, nor the incidents of a campaign, nor the personal relations 
 of different sovereigns ; but in the typical features of race, climate, 
 social condition, physical powers and attainments, degree of well- 
 being, stability, endurance, and growth of the means that make 
 for civilisation and improvement. Of all these, so far as ancient 
 Italy is concerned, and, to a large extent, as regards modern Italy 
 as well, there is less absolute and complete knowledge than we 
 could wish for. An occasional ray of light is projected across the 
 dark surface of mediaeval times, but the glimmer is short, un- 
 certain, insufficient. We know much of the rulers and their ways ; 
 of the habits, feelings, hopes, and condition of the people, only 
 very little. But we can imagine more than we actually know. 
 For hundreds of years Italy was not the cockpit perhaps, but 
 certainly the chief battlefield of Europe. The opening of the 
 Christian era found Italy the centre of Roman power, with wars 
 and revolutions on hand in almost every quarter of the then known 
 world. A hundred years later, and it was still the same. Rome 
 was at war with Parthia, Media, Armenia, and other States ; the 
 Christians were undergoing their third persecution ; the philoso- 
 phers were being expelled from the Imperial City ; and con- 
 spiracies, heresies, and schisms were rampant on every hand. It 
 was the same old story, with an infinite variety of detail, both of 
 scene and circumstance, until in 476 an end was put to the 
 Western Empire of Rome by the deposition of Augustus. There- 
 upon began the long night of the Middle Ages. Italy was delivered 
 over to the rule of a Scythian chieftain ; Odoacer was placed in 
 supreme power by a revolt ; and for a long time the country was 
 controlled by bands of foreign and licentious mercenaries. 
 
140 National Life and TJwiight. 
 
 In speaking of the history of Italy, we do not, of course, mean 
 to refer at any length to the history of ancient Rome, which has, 
 for our present purpose, a very limited interest. It has been well 
 observed that the history of Rome and the history of modern Italy 
 are no more related to each other than a tragedy is to the after- 
 piece. Not only the nations and their language, not only manners 
 and morals, laws and gods, have given place to others ; not only 
 the monuments of men have been swept from the face of the land, 
 but the land itself, its general aspect, and its very climate are 
 changed. 
 
 The history of Italy since the old Roman Empire perished by 
 inanition, and was overrun by the hordes of northern barbarians, 
 may be divided into six distinct eras or epochs, which I shall 
 briefly summarise. 
 
 I. The period of the Middle Ages, a.d. 568 to 1183, the age 
 of the fathers of the Church, of the monkish chroniclers of the 
 Middle Ages, of the theological and philosophical universities 
 founded by Charlemagne and his successors, of the sources of 
 modern institutions, manners, and feelings, arising from the contact 
 of the rude but active temper of the northern conquerors, with the 
 more enlightened manners of the conquered, and of the new 
 religion of Christianity, which, displacing the Paganism of the 
 ancient Romans, and the idolatrous worship of the Goths and 
 Greeks, levelled the distinctions of caste and race, and provided 
 the germs of a new morality. 
 
 II. In the second epoch the Italian republics were in the full 
 plenitude of their power and greatness, controlling and admin- 
 istering the commerce of the world, and establishing principles of 
 freedom and independence which tended to promote arts and 
 letters, to excite energy and enthusiasm, and to get rid of tyranny 
 and feudalism. In this age Genoa, Pisa, and Venice shared 
 between them the empire of the seas ; Milan and Florence were 
 the workshops of the then known world. This was the epoch of 
 Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo ; of Colonna, Strozzi, and 
 Dandolo ; of the Cabots, Amerigo, and Columbus ; of Dante, 
 Varchi, and Macchiavelli. 
 
 III. and IV. The third period, which extended from 1434 to 1748, 
 has been described as that of Italian principalities, of domestic 
 tyranny ; when the noble families of Este and Medici achieved a 
 splendour and maintained a state that contrasts sharply with the 
 simplicity of the republics which they superseded ; while the fourth 
 period, which, to a large extent, overlaps the third, and extended 
 
Italy. I4I 
 
 from 1530 to 1789, has been described as that of foreign dominion 
 or the age of decline; an age during which the French, the 
 Spaniards, the Austrians, and the Swiss were by turns invited and 
 expelled by the Italians themselves ; an age that witnessed the long 
 struggles of Venice against the Ottoman powers, the wars of the 
 House of Savoy against France and Austria, and frequent revolts 
 against inquisition and despotism. During this period literature 
 was all but dead ; it was a literature of Inquisitors and Jesuits, of 
 fetters and fagots. 
 
 The fifth period of modern Italian history brings us down to the 
 year 1848, and embraced the stirring times of the French Revolu- 
 tion. This period was distinguished by a long peace under the 
 tardy and sleepy rule of the Austrians, during which the rigours of 
 the Inquisition were entirely got rid of, and many political and 
 religious reforms were introduced, not, however, without much 
 pressure, as evidenced by the revolutions of Naples and Turin in 
 1820, and the insurrections of Modena, Parma, and Romagna 
 in 1 83 1. 
 
 Finally, we come to the era of unification and regeneration, of 
 which we shall speak later on — the period of valour, trial, and 
 triumph, with which we associate the names of Victor Emmanuel,, 
 Garibaldi, and Cavour. 
 
 Hitherto we have said but little of the Italians themselves. We 
 must now endeavour to see what sort of people they are and 
 were. 
 
 Most prominent among the sons of Italy are the Lombards, who 
 have for many centuries inhabited that vast tract of country which 
 lies between the Alps and the Apennines, down to the Adriatic 
 Sea — the richest part of the Peninsula, with a fertile soil and a 
 healthy climate. The Lombards, unlike the Southern Italians, are 
 distinguished by fair hair and complexion, comparatively large 
 stature, a sanguine temper, and an enterprising and active habit of 
 mind. They have always been the most prosperous among the 
 races of Italy, and have been conspicuously successful in agricul- 
 ture, commerce, and industry. 
 
 The Genoese are the descendants of the fierce Ligurians, and, 
 until recently, at all events, had to a great extent escaped foreign 
 admixture. They are a hardy and thrifty race, and have for 
 generations enjoyed the reputation of being the best sailors on the 
 Mediterranean. This characteristic has naturally produceda race 
 of rovers and adventurers, who have navigated and, to a large 
 extent, settled in the four quarters of the globe. 
 
142 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Very different to the Genoese are the inhabitants of Tuscany — 
 a soft, gentle, and highly refined people, of elegant but effeminate 
 features, and slender frames, who have made Florence for many 
 centuries the ruler of arts and letters, and have produced a 
 greater number of eminent men than all the rest of Italy put 
 together. 
 
 The island of Sicily, and the southern parts of the Peninsula, 
 were early settled by Dorian colonists, who imparted to the 
 inhabitants of the seaboard a more or less Grecian character, with 
 schools, games, poets, and philosophers, which rivalled those of the 
 Fatherland. Both claim that the character of the Neapolitans is 
 essentially Greek, although the calamities of the feudal system, of 
 the Provencal, Spanish, and Austrian yokes, and of the tyranny 
 and troubles that they have endured from other sources, have 
 tended to sadden them, and modify their Grecian levity and play- 
 fulness, their taste for sophisms and specious arguments, their 
 delight in national dances and festivals. 
 
 The inhabitants of Calabria, on the other hand, are a mixed 
 race, very different from those of Tuscany and Piedmont. Traces 
 of Greek, Norman, German, French, and Spanish blood may be 
 found among them, and they have little in common with their 
 neighbours, whether as regards their race, their character, their 
 history, or their national aspirations. 
 
 When we remember that all these various elements of race and 
 blood had been for centuries warring against each other; that 
 Milan and Pavia, Pisa and Florence, Naples and Palermo, Venice 
 and Verona, had been rival cities, with different rulers and 
 systems of government, with opposite and opposing interests, with 
 few traditions or memories in common, with bloody grudges and 
 long-cherished antipathies, the work of Italian unity, which was 
 commenced less than half a century ago, and is now an accom- 
 plished fact, would seem, on the first blush, to be the merest 
 chimera. 
 
 External circumstances were apparently leagued against the 
 consummation of this ideal to a still more serious extent. Italy 
 had a powerful and jealous neighbour in France, who, whatever 
 her professions may have been, could hardly be expected to favour 
 the rise of a great and independent Italian kingdom, which should 
 assume its due place in the councils of Europe, and be a for- 
 midable rival in those waters which France desired for herself. 
 
 Another very near neighbour, the kingdom of Austria, held 
 Venetia by the title of treaty and the possession of nearly seventy 
 
Italy. lA? 
 
 years, and there could be no united Italy without Venice. The 
 creed of the great mass of the Italians was that without Rome 
 there could be no Italy ; but Rome was held by the Papal troops, 
 aided and abetted for a time by the legions of France, and the 
 Pope had, besides, at his back, the prescriptive authority of 
 centuries and the countenance of Christendom. Although 
 subjected to the galling yoke of an infamous tyrant, Naples 
 looked coldly on the project of Italian unity, and did but 
 little to advance it, while the King himself bid defiance to those 
 who sought his deposition. Garibaldi, eager, daring, and 
 impetuous, was likely to precipitate a crisis by engaging in a war 
 with Austria for the liberation of Venetia, which could hardly 
 have been regarded with favour by the rest of Europe. On the 
 other hand, there was the possibility that if the King appeared 
 backward in the cause of Italian unity, Garibaldi would join 
 with Mazzini, and set up a Republic at Naples. Finally, there 
 was the jealousy of all the other states and provinces of Italy at 
 the ascendency of the star of Victor Emmanuel and Sardinia. 
 
 When, therefore, the captivating cry of " Italy for the Italians " 
 was raised, its realisation appeared to be unattainable in the face 
 of the difficulties to which allusion has been made. That it should 
 be realised through the House of Savoy and the kingdom of 
 Sardinia was wildly improbable. That State had an area of only 
 29,500 square miles, or about one-fourth of that of Italy as a whole; 
 while its population was very little above four millions, being only 
 one-fifth of that of the consolidated kingdom proposed to be 
 established. Victor Emmanuel, however, knew what he was about. 
 He engaged with the Western Powers in the struggle against 
 Russia in the Crimea, without any imaginable cause of war, and 
 thus forced his kingdom and his personality into prominence. The 
 times were, moreover, ripe for a change. From the kingdom of 
 Naples, with its area of 43,000 square miles and its population of 
 7,500,000, down to the little republic of San Marino, with its area of 
 forty-four square miles, and its population of only 8400, the govern- 
 ments that ruled in Italy were unsatisfactory, and their tenure of 
 power was unstable. The question was, What should supply their 
 place ? It was all very well to speak of Italy for the Italians ; but 
 it was well said that " since the time of the Roman Empire there 
 had never been a time when Italy could be called a nation, any 
 more than a stack of timber could be called a ship." Besides, 
 even if it had been otherwise, the problem arose, " Who was to bell 
 the cat ? " To realise the fruition of the aspiration, there must be 
 
144 National Life and Thought. 
 
 insurrection against established Italian governments, or the over- 
 throw of Italian dynasties. In other words, it appeared to be 
 inevitable that one independent state, as then constituted, should 
 foment insurrection in the dominions of another. A parallel case 
 would be the invasion of Saxony or Bavaria by Prussia, under the 
 pretext of securing " Germany for the Germans." 
 
 Such was the position of affairs when, in November 1859, by 
 the Treaty of Villafranca, Lombardy was, under one instrument, 
 ceded to France, and by another was ceded by France to Sardinia. 
 The area of Lombardy, then held by Austria, was 18,450 square 
 miles, and its population was 4,279,000, Milan being the capital. 
 Insurrection in the island of Sicily in the following year led to the 
 deposition of the king ; and, a few weeks later, Garibaldi assumed 
 the dictatorship of the island in the name of Victor Emmanuel. 
 This secured for the House of Savoy the control of three-fourths 
 of Italy. The conflict with the Papal States and the termination 
 of the temporal government of the Pope followed. Italy had 
 practically become Italia Irredenta when, in 1870, the capital was 
 transferred to Rome, the Eternal City, upon which, as Cavour 
 expressed it, " five-and-twenty centuries have accumulated all- 
 glorious memories, as destined to become the splendid capital of 
 our Italian kingdom." 
 
 I have spoken of a body who are known as the Irredentists. 
 This is the name given to a political organisation formed in 1878, 
 with the avowed object of freeing all Italians from foreign rule, and 
 of reuniting to the Italian kingdom all those portions of the Italy 
 of old which have passed under foreign dominion. The operations 
 of the "Italia Irredenta" party are chiefly carried on against 
 Austria, in consequence of the retention by that Empire of Trieste 
 and the Southern Tyrol. Until these territories have been 
 relinquished, Italy, or at least a certain part of it, will remain 
 unsatisfied. Whether this may, in the near future, precipitate an 
 Austro-Italian war is, of course, a moot point ; but in the meantime, 
 at all events, Italy and Austria are good friends, and lie down 
 together under the sheltering wing of Prince Bismarck. 
 
 It would hardly be proper to pass from the consideration of 
 Italian history without making some reference, however incidental, 
 to the part which has been taken in the record by the Papacy. I 
 do not hesitate to say that, in my view, that part has made wholly 
 for evil. I say this alike of the system and its professors. You 
 cannot, indeed, separate the two. If we go back to the earlier 
 centuries of the Christian era, we find that the Papacy was dis- 
 
 
Italy. 145 
 
 tinguished chiefly for its grasping covetousness and assumption, 
 under the guise of religion, of powers and prerogatives to which it 
 had no claim. In a stand-up fight between any two interests or 
 systems, as between any two persons, a fair-minded man would 
 naturally desire that there should be an entire absence of " fear, 
 favour, or affection," and that both sides should have a fair chance. 
 But the Papacy never did, and, in the very nature of the case, 
 never could give its opponents a fair chance. It has an armoury 
 of spiritual weapons to which they cannot possibly resort, after its 
 temporal means of defence or defiance have been exhausted. It 
 works upon men's hopes and fears with regard to the future. It 
 has encouraged and profited by superstition, and has made full 
 use of that fearful engine of oppression — the holy Inquisition — 
 through whom it has martyred countless thousands in every nation 
 in Europe. Its sacerdotal pretensions have not been more absurd 
 and offensive than their application has been iniquitous. All this, 
 however, might have been borne if the character of the popes and 
 the priesthood had been above reproach. A bad system may, 
 indeed, have good and righteous apostles, and the most holy zeal 
 may be enkindled and applied on behalf of a lie. But in the case 
 of the Papacy there has been grave fault to find with the personal 
 character of its leaders. Many of the popes have been notorious 
 for their depravity. Where their authority has been divided, as it 
 was on several occasions during the Middle Ages, they have proved 
 their human frailty by abusing one another like so many Kilkenny 
 cats. One Pope even stooped so low as to earn part of his income 
 by the licensing of brothels. They have often cast in their lot and 
 influence with tyranny and wrong where the course of right and 
 charity lay clearly marked out before them. They have placed 
 under a ban many of the most potent agencies of modern civilisa- 
 tion, including the printing press and the railway system. They 
 have claimed an authority over the consciences of men which 
 nothing could possibly justify. And, finally, when their temporal 
 authority was assailed, they have ranted like the fishwife whom Dr. 
 Johnson spoke of as an individual. Pray do not let me be mis- 
 understood. I am far from seeking to make an attack upon the 
 Roman Catholic Church as such. That Church has, perhaps, as 
 much cause to be satisfied with itself and its work as any other. 
 On that I express no opinion. But I do unhesitatingly say that 
 the influence of the Papacy upon Italy from first to last has not been 
 salutary ; and but for that influence, Italy would probably have 
 become a united and homogeneous kingdom much sooner than it 
 
 K 
 
146 National Life and Thought. 
 
 did. At the same time, we would be ungrateful did we not 
 remember that some of the popes have been equally distinguished 
 for piety and learning, and have done good work alike for art and 
 for literature. 
 
 We have seen that the task which Italian statesmen have suc- 
 cessfully accomplished has been that of uniting the many 
 conflicting interests of the different States and Duchies already 
 named, with their divided authorities and unconformable financial 
 arrangements, into one compact, united, and consistent whole, 
 subject to the same supreme temporal head, with identical 
 political laws and institutions, and with a prestige and strength 
 sufficient to place it in the fifth or sixth place among the great 
 powers of Europe. All this has been accomplished in the face of 
 the most determined opposition, alike of temporal and spiritual 
 powers, with slender financial resources, with lukewarmness on 
 the part of a large section of the population, and with very limited 
 co-operation on the part of other states. The heroes of the 
 achievement have been Garibaldi, Cavour, and Victor Emmanuel. 
 Their labours have borne fruits that could hardly have been 
 anticipated, and England rejoices at the result. The vow which 
 Victor Emmanuel took after the crushing defeat of Novara in 
 1S49, Per dio V Italia Sara ("Italy shall be"), has been fulfilled. 
 Something, however, remains to be dene. " Italy is made, but 
 who will now make the Italians?" This question, originally pro- 
 pounded by Massimo d'Azeglio (who was Prime Minister of 
 Sardinia before Cavour commenced his great work of Italian 
 unification), has not yet been satisfactorily answered. Italy is 
 poor ; she is burdened with an enormous debt ; her armaments 
 are large and costly ; her people for the most part are imperfectly 
 educated ; her death-rate, notwithstanding that she has the finest 
 climate in Europe, is exceptionally high ; her commerce is of 
 limited dimensions; her industries are few in number, and fail in 
 the majority of cases to compete with those of more Western 
 nations. All this is only what might be expected under the 
 circumstances. A kingdom is little more than a geographical 
 expression, which may be called into existence to-day, and blotted 
 out to-morrow. A people are what their circumstances make 
 them; and if, as in the case of Italy, those circumstances have 
 been inauspicious throughout a long course of years, the processes 
 of elevation and amelioration are likely to be slow, and perhaps 
 tedious. 
 
 One of the most unpromising features of the recent history of 
 
Italy. 147 
 
 Italy has been the great increase of her national debt. Between 
 1858 and 1868 the national expenditure of Italy rose from 20^- 
 to 47f millions; and in 1872, two years after the final touch 
 had been given to the consolidation of the kingdom by the occupa- 
 tion of Rome, the expenditure had increased to 54! millions. 
 The present annual expenditure may be put at about 70 millions, 
 which is only 10 to 15 millions under the expenditure of a rich and 
 prosperous country like the United Kingdom. Much of this 
 ■expenditure has perhaps been wasteful, and a great deal may have 
 been unnecessary. A state like Italy, which has been consoli- 
 dated by frequent appeals to the sword, and as the ultimate result 
 of force, cannot halt by the way to consider cheeseparing econo- 
 mies, nor can it easily restore the balance between revenue and 
 expenditure. That balance, in the case of Italy, was for many 
 years on the wrong side. The task of adjusting the two sides of 
 the account, difficult even in a rich country under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, demanded, in the exceptional circumstances of Italy, 
 that expedients should be adopted that pressed with severity upon 
 the people. The duties on salt and tobacco had to be increased. 
 Additional taxation was imposed on postage, on petroleum, on 
 •corn, and on colonial goods generally. State lands were sold, 
 .and fresh Treasury bonds were issued. The usually oppressive 
 grist tax had to be increased. Lotteries, at all times an unsatis- 
 factory source of national revenue, had to be resorted to again 
 .and again, and in some years produced close on 4 millions 
 sterling. All incomes were made liable to taxation, those derived 
 from manual labour as well as those from capital and rentes. 
 Manifestly, therefore, Italian emancipation has not been purchased 
 without entailing grave inconvenience, much suffering, and not a 
 little permanent hardship and sacrifice on the part of the people 
 generally. But there is no evidence that the sacrifice has been 
 unwillingly borne. On the contrary, as all the world knows, it is 
 the ambition, and apparently the fixed determination, of Italy to 
 become and to remain one of the great powers of Europe, able to 
 hold her own in the councils of the nations, whether in war or in 
 peace. With this end in view she maintains a vast army and a 
 powerful navy, which Avould be likely to give a good account of 
 themselves in any issue that could possibly arise to demand the 
 arbitrament of the sword. It is questioned whether this force is 
 needed to secure Italy from external attack and preserve internal 
 peace. But Italian statesmen appear to deem it indispensable 
 that their country should be equal to meeting any force likely to 
 
148 National Life and Thought. 
 
 come against her, whether by land or by sea. Nor must it be 
 forgotten that Italy has some reason to regard her powerful neigh- 
 bours with distrust and suspicion. Nations have long memories. 
 Austria is not likely to forget the humiliating circumstances under 
 which she was compelled to cede the greater part of Lombardy 
 in 1859, and Venice in 1866. Recent events in Africa demon- 
 strated the constant liability to misunderstanding and rupture 
 with France. The opening of the St, Gothard Railway places- 
 Italy at a greater peril of invasion from Germany. The relations 
 of the Italian Government and the Pope are not yet so satisfactory 
 as could be desired, and there is even now a question of wounded 
 amour firopre, which increases the strain. All these considera- 
 tions appear to justify the Italians in their demands for a strong 
 army and navy; but these can only be purchased at the price of 
 considerable sacrifices on the part of the people generally; and so 
 long as this policy is adopted as expedient or necessary, so long 
 will the material prosperity of the country be retarded. 
 
 Indeed, the ordinary taxpayer in this country can hardly form 
 any idea of the crushing character of the burden of taxation 
 which the Italian peasant and mechanic are required to bear. 
 Taking the national and the local taxation of Italy together, the 
 revenue that has to be raised annually amounts, as I have just 
 stated, to about ^70,000,000, or, roughly, 50s. per inhabitant. 
 This sum is not nearly so large as that which has to be provided 
 in the United Kingdom and in France. But then the national 
 income of Italy is incomparably less than that of either of these 
 two countries; and when we come to apply the test of income, or 
 ability to support taxation, it comes out that in Italy the taxes 
 represent 20 to 25 per cent, of the national income, as compared 
 with only 10 per cent, in the United Kingdom, and 14 to 15 per 
 cent, in France. Not only so, but in the United Kingdom, and 
 to a less extent in France, the incidence of taxation is so contrived 
 as to press with but little severity on the great mass of the popu- 
 lation, whereas in Italy taxation is levied largely upon the 
 necessaries of life and the incomes of the poor, so that the most 
 abject destitution cannot purchase exemption from its baleful 
 demands. 
 
 In considering the important and pressing problem of how the- 
 effects of this crushing taxation can be mitigated, one question 
 that will naturally be uppermost in the minds of Italian econo- 
 mists is that of whether more can be made than is made at 
 present of the produce of the soil. The great point to be 
 
Italy. 149 
 
 •determined is whether the country is adapted to growing with 
 advantage crops that will return a better ultimate result than 
 those that are generally cultivated at present. The time has 
 gone by when a nation required to be self-contained in all the 
 essentials of existence. Independence of outside supplies of 
 food is no longer the shibboleth of political and fiscal reformers. 
 In all the other countries of Europe, as in Athens of old, 
 external sources of supply are now called in. It has been 
 demonstrated that in most of those countries the cultivation of 
 wheat and some other cereals cannot be followed with advantage, 
 in the face of the severe competition of the United States, India, 
 .and one or two other countries. Italy is among the countries 
 which do not grow sufficient wheat for their own wants. She is 
 also, despite the remarkable climate with which Nature has en- 
 dowed her, among the nations that have, relatively to population, 
 .a low income from the soil. The agricultural product of Italy per 
 head of the rural population is calculated at less than ;£n, or 
 only about one-half of that of our own country. This is due to 
 a variety of causes, some of them remediable, others the reverse. 
 The cultivable area of Italy is relatively less than that of most 
 other European countries. This defect of sterility of soil is one that 
 cannot be cured. The average yield of the corn and other crops 
 of Italy is also exceptionally low. The difficulty of providing 
 for adequate rotation of crops, fertilising the soil, and applying 
 scientific husbandry, is probably the chief among the preventable 
 causes. The system under which the metayer holds and culti- 
 vates his farm is one that has a tendency to leave much to be 
 desired in this respect. He is not, like the French peasant, the 
 proprietor of his little farm, but holds it on a lease from a large 
 landowner, to whom in too many cases he is under heavy 
 pecuniary obligations, and with whom he divides his produce in 
 varying proportions. Hence the frequent origin of difficulties of 
 which we have had recent experience in our own country in the 
 agrarian troubles of Ireland and the Crofter's agitation in the 
 north of Scotland. 
 
 The part which Italy has played over the occupation of 
 Massowah may be regarded as a pledge that she means to continue 
 in fact, as well as in name, one of the great powers of Europe. 
 It will be remembered that when Egypt evacuated the Soudan, 
 Massowah, which was a portion of Egyptian territory, fell into 
 the possession of Italy by force of arms, although the town was 
 claimed by the Abyssinians as the natural port of their country. 
 
150 National Life and Thought. 
 
 England has concurred in the Italian occupation, presumably 
 because we did not desire that the natives should be in posses- 
 sion. Neither Turkey nor the other great powers have, however, 
 recognised the part taken by Italy in this matter, and it is held 
 by eminent jurists that the claims of Italy cannot be maintained 
 in international law. France has actively intervened against the 
 Italian occupation, and at one time it looked as if this inter- 
 vention would lead to an open rupture. France, however, 
 not having any real interest in Massowah, has not proved her 
 objections so far as the point of the sword, feeling assured, 
 no doubt, that if she did, Germany, which has countenanced 
 the action of Italy, would have supported that power. In 
 such a case, of course, France would have been embroiled in 
 a war with Germany and Italy, and could hardly have hoped 
 for victory. 
 
 The fear now is, that having been so successful both in their 
 arms and in their diplomacy, the Italians may deem themselves 
 invincible, and rush upon a conflict that will reduce them to a 
 much lower rank among the great powers than that which they 
 now occupy. The Massowah matter appeared to indicate that 
 Italy would not be averse to trying conclusions with France,, 
 hoping thereby, no doubt, to secure a firmer footing on the Red 
 Sea and in the East, as well as to come abreast of that power in 
 the European family. A country that has, like Italy, a great and 
 unsatisfied ambition, is usually liable to attempt more than its- 
 strength will justify. Behind Germany, Italy could, no doubt, 
 make a good fight, but single-handed her chance of success in a 
 war with France is not very bright. Her political and diplomatic 
 prospects are at present, however, tolerably reassuring. She is a 
 member of the Austro-German alliance, and may count upon the 
 co-operation of these two empires in the event of her prestige 
 being assailed. 
 
 It will be perfectly evident from the short sketch I have 
 attemped of her history, that during the last half century Italy 
 has been the most fortunate of European powers. She has 
 advanced from the position of a congeries of petty states, with 
 no cohesion, unity, or real strength, to a power of the first rank,, 
 with interests in the East, and a voice in the settlement of inter- 
 national affairs. She has fished in troubled waters, and has 
 succeeded in obtaining many concessions and advantages where 
 she might just as readily have met with resistance and 
 annihilation. She engaged in the Crimean War, and thereby 
 
Italy. 1 5 1 
 
 laid the foundations of an alliance with France, which, however 
 much she may now affect to disregard its results, has in reality 
 been of great use to her, seeing that it secured Lombardy and the 
 Duchies for Victor Emmanuel, and a little later, Naples and the 
 Papal States. By the war of 1866 she added Venetia, and by 
 the war of 1870 she secured possession of Rome. 
 
 Italy has shown within recent years that her rulers fully 
 appreciate the great importance of the development of her 
 material resources by the construction and efficient maintenance 
 of public works. The part which Italy has taken in the con- 
 struction of the St. Gothard tunnel, and in thereby improving 
 her intercourse with the rest of Europe, is sufficiently well known. 
 The railway system of the kingdom has also been advanced with 
 remarkable strides for a kingdom that has so limited a store of 
 wealth and so comparatively small a traffic. The ports and 
 harbours of Genoa, Venice, Naples, and other leading towns 
 have been put into a creditable condition of repair; and it is 
 now proposed to increase the maritime resources of the country 
 by canalising the classic Tiber, and by constructing a canal 
 right across the Peninsula for a distance of 180 miles, with a 
 view to avoiding the long journey round Cape Lucca. The 
 latter enterprise, if it is ever carried out, is estimated to involve 
 an expenditure of some twenty millions sterling, and it would 
 also involve the draining of two large lakes — those of Bolsena 
 and Thrasimene. 
 
 Italy, as we all know, has been justly celebrated for the liberal 
 and enlightened part which she has always taken in advancing 
 academic and scientific institutions. Many of the sciences were 
 greatly developed there before they had obtained even a foothold 
 elsewhere. And it is not without interest to recall the fact that 
 although many of our schools and universities are even still 
 hesitating whether they should admit ladies to degrees and 
 professorships, and while women are still excluded from seats 
 in the Commons House of Parliament, the Academy of Sciences 
 in Bologna, as far back as 17 12, not only admitted ladies as 
 members, but gave them professors' chairs. In that famous 
 school of learning it is still remembered with pride that nearly 
 two hundred years ago Anna Manzolini was professor of anatomy, 
 and Laura Bassi was celebrated for her knowledge of the abstruse 
 sciences. As there were at that time some 550 academical 
 institutions of the kind in Italy, the country may fairly be 
 reckoned the nursery, as well as the depositary, of many of 
 
3 5 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the arts and sciences that have since blossomed into the noonday 
 •emulgence of nineteenth century practice. 
 
 The Italy of modern times has been a strange compound of 
 ignorance and superstition, of coarseness and refinement, of 
 religion and impiety, of liberty and the most galling yokes, of 
 toleration and intolerance. The same Italy that was founding 
 the academy of sciences at Bologna, originating the modern 
 school of xylography, drawing up the statutes of the Cosmo- 
 graphical Academy at Venice, advancing by the establishment 
 •of several learned institutions the cause of economic science, 
 and enfranchising the serfs in Savoy, was, through the Pope, 
 denouncing Freemasonry, expelling the Jesuits, and confiscating 
 their property, and practising the terrors of the Inquisition. 
 But the lamp of science, although it often burnt dimly, was 
 never wholly extinguished. While Genoa was being besieged by 
 the Imperialists, Beccaria was making those electrical experiments 
 which tended to lay the foundations of the modern science of 
 electrical engineering. While the people were sunk in the direst 
 misery from the ravages of a prolonged war, the first chair of 
 political economy was being established at Naples, and a new 
 code of laws was being issued by Charles. While the finances of 
 the country were in a frightful state of disorganisation, and the 
 great bank of Genoa was being declared bankrupt, Herculaneum 
 was being disinterred from the ashes which had overlain her 
 temples for nearly one thousand seven hundred years, and a 
 meridian arc was being measured by Boscovich and Le Maire 
 from Rome to Rimini. Truly these Italians were a versatile 
 people, and such as they were, such mutatis mutandis they are 
 in our own day. 
 
 If we were asked to furnish a notable example of the truth of 
 this latter statement, we should point to the crushing load of 
 taxation which the people appear to bear without a murmur in 
 order that their country may take the place to which they aspire 
 in the family of nations ; to the existence of the galling system of 
 conscription, which requires every male to serve in the army, 
 unless subject to physical disqualification ; and to the risks that 
 they appear prepared to undertake in order to maintain their 
 national prestige. Italy has really little interest in any part of the 
 world outside of her own borders ; and if she limited herself to 
 these, it is exceedingly probable, now that her relations with the 
 Papacy are more cordial, that she would escape molestation from 
 any outside quarter. But, as we have seen, she is prepared to 
 
Italy. 153 
 
 run the most fearful risks — even that of being utterly annihilated 
 and wiped out — for the sake of so trivial a mess of pottage as 
 the colonisation of the dreary desert port of Massowah, at the 
 same time that she is building up a solid and substantial basis of 
 prosperity and permanence at home. To my mind, Italy seems 
 to have just as much business with Massowah as Tenterden 
 Steeple has with Goodwin Sands, and her chances of profiting 
 thereby are about equally remote. It is a well-known principle in 
 human affairs that the less a man has to lose, the more ready he 
 is to lose it. Italy has not so much to lose as some other 
 European powers ; but that which she does possess has been pur- 
 chased at the cost, and by virtue of, many sacrifices, great endur- 
 ance, patience, and heroism, unlimited loyalty and devotion to 
 the present dynasty. She now acts as if she were ready to 
 throw all these, and much besides, upon a reckless cast, and 
 stand the hazard of the die. 
 
 The condition of the people of Italy is still unhappily far 
 from prosperous, although it is much more satisfactory than 
 formerly. Less than half a century ago, a writer who knew some- 
 thing about the country, described the circumstances of the 
 inhabitants in the following terms : — 
 
 " The greater part of the population of Italy is to be seen in 
 the country devoted to the pursuits of agriculture. A few, a 
 very few, of them are in circumstances of moderate affluence ; a 
 few more may be represented as in a state of comparative ease, 
 enjoying a bare sufficiency to support life ; but the great body, 
 to whom all others bear a slight proportion, are in the most 
 wretched condition. They are the occupiers of small portions of 
 land, some of them not exceeding an acre in extent, and most 
 of them less than four acres, where, in miserable hovels, barely 
 sheltered, they labour in the fields, and subsist, themselves and 
 their families, on half the produce of the land, the other half 
 being delivered to the proprietor at the time of harvest as his 
 rent. Their food, simple as it is, is far from being sufficient to 
 keep them in a healthy state. They taste neither bread nor 
 animal food. Their chief subsistence is called polenta, made 
 from Indian corn, which is merely pounded and then boiled, no 
 expense on account of the miller or the baker being incurred. 
 This kind of meal, made to the consistence of hasty pudding, 
 would certainly be an aliment sufficient to support life when the 
 quantity could be adequately supplied ; but, with the utmost 
 parsimony during the whole year, the termination of it, as the next 
 
154 National Life and Thought. 
 
 harvest approaches, often finds them utterly destitute, and with 
 no other resource but beggary or starvation. This is the con- 
 dition of the larger class of human beings in the north and middle 
 of Italy ; whilst in the south the lazzaroni of Naples are living 
 proofs of the wretched condition of great numbers in that more 
 fertile soil and more temperate climate." 
 
 I have left myself but little time to speak of the political 
 institutions and systems of government which obtain in Italy,, 
 although I can hardly altogether leave these unnoticed. 
 
 The legislative authority of Italy rests with the King and two 
 Chambers — the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The former 
 (unlimited in number) is composed of princes of the royal house 
 after attaining their majority, and of members nominated for life 
 by the King. The Chamber of Deputies is elected by seratin de 
 liste, by conditional universal suffrage for periods of five years, 
 and contains 508 members, or one to every 57,000 of the popula- 
 tion. For electoral purposes, Italy is divided into 135 districts, 
 which again are sub-divided ; one-eighth of the inscribed electors 
 must vote to render an election valid. The present Chamber of 
 Deputies was elected on May 23rd, 1886, a dissolution having 
 been decreed by the King on April 27th. 
 
 The division of parties in the Italian Chamber is unusual. The 
 majority, and the bulk of the minority alike, profess Liberal prin- 
 ciples ; the one being known as the Ministerial left, and the other 
 as the Opposition left or Pentarchists. There is, besides, but little 
 difference in their political programmes. The Opposition includes 
 some minor groups of varying tendencies, a knot of advanced 
 Republicans or Socialists, and the so-called Moderates. There is 
 little or no union in the Opposition ; and it is this that has con- 
 stituted the chief strength of the Ministerial left, which after 
 successfully surviving some nine or ten Ministerial crises, has been 
 uninterruptedly in power for twelve years, a result in a large 
 measure due to the skilful leadership of the late Signor Depretis. 
 On the death of the latter on July 29th, 1887, the ministry under- 
 went no change ; as a matter of form, its resignation was tendered, 
 but was withdrawn at the request of the King, Signor Crispi taking 
 over the Presidency of the Council in addition to the Portfolios of 
 the Interior and of Foreign Affairs. Since his advent to power, 
 Signor Crispi, although an old Garibaldian, a Republican, and a 
 professed friend of France, has been the loyal and devoted servant 
 of the monarchy ; and so far from disturbing Italy's relations with 
 Austria and Germany, as the Irredentists fondly hoped, it has 
 
Italy. 155, 
 
 remained for him to definitely cement the alliance of the Central 
 European Powers. In spite of Parliamentary differences, however, 
 on one point Opposition and Ministerialists are alike united — 
 namely, in the desire to maintain the present Savoy dynasty, which 
 they regard as the keystone of Italian unity. So far as present 
 appearances go, that dynasty has a great future before it. We 
 must all hope that nothing may occur to mar the fortunes of so 
 august a house, or of so spirited, capable, self-denying, and patriotic 
 a people as that over which it presides. 
 

IX. 
 SPAIN. 
 
 PROI'ONGO ALGO V CON'CLUVO NADA. 
 
 MRS. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM. 
 
 THE Portuguese have a word called "saudade," which means 
 a longing after, a desire to see some long unvisited place, 
 some long unseen face. It seems, if the following story is true, 
 that one feels these " saudades " even in heaven itself. 
 
 Adam got weary of Paradise, and asked leave, if only for a few 
 hours, to revisit the earth. He was told that he would find all 
 changed. 
 
 No use ! 
 
 He must go ! 
 
 England, he found one workshop. Even the face of Nature 
 was altered. Nothing as he left it ! France, Italy, Germany, 
 failed to evoke any remembrance. All was changed. So, south- 
 ward, like the swallows, to Spain ! 
 
 As he felt the hot sun bite his cheek, and his eye swept over 
 the fertile vegas of Murcia and Valencia; as he observed the 
 uncultivated country, desolate and unpopulated, he exclaimed 
 with rapture : " This, indeed, is the earth I knew. Under that 
 olive tree could I sit me down and rest, and begin once more to 
 name the animals, male and female, after their kind." 
 
 A foreigner happened to relate the foregoing story in a ter- 
 tulia or conversazione of Madrid. A distinguished Spaniard, who 
 was present, remarked, and he expressed the opinion of all 
 present : " Si, Sehor, y tenia razon, La Espafia es Paraiso." 
 "Yes, Sir, and Adam was right, for Spain is Paradise." 
 
 These two anecdotes, which are to be met with in almost any 
 handbook of Spain, and which, if not true, might well be so, com- 
 pletely synthetise her present position, and the view which every 
 Spaniard, born and bred, is supposed to take, or ought to take, of 
 his country. 
 
158 National Life and Thought. 
 
 The modern influences of the nineteenth century have not worked 
 much change on Spain. The railroad here assumes a certain 
 listlessness, foreign to all idea of hurry and rush ; one can almost 
 watch the grass as it grows between the rails ; we might still fall 
 asleep and dream that Philip II. still reigns, and the Inquisition 
 also, as we wander through the sombre mediaeval streets of the 
 decayed cities of Castille. There is nothing to destroy the illu- 
 sion, except the ugly clothes which we have donned as the world 
 has grown uglier. 
 
 Away from the narrow converging lines of railway (an admir- 
 able lesson in perspective ; I wish for ever they had remained in 
 prospective) there indeed the illusion grows so strong that it 
 wants little of reality. 
 
 Let us conjure up a traveller, and send him by sea to Spain. 
 Let us follow him as he arrives fresh from the Northern greyness 
 into the pellucid atmosphere of the South. Let us watch how 
 his first impression of a new country, vivid as a flash of lightning, 
 almost bewildering in its suddenness and strangeness, affects 
 him. Let us suppose that it is night before the ship anchors in the 
 smooth waters of a Spanish seaport. Let us take Vigo, for 
 instance, with its incomparable bay and magnificent scenery. In 
 the calm bosom of the gently heaving water, shut in on all sides 
 by dark and mysterious shadows, are mirrored thousands of 
 twinkling lights. They are the lights of the town in front of him, 
 which climb up and cling to the dark mass of an eminence 
 whose vague and rocky outlines he can feel rather than see. The 
 feeble lights which twinkle redly from the houses alone illumine 
 the mystery of an unknown town. The long quavering notes 
 of the bugle, sounding the "Retirada," are. wafted over the 
 water. In the early morning he hastes to seek the solution of 
 the problem of the unknown. 
 
 Against a broken mountainous background, which rises against 
 a sky which every successive moment thrills with fresh pulses of 
 colour, translucent, cold, and serene, like that we see framed by 
 the dark shadow of a door or window in old German pictures ; 
 the serried lines of houses which form the town glimmer whitely 
 in that cold light which precedes sunrise. Hither and thither, 
 above the irregular outlines of their roofs, rises the grey cupola 
 of a bell tower, in which, even as he watches, the bells begin to 
 move, and with grave and sombre sound wake the sleepers to life 
 and prayer. 
 
 He lands enthusiastic. He has only seen such scenes before 
 
Spain. 159 
 
 painted by Hawes Craven, when he has been to see Irving at the 
 Lyceum Theatre. An hour spent on the quay, in company with 
 a sleeping cur, waiting for the Custom-house officer who never 
 •comes, somewhat damps his enthusiasm. The lazy curiosity and 
 remark, excited always in Spain by the appearance of a stranger, 
 and especially if that stranger be a foreigner, of the loungers and 
 unemployed boatmen (unemployed, you must understand, not so 
 much for want of work as will) who lean over the railing at the 
 landing-place, and while away the morning hours over a cigarette, 
 irritate him. He resents the suspicious attitude of the green- 
 gloved Carabiniers, who lean on their muskets, roll cigarettes, 
 and watch him grimly. The sun begins to bite his unaccustomed 
 •cheek shrewdly. He savagely meditates a letter to the Times on 
 the barbarism of Spanish institutions and officials. He curses 
 the hour that brought him to Spain ! A Spaniard, accustomed 
 all his life to patience and longsuffering, to whom time is no 
 object, and discomfort cannot exist, is calmly indifferent, offers 
 his cigarettes freely to all around, and "takes the sun," which 
 is gilding the world around him. But our Englishman fumes. 
 
 At last he finds himself in what we will courteously allow to 
 be an hotel (for such it calls itself), which is very little removed 
 from the Arab caravanserai, or Fondak. Indeed, the word 
 " Fonda" shows that its origin sprang from the East. His room 
 has no curtains, no carpet, an iron bed and a straw chair are all 
 the furniture. Depressed by the comfortless interior, he stands 
 gazing vaguely out on to the sunlit patch of grass, which stretches 
 in front of the hotel to the mole. He follows the movements of 
 a horse feeding, the play of two yellow curs, a woman cutting 
 grass with an antediluvian sickle. As she cuts, she intones one of 
 those nasal, melancholy songs peculiar to this Scotland of Spain. 
 He will find, too, that the sun has its melancholy, a calmer and 
 serener melancholy than that of the long grey days of a northern 
 climate, but a melancholy all the same. The senses seem to be 
 steeped in an unknown sadness, a sadness which is reflected in 
 the rich, fertile, beautiful, but most melancholy landscape of 
 Galicia, in the wild undefinable burden of the song of the 
 labourer, and the women washing at the stream. 
 
 After breakfast, when he saunters up the hill into the town, he 
 will find himself in the midst of an arcaded plaza or square. It 
 is surrounded by great stern old granite palaces, which were the 
 town houses of the powerful families who owned land in the 
 vicinity of Vigo. Coats of arms project from their angles, and 
 
160 National Life and Thouglit. 
 
 hang threateningly over the sombre gateways ; and yet, one of the 
 contrasts of Spain, alongside of them, nay, in their very ground 
 floors, little shops and booths, open to the street, flaunt their 
 gaudy wares to entrap the innocent countryman. He passes 
 before the prison, where murderers, smugglers, men and women 
 are confined pell-mell. A basket dangles from the grated win- 
 dow, tied to a cord of esparto grass, in which the relations 
 deposit food ; the charitable, as they pass, a copper. The Spanish 
 Government, no pamperer of men, contents itself with securing, 
 not nourishing, the persons of its prisoners. Here rank is taken 
 from the nature of the crime. The greatest ruffian smokes 
 calmly at the window, the observed of all. The idlers step aside 
 respectfully as his wife comes up, bearing tobacco and provisions. 
 Her cry of " Gentlemen, my husband is the murderer ! " at once 
 commands respect. 
 
 What is it that he misses ? At first he does not analyse, but 
 presently, like a flash of lightning, the thought strikes him, that 
 there is no sound of wheels ! 
 
 Let us go with him as he passes out of the brilliant sunshine of 
 the plaza into the narrow, precipitous streets, full of cool shadows, 
 where the sunlight is blotted out by the almost meeting eaves of 
 the roofs on either side. 
 
 The street is badly paved, uneven, tortuous. If any sound 
 there is, it is of the echoing ring of a donkey's hoofs pattering 
 over the cobble stones, the low murmur of voices from an open 
 doorway. A closely veiled figure returning from early mass 
 glides past him with prayer book and rosary. He almost 
 stumbles over a little pig, which runs squeaking between his 
 legs. 
 
 The street brings us out on to the Alameda, the public garden, 
 which looks down upon the sea, which lies spread out beneath it, 
 an inland lake shut in by mountains, studded with the white sails 
 of fisher-boats coming in from the open sea. It is hot ; the 
 atmosphere balsamic with the scent of pine woods and the fresh 
 salt smell of the sea. He begins to feel the soporific influences 
 around him, a conquering laziness, an apathetic indifference. 
 Care seems to have been left behind in duller climes. He 
 stretches himself on a bench, twists a cigarette lazily, and com- 
 placently watches a blind beggar sitting in the sun, a mass of 
 rags, merry, and jesting with all who pass. Silent and dignified, 
 he utters no words but, " Your grace, for the love of God ! " 
 Curious, is it not, hardly to be conceived, that this being, so 
 
Spain. 161 
 
 ■deformed and hideous as to be terrible to look upon, maintains a 
 certain dignity? Yet, is he not a Spaniard, a Christian — a 
 gentleman? Give him of your copper largesse. He desires, 
 courteously, that "your grace may go with God." If you refuse 
 it, he will not implore curses on your head, but gravely regret 
 that "your grace's heart is not open to the cry of poverty." His 
 •condition implies no disgrace. It is his trade, just as another 
 man happens to be a carpenter or blacksmith. 
 
 The priest sweeps by in long black robes, which leave a trail 
 on the dusty road. The black-gaitered " pareja," the pair of 
 Guardia civiles ; the successors of the Hermandades of Isabella 
 the Catholic, with muskets shouldered, their tricornes glittering in 
 the sun, step briskly past into the country, to patrol the King's 
 highways. 
 
 It is night before our traveller returns to his hotel. His foot- 
 step reverberates as he passes down the empty street, full of deep 
 blotches of shadow. A narrow strip of starlit sky, alone, is 
 visible between the spectral forms of the houses. Under a dark 
 archway where an oil lamp flickers feebly before a blackened oil 
 painting of our Lady of Grief, he is startled by the apparition of 
 two dark-cloaked figures bearing pikes and lanterns. They are 
 the serenes, the watchmen, the guardians of the peace of the 
 sleeping town. They light him home to his hotel, and wield the 
 iron knocker on the gates until the street resounds with answer- 
 ing echoes. His mind reverts involuntarily to a sixteenth-century 
 street in an English country town. Ah ! my friend ! never more 
 in Messina (read Stratford-on-Avon) shall Dogberry and Verges 
 sleep without offence at the church gates ! 
 
 Oblivious of England and Spain alike in the mysterious country 
 of sleep, the traveller's dream is broken by the cry of the watch- 
 man (ever an old man and creaky), who in slow and guttural 
 accent cries the midnight hour and the state of the night. 
 
 And as days go by and the charm overpowers him, he remodels 
 his manners, throws off his British prejudices and mauvaise honte 
 .and reserve, learns to treat those who serve him, the same people 
 that in England he would call the " lower classes," with a familiar 
 courtesy, that the humblest Spaniard never imposes on. 
 
 Not until he succeeds in doing this — not until his Anglo-Saxon 
 blood assimilates some of the Gotho-Spanish ceremonial and 
 formality of manner — does Senor Don Juan Bull, honest John 
 Bull in England, become, as the Spaniards say, " an hombre muy 
 formal," a man of weight and gravity — the quality ever prized 
 
 L 
 
1 62 National Life and Thought. 
 
 most highly by the Spaniard. Not until then does he receive the 
 signs of goodwill and affection at the hands of the most un- 
 affectedly good-natured and warm-hearted people on the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 Well, let us leave our stranger in Galicia, for my subject bears 
 me away from it, although it gives me a pang to turn my back on 
 the deep stony roads, water-courses in winter ; in summer 
 shadowy and fragrant with aromatic essences of furze and pine, 
 made musical with the slow creaking of ox carts ; — to leave its 
 old grey battlemented houses, with their square "towers of hom- 
 age," where the lords of the domain in days long gone by, swore 
 fealty to the king, which gleam white against the shadowy forest 
 of dark pines on the hillside. 
 
 I am going to speak of Spain as she is, and always has been. 
 With the Spain of opera comique I have nothing to do. Spain,, 
 brown, arid, wind-swept, desolate; the Spain that centuries of war 
 have made her ; of its people, quiet, dignified, oriental, self- 
 possessed ; wrapped in brown cloaks, laborious yet indolent ; 
 pitched within and without with that strange subtle melancholy, 
 which separates them from all other nations. 
 
 The Spain of French opera, the French illustrated papers have 
 made familiar to the world. The sun, the fleas, the bull-fight, 
 - the smuggler, the lean hidalgo, the fat peasant, the black eye 
 peeping from a lace mantilla, the castahet, the gipsy dance, — are 
 not all these depicted in chalky water-colours on the fan and tam- 
 bourine, which you may buy for a few pence at Biarritz or 
 Arcachon ? 
 
 This Spain, if indeed it ever existed except on the aforesaid 
 fan and tambourine, is but a reflection, a distorted tradition of 
 the Calderonian drama, of that specifically styled of " cloak and 
 sword," of the merry rascals of the Picaresque novels, of the 
 corrupt society of the Bourbon kings. 
 
 The sun, yes ! remains unchanged ; bull-fighters and gipsies are 
 not quite extinct ; guitars still tinkle on the starry night ; thieves 
 exist, but do more damage to the unwary traveller in the nice 
 presentation of the hotel bill than with blunderbuss and slugs 
 upon the highway ! 
 
 No ! the Spainards are not a nation of fiddlers and dancers, 
 nor yet of bull-fighters and smugglers. They do not live exclu- 
 sively on cigarettes and garlic; their lives are not entirely 
 devoted to dancing the seguidilla. 
 
 These things, these types, have added their quota to the com- 
 
Spain. 163 
 
 position of the national character; other and far different elements 
 have made it what it is. 
 
 An old English writer says, "A Frenchman on arriving at 
 your house asks at once for food ; a Spaniard would rather die 
 than do so." The witty Voltaire makes no man a hero to his 
 valet. The ingenious Cervantes makes Sancho perceive that his 
 master is a madman, but, whilst perceiving, still respect and love 
 his noble nature. 
 
 Neither am I going to laugh over the foibles and failings of the 
 people I love. No ! I will leave that unenviable task to others. 
 It is very amusing, very easy, to give a grotesque idea of the 
 Spanish character by a little judicious exaggeration and elabora- 
 tion. (Ford, and no stranger knew it better, erred a little on this 
 side.) I, for my part, see more to respect, to love, to admire in 
 the proud, self-respecting dignity, the simple sober habits, the 
 native good manners and kindness, which are the characteristics 
 of all classes of the nation. 
 
 As I have said, modern ideas of progress (mind, I, for my part, 
 neither call nor think it progress) have fleeted over the surface of 
 Spain without taking root there. Foreign companies, Belgians 
 and English, anxious to pocket her money, have made her rail- 
 ways, and work her mines. The Spaniard, with his hands in his 
 pocket, has stood by, indifferent that the rest of Europe was being 
 propelled in carriages by steam ; the modes of travelling used by 
 his forefathers were good enough for him. He has clung, and 
 still clings, to his " coche de colleras," the old ramshackle, lum- 
 bering, wooden coach, drawn by eight or sixteen mules, which 
 everywhere else has become a dim tradition. In the remoter 
 districts, inaccessible even by diligence, he travels on " caballeria." 
 A "caballeria" may mean anything equine, from the meek 
 donkey buried under the straw-stuffed " albarda," the saddle left 
 by the Moors, and which you may see unaltered and exactly the 
 same in Morocco at this day, to the small springy Castilian horse. 
 With saddle-bags strapped on behind,- — the classical "alforjas" in 
 which Sancho bore his brown bread and garlic when he followed 
 his master in search of adventures of knight errantry, — and the 
 " bota " or pig-skin bottle full of wine, and a rusty blunderbuss 
 slung on in front (both equally potent as weapons in disarming ill- 
 will, and the former especially a royal road to good fellowship), 
 the Spaniard, muffled to the teeth, starts on his journey two or 
 three hours before dawn, to get under shelter before the heat of 
 the mid-day sun overtakes him ; the same scenes, the same 
 
1 64 National Life and Thought. 
 
 people, congregate before the door of the wayside inn as before 
 that at which Don Quixote arrived, at the end of his first journey 
 over the ancient and well-known plain of Montiel. 
 
 The traveller, before dismounting, calls loudly from the road 
 for the lady hostess : " Peace be to this house ! " says he. " Is 
 no one there ? " 
 
 The hostess appears. The larder is well provided. There is 
 of everything — rabbits, partridges, chickens, geese, goats' flesh, 
 and pigs' feet ; but the rabbit is still to be caught, the partridge 
 to be shot, and so on with the rest. They are, indeed, there, 
 but making the most of a short existence in the courtyard within. 
 At least there is provender for the animals — hay, chopped straw, 
 and barley, and sour wine — what heart of man can be so un- 
 reasonable as to wish for more on a journey ? 
 
 Much of the travelling in Spain is still done on caballerias, 
 donkey-back or mule-back, and may it be so for the rest of my 
 life ! It is in these remote hamlets, in the long days spent on the 
 by-ways of Spain with muleteers, ferrymen, at the " ventas " or 
 ■country inns, where the wants of man become subservient to those 
 of the beast he bestrides ; where rough herdsmen, and shepherds 
 from the mountains, congregate ; in the peasants' huts ; in the 
 houses of the simple and credulous country priests, where in 
 these remote districts it is often necessary to take shelter for the 
 night and hospitality, that we find the national manners and 
 customs unchanged since the Middle Ages, virtually unaltered to 
 what they were when the Moors and the Spaniards lived side by 
 side together in the heart of the Peninsula. 
 
 Until 1830, it must be remembered that the high roads of Spain 
 were all but impracticable. The road, for instance, from Madrid 
 to Avila could only be traversed by mules or donkeys, dwindling 
 into narrow paths, through rough wild pasture land, winding along 
 the edges of steep precipices, or forming a narrow zigzag line 
 along the slopes of mountains. The traveller, overtaken by a fall 
 of snow or a fierce mountain storm on this wild exposed 
 road, in the midst of unpeopled solitudes, where not even the 
 shelter of a "venta" could be hoped for, went in danger of his 
 life. 
 
 The road from Avila to Talavera (I am confining myself to 
 the roads of a particular district, which I have myself explored), 
 traversing the lofty sierras between the provinces of Avila and 
 Estremadura, was a thousand times worse. Difficult for carts, 
 impossible for coaches, a Spaniard, before he travelled, made his 
 
Spain. 165 
 
 will ; I believe he does so still. Not alone was there risk of 
 falling in with " mala gente," robbers, smugglers, and others of 
 the same caste, and of being robbed and murdered ; there was 
 that not .only of coaches and strings of mules, but of the traveller 
 on horseback getting stuck inextricably in the bogs, or of being 
 drowned in the rivers, across which they were borne by " ford- 
 ders " in the absence of bridges, that is, men who swam across 
 bearing passengers, coach, and all, or the mounted equestrian, 
 from one bank to the other. In the winter the journey must 
 either be renounced altogether or an enormous circuit made to 
 avoid the obstacles. 
 
 We have touched briefly on the traveller. Let us see how the 
 Spaniard fares at home. The outside of his house is grim and 
 gloomy. The windows are protected by wrought-iron balconies 
 and sombre gratings. Across the principal balcony is a branch 
 of blessed palm, blessed by the priest on Easter Sunday, which 
 drives away all spirits and influences of evil. His house, the 
 great granite staircase, everything about it grand and vast and 
 magnificent, would be a monument in any other country. You 
 wish to enter ; you wield the heavy iron knocker until you wake 
 hollow echoes in the great empty gateway and desolate staircase. 
 An eye of an invisible person surveys you for a moment through 
 the narrow grating. " Quien es ? " " Who is it ? " cries a voice. 
 " Gente de paz," you answer, " People of peace." Or the salu- 
 tation takes the form of an Ave Mary, and you answer gravely, 
 " Conceived without sin." This is the indispensable ceremonial 
 before entering a Spanish house. It takes one back to the 
 comedies of Calderon, to the days of intrigue, rapiers, and 
 gallants muffled to the eyes. It is a relic of more troublous 
 times, when every man's house was his castle, in which he stood 
 on his defensive. 
 
 You enter, and traverse the vast stone passages, which lead to 
 the great room of reception. You are led with state to the seat 
 which stands at the head of the vast and empty room. It is the 
 seat of honour, the " estrada," the dais of the Middle Ages. There 
 are neither carpets nor curtains. A woven grass mat covers the 
 brick or stone floor, which strikes cold to the feet. (I am speak- 
 ing, be it remembered, of the Spaniard of the provinces, the 
 Espanol rancio, of the Spaniard who clings to the ways and 
 manners of his fathers. To whom to speak in Christian means 
 to understand Castilian.) On the other hand, the window 
 shutters, the doors, are heavily and quaintly carved and gilt. 
 
1 66 National Life and Thought. 
 
 They are renaissance and works of art. But you notice that 
 neither window nor door fulfil the office they were meant for. 
 They shut badly, and neither exclude the sunlight nor the 
 cold draughts of air. When the rooms are to be darkened the 
 shutters are closed, and that is all. 
 
 A few dusky oil-paintings hang on the whitewashed stone walls. 
 A carved wooden image of a saint stands in its niche, and a holy- 
 water "stoup" hangs by the door. You notice that there are 
 no fireplaces. The huge chimneys before which his ancestors 
 crouched on the winter nights before the blazing logs, have been 
 done away with, bricked up to exclude the wind which rushed 
 down them. Yes ; there is one in the dark, damp, dungeon-like 
 kitchen, a slab raised about four feet from the ground, from 
 which the thin smoke of a little charcoal fire meanders up the 
 vast bell-shaped Moorish chimney. Roasting, therefore, is an art 
 unknown in the Spanish cuisine. The earthenware pipkins which 
 stand on tripods over the smouldering charcoal contain his 
 favourite and frugal dishes; his "puchero;" his " estofado," his 
 stew ; his bread crumbs fried in oil ; his chocolate. 
 
 In such a house it is needless to look for mechanical or snug 
 bourgeois comfort. The Spaniard's house reveals his Eastern 
 origin. To a race half African, half Hebrew, wholly Eastern, a 
 house serves rather to bivouac than to live in, and contradicts 
 every modern notion of life. A true Castilian knows and needs 
 no other fire but the genial glow of the sun — the sun which is his 
 God. Whatever the agony he suffers as he crouches in his vast, 
 bare, cold house over the ashes of a brazier, wrapped in his cloak, 
 he forgets it all if he can but "take the sun." He takes it as we 
 take food or medicine, or something necessary to our existence. 
 " Cuando Dios amanece," when God rises, is his usual expression 
 for daybreak. Like the Arab or the Moor, his life is spent in the 
 field or the street. In his house, indeed, he eats and sleeps, but 
 it is in the street that he lives; in the street that he meets his 
 friends, transacts his business. The street oftener than not is 
 his counting house. 
 
 What about his women? He leaves them shut up in the 
 gloomy house he flees from in a seclusion as complete as that of 
 a Moorish harem or a Christian convent. On high festivals and 
 Sundays alone they may be seen abroad in the public walks and 
 streets ; the mother swathed like an Arab in folds of thin black 
 cashmere, which very often covers a religious habit, a dignified, 
 sad-faced figure, which impresses us sadly with the vague idea it 
 
Spain. 167 
 
 implies of resignation, self-sacrifice, and female nullity. The 
 daughters wear the classical mantilla. 
 
 Let us follow him to the country, where his antique methods of 
 agriculture transport us back to the idyllic days of Theocritus. 
 The plough made of two forked sticks drawn by a donkey or an 
 ■ox — the same as that depicted in the Egyptian hieroglyphics 
 —exactly what we may see to-day, as we wander through the 
 British Museum, painted on the sides of a mummy case. His 
 whole country life he has inherited from the Moors ; the terms he 
 uses for his rural implements, his trees, his plants, are purely 
 Moorish ; so are the names of his weights and measures for corn 
 and wine and oil. His garden is the Moorish huerta, a place of 
 shade and running water, fragrant with the scent of orange flowers 
 or fruit; where vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers, corn, maize, 
 and grass are alike cultivated. A few clumps of trailing odori- 
 ferous flowers, and sweet-smelling shrubs, roses and red sage, 
 sweet basil, violets, the tall spikes of lillies, — alone serve to 
 connect it with the conventional idea of a flow r er garden. The 
 shallow channels which intersect the whole of the ground in 
 every direction, in the morning and evening flushed with water, 
 become rivulets, whose crystalline murmur soothes the ear with a 
 refreshing sense of rest. This method of irrigation, the best in 
 the world, was also introduced by the Moors. The Spaniard's 
 country house is patriarchally simple, a long, low, rambling, sunlit 
 grange. If he is an hidalgo, there is the grey "tower of homage," 
 and on the great stone stair which leads to the living rooms a 
 heavy slab covers the well, which, in times long gone by, was left 
 open at night, so that thieves and untoward visitors, coming up 
 the stairs, might fall into its depths. The interior, old, falling to 
 pieces, never repaired, spotlessly clean, smells of lavender and 
 rusticity. A heap of maize in the corner of the sitting-room, a 
 greyhound asleep in the sunlit gallery, an old gun and game-bags, 
 testify to the rural occupations of its owner. 
 
 Through the chinks of the floor rises up the strange, penetrat- 
 ing odour, not unpleasant, of the cattle and horses stabled 
 beneath, and which you can hear as they slowly ruminate, or pull 
 at the chains of their halters ; the scent of the breath of oxen, the 
 sweet smell of dried grass and clover. 
 
 My time will not allow me to do more than touch on the quaint 
 and original aspect of a Spanish town ; on its arcaded market 
 places, round which are deep and sombre warehouses, their low- 
 browed gateways forming deep blotches of shadow within the 
 
1 68 National Life and Thought. 
 
 arches, once, in Charles V.'s and Philip II. 's lime, filled with bales, 
 of merchandise. Botas, pig-skins full of wine, lie piled before 
 some of them ; the public weights hang up in the most conspicu- 
 ous corner for the use of all comers ; little booths fill up the 
 spaces between the arches, where country men and vendors, 
 bargain and chatter. 
 
 Nor must I forget the ragged donkeys, that intimate part of 
 the life of Castilian man, groups of them patiently nodding in 
 the centre of the market-place, waiting for their masters, or laden 
 with red earthenware jars, the fashion of which involuntarily 
 takes us back to the East, whence they originated ; nor the 
 market-place itself, paved with pebbles, uneven as the waves of 
 the sea, where the sun sleeps, and long trains of mules stand 
 motionless in the heat ; filled with a busy, merry, vociferous crowd,, 
 engaged on nothing ; the strident voices of market women ; the 
 strange wild strain chanted in guttural accents by a muleteer ; the 
 pilgrim bound to Santiago, who shoves his way through the 
 throng, bearing the classic staff and gourd, with cockleshell sewed 
 on his breast, and begs for a copper to lighten his journey. 
 
 You will find such things, such contrasts, nowhere else in 
 modern Europe, and this, to my mind, constitutes the intimate 
 charm of Spain; her inability to absorb the thoughts and habits of 
 any other nation, her want of receptivity of all modern influences, 
 the difficulty of reducing her to the ordinary insipidity and tame- 
 ness which makes all modern life the same, be it Berlin or 
 Bucharest. 
 
 Let us stop to inquire a moment into the causes which make 
 the Spanish nation so obtuse to all modern influences. The first 
 arises from the most prominent attribute of the Spanish national 
 character — its entirety. A Spaniard prides himself on being 
 " muy entero " (very entire), which means that he sticks doggedly 
 to opinions once formed. Well, the Spaniards formed their 
 opinions in the reign of Philip II., and have stuck to them ever 
 since. 
 
 Let me illustrate this trait of the Spanish character by a historic 
 fact, which I will try to make as little dull as possible. 
 
 The vulgar idea of Spain is that she was a country which hung 
 breathlessly on the decrees of Rome. Not so. We shall find that 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, pre-eminently the Catholic Kings — such 
 the title awarded to them by the Pope of the day — neither under- 
 stood nor brooked the exercise of Papal authority within their 
 dominions. The Pope might be Prince of Rome, but they were 
 
Spain. i6g 
 
 Kings of Spain. They reserved to themselves the right of nomi- 
 nation to all ecclesiastical dignities ; the Pope's bulls were sub- 
 mitted to a rigorous examination by the Supreme Council of the 
 State before they were allowed to be circulated, and were sup- 
 pressed at pleasure, if thought well to do so. The grim Sphinx 
 of the Escorial — the tetrical, strange, weird Philip II., still a 
 riddle to historians unable to solve whether he was saint or devil 
 — inherited from his father, Charles V., and carried on to the full 
 the traditions of his grandfathers. The Pontifical decrees were 
 still placed under the strictest and most rigorous examination as 
 to whether they contained anything contrary to the prerogatives 
 of king and kingdom, and if so, their circulation was suspended 
 until appeal was made to the Pope either to withdraw or modify 
 them or to dictate fresh ones. 
 
 And here comes in the Spanish character. The retention was 
 qualified under the form of a suspension, and an appeal from the 
 Pope misguided to the Pope better informed — from "Philip 
 drunk to Philip sober." This humble and submissive form was 
 but a hypocritical manoeuvre. If another decree to the same 
 purpose arrived from Rome, it was again withdrawn under the 
 supposition that the Pope continued in his ignorance. If the 
 Pope excommunicated the authors of this obstinate conduct, his 
 anathema was invalidated and worthless. A third order to the 
 same effect as before would have revealed, according to Spanish 
 ideas, a tenacity against all propriety and order, and, viewed in 
 this light, inconceivable; and so the Spanish juris-consults 
 declared this proceeding (indeed unheard of) as contumacious. 
 
 There is a second cause to which we owe the survival of the 
 genuine, distinct, and most curious national life of Spain. 
 
 And that is in the Inquisition. The very name makes one 
 shudder ! But, putting religious prejudices aside (for the religious 
 history of Protestantism and Catholicism can only be written with 
 impartiality in the century to come, and we shall never live to see 
 it), the cold machinery of the Inquisition, which mangled men's 
 bodies and put fetters on their minds, was in its worst days as 
 much, nay, more a political than a religious instrument. She 
 gave religious unity, and, under the wing of that unity, perpetuated 
 the national life of Spain. Sects, Sectarians, Anabaptists, Shakers, 
 Quakers, Anglican clergymen — broad, high, and evangelical — have 
 never reigned rampant over Spain. The loud-voiced freethinker 
 of the towns still sneaks furtively to mass as if about to commit a 
 felony. The churches are thronged on the solemn feast days ; 
 
570 National Life and Thought. 
 
 here in the great and shadowy cathedral, inarticulate with awe, 
 the rude herdsman contemplates the famous Christ, which his 
 father, his grandfather, and their forefathers, back to the time of 
 the Catholic kings, have venerated also. 
 
 And now I must briefly touch on the peasantry, the secret of 
 Spain's greatness in the past — perhaps, who knows, of her great- 
 ness in the future. No other like it exists in Europe for its 
 freedom, independence, endurance, and native nobility. Hallam, 
 who has noticed it, as have all who have written of Spain, suggests 
 that because, unlike England or the other European countries of 
 the Middle Ages, villainage was never known in Castille. All its 
 men were soldiers ; each man who bore arms against the Moors 
 was ennobled, — ennobled not only by the use of arms, but the 
 grand ideal he had before him of fighting for his country's freedom. 
 Whole provinces of Spain are still ennobled. In Castille every 
 man is an hidalgo, and looks it, down to the roughest, uncouthest 
 savage herding sheep in the pasture land which surrounds some 
 country hamlet, whose stalwart bearing is full of resolution, fear- 
 lessness, robust and self-respecting dignity. The essentially 
 democratic spirit of the nation which these causes fostered was 
 never more conspicuous than during the dark days of the Inquisi- 
 tion and Philip II. The nobles had little weight or influence 
 in the National Councils. Spain swarmed with gentlemen and 
 adventurers — between whom the line was not always easy to draw, — 
 it was hard to find where the gentleman ended and the adventurer 
 began. There was neither great wealth nor poverty ; of poor 
 gentlemen no end. To-day this principle is the pervading and 
 remarkable characteristic of Spanish society, where a Duchess 
 thinks it no lessening of her dignity to shake hands with the shop- 
 man who sells her ribands, and to chat with him as he smokes a 
 cigarette behind the counter. 
 
 Whether such a democratic feeling is the cause or effect of the 
 greater racial refinement of the Spaniard, which is especially con- 
 spicuous in the peasantry; whether climate, the happy influences 
 of sun and light and warmth, under which the carking cares of 
 life can never weigh so heavily, have developed a superior mental 
 and physical susceptibility of the Latin and southern races to all 
 refining influences ; or whether it is the greater leisure given to 
 body and mind by the greater opportunities for enjoyment 
 afforded by the great number of feast days and Church holidays, 
 which constitute a good half of the year ; or whether it arises 
 from the superior aesthetic influences, brought to bear upon him 
 
Spain. lyi 
 
 from his earliest youth, in the splendid ceremonies — the worship 
 full of ceremonial and symbol of his Church; the great and 
 solemn processions wending through dim and shadowy aisles of 
 vast cathedrals ; the plain song, sombre and grave, which echoes 
 through the rafters of the .roof; the sweet perfumes which arise 
 from swinging censers, like a cloud of vapour ; the flush of sensu- 
 ous colour, light, and sound ; the organ which interprets to earthly 
 •ears the Te Deums of angelic choirs ; the images, pathetic, sad, 
 benignant, bland, and merciful, the advocates of his humble 
 prayers, — I will not attempt to decide. 
 
 Certainly, in Spain the peasantry cannot be called the lower 
 classes. We might seek in vain for anything dimly approaching 
 the degradation, the drunkenness, the inhuman horror, the 
 debased and squalid humanity, which form the bulk of the popula- 
 tion of London, Glasgow, and the industrial towns of England. 
 The Spanish peasant or artisan — the artisan is here called an 
 artist, a master, as in the Trades Guilds of the Middle Ages — 
 rarely drmks ; he loves fine clothes and clean shirts ; he cultivates 
 a pretty taste for gambling, whether in the State Lottery or at 
 cards. His amusements are of a nature which we find in Eng- 
 land almost exclusively confined to what convention calls the 
 "better classes." To see the people in those happy moments 
 when they escape from workshop or field; as they twang the 
 guitar, and dance before the wine-shop door in some country 
 hamlet ; or wend their way on some " romeria " or merry pilgrim- 
 age to a local shrine, following the custom of remote generations 
 of their fathers, is a picture in which the artist may find infinite 
 grace, infinite colour, infinite beauty ! (Happy if he can render it !) 
 
 Political economists have decried the feast days and holidays 
 — they have gone so far as to attribute to them the decadence of 
 Spain. Even old Feyjoo, the wise old Galician Benedictine 
 monk, who from his cell in the monastery of his order at Oviedo 
 (which it has been reserved for a succeeding generation to turn 
 into a public office, where a lying official cheats people and 
 Government alike) wrote those w T onderful treatises on the errors 
 and prejudices of his age, incurring thereby obloquy and fame, 
 alike the immediate reward of those great minds which go before 
 .and pave the road of progress ; who spoke of the position and 
 education of women, in a way that I doubt whether any Spaniard 
 •of the middle or upper classes would assent to now (oh ! the 
 mental ignorance of your bourgeois and foolish noble) ; — even he 
 professed to find in the frequent romerias and number of feast 
 
172 National Life and Thought. 
 
 days an influence for evil, whilst we, of the nineteenth century, are 
 convinced that every man who labours has as much right and, a 
 fortiori, a stronger right than he who does not, to that leisure in 
 which the hard wrought fibres of the body and mind may have 
 the strain slackened. 
 
 I should like to say a few words about the modern literature of 
 Spain, as it has taken a most important and original development, 
 and is destined to take a high place amongst the national litera- 
 tures of the nineteenth century. Perhaps no country can boast of 
 such a brilliant group of writers — true, I can count them on my 
 fingers, they are as the Spaniards say, " pocos y buenos," few and 
 good. Above them all shines fantastic, impalpable, like a will-o'- 
 the-wisp or a gleam of pale moonlight on the sward, the strange 
 furtive genius of Becquer, who in his weird fantastic legends and 
 subtle verse seems to have inherited and transmitted to us the 
 very spirit which produced the mysticism of the Middle Ages, and 
 inspired a San Juan de la Cruz. He died at thirty of a broken 
 heart. 
 
 Perez Galdos, the melancholy and reserved Canary Islander, is 
 the realistic student of modern Spanish society ; of those violent 
 contrasts caused by the struggle between the old national life of 
 Spain and the disturbing influences of modern and ultramon- 
 tane thought and life. 
 
 If you would conceive some idea of modern Spain, Spain as 
 she is in this fleeting moment, you will find it portrayed to the 
 life by an artist, whose brush omits no detail however insignifi- 
 cant, dissected by the scalpel of a skilful anatomist in "Gloria;" 
 " Leon Roch ; " " El Amigo ; " " Manso ; " " el Doctor Centeno ; " 
 " Tormento," etc. The nature and historic reality of the Epis- 
 odois Nacionales have already made them integral parts of the 
 national literature of Spain, in which the dramatic events which 
 constitute the history of Spain from the conclusion of the last 
 century are knit together in a series of fictions, in which already 
 the eye of the treasure-seeker might have predicted the coming 
 glory of the Leon Roch. In the characters which live in the 
 pages of this monumental fiction, we shall find the same delicate 
 portrayal of character, the vivid light and shade, the dramatic and 
 real interest, which have since made their author famous. 
 
 Pereda, a native of Santander, has dedicated himself to 
 describing with a master hand the customs, aspects, the lives full 
 of hardship and picturesqueness, of the laborious mountaineers, 
 and rough fishermen of his native province. 
 
Spain. 173 
 
 Firmly every touch is laid on the canvas until some little village, 
 nestling in the slopes of a hill, covered with chestnut woods, or 
 buried in the shade of the valley beside some brawling trout- 
 stream ; and the lives, secrets, and thoughts of its inhabitants, 
 woven into a humble drama, lie exposed to our view. Galdos 
 paints an ephemeral phase of society, the elements of which, 
 even as he paints, are dissolving; which will within twenty, at the 
 most forty years, be antiquated — as antiquated as that depicted 
 by Balzac. Will he live ? Is there in his books that quality, that 
 reality, which for its innate truth will defy time and public opinion 
 to lessen and conquer immortality? We cannot tell. That 
 Perida will live — will live under the shadow of Cervantes, as 
 being next to him one of the greatest of European novelists — is, 
 I think, indubitable. He has described a state of rustic society 
 and manners historically true — a state of manners unimpaired for 
 ages. He deals with realities, not with psychological problems ; 
 he sees more beauty in the rural tasks, in a country feast with its 
 vivid life and colour, than in the mental aberrations of a weak- 
 kneed and unstrung social life in Madrid. The one deals with 
 man face to face with, and acted upon by, a Nature eternally the 
 same — a patriarchal simplicity of life as true to-day in the moun- 
 tains of the Asturias as in the pastoral days of ancient Greece ; 
 the other with the human character disturbed by the conflicting 
 influences of a temporary moment of an artificial social life, its 
 harmony and balance destroyed or greatly impaired. As we read 
 "El Sabor de la Tierruca," "Pedro Sanchez," " Sotileza," we 
 hear the lowing of cattle, the slow tinkling of the bell as they are 
 driven slowly home through the dusky village streets ; we watch 
 the autumn advance stealthily and sadly ; we see the naked trees 
 streaming with dew or rain ; the flocks of sea-birds, driven inland 
 from the coast by the cold and storm, settling on the stubble 
 fields amongst the dried stalks of maize. We see the peasants 
 crouch around the blaze as the hailstones rattle against the walls, 
 the cattle ruminating despondently, dripping with wet, in the 
 " corral ; " we hear the slow, melancholy wind of autumn, which, 
 increasing in fury, tears the tiles off the humble roofs, whirls the 
 dried leaves from the chestnut trees, and brings down the old 
 decayed bell-tower of the village church. We follow fascinated 
 the incidents which chequer the lives of the humble dramatis 
 persona; the guileless character of the simple-minded village 
 priest, whose peasant shrewdness is still keen enough to see 
 through the wiles of his parishioners; the greed of the rich 
 
174 National Life and TJwugJit. 
 
 labourer who lends out money and sucks his poorer neighbours' 
 into terrible toils from which there is no escape ; the poor, proud, 
 and simple-minded hidalgo, whose grey escutcheons, which 
 moulder over the gateway of his old dilapidated house, do not 
 drive hunger from the door; the superstitions, — innocent, often 
 terrible, of the villagers, — all these live and breathe in pages 
 which bear the very reality of truth and the love of an enthu- 
 siast. 
 
 We may also count Valera, the ambassador and scholar, the 
 dainty literary dilettante, amongst the pre-eminently great novelists 
 of Spain. Pepita Jimenez for artistic form, and absolute har- 
 mony between the idea and form which clothe it, would be a gem 
 in any language. 
 
 Leopoldo Alas towers in criticism. In a style simple, terse, 
 so unaffectedly natural, that we can say of it as Fraz Luis de 
 Leon did of Sta. Teresa's, that it is elegance itself, la misma ele- 
 gancia ; he gives vent to a mordant satire which bites like acid, 
 or a delicate and subtle humour which is fascinating and delight- 
 ful. He is terribly truthful, terribly in earnest, and he uses his 
 weapons mercilessly. Such a critic must exercise an almost 
 incalculable influence for good on the formation and heightening 
 of the standard of a current literature. No one in Spain at this 
 moment writes a Spanish so free from mannerism and bombast. 
 From this point of view, the slightest fragment he has ever 
 written is invaluable. He has written a great novel, a novel so 
 powerful that it places him in the foremost rank of modern 
 novelists. We might compare it, had it been shorter and more 
 concentrated, with the greatest work that mediaeval Spanish 
 realism produced, the great tragi-comedy of " The Celestina." 
 
 One critic leads me to another. Any account, however brief, 
 of modern Spanish literature would be incomplete if it did not 
 include the name of Menendezy Pelayo. He has written a work 
 on the Progress of Esthetic Thought in Spain from the Earliest 
 Times, in which he shows how and to what degree it has been 
 influenced by the ideas imported from foreign sources. Besides 
 the German and French, he traverses an immense cycle of Eng- 
 lish literature ; the Scotch School of Philosophy, Reid, Stewart, 
 etc. ; Cowper, Pope, Dryden, Carlyle, Ruskin, which he criticises 
 with a precision and appreciation that only a long and continuous 
 study of English literature could ensure. This book, full of 
 erudition and research, of earnest and careful thought, of keen 
 acute criticism, would, if it had been written in English or Ger- 
 
Spain. 175; 
 
 man instead of Spanish, at this moment have been translated 
 into every other European language as a great and monumental 
 work. He has set himself the task of vindicating and resusci- 
 tating the literary and scientific glory of Spain in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries, a period in which all foreign critics have 
 affected to find a singular dearth of philosophical and original 
 thought. He has gone far to prove that in spite of the trammels 
 cast on thought by the Inquisition, Spain could boast in those 
 centuries of schools and teachers of Philosophy as original, as 
 great, and as glorious as any other country of Europe ; that in 
 their works may be found the germ of those great ideas, of those 
 revulsions of thought, which it was reserved to other nations to 
 develop. He has vindicated the glory of Gomez Pereira, a Car- 
 tesian before Descartes ; of Valle's, the terrible adversary of the 
 Aristotelian Cosmology ; of Huarte, the father of Phrenology ; 
 of Servet, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood; of 
 Fernan Perez de Oliva, who spent his life in experiments as to 
 how two people, separated by distance, could be made to com- 
 municate with each other by the means of the magnet; of Luis 
 Vives, who advocated that method, afterwards indelibly connected 
 with the name of Bacon. And a woman must not forget to 
 mention the greatest female writer in Spain, perhaps in Europe — 
 there is no writer of her sex that I could name in England to 
 approach her — Emilia Pardo Bazan, whose article on the " Position 
 of Spanish Women " lately attracted so much attention in the 
 pages of the Fortnightly Review. Her literary life has been 
 crowded with work. From the study of the legends, philosophy, 
 and historic movement of the Middle Ages, which she gives us 
 in her life of San Francisco de Asis, to a pamphlet on the question 
 which for a time convulsed all literary Spain, viz., Realism and 
 Idealism in Art, Zola versus Victor Hugo, she has explored 
 the most diverse fields of literature with brilliant success. She 
 has lectured on Nihilism, a movement which she considers full 
 of vitality and vigour, for the very good reason, as she told me, 
 that she knew nothing whatever about Russia, and therefore was 
 the better able to form an impartial opinion. She has written 
 much, but, undoubtedly, what she has given us of most artistic 
 value are one or two novels, Los Pazos de Ulloa, and Mother 
 Nature, La Madre Naturaleza. These two books alone place 
 her far beyond any writer of her sex I know of in England. In 
 them she describes, with loving truth and unerring exactitude, the 
 scenery and primitive manners of the province where she was 
 
176 National Life and Thought. 
 
 born and has lived the greater part of her life — Galicia. They 
 are full of dramatic and sustained interest, of life and colour. 
 
 Amongst a number of novels and other works, let me signalise 
 a volume of charming essays on her native province, Mi Tierra, 
 and another of short stories, La Dama Joven, in which I can 
 trace a faint perfume of Bret Harte, and which will, perhaps, take 
 as high, or a higher place, when the history of the present literature 
 of Spain comes to be written, than even the more sustained novels 
 I have mentioned. 
 
 It is to her, possibly (I hope so), that Spain may owe the 
 higher education of its women. Clever, witty, full of initiative, 
 belonging by birth to one of the noblest families of Galicia, she 
 has already done more towards that object than could reasonably 
 have been expected from that alternately idolised, alternately 
 despised, long-suffering and very patient creature, they call a 
 woman. 
 
 Amongst dramatists and poets, Spain can number names like 
 Zorrilla, Campoamor, Ayala, Echegaray, who, besides being a 
 powerful dramatist, is a scientist of note. N 
 
 Secondary names throng to my mind ; but those I have quoted, 
 for original genius can compare with advantage to themselves 
 with the exponents of the current literature of any other country 
 in Europe. 
 
 An indescribable pathos and melancholy hangs around modern 
 Spain which cannot fail to impress a thoughtful mind. In the 
 midst of its beautiful and harmonious decay, a happy but poor 
 people, an industrious peasantry, might have lived unenvied, 
 unenvying. 
 
 But she has felt the restless and accursed influence of the 
 great industrial revolution, or rather evolution, which has trans- 
 formed the bulk of the people of Europe into work slaves and 
 manufacturers of fortunes ; the fungus growth of a few years, a 
 middle-class, ostentatious and vulgar, is increasing in Madrid, 
 Barcelona, and the trading towns; a cheap veneer of modern 
 bourgeoisism is spreading, utterly alien to the national life and 
 instincts, which it modifies but cannot alter; — this, combined 
 with other causes, the altogether disproportionate taxation of the 
 peasantry, squeezed to the limits of possibility to gratify the greed 
 of the needy politicians, who swarm like locusts in Madrid ; a 
 Government, whose sole object seems to be to extort the last 
 pound of flesh from the agriculturist, for the sole object, as it 
 appears to me, of maintaining a large and useless standing army ; 
 
Spain. 177 
 
 — these are the vampires which suck the blood from the children 
 of the soil. 
 
 A Spaniard never tires of declaiming against the universal cor- 
 ruption which extends down to the very lowest branches of the 
 administration, but never seeks to remedy it — Cosas de Espana. 
 
 The soldier swarms. True, he no longer sits fishing with a 
 piece of string tied to his bayonet at the seaport town. No 
 longer on guard in the dilapidated castle, does he sleep under the 
 shade of his coat, stuck upon his musket, through the supposed 
 hours of his vigilance. No longer, when you pass him, does his 
 brown hand steal out from a tattered greatcoat, and silently 
 implore your charity. Seldom, to-day, shall you see him asleep 
 guarding stalwart prisoners, who in the public square with cut- 
 lasses fell the grass as it were trees. He has a uniform — 
 boots too, which he replaces with sandals when on the march 
 — but his pay remains of the slenderest, and his rations of the 
 scantiest. 
 
 The Artillery, corresponding to the Household Troops in 
 England, are the flower of the Spanish Army ; the Cavalry, of 
 small account, well horsed but badly drilled, equipped, and de- 
 signed apparently for no other purpose but to squander public 
 money ; the Infantry, patient of hardship to an incredible extent, 
 still preserves the tradition of untiringness on the march, which 
 was its characteristic in the Middle Ages. The officers, ill-paid 
 and ignorant in the lower grades, become ambitious, and remain 
 ignorant, when they attain the rank of Colonel. Their first idea, 
 to advance themselves by political scheming ; their amusements, 
 the bull fight, the card table, and intrigues with the women of the 
 town where they are quartered. Both soldier and officer, one of the 
 plague spots of the country ; one of the causes, together with the 
 others I have mentioned, of the increasing emigration to the 
 River Plata and Chile, which has taken alarming proportions of 
 the backbone of the country, and without which it must dwindle 
 into absolute ruin — the peasantry. 
 
 A large Spanish proprietor said to me the other day, " I don't 
 know what we are all to do in the face of this increasing emigra- 
 tion. We cannot cultivate our lands ourselves, and all the 
 labourers are going. We shall find ourselves face to face with 
 ruin." I have passed lately through villages in the north of 
 Spain, where on every door was painted a rude red cross, the sign 
 of abandonment and departure. When I listened for the accus- 
 tomed and well-remembered song of the peasant, as he dug 
 
 M 
 
178 National Life and Thought. 
 
 between his vines, the silence was pathetically significant. The 
 men have all left a country which has proved such a bitter 
 mother, and only women and children are left. 
 
 It is strangely sad and oppressive to see, as in Spain, a grand 
 ideal, which has inspired centuries of thought, and art, and life, 
 lying vanquished, buried, crushed, annihilated under the material 
 ruins of its grandeur. 
 
 The coldness and neglect which brood over the Church of San 
 Marcos of Leon, the celebrated monastery and hospital of the 
 wealthy Knights of Santiago, which contains the cell where 
 Quevedo was confined, one of the most magnificent monuments 
 of early Renaissance that Spain possesses, penetrate to our very 
 marrow. The monastery has become a museum of bad antiqui- 
 ties. The ragged urchins of the doorkeeper play about amongst 
 the grand old carved stalls of the " Coro Alto " (the raised choir). 
 The organ is silent. Had it been moveable, it would long ago 
 have been sold. The immense chests in the sacristy, of a work- 
 manship the art of which seems entirely lost, which contained 
 the splendid vestments of gold tissue and brocade, stand empty, 
 until such time as the porter shall break them up and burn them 
 for firewood. On the promulgation of the decree for the suppres- 
 sion of the monasteries, the two hundred Esculapian friars, who 
 preserved the building and loved it, were turned out in a single 
 night ; the altar, stripped and torn to pieces, testifies to their pre- 
 cipitate flight. 
 
 As with the convents, so with the people. The Maragatos, 
 that strange and singular race, which cluster in gipsy-like com- 
 munities amongst the red sandhills of Astorga, the traditional 
 carriers of Spain, their long files of carts, and strings of laden 
 mules, the strangest, wildest, most picturesque sight the country 
 roads of Spain can present ; their origin and that of their curious 
 costume and marriage ceremonies lost in the night of antiquity 
 — some say they are descended from the Goths, others from the 
 Moors — are passing away. To-morrow they will have vanished. 
 The railroads make such a race of men superfluous, and you will 
 alone be able to trace the fact of their existence in the legends 
 which linger in the country side ; in researches amongst historical 
 antiquities ; in the dust and confusion of public libraries. 
 
 It would be curious to speculate what would have been the 
 fate of Spain to-day if the idea of political and religious liberty 
 had not waved its tempting lure before the eyes of its Catholic 
 Kings. Had their temper, and the temper of the people they 
 
Spain. 179 
 
 governed (for the stimulus came from the heart of the nation), 
 been more tolerant and less exclusive, Spain and her colonies 
 would probably have been preponderant in the world. Instead 
 of the God-like English-speaking man of Mr. Stead, we might 
 have had to reckon with the Spaniard. Her agricultural capa- 
 bilities would have been exploited by the Moors ; the Jews 
 would have taken charge of her commercial interests; — all this 
 presupposing a tolerance of thought which would have placed 
 Spain in the foremost rank of the kingdoms of Europe. It is 
 not rash to affirm that to-day she would have been one of the 
 biggest industrial countries in the world; millions of factory 
 chimneys would have been vomiting foul smoke, blackening the 
 radiant sky, which covers the great melancholy plains of Castille 
 or the wild pasture grounds of Andalusia. Her cities, so beauti- 
 ful in their decay, would not exist ; her agricultural life which 
 in its primitive simplicity takes us back to the idyllic days of 
 Theocritus, would have disappeared (as it has in England), and 
 her legends might have become forgotten. 
 
 Let me point out that we are too apt to overlook the import- 
 ance of these retrogade, stagnated, decayed countries (call them 
 what you will) ; we forget that they are our only visible material 
 connection with the past ; that in them only can we study the 
 past ; they have not, like England, Germany, France, indissolubly 
 severed their intimate connection with it. Not but that what the 
 handbook (I seem to be fond of handbooks) calls " monuments of 
 art " do not exist in the countries I have mentioned, but they are 
 monuments only, and the link between them and the national 
 thought and life is eternally broken. Looked on with a sort of 
 patronising pity by some — "poor old things, how long they last !" 
 — with genuine admiration by the many, with wistful sadness by 
 the few, still they are emphatically skeletons of the dry bones of 
 things and ideas which have been, but now are not. 
 
 Let us remember that these countries, which have stopped 
 short and crystallised, as it were, at a certain point of their career, 
 are of far more importance than any country devoted to industry 
 can be, in the development and continuance of the most import- 
 ant introspective faculties of man. Let us remember that how- 
 ever much they may seem, to a superficial criticism, merely 
 melancholy and beautiful museums of antiquities, that the life of 
 other ages is still warm in them, and that they have played a far 
 more important part in the history of human culture than any 
 state of society possible now. 
 
180 National Life and Thought. 
 
 They open to us other horizons lying behind us ; horizons 
 which every year in the world's history makes a little dimmer ; 
 horizons in which the mind, weary with railways, surfeited with 
 the ugliness and brutality of material progress and its concomitant 
 miseries, may seek and find rest, refreshment, light ! 
 
X. 
 
 NOR WA Y. 
 
 H. L. BRACKSTAD. 
 
 I WOULD ask you to go back with me about a thousand years, 
 and to picture to yourself a bright, sunny morning on the 
 eastern coast of England in those early times. The ancient 
 Saxons are just bestirring themselves to begin their day's work 
 — men, women, and children are issuing from their primitive 
 huts ; they stretch themselves, rub their eyes, and gaze towards 
 the glittering sea, upon which the rising sun is shining in all its 
 glory. Suddenly an old man discovers a speck on the horizon ; 
 his experienced eye tells him that it is something unusual ; he 
 mounts the nearest eminence; soon he sees a large vessel — a 
 stranger from over the sea — steering towards the coast. The 
 old Saxon runs to tell his neighbours, and before long people are 
 seen hurrying to and fro ; the men are talking loudly, the women 
 wail, the children shriek. " It is the Norsemen ! Save us from 
 the Norsemen ! — save us from the Norsemen ! " is the cry that 
 rends the air. 
 
 You know what followed. These strangers, these .Vikings, 
 introduced themselves in a most rude and unceremonious way 
 to your ancestors, the early Saxons — unceremonious, I say, for 
 not only did they pay you these visits uninvited, but they also 
 helped themselves to everything they took a fancy to, without 
 asking anybody's leave to do so — goods and chattels, gold and 
 silver, sheep and oxen — yea, even your fair-haired Saxon maids 
 did they take unto themselves; and after making merry, and feast- 
 ing on your good English ale, they set sail for their own fjords and 
 creeks, only to return again next spring to the shores of Albion to 
 fill their galleys again with all the good things they could find, till 
 at last these unwelcome visitors became a source of terror and 
 dread along the whole coast. 
 
 This was the way, I believe, in which the old Norsemen and 
 the English first became acquainted with each other — a very 
 barbarous one, I must acknowledge ; but, notwithstanding this, 
 I find that, in time, the relations between the two countries 
 
1 82 National Life and Thought. 
 
 became more and more friendly — some of the Norwegian princes 
 were even sent over to England to be brought up ; and now, I 
 am glad to say that all feeling of animosity has vanished ; in 
 fact, I find that some of your first English families rather pride 
 themselves upon being descendants of these Vikings, or the 
 Normans, who were descendants of Norwegian Vikings that 
 settled in the north of France, and after whom that part of the 
 country was called Normandy. Within the last few weeks a well- 
 known writer, Mr. Du Chaillu, has published a voluminous work, 
 "The Viking Age," in which he attempts to prove that the whole 
 of the English people are descendants of the Scandinavians — that 
 is, the Norwegians, . Danes, and Swedes, and not of the Anglo- 
 Saxons, are the real ancestors of the English race. I expect this 
 theory has come somewhat suddenly upon the English, and it 
 will, no doubt, take some time before it will be fully gone into 
 and refuted. Several reviewers have, however, already protested 
 against Mr. Du Chaillu's theory. I may here mention that the 
 other day a clergyman in the north of England actually wept on 
 reading Mr. Du Chaillu's arguments — not from joy, however, but 
 from sheer vexation — on learning that he descended from such 
 barbarians as the old Vikings. It is, however, well known that 
 large numbers of Norwegians settled in the Orkney and Shetland 
 Islands, on the eastern coast of Scotland and England, especially 
 in Yorkshire, and even in Ireland ; but I am fully convinced that 
 these northern invaders are not the original ancestors of the 
 English. There must have been, and, as a matter of fact, there 
 was, a race — the old Anglo-Saxons, or Britons, if you choose to call 
 them so — that had been settled, no doubt for centuries, in this 
 country before the Norwegians and Danes first began to visit 
 these shores. 
 
 Norway and her people ought, therefore, to be of special interest 
 to Englishmen, not only on account of the blood-relationship 
 between the two peoples, but also on account of the very friendly, as 
 well as the commercial, relations which have long existed between 
 the two countries, and which are now developing year by year. 
 
 Having been asked by the South Place Ethical Society to give 
 a lecture on Norway in the series of lectures on National Life 
 and Thought in various countries, which are now being delivered 
 here, I do not think, in doing so, that I need trouble you to 
 any great extent with the ancient history of Norway ; it is a very 
 long and complicated one, and a dry historical resume of it would 
 hardly interest you. I fancy it is more about the National Life 
 
Norway. 
 
 183 
 
 and thought of the Norway of today, about our history and our 
 aspirations of the present times, that you are interested to hear 
 something. To understand this all the better, I^must, however, 
 refer for a few minutes to what has taken place before the 
 beginning of this century, and for this purpose I will divide the 
 History of Norway into three epochs : — The First being from the 
 earliest times, when the country was divided into a number of 
 small kingdoms, which King Harold the Fairhaired eventually 
 gathered into one, when the Norwegians were known as one of 
 the most warlike and daring of all nationalities ; when they crossed 
 the seas in their galleys, not only to Iceland, England, France, and 
 to the Mediterranean, but even to America, of which country 
 they are the first discoverers ; and when they were ruled by a 
 succession of famous kings, such as King Sverre, King Olaf 
 Trygvason, and King Olaf the Holy, down to the year of 1450, 
 when Norway, after a number of disastrous wars, became a 
 province of Denmark. The Second Epoch we will call the time of 
 the Union with Denmark. This lasted for nearly 400 years, — from 
 1450 to 1814. There is a good deal to be said about this period ; 
 no doubt, it was most disastrous to Norway, and the best the 
 Norwegians now can do, is to try and forget it. I ought, perhaps, 
 to mention here, that during this period the Norwegian peasantry 
 maintained and asserted their old independence, and would not 
 suffer anyone to interfere in their rights and privileges, and, as 
 long as this was not attempted, they seemed to have cared very 
 little about the management of the rest of the country. This 
 apathy may, no doubt, be explained by the fact that, at the 
 beginning of the union, there were practical men of the old lead- 
 ing chiefs of the peasantry left. King Sverre had, for purposes of 
 his own, tried to crush down and exterminate these bold and 
 independent leaders of the people, but the spirit of those brave 
 Norsemen was not to be quelled altogether; nay, it has shown 
 itself to be alive to this very day. The Danes soon discovered 
 that these bold and obstinate peasants were not to be trifled with, 
 and an attempt was made to link them more closely to Denmark, 
 by inviting and inducing some of the sons of the old peasant 
 families to visit, and stay for some time in, Denmark. These sons 
 were eventually to be made noblemen, which, however, a good 
 many of them thought they already were. They were at first to 
 go through a course of military discipline, and to learn fine and 
 courtly manners ; but the attempt to make these sturdy Norsemen 
 fine cavaliers and courtiers proved a most miserable failure, for 
 
 
1 84 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the lads gave the officers and their teachers a sound thrashing, 
 and got up a mutiny, and had at last to be sent home. Another 
 attempt was that of trying to organise a Norwegian corps of Life 
 Guards in attendance upon the king at Copenhagen; but this 
 was just as unsuccessful, and terminated in the same way. 
 
 All the officials in Norway during that period were Danes, 
 and were, on the whole, very insolent and overbearing to the 
 people. To show, however, that the old spirit of the Norway 
 peasants did not tamely submit to this sort of treatment, I will 
 relate an anecdote, which will better serve to illustrate the char- 
 acter of the people at that time than all the historical facts I 
 can give you. The Danish officials I have referred to, such as 
 judges, sheriffs, and even clergymen, did not at that time live 
 exactly the life they ought to have led, and often neglected the 
 business of the people to suit their own comfort and convenience. 
 On one occasion — it happened in Valders, one of the wildest 
 mountain districts of Norway — that the sheriff, the judge, un- 
 der-sheriff, and the counsel who came to the Assizes, and who 
 had been invited to dinner by the clergyman, who lived hard-by, 
 forgot all about the people who were waiting for them outside 
 the court-house. When at last the satiated and inebriated guests 
 came rolling out of the house on their way to the court, they 
 were seized hold of by the people, who had ranged themselves 
 in a row on either side of the door, and judge, sheriff and 
 lawyers were all soundly thrashed in their turn, as they were 
 passed along from man to man. 
 
 We now approach the Third Epoch in the Norwegian history, 
 the one during which the country regained its independence 
 and the sole control over its affairs. 
 
 Many of you will remember that, during the wars of Napoleon, 
 Sweden foolishly joined Russia against Napoleon, and, later on, 
 England, Prussia and Austria also joined this Alliance, while 
 Denmark already had allied herself to Napoleon and his fate. 
 Russia had promised Norway to Sweden in return for the ser- 
 vices rendered them by the then Crown Prince, Karl Johun of 
 Sweden. This Karl Johun was the well-known French General 
 Jean Bernadotte, who had just been elected Crown Prince, or 
 successor to the feeble Swedish king, Karl XIII. 
 
 Karl Johun invaded the southern part of Denmark, and beat 
 the Danish army, which was stationed in Holstein. The Danish 
 king then lost all courage, and, by the Treaty of Kul in 1814, 
 ceded Norway to Sweden. When this news reached Norway, 
 
Norway. 185 
 
 the old spirit of the Norwegian, which seemed to have been 
 long asleep or enthralled, came to life again. They would not 
 tamely submit to being handed over as mere goods and chattels 
 to Sweden and the ambitious Prince Bernadotte, and preferred 
 the then Danish Governor of Norway, Prince Christian Frederick, 
 whom they elected as their sovereign. 
 
 A meeting of delegates from all parts of the country was con- 
 vened at Eidsvold, not far from the Norwegian capital, where 
 the representatives of the nation framed and adopted the Con- 
 stitution or Grundlov of 17th May 1814, of which I shall speak 
 later on. 
 
 As soon as the Swedes heard that Norway would not submit 
 to the conditions of the Treaty of Klfl, they invaded Norway, 
 with the Crown Prince, Karl Johun Bernadotte, at their head. 
 They met with a gallant resistance, but Prince Christian Fred- 
 erick, the new king, soon saw the hopelessness of the struggle ; 
 he resigned, and returned to Denmark. A convention was then 
 held at Moss, where the Norwegians accepted the Swedish king 
 as their sovereign, on the condition that their Constitution of 
 17th of May should remain intact, except such alterations as 
 the union with Sweden rendered necessary. An extraordinary 
 Storthing, or National Assembly, was summoned at Christiania, 
 and on the 4th November 18 14, Norway was declared to be a 
 u free, independent, and indivisible kingdom, united with Sweden 
 under one king." The Constitution framed at Eidsvold was 
 retained, forming the present Grundlov, or Fundamental Law of 
 the kingdom. It is generally acknowledged to be the most free 
 and democratic of any Constitution in the world. The people 
 obtained by this such an amount of political liberty as no other 
 nation can boast of, and which, in fact, it has taken the Nor- 
 wegians themselves some time to understand fully. 
 
 It is now well known that Karl Johun Bernadotte only agreed 
 to the Norwegians retaining this Constitution as he found he 
 could not then conquer or subdue the Norwegians ; but he lived 
 in the firm hope that he would soon find a fitting opportunity 
 to establish his power more firmly in Norway, perhaps even to 
 seize it, and make it a province of Sweden. He was especially 
 very anxious that the Norwegian Parliament should grant him 
 an absolute veto, which the king, according to the Constitution, 
 did not possess. On two occasions the sturdy patriots in the 
 Parliament resolutely declined to entertain his proposal, and, to 
 this very day, the merely suspensive veto remains one of the 
 
1 86 National Life and Thought. 
 
 most important features of the Norwegian Constitution. I 
 may here mention an incident which shows the kind of people 
 Karl Johun had to deal with. A few years after the union was 
 entered into, the Norwegian Parliament proposed a bill for the 
 abolition of nobility. The country was, in fact, too poor con- 
 sistently to keep up and maintain an aristocracy. The few 
 counts and barons that still were found in the country were 
 all Danish, and of very recent origin. The really true and 
 ancient nobility was the leading peasants or b'indes, descendants 
 of the old jarls or earls and chieftains in the land ; but then 
 plain people did not want any titles or handles to their names. 
 Among the many great acts for which we have to thank the 
 patriots of those early years of our independence, I think that 
 the abolition of nobility was one of the greatest services they 
 could have rendered their country. But Karl Johun Berna- 
 dotte, who by this time had become king of the two countries, 
 on the death of the old king, Karl XIII., was not of this opinion. 
 He felt that the abolition of the nobility was another blow at his 
 power in Norway, and for two sessions he refused his sanction 
 to the bill. But, according to the Constitution, any bill passed 
 three times by the Parliament becomes law, whether the king 
 likes it or no. 
 
 In 182 1, the bill came on for the third reading, and the king 
 thought he would try to frighten the Parliament into throwing 
 out the bill, and for this purpose he commanded some Swedish 
 men-of-war to the Norwegian capital. These ships were moored 
 almost outside the very windows of the National Assembly, and, 
 during the debate on the third reading of the bill, he had given 
 orders to fire blank shots from the guns of the Swedish ships. 
 The very windows were rattling from the shots while the dis- 
 cussion was going on, but the brave representatives of the people 
 were not to be frightened into submission. The bill was passed 
 for the third time, and became law, to the great chagrin of the 
 king. I will, at this point, relate another anecdote which also 
 tends to illustrate the independence of the Norwegian peasantry. 
 One of the leading men in the Parliament, who bore a noble 
 name, and who naturally opposed the bill for the abolition of 
 titles and nobility, was remonstrating with one of the peasant 
 representatives about this bill, and told him that, if the bill was 
 passed, he would say " Farewell " to the mountains of Norway. 
 The peasant only replied, " And the mountains of Norway will 
 echo — ' Well! — well/"' The Constitution of the country was 
 
Norway. 187 
 
 prepared in a very short space of time — in two or three weeks — 
 and was framed on the Constitution of France of 1791, or that 
 of the United States of America and that of Spain of 181 2, and 
 is, no doubt, a very masterpiece of its kind. I have said before, 
 that it is the freest of any Constitution in the old or the new 
 world. It has not imposed upon the country an Upper House, 
 a House of Lords, a Senate, or whatever you may like to call the 
 august assemblies in all countries, who seem to be appointed 
 as guardians or nurses to the naughty children in the popular 
 chamber. Now, here is a lesson for our English cousins ! The 
 hereditary chamber you possess is already doomed ! There has 
 been some talk of mending or ending it. I say, take a leaf from 
 the Norwegian Constitution, and end it. I look upon the National 
 Assembly of a country in this way, — The electors of a free and 
 civilised country ought to elect the best men they have to legislate 
 and manage the country for them, without appointing another 
 set of men — a sort of a board of guardians — over them, to see 
 that they, the elect of the country, do not misbehave themselves. 
 An Upper House in a National Assembly may have been useful 
 in times gone by, but I think the time has now come that an 
 intelligent nation can do without these guardians over their best 
 men. I, for my part, think it shows a want of confidence in the 
 men you elect. 
 
 Our Parliament, which we call the Storthing, consists at present 
 of 114 representatives. As soon as it is assembled, it proceeds 
 to elect from among its members a fourth part of their number 
 for a kind of select committee, which we call the Lagthing, and 
 which is the nearest approach we have to an upper house; but it 
 will not be right to call it so, for these twenty-eight men are part 
 of the representatives elected, and if you have a Liberal majority 
 in the Parliament, the members elected for the select committee 
 are naturally selected from amongst the Liberal majority. As an 
 act of grace, a few members of the Opposition are allowed to be 
 elected on this committee, the lagthing. The remaining three- 
 fourths of the representatives constitute the Odelsthing, where all 
 legislation is initiated. When a bill has passed the odelsthing, it 
 is sent up to the lagthing, which, according to the Constitution, 
 has a limited suspensory power of revising or rejecting the bills 
 sent up. But you can easily understand that, as this select com- 
 mittee is elected by the men with whom they are in sympathy, much 
 opposition or obstruction is not met with in the lagthing. If a 
 bill should be twice rejected by the lagthing, a joint meeting is 
 
1 88 National Life and TJwught. 
 
 held with the odelsthing, at which a majority of two-thirds will 
 carry the measure. As already stated, the royal sanction can 
 only be refused twice. 
 
 The present king — King Oscar II. — evidently believed, until 
 quite lately, that he possessed an absolute veto. It will here be 
 necessary for me shortly to refer to the political crisis we had in 
 Norway with reference to this very question. The Constitution 
 of 1814 had one fault. According to it, the Ministers of State 
 had not seats in the National Assembly, and the Liberal party, 
 finding this to be a great defect in their constitution, proposed in 
 1872 what the Conservative press of the country — we have Con- 
 servatives even in our Democratic country — pronounced a most 
 revolutionary and dangerous measure — that of admitting the 
 Ministers of State to the sittings of the National Assembly, and 
 to take part in its proceedings. But, mark you, the proposed bill 
 did not give them the right to vote, so, I have no doubt, you will 
 find it was not a very dangerous measure after all. The first time 
 the bill was carried by 80 votes against 29 ; but the Government 
 at the time, which was a Conservative one, although they only 
 had a support of about 30 out of 114 — we had not yet got real 
 Parliamentary government introduced — was evidently jealous of 
 the growing power and influence of the "peasant party" in the 
 Parliament, and advised the king to refuse his sanction to the 
 bill. The Government also saw in the proposed reform the 
 threatened introduction of the Parliamentary system, with the 
 prospect of their own fall, as they would have to depend upon 
 a majority in the Storthing to maintain their position. Three 
 Parliaments, after three successive elections, carried the bill, each 
 time by an increased majority — the last time, in 1880, by the 
 overwhelming majority of 93 out of in. It was then generally 
 expected that the king and his Government would at length 
 comply with the wishes of the people, but the king finally re- 
 fused his sanction to the bill, declaring, at the same time, that 
 •his right to the absolute veto was "above all doubt." He has, 
 however, since then been obliged to alter this, his conviction, and 
 he has actually had to sign the bill which involved the question 
 of the veto. The Norwegians were not, however, going to let 
 the matter rest with the royal declaration. From that moment 
 a serious struggle arose between the people and the king, and 
 centered itself upon the question of the existence or non-existence 
 of an absolute veto on the part of the Crown. In England it is 
 generally assumed, and is recognised by such a high authority as 
 
Norway. 189 
 
 Sir Thomas Erskine May, that an absolute veto is practically 
 unconstitutional — that is to say, illegal. Although, theoretically, 
 the veto is a prerogative of the Crown, it has in England long 
 ago become effete and obsolete. It was hard, however, to under- 
 stand how the king of so enlightened and free a nation as the 
 Norwegians could, in these advanced times, set up a claim for 
 such an antiquated prerogative. The Parliament now proceeded 
 to adopt the last resource provided by the Constitution — it im- 
 peached the whole of the ministry before the supreme court of 
 the realm, or, as it is called, the Rigsret, with a view of obtaining 
 the dismissal of the ministry. The first charge against the 
 ministers was having acted contrary to the interests of the 
 country by advising the king to refuse his sanction to the 
 amendment of the law for admitting the ministers to the Parlia- 
 ment ; and to this was added two other charges, one involving a 
 question of supply, and another about the refusal of the Govern- 
 ment to appoint two additional members on the Committee of 
 the State Railways. 
 
 The result of this remarkable trial can be stated very shortly. 
 
 The ministry was dismissed one by one, the king being com- 
 pelled to accept the judgment of the supreme court. It was, 
 however, very critical times that the Norwegians then passed 
 through. It was rumoured that the king intended a coup d'etat 
 by the aid of Swedish troops, and of a few Norwegian military 
 officers ; the Norwegian army could not be depended upon, as it 
 was well known that the men sympathised with the Parliament ; 
 but wiser counsels prevailed, and although the king attempted to 
 form a conservative government again, which, however, only lasted 
 a few months, he eventually appointed'a liberal ministry, with John 
 Sverdrup at its head. The liberal party had then a great victory 
 all along the line, and the question of the absolute veto was 
 settled once for all. It is not likely that any king in Norway will 
 claim this again. It is, of course, in itself absurd to suppose that 
 such a free and democratic Constitution as that of Norway, with 
 no upper house, and the large power vested in the people, should 
 give the king an absolute veto. In this struggle the peasantry 
 and their representatives again played a prominent part, and 
 without their aid this victory would not have been won. Although 
 Parliamentary government has not yet been carried out to per- 
 fection, it may be looked upon as the future popular form of 
 government that will be generally acknowledged. 
 
 I must next refer to the position of the king in the country. 
 
190 National Life and Thought. 
 
 He represents the executive of the country ; but his person is holy, 
 and his ministers alone can be held responsible to the Parliament. 
 The king can declare war and conclude peace with foreign 
 countries, and has the command of the Norwegian army and 
 navy. In an aggressive war he must, however, have the sanction 
 of the Parliament to use them. The king elects his ministry and 
 all higher officials, and he is, besides, the head of the state Church. 
 
 In all questions of supply of taxes and customs, the king has 
 nothing to say ; his and the royal upanages must be voted yearly, 
 and some time ago the Parliament took the liberty to reduce some 
 of these. A few years ago a bill was passed dispensing with the 
 old formula, "To his most gracious majesty, the king," which 
 was used on all state documents and addresses to his majesty. 
 Henceforth the formula is to be only, " To the king." All this 
 tends to show that the true democratic spirit, which the patriots 
 of 1 814 imparted to our Constitution, is not slumbering, but that 
 we gradually are developing it in the direction which they, no 
 doubt, intended. 
 
 Norway has not yet got Universal Suffrage ; but it is in the 
 programme of the liberal party, and will, no doubt, be carried in 
 a few years. At present every Norwegian of twenty-five years of 
 age, who (1) in the country possesses freehold land, or has been 
 a tenant of such a property for five years ; or (2) who is a burgess 
 of any town ; or (3) possesses property in land or in houses to 
 the value of ^30 ; or (4) who has paid taxes to the state on a 
 yearly income of at least ^30 in the country, and ^45 in the 
 towns, so you see we have already a very extended suffrage. 
 
 The elections for members of the National Assembly takes 
 place every three years. The mode of election is, unfortunately, 
 at present indirect ; but this will, no doubt, be altered in time, 
 now that the communication between the different parts of the 
 country is so much better. At present, the electors first nominate 
 a number of deputies, or an election committee, for each town or 
 county; and these among themselves again elect the number of 
 Members of Parliament representing the town or the district. In 
 Norway the Members of Parliament are paid. They are allowed 
 12 kroner, or 13s. 6d. a day while in session, and their travelling 
 expenses. I think it is only right that the state, and especially 
 a democratic one, should in some way remunerate the representa- 
 tives for the loss of time they incur in the public service of their 
 country. 
 
 Norway has, for the last fifty years, possessed a most perfect system 
 
Norway. 191 
 
 of local government. It is only a year or two since you introduced 
 it in England, but I doubt if the powers of the County Councils 
 are as full and thorough-going as the Norwegian system. I will 
 not take up your time by going into details of local government 
 in Norway; suffice it to say that the elected Board, called 
 " Kommune Bertyrelsi," and which is divided into two — the 
 Formandskab, or the executive ; and the Representantskab, a 
 larger body, is entrusted with all necessary powers to manage 
 the affairs of the " Kommune," as it is called. 
 
 From the beginning of the next year, the jury system will be 
 introduced into the country, but in criminal cases only, so, on the 
 whole, we think we are getting our house into better and better 
 order for coming generations. 
 
 I must next touch upon the position that Norway and Sweden 
 occupy in the union between the two countries. It will be remem- 
 bered that, according to the Act of Union of 1814, Norway was 
 declared to be a free, independent, and indivisible kingdom, 
 united with Sweden under one king. The king is really the only 
 thing we have in common, besides ambassadors and consuls 
 abroad. Each country has its own parliament, its own govern- 
 ment, its own army and navy. Each country impose their own 
 taxes and customs, and are really two distinct kingdoms — a fact 
 often misunderstood, or not known, in England. The king resides 
 for the greater part of the year in Stockholm, his Swedish capital, 
 but comes on two or three visits to Norway every year to open or 
 close the Parliament, or on matters of State. Three members of 
 the Norwegian Government are always in attendance upon the 
 king at Stockholm, and through whom he transacts his Nor- 
 wegian business. 
 
 At present there is a great controversy going on in Norway 
 about a point in the Union which has been overlooked from the 
 very first, and never since, until now, has been seriously discussed. 
 Strange to say, in the Norwegian Ministry, there is no Foreign 
 Minister. At the time of the Union, in 18 14, nothing had been 
 settled with regard to the share that Norway was to have in the 
 transaction of diplomatic affairs with foreign countries. Fortu- 
 nately, Norway is very little troubled with diplomatic affairs ; but, 
 in 1835, a resolution was issued to the effect that, when the 
 Swedish Foreign Minister was discussing diplomatic matters with 
 the king, which concerned both countries, or Sweden only, another 
 Swedish councillor, and the Norway minister at Stockholm, should 
 be present ; but if the matters concerned Norway alone, the Nor- 
 
192 National Life and Thought. 
 
 wegian minister alone was to attend the deliberations of the king 
 and his Foreign Swedish Minister. This arrangement has not 
 always proved satisfactory to the Norwegians ; but, in the mean- 
 time, this state of affairs , have been allowed to drift on, and 
 gradually the Swedish Foreign Minister has come to be looked 
 upon as the Foreign Minister to Norway also. But nothing is 
 said about this in the Norwegian Constitution, or in the Act of 
 Union ; and, as the Swedish Foreign Minister cannot be held 
 responsible to the Norwegian Government or Parliament, it is no 
 wonder that the Norwegians wish to have this point settled. As 
 a matter of fact, in the diplomatic relations of the two countries 
 with foreign powers, Norway has not enjoyed equal right and 
 share with Sweden, as she, according to the Act of Union, had a 
 right to expect and demand. Only last summer we had an instance 
 of this. Norway was officially represented at the Paris Exhibition, 
 while Sweden would not take part in the celebration of the cen- 
 tenary of the French Revolution. Before the day of opening, the 
 Swedish and Norwegian Ambassador in Paris had been requested 
 by the Norwegian commissioner to be present at the Norwegian 
 department, and receive the President on his tour of inspection 
 through the Exhibition, but this the Ambassador flatly refused to 
 do. It was afterwards ascertained that the Ambassador had 
 received instructions from the Swedish Foreign Minister in Stock- 
 holm not to be present and represent Norway at the Exhibition. 
 The Norwegians could not but look upon this as an insult, but 
 we can neither call the Foreign Minister or the Ambassador into 
 account; we could only resent it in the public press. This 
 occurrence, and many others, in which the Swedes seem to show 
 that they want to have the upper hand, have given rise to the 
 controversy I mentioned, and at present it seems that the Nor- 
 wegians want to appoint their own consuls and representatives 
 abroad, which they, according to their Constitution, have a full 
 right to do, and even to appoint their own Foreign Minister, 
 unless a satisfactory arrangement is arrived at with Sweden. This 
 may hereafter give rise to serious dissensions between the two 
 countries, and I mention it because it is part of our political 
 aspiration at the present moment to assert our just claim to equal 
 rights and an equal position in the Union ; in fact, it seems that 
 the discussion and the settlement of the matter will, on the part 
 of the Norwegians, be carried on on the following lines : " Full 
 equality, or out of the Union." 
 
 It is especially on this and similar points that there is a feeling 
 
Norway. 193 
 
 of jealousy between the two countries, but otherwise the two 
 nations get on very well together, and I hope the Union may 
 long exist, and that the two sister countries will prosper side by 
 side and in full harmony. Some few still dream of the Union, or 
 an amalgamation, of the three Scand countries — Norway, Sweden, 
 and Denmark. I myself think that this may come to pass, say 
 in five hundred years or so ; but, in the meantime, each nation 
 must be allowed to develop independently. I do not think we 
 need to trouble ourselves about this amalgamation in the far 
 future ; at present, it is our duty to develop our national charac- 
 teristics, our political liberty, our literature, our arts, on national 
 lines, and quite independent of one another. Take away, for in- 
 stance, the national element from our literature, from our arts, our 
 music, and we should not command the attention and respect we 
 at present enjoy. If our authors were to fall into the style of the 
 Swedish or the French writers, our musicians to be influenced by 
 the German or French school, and so on during our present 
 development, as a new-born nation, we should be nowhere. 
 Nothing is more contemptible than a dandified French-Norwegian, 
 a German-struck Norwegian, or an Anglicised- Norwegian with 
 sporting and betting proclivities ! I maintain that, in the case 
 of nations, each must, for the present, and for some time to 
 come, develop the national element in their character, in their 
 literature, and in their arts, just as individuals must develop their 
 personal characteristics to make themselves worthy of the respect 
 and friendship of their fellow-creatures. To illustrate more plainly 
 what I mean, I would, as a contrast to the class of individuals 
 upon whom our hope of the future is built, only mention a class 
 of beings we now find in our midst — a class of beings who 
 evidently have no independence of character or independent way 
 of thinking, and who seem to have lost all the characteristics of 
 the nation to which they belong — I mean the mashers. They are 
 living proofs of how individuals as well as nations can deteriorate. 
 I suppose the English have their ideal of what an Englishman 
 should be. I think they would hardly present a masher to the 
 world as a representative one ! Unless the development of 
 national as well as personal character is carried out on the lines 
 I have referred to, we shall all be mashers, and have nations of 
 mashers, and the decline and fall of the British and other empires 
 will soon follow. We Norwegians are a small nation, and we 
 must not forget that our very existence among the nations of the 
 world depends upon our upholding the national character and 
 
 N 
 
194 National Life and Thought. 
 
 independence of our race. I see in the distant future a time 
 when the nations and the peoples of the earth have approached 
 each other more than now, understood each other more than 
 now, and have even amalgamated with one another more than 
 now, perhaps in a kind of international brotherhood, but I hope, 
 even then, that both nations and individuals will preserve and 
 retain what is great and good in their national and personal 
 characters. 
 
 I must not forget to say a few words about the Norwegian 
 people themselves, in their daily life and work. The Norwegians 
 have a hard struggle with nature for their existence. The Nor- 
 wegians of to-day must be divided into two distinct classes — the 
 Norwegian b'indes, or peasants, and the totvnspeople. The latter 
 are neither more nor less interesting, neither better nor worse, 
 than most town populations in Europe. The better classes in 
 the towns are mostly of foreign origin — Danish, German, and 
 even English — whose forefathers immigrated into Norway in the 
 early part of the century, soon after we had gained our independ- 
 ence, when business began to look up and improve, while the 
 people of the official classes were formerly almost wholly of 
 Danish origin from the time of the union with Denmark. 
 
 The Norwegian peasants, however, are, and have been, the 
 kernel of the nation. They are the freeholders of the property on 
 which they live, and where, as a rule, their forefathers have lived 
 for centuries before them. From the earliest ages the peasantry 
 have been absolute owners of the land. Even during the long 
 union with Denmark, the Norwegian peasant was, as I already have 
 referred to, the free and independent master of his own farm. To 
 him the English system of leasehold is incomprehensible, and he 
 cannot believe his ears when he hears it explained to him. I 
 believe that Norway is one of the few, if not the only country in 
 Europe, where the peasantry never have been serfs. Their udal 
 laws trained them in the management of their own affairs, and 
 produced that feeling of self-respect and independence which 
 the possession of property, and land in particular, gives. Nature 
 has not been bountiful to them ; in many cases they have even 
 to carry up the soil on to the rocks to grow the necessary corn 
 for their existence, but still there is hardly a happier and more 
 independent man than the Norwegian bjfnde. He is the de- 
 scendant of the old "jarls," or chieftains of the land, its true and 
 ancient nobility, and many of the peasant families descend from 
 the old Norwegian kings. I must here relate a story which 
 
Norway. 195 
 
 throws a deal of light on the independent character of these 
 sturdy peasants. Soon after Karl Johun had become king in 
 1 8 14, he had to undertake a journey through Gudbrandsdalen r 
 one of the finest villages in the country. In those days travelling 
 was not so quick and convenient as now, and the king had to 
 put up at night at the farms of the peasants, who generally 
 received a message a day or two beforehand to prepare for the 
 reception of the king. On the occasion I refer to, a wealthy 
 peasant, by the name of Tofti, in the upper end of the valley, had 
 received notice to receive the king, and when the king and his 
 suite entered the room where the dinner was to be served, they 
 discovered that, at the head of the table, a smaller table had 
 been placed crossways, and was laid for only two persons. The 
 king was conducted by his host to this table, and the Swedish 
 Chamberlain, who was in attendance upon the king, thought, 
 as a matter of course, that the other seat was for him, and pro- 
 ceeded to take it, when the peasant tapped him on the shoulder 
 and pointed to a place at the other table, saying, as he sat 
 down by the side of the king, " This table is only for those of 
 royal blood." I can hardly imagine a peasant in another country 
 speaking thus in the presence of a king. The townspeople 
 address the king as " Your Majesty" or by the polite "de," or 
 " you," but a Norwegian peasant addresses him with the familiar 
 "du,"or " thou," which is only used when people are intimate 
 with one another. I have on several occasions heard the 
 peasants speak to the king, and it has amused me greatly to hear 
 them address him in this familiar way. During many political 
 difficulties, the Norwegian peasants have been the saviours of the 
 country, and from their ranks have sprung some of the most 
 celebrated men of our day. I am certain that no other country 
 possesses so many men in official positions, such as doctors, 
 clergymen, engineers, and teachers, who are peasant-born, and 
 even often from the farm-labouring and working-classes, and 
 that no other country has so many eminent poets, artists, men of 
 science, and statesmen, who have also risen from the peasantry. 
 Lately we have had three bishops — one is still alive — who were 
 peasants, and you must take your degree with unusually high 
 honours if you aspire to be a bishop in Norway. Bjornson, the 
 well-known poet and dramatist, is the son of a clergyman, who 
 worked his way up from being a poor peasant lad. Ivan Aaser, 
 the great linguist, Vinje, the poet, Gufbory, a talented writer, 
 are all peasant-born. Slfredsvig, the well-known painter, is the 
 
196 National Life and Thought. 
 
 son of a working-man, and a great number of our best painters, 
 and nearly all our sculptors, are of the peasantry. Svendsen, 
 the well-known composer, is the son of a working-man ; one of 
 our most gifted editors, and three of the members of the late 
 Liberal Government, were all peasant-born, and several peasants 
 have been presidents or speakers in the Parliament. Mr Samuel 
 Laing. an English traveller, and father of the ex-member for 
 Orkney and Shetland, speaks as follows of the Norwegian peasant : 
 " The remarkable firmness, and moderation, and judgment with 
 which these people have exercised the legislative powers which 
 the Constitution entirely has vested in their representatives, place 
 them, in the moral estimate of Europeans nations, in a much 
 higher rank than those who have received a much greater share 
 of public attention in this country." 
 
 Norway ranks high among European countries in the matter 
 of education. All the peasants, and all belonging to the working- 
 classes, can now read and write, and they all know the Constitu- 
 tion and the history of their country on their fingers' ends ; they 
 read all new books ; the parish libraries all over the country 
 supply them with sufficient reading, but it is also well known 
 that the better off among the peasantry buy the modern litera- 
 ture, and lend them out to their neighbours. Thus Bjornson's 
 and Ibsen's works are read just as eagerly and as early by the 
 peasantry as by the townspeople. You find a newspaper in 
 every farmstead, and even in the cottages of the farm-labourers. 
 Besides the usual national schools, we have the so-called Folke- 
 hoiskoler (high schools for the people), where instruction and 
 lectures are given to grown-up people of both sexes. 
 
 I said that the Norwegian peasant carries on a hard struggle 
 for his existence. It is very difficult indeed to understand the 
 hardships he has to go through, unless you see it with your eyes. 
 The peasantry may be divided into two classes — the coast popu- 
 lation, and the inland population. The people on the coast 
 live to a great extent by fishing, but they have also small farms 
 to cultivate. In the winter months the greater part of the 
 population on the coast proceed often hundreds of miles in 
 their open boats, or by steamer, to the great fisheries in the 
 north of Norway. Few people could endure the life they lead 
 during the time the fishing goes on. They often remain in their 
 boats out at sea on the fishing grounds for one, two, or three 
 days, frequently through wet, and hauling in their catch at sea 
 in a cold of which we have little idea. And when they come 
 
Norway. 197 
 
 ashore they often fail in getting accommodation for the night, 
 and half of them are not able to get their food cooked, but must 
 content themselves with eating it cold, and with a " dram," and 
 with sleeping in their stiff frozen clothes, packed closely together, 
 like herrings in a barrel, on the floor, or even in a standing posi- 
 tion, one leaning against the other, in a close and stifling atmo- 
 sphere. Sometimes they must go back to their boats, and cover 
 themselves with anything they can find, and, shivering from cold, 
 spend the night under the Arctic sky. Many catch illnesses, 
 with which they are troubled all their life. Rheumatism is a 
 general complaint among the fishermen. A great number every 
 year lose their lives in stormy weather. Often the fishing turns 
 out badly, but they go at it again next year. It is not gain 
 alone which tempts them ; the life itself is so adventurous, they 
 have heard accounts of it from their boyhood, and do not rest 
 till they get off to the great fishing grounds to try their luck. 
 
 The Norwegians, as you know, are great sailors, and there are 
 now about sixty or seventy thousand men engaged in the shipping 
 of the country. Next to England, Norway possesses the greatest 
 fleet of merchant ships. 
 
 Of the inland population, the people employed in the forest 
 industry of the country undergo the greatest hardships. I can- 
 not enter into detail of their life in the great vast forests, where 
 they sometimes stop for weeks at a time, but I will give you one 
 or two sketches of the kind of life they lead. After having been 
 felling trees in deep snow in the forest the whole day, they return 
 at night to a rough sort of a shanty, built of logs, about eight by 
 twelve feet, with no doors or windows. On a slab in one of the 
 corners they keep up a fire all night, the smoke escaping through a 
 hole in the roof; but the doorway and the chimney are open, and 
 the hut is exceedingly draughty. Opposite the fire they make a 
 bed, on some logs, of some hay and moss. They never undress; in 
 the evening they pull off their boots and stockings, which they 
 dry while sitting with their bare feet before the lire, but they put 
 both stockings and boots on again before they lie down. In very 
 severe weather, it happens that the clothes, on the side near the 
 rime-frosted wall, become frozen fast to it ; while the other side, 
 which is turned to the fire, becomes smoking hot and steaming. 
 
 When the floating begins, in the spring, the men have to wade 
 about in the rivers, often to their shoulders, without changing 
 clothes for weeks. Sometimes they lose all feeling in their feet, 
 and are then obliged to take off their boots and stockings, and 
 
198 National Life and Thought. 
 
 rub them until feeling is restored ; often they have to lie down to 
 get a little sleep, with nothing over them as a covering except 
 branches of the pine tree. 
 
 The occupation of "floating" is a dangerous and health- 
 destroying one. It is a wonder that more lives are not lost. It 
 is this life of adventure and peril, and the solitude in these parts, 
 that attract the Norwegian peasant to it. For every one who 
 meets his death in the cataract, or succumbs from slow disease, 
 there are only too many to take his place. Norway has over 750 
 sawmills, so you understand large numbers find their livelihood 
 in this industry, and that timber forms a great article of export. 
 
 Every year thousands of our English cousins now visit our 
 country, and we bid fair to become the great hunting ground in 
 Europe for tourists and sportsmen, and we, on our part, wish you 
 hearty welcome. I only trust that my countrymen will keep their 
 heads cool at the great influx of visitors from all countries, and on 
 the great praise they and their country receive in the numerous 
 articles and books which continually are being published about 
 Norway. If you will notice, there is scarcely any other country 
 about which so many guide-books and books of travel at present 
 are published here in England as about Norway. 
 
 Before I conclude, I must refer for a moment or two to the 
 literature of the country, which has now become such an im- 
 portant factor in the national thought and life of the Norwegians. 
 Time will not permit me to go back to the dawn of our present 
 literature, when the names of Wergelund and Welhaven was on 
 everybody's lips. I will at once mention the two names in our 
 modern literature which have now an almost world-wide reputa- 
 tion. First of all, I must mention the great national poet of 
 Norway par excellence, Bjornstgorne Bjornson. He struck, in his 
 very first attempt, a chord in the heart of the people, which gave 
 a new impulse to the national life that was dawning on Norway. 
 The poet became a patriot ; he thinks that a poet need not neces- 
 sarily shut himself up in a room, and, in a velvet jacket, and 
 with long curls, write sweet, sentimental verses to the moon or 
 some fair lady. He mixed with the people, learnt their yearnings 
 and their aspirations ; at great risk to his reputation and his 
 financial position, he joined the ranks of the people, he thrilled the 
 minds of his countrymen as he spoke to them of their duty to 
 themselves and their country, and stirred up the old independent 
 spirit of the Norsemen. The part he took in the political struggle 
 between the king and the Norwegian people some years ago, and 
 
Norzvay. 1 99 
 
 the part he at present is playing in Norwegian politics, is of the 
 greatest importance to us, and, in the future, when he will be 
 better understood than now, the historian will inscribe his name 
 in the honourable place it deserves in the list of champions for 
 his country's rights. And how could it be otherwise ? Look at 
 Bjornson himself! Is he not the very ideal of a Norwegian — the 
 fine, broad-shouldered figure, with the noble head and the lion's 
 mane, looks every inch a jarl, one of the chieftians of old, as fine 
 a representation of the old Norseman as you would wish. He has 
 been called by one of his friends the political conscience of the 
 Norwegian people, and I think it very appropriate. Where should 
 we have been during the late political struggle if he, before any 
 one else dared to do so, had not courageously spoken out on 
 behalf of his countrymen, and reminded them of their duties, and 
 what their forefathers had done before them. 
 
 No, the Norwegian people have not sung his songs or read his 
 tales in vain ; they, at least, understand him and love him, not- 
 withstanding what certain sages and wise heads may say to the 
 contrary. At the same time, his latest work shows him to be the 
 true poet, who finds his way to the inmost chords of the human 
 heart, and shows them the way to a truer and better understanding 
 of our existence here, and of our duty to one another, than all 
 the sermons and goody-goody talk that has been levelled at the 
 heads of humanity for generations. Bjornson is the ideal optimist. 
 He loves life ; he loves his country ; but he loves humanity 
 above all. 
 
 The name of our other great poet is Henrik Ibsen. Until 
 lately, Ibsen was little known in England ; but, after the perform- 
 ance of two of his plays last summer, and the many articles that 
 have appeared about him in English papers and magazines, his 
 name is now known to most intellectual Englishmen and women. 
 It would take hours to go into his numerous works, and the 
 general development of his remarkable talent. He also began 
 as a writer of historical plays, which appealed to the feelings of his 
 countrymen ; but gradually he became the philosophical poet, and 
 in bitter satires told his countrymen their little follies and vanities, 
 opening up at the same time a new vista of life to them, of which 
 they never dreamt. Ibsen is a pessimist and realist of the first 
 water. How could he, with his knowledge of human nature and 
 human weaknesses, be otherwise ? He has been called the poet 
 of woman ; and, as far as many of us believe that the salvation 
 of the world is to come from woman, that of society is to res t 
 
200 National Life and Thought. 
 
 upon a sounder, healthier, and happier basis than hitherto, 
 woman must step in and take her share jin^the work of progress, 
 and not be the plaything — the doll — she hitherto has been, then 
 it is right to call him the woman's poet. I prefer to call him 
 the Shakespeare of the nineteenth century, for Ibsen is not for 
 woman alone, not for Norway alone ; he is for all mankind, for all 
 countries where civilisation has left its mark. 
 
 Of other authors I will only mention Jonas Lie, the Dickens 
 of Norway, and Alexander Kielland, the great satirist. We have 
 painters and sculptors, and men of science, of European renown ; 
 we have musicians who have made their mark, and of these you 
 well know the name of Edward Grieg. I spoke, at the beginning 
 of this lecture, about the invasions of the ancient Norsemen. I 
 did so purposely. Now, a thousand years later, we are contem- 
 plating another invasion of your empire ; with our authors, our 
 poets, our artists and our bards in the front, we intend to invade 
 your country again, but not in the fashion of our ancestors. No, 
 we want to make way to your hearts, to gain your sympathy for 
 our aspirations, for our national life and movements, to help us 
 to break down national prejudices, that the nations of the world 
 all the sooner can stand side by side, hand in hand, all working 
 for that great aim of mankind — the happiness of the human race. 
 
XI. 
 
 S WE BEN. 
 
 EIRIKR MAGNUSSON, M.A. 
 
 WHEN the veil of myth and legend lifts, and historical 
 light first begins to throw a glimmer over the life of the 
 Swedish nation, we find the country inhabited by two kindred 
 races. The southern lowlands, together with the island of Gotland, 
 are occupied by a people who call themselves Gautar or Goths. 
 But the great central basin,- forming the watershed of the vast 
 lake system of Wenern, Vettern Miilaren, and a multitude of other 
 inland standing waters, is held by the race who call themselves 
 Sviar, Svear, Swedes. The Aborigines, the Fins, and the Lapps 
 had already been pushed by the southern invaders far to the 
 north, where the former maintained themselves chiefly by hunting 
 and fishing, the latter by nomadic pursuits, even as they do to this 
 day. 
 
 All human civilisation is, in the first instance, a struggle, more 
 or less victorious, with Nature. All races that begin this struggle 
 with the combined forces of land and water at once are generally 
 in advance in civilisation of those races who inhabit vast con- 
 tinental prairie or steppe territories. Hence we find that island 
 populations and lake populations are not only the first to organise 
 themselves into civilised communities ; but when they receive 
 civilisation through foreign impulse, are the quickest in adapting 
 themselves to it. Thus, in the very dawn of Scandinavian history, 
 we find that the lake districts of Sweden are inhabited by a people 
 who form not only a civilised community, but have already 
 advanced far in the art of organising a state. The Svear maintain 
 a general supremacy over the whole country, and have managed to 
 establish, in the midst of their settlement, a central temple to 
 which both Goths and Swedes owe one common religious allegi- 
 ance. At first this central temple was at Sigtuna, on the eastern 
 shore of the Miilaren ; afterwards it was removed to Upsala, where 
 in splendour and magnificence it outrivalled every other temple 
 
202 National Life and Thought. 
 
 north of the Baltic. On its ruins, speaking historically, towers, 
 at the present day, the largest and stateliest cathedral in Scandi- 
 navian Christendom. 
 
 The earliest race of rulers that history mentions in Sweden were 
 the Ynglingar, out of whom sprang the so-called overking or 
 imperial head of the land. It followed, as a natural consequence 
 of the close connection which in these early ages was supposed to 
 exist between rulers and gods, that the chief king was also supreme 
 pontiff at the same time. Ex-officio also, as it would seem, he 
 was the president of the general assembly which met yearly at 
 Upsala. 
 
 But, as in all states struggling through the first stages of 
 organisation, the power exercised by the supreme head is precarious, 
 so the authority exercised by the royal primate of Sweden over 
 the provincial tributaries, the so-called Folk-kings, depended 
 entirely upon the effectiveness of the blows of his sword — on his 
 personal ascendency and bravery in fact. Hence he had con- 
 stantly to fight combinations among the Folk-kings, which aimed 
 at transferring to some one among themselves the supreme power 
 he wielded. Thus the earliest centuries of the history of Sweden 
 present a picture of perpetual warfare and bloodshed, of one 
 dynasty going down in blood and the next rising out of it to, in 
 its turn, perish in the same way. The most famous of these inter- 
 dynastic conflicts is the fight on the moor of Bravollr or Bravalla, 
 as the Swedes pronounce the name, about 740, where the mighty 
 warrior Harald Hilditonn, ancient and blind, fell at the hands of 
 his nephew, Sigurd Ring, who thus became the founder of a new 
 dynasty, which counted among its representatives the much- 
 legended hero Ragnar Lodbrok and Bjorn Ironside, both con- 
 querors by sea and land. During this dynasty great changes took 
 place in Sweden. From within the mighty Viking upheaval begins 
 to present to Eastern Europe a threatening front, 750-60. 
 From without Sweden received in Ansgarius, 829, the first mes- 
 senger proclaiming the principle of peace and goodwill among 
 men — a principle which received a stubborn resistance, as might 
 be expected, not only because of the tenacity with which the 
 people clung to the faith of their forefathers, but especially on 
 account of the Viking policy which at that very time had become 
 a burning question in Scandinavia. By this policy murder and 
 bloodshed were not only a lawful occupation, but constituted an 
 indispensable title to consideration and advancement in society. 
 Hence Christianity advanced in the North pretty much at the 
 
Sweden. 203 
 
 same rate that its Viking energy spent itself. And in Sweden it 
 was preached for nearly two hundred years, before the country had 
 a Christian ruler in Olaf Skeetking, a.d. iooo. 
 
 The Viking policy of Sweden deserves a moment's attention on 
 account of the radical influence it brought to bear on the destinies 
 of the Slavonic people of Eastern Europe. For West-European 
 students of history the matter receives additional interest by the 
 fact that the modern school of Russian historians is busily at work 
 suppressing, as an idle fable, the story I am going to tell you. 
 In the year 859 the earliest Russian historian, who goes under the 
 name of Nestor, and was a monk from Kijef, who lived in the 
 twelfth century, states that the Varegs or Warangians came over 
 the sea and collected tribute from various Slavonic tribes in 
 Russia. Three years afterwards they were driven out of Russia ; 
 but on their departure there arose such an anarchy in the land, 
 that the people agreed at last to send for a prince who should 
 rule over them and protect them. And they went over the sea, 
 says Nestor, to the Warangians, to the Rus, for so these Waran- 
 gians were called, and set forth to them the anarchical state of 
 their country. And three brothers, princes among Rus, went with 
 all their followers. The oldest, Rurik, settled in Novgorod; 
 another, Sineus, took up his residence in Belo-ozero ; the third, 
 Truvor, established himself in Izborsk. These purely and 
 exclusively Scandinavian names, which, in the vernacular, have the 
 forms of Hrcerekr, Signjotr, and Thorvarr, 1 are in themselves 
 evidence sure enough of the veracity of the chronicler, which also 
 is borne out by many a corroborative evidence from other inde- 
 pendent sources, such as Byzantine chroniclers, Frankish and 
 Venetian annals, and even early Arabic writers, such as Ibn 
 Dustha, Ibn Fadhlan, and others. 
 
 We have already seen that these Scandinavians were called 
 Rus by the first Russian chronicler. The Arabs call them by the 
 same name, and the Byzantines invariably Rhos. No doubt the 
 Arabs and the Greeks got the name from the Russian Slavs. 
 They again had got it from their nearest northern neighbours the 
 Fins, whose name for Sweden from time immemorial has been 
 Ruotsi, which by natural phonetic law in Slavonic becomes Rus. 
 The Finnish name is on all hands acknowledged to be of foreign, 
 that is to say, Scandinavian origin. In the Middle Ages the 
 
 ' I think it is open to doubt whether this is the original of Truvor. I am 
 more inclined to think that it was Thordr, pronounced by the Scandinavians, 
 by means of Svarabhakti, somewhat like Turder = Slav-Truvor. 
 
204 National Life and Thought. 
 
 inhabitants of Upland and East Gotland in Sweden were called 
 the Rods-karlar or Rodsmsen, the rowing men, the oarsmen, or 
 seafarers, and the first element of the compound might have been 
 taken up by the Fins and given to the whole nation of Sweden, 
 whom they practically knew as the rowing or seafaring nation. 
 In any case, Riis was the name of Swedes among their eastern 
 neighbours ; and from them, as founders and organisers of the 
 Russian state, it passed into a name or title not only for that 
 state, but also for all the nationalities composing it. Hence, his- 
 torically traced, Russia means the Swedish Empire. For two hun- 
 dred years, or to about 1054, these Scandinavians were alternately 
 the terror or the mercantile customer of the Byzantians. There is 
 something historically significant in the fact that the ferocious 
 sway of the Scandinavian Vikings should come to an end both in 
 the east and the west at almost the same time, in the course of 
 the eleventh century. This is not the occasion for going into 
 that interesting question; but I may briefly mention that the con- 
 quest of the Holy Land by the Seldjukian Turks in the same 
 century, and the incessant current of news to Western Europe by 
 returning pilgrims of the brutal treatment of Christians by the 
 new conquerors, created gradually a new idea, that of saving the 
 Holy Land from the infidel barbarian, and provided for the mili- 
 tary energy of Europe a new outlet in the Crusades, which after 
 all are but the Viking movement in another form. 
 
 While the Swedes thus became the founders and organisers of 
 the Russian state, the nation at home was passing through gradual 
 changes, constitutional as well as religious. By the opening of 
 the eleventh century the country had a Christian ruler, as I said 
 before, in the person of Olaf Skeetking. And now history 
 exhibits to us for the first time a telling and interesting illustration 
 of the constitutional condition of the country. In the various 
 folklands different and peculiar codes of law had grown up, and 
 the guardianship of the law was chiefly left to the so-called law- 
 man, whose duty it was not only to instruct the people in the 
 law, that is, to give out at the periodical folk-motes the law as it 
 stood, but especially to guard the rights and privileges of the 
 Franklins against infringement on the part of the king. A telling 
 illustration of the vindication of this constitutional right is related 
 as occurring in the reign of this king, all the more telling, because 
 it is an evidence of the indomitable spirit of freedom which at all 
 times, especially at the most serious, has found an exponent 
 among the Franklin class of Sweden. The story tells how Olaf 
 
Sweden. 205 
 
 Skeetking harboured an inveterate grudge towards King Olaf 
 Haraldsson (Saint 01.) of Norway. The latter, in order to bring 
 about friendship between the two countries, sued for the hand of 
 the daughter of his Swedish namesake ; but though she tried with 
 the aid of others to bend her father's temper towards acceptance of 
 the suit, yet all her endeavours proved in vain. But the time of 
 the general assembly of all the Swedes was at hand, and the 
 mighty law-man of Tiundaland, Thorgny by name, was one of 
 the self-chosen members of the assembly. Earl Rognvald, the 
 ambassador from Norway, seized the opportunity of sounding the 
 great spokesman of the Franklins with regard to Norway's suit. 
 He came to Thorgny's home one day towards eve. The house 
 was great and magnificent, and many people about, who took at 
 once charge of the Earl's caravan, and gave him good cheer. 
 The Earl entered the hall, which was crowded with the law-man's 
 attendants. In the high seat there sat an old man, and a grander- 
 looking magnate they had never set eye on before. The beard 
 was so long that it covered the whole of his front and rested on 
 his lap. And a goodly man he was, and noble to behold. 
 
 One day Earl Rognvald told Thorgny his errand; that his 
 master wanted to put a stop to a state of retaliatory raids over 
 the boundaries of the two kingdoms, and in order to secure peace 
 between them desired to obtain the hand of Ingigord, King Olaf 
 the. Swede's daughter. " But I know not how to prevail," said 
 the Earl, " on account of the Swede's implacable hatred towards 
 Norway." Thorgny, after a pause, answered : " Your ways are 
 strange. You hanker after titles; but if you encounter some diffi- 
 culty, your counsel and forethought forsake you. ... I deem it 
 no deprivation of dignity to belong to the Franklins, with full 
 liberty of speech, so as to be free to utter one's own mind frankly 
 even in the presence of the King. Now, I shall come to the Upsala 
 Assembly, and you speak out there whatever seems good to you." 
 
 At the Thing held in the open the King occupied a seat sur- 
 rounded by his court. On the other side sat Thorgny with his 
 house-carles, and Rognvald the Earl with his court. Behind 
 Thorgny stood the crowd of Franklins, while others took up their 
 station about hillocks and mounds to listen to the speakers. 
 When the King had answered, by a most insolent speech, the 
 Earl's errand of peace and wooing, Thorgny stood up, and with 
 him all the Franklins who were seated before, rushing forward, 
 crowding round their tried spokesman to hear what the grand 
 old man had to say. And a great clashing of weapons was the 
 
206 National Life and Thought. 
 
 cheer by which he was hailed. When silence prevailed, he said : 
 " Very different is now the temper of the kings of Sweden to 
 what it has been in bygone days. My grandfather, Thorgny, told 
 me how he remembered King Erik, son of Emund, and how he, 
 while he was yet in the free course of manly thew, went every 
 summer out on warfare to various lands, and subdued Finland, 
 Karelin, Esthonia, and Courland, besides other eastern dominions ; 
 and still you may see standing the earthworks and other great 
 fortifications which he made, yet was he not so haughty as not 
 to listen to people who had important matters to bring to his 
 notice. My father was for a long time with King Bjorn, whose 
 dominion stood firm and fast through life, and he was easy and 
 affable to his friends. I myself may well remember King Eirik 
 the Victorious serving him, as I did, in many a war ; he increased 
 the Swedish power and defended it with manly hardihood ; yet it 
 was easy for us to bring him to listen to reasonable counsel. But 
 this King whom we have now allows no one to be so bold as to 
 talk to him aught but what may be pleasing to himself. In this 
 he shows himself stubborn enough, but his tributary lands he 
 allows to be lost by reason of his want of ability and lack of 
 strength. He aspires to subdue Norway, which no King of 
 Sweden before him set his mind on, whereby unrest and trouble 
 is brought home to many a man. Now we, the Franklins, desire 
 that thou, King Olaf, shouldst make peace with Olaf the Stout of 
 Norway and give him in marriage your daughter Ingigord. So, 
 too, if you are minded to reconquer those dominions in the 
 Baltic which your predecessors and forefathers have had there, 
 we will all follow you on such an errand. But if you will not 
 consent to what we say, we shall set upon you and slay you, and 
 suffer no disturbance and lawlessness at your hands. Such have 
 been the ways of our forefathers. At the Assembly of Muli they 
 plunged five kings into one ditch, who were swollen with pride 
 and insolence against them, even as you are towards us. Make 
 quickly up your mind as to what you mean to resolve." Then 
 the people made great roar with clashing weapons, and His 
 Majesty the Skeetking came promptly to terms with the 
 Franklins. 
 
 This digression is long, but it is a key to many a glorious 
 chapter in the history of Sweden. It is the free Franklin class 
 of that country which, at the most threatening periods in it 
 history, has proved the unconquerable safeguard of its liberties 
 against tyranny and lawlessness. 
 
Siveden. 207 
 
 From the accession of Olaf the Skeetking, and for the next 
 two hundred years, Sweden was the scene of internal and ruinous 
 disunion, originating partly in the divergent religious tendencies 
 of the two main races, the Gothic being the willing, the Swedish 
 the unwilling and recalcitrating factor ; partly in the ambitious 
 contention between the Swedish royal family of King Erik the 
 holy, and that of the Gothic house of Sverkir. During these 
 internal disruptions the chief sufferer was the class of the Frank- 
 lins, out of whom there sprang a military aristocracy, boundlessly 
 selfish and reckless of every other interest in the state but its 
 own. It secured for itself at last full immunity from taxes, and 
 from the common jurisdiction of the ordinary courts of justice. 
 And after the elevation of Upsala to an archbishopric in 1163, 
 whereby the hierarchy of Sweden obtained its own metropolis, 
 these two principal parties in the state became on one side the 
 undermining agents of the royal power, and on the other the 
 oppressors of the people. As the military aristocracy in its time 
 had arisen out of free Franklin class, so in time there arose, in 
 their turn, out of the military aristocracy, certain mighty families, 
 who divided practically all power in the state between themselves 
 and the prelates. Of these families the mightiest in the thirteenth 
 century was that of the Folkungs, who were Earls by dignity of 
 birth. The most famous of the Folkungs was the Earl Birgir 
 who in Swedish history figures as the reconstructor of law and 
 right, and who with ruthless cruelty, even against his own kin, 
 whom he destroyed in large numbers by treachery, combined the 
 highest qualities of a patriotic ruler for his time, and brought 
 the country to a height of prosperity which it had not known for 
 generations before him. By abolishing the rights and dignities of 
 Earls in Sweden, and lowering it to that of Dukes, he thought he 
 should contribute an element of stability to the Crown. But he 
 only introduced thereby a fresh danger. His eldest son, Walde- 
 mar, t 1302, became King, his three younger sons Dukes; but 
 they soon revolted against their weak and incapable brother, and 
 from among them Magnus not only rose to the supreme power, 
 but proved himself the ablest ruler Sweden had had for a long 
 period. His historical surname, Barn-lock, is a fitting heading to 
 the history of his reign. He was the Franklin's and farmer's 
 especial protector, so that under his reign the robbing baron durst 
 not even touch the farmer's property, though the barn had no 
 other lock than that of the King's law. But with him the series 
 of great Folkung rulers came to an end, and after sad and serious 
 
208 National Life and Thought. 
 
 reverses the family died out with King Magnus II., Smek, 
 who, after having wandered about for eleven years a dethroned 
 monarch, was drowned in the Bay of Bergen in 1374. To him, 
 however, the country owed the code of law which was first sanc- 
 tioned in 1442, and remained the code of Sweden for 292 
 years. 
 
 His nephew and successor, Albrecht of Mecklenburg, was ex- 
 pelled, after an inglorious and anarchical reign of twenty-five years, 
 and Sweden became a member of the confederate kingdom of 
 Scandinavia under the provisions of the union-treaty of Kalmar 
 ( I 397)- That union only brought Sweden trouble and disaster, 
 and was at last blotted out by the fearful massacre of Stockholm 
 by Christian II. of Denmark, in the blood of six hundred of 
 some of the best men of Sweden. It was not, however, without 
 benefit to the country eventually, because it brought to the fore in 
 the persons of the great Stures a family that was to give to the 
 country some of the most famous men of the world. Gustav 
 Wasa was the first of these. After many miraculous escapes from 
 the persecutors of Christian II. he succeeded, by the bravery 
 of the Franklins of the province of the Dalarne, in driving out the 
 Danes and making himself master of the situation at home, and 
 securing his election to the throne in 1523. We should have to 
 go far afield in history to find such a true father of his country as 
 this wonderful man. By prudence and firmness he overcame all 
 internal troubles, destroyed the power of the hierarchy, and 
 established the Reformation, caused the Bible to be translated, 
 checked the aristocracy, and linked it to the crown by judiciously 
 according it a share in the spoils of the dissolved monasteries and 
 other confiscated Church properties. He had to fight with 
 rebellious subjects, and he conquered and won their loyalty. He 
 fought the Hanseatic league, then in the prime of its commercial 
 insolence ; he had to battle with Russia, and out of both struggles 
 he came victorious. When he had ruled as elected king for 
 twenty-one years, the Rigsdag of Wadstena made the succession 
 hereditary in his family in both lines male and female. The pro- 
 perty of the crown was largely increased, the exchequer enriched, 
 the laws relating to taxes, customs, and duties were reformed, 
 agriculture, mining, trade, and industry, not to speak of education 
 and learning, were all fostered by the same fatherly hand, the 
 same penetrating wisdom. And never had the people of Sweden 
 before witnessed so great a work and so full of blessing done by 
 any of its rulers as that left by this noblest of kings, when, after a 
 
Sweden, 209 
 
 reign of forty-one glorious years, he left the throne to his unworthy 
 son Erik XIV., who, as a madman, lost it eight years afterwards, 
 and his life by poison in prison 1577. But the great qualities of 
 the founder of this dynasty revived again in Charles IX. (1604- 
 161 1), and especially in the most illustrious of his successors, 
 Gustavus Adolphus II., who was as great a genius in the organisa- 
 tion of the internal administration and in his legislative activity as 
 he was on the field of battle. 
 
 His military successes are matters with which the whole world 
 is familiar. His premature death on the field of Liitzen cut short 
 the many plans he had formed for the future, among which not 
 the least eventful would have been that of creating a Protestant 
 Scando-Baltic Empire under the regency of Sweden, as a counter- 
 poise to the Catholic House of Hapsburg, a plan which it was 
 reserved for the Great Brandenburgers of North Germany to take 
 up a century later, in the person of Frederick the Great, to prac- 
 tically accomplish, after the lapse of another century, on the field 
 of Sadowa in 1866, and to give the final touch to by the collapse 
 of the other great Catholic power on that of Sedan in 1870. 
 
 In one respect the glorious reign of Gustavus Adolphus 
 redounded to the misfortune of Sweden. The commanding 
 character and personality of the King had prevailed with the 
 aristocracy to lend him a self-sacrificing assistance in order to 
 carry on his war in Germany. Thereby the aristocracy won, 
 both at home as purchasers of state domains, and in the battle- 
 field as plundering victors, an enormous ascendency, which still 
 increased under the successors of Gustavus, Christina, and her 
 cousin Charles X., and came to a disastrous culmination during 
 the minority of the latter's son, Charles XI. For when, 
 soon after his accession, 1672, he was engaged in war with 
 Denmark and Brandenburg, the evils of the previous administra- 
 tion were soon brought to light, and Sweden suffered one serious 
 reverse after another. Having secured for himself almost absolute 
 power by the consent of Parliament in 1680, and more 
 especially in 1682, the gifted and energetic ruler made it his first 
 business to deprive the aristocracy, which, by its selfishness, had 
 all but ruined the country, of an immense amount of its property 
 and of its more dangerous privileges. He left the state in every 
 way in a thoroughly organised condition, 1697, to his son Charles 
 XII., then fifteen years of age, after having four years previously, 
 1693, received from his Parliament such absolute power as to be 
 free to act independently of Parliament altogether, 
 
 o 
 
210 National Life and Thought. 
 
 At this moment the King of Sweden ruled, besides Sweden 
 itself, over Finland, Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, Ingermanland ; 
 further, Pomerania, Riigen, Bremen, Verden, and Wismar. The 
 enormous sacrifices to which the wars of this extraordinary man 
 put his country are probably unsurpassed in the military history 
 of civilised states. In nine years the country, with a population 
 of some 1,800,000 inhabitants, supplied its extremely obstinate 
 young hero with no less than 400,000 soldiers ; and even after 
 the disaster of Pattava, managed to put in the field a fresh con- 
 tingent of 70,000 men well organised and well equipped. That 
 
 to say, it placed in the field one-fourth of the whole population. 
 But he left it also exhausted and powerless ; and worse than that, 
 he had transferred from it the character of a great European 
 power over to Russia, which, three years after the death of 
 Charles, invaded Sweden, and in less than three months laid in 
 ashes 5 towns, 1361 villages, 141 country seats, besides a large 
 number of iron works and mines, and deprived Sweden, by the 
 treaty of Nystad, 172 1, of all her Baltic possessions which had 
 not already, the year before, passed into German hands. The 
 consequences of the Charles's wars with regard to the internal 
 condition of Sweden, were equally disastrous. The exhausted 
 land, plunged in the depths of the extremest misery, had practi- 
 cally fallen under the sway of the few nobles who had amassed 
 fortunes out of its ruin. They soon made such a compact com- 
 bination against the Crown, that they not only abolished the 
 absolutism which Parliament had conferred on Charles XL, but, 
 confident of their invincible power, brought hnmiliation on humil- 
 iation on the sovereign, especially during the reign of the con- 
 scientious, peace-loving, honest, but passive King Adolph 
 Frederick, 1743-17 71. Immediately almost after the death of 
 Charles XII., however, the nobles , began to contend among 
 themselves for the lion's share of the spoils which the helpless 
 state of the country held out to them. And eight years after his 
 death (1726) their split was complete, and remained so for forty- 
 six years. The two contending parties were called " Hats " and 
 " Caps." The Hats were the military party, bent on the recovery 
 of the military renown of Sweden and her prestige abroad. The 
 Caps were in favour of developing generally the internal resources 
 of the country. But what both had in common was an insatiable 
 craving for all power in the state,, and at length so thoroughly 
 sheared the Crown of her prerogatives, that the sovereign had no 
 longer even the freedom to dispose of any state patronage.. ..So. 
 
Sweden. 2 1 1 
 
 ■unscrupulous were these factions, and so unpatriotic, that to oust 
 each other out of favour at court, they took foreign bribes by 
 turns, and naturally neglected entirely what was most necessary, 
 namely, the internal organisation and the real welfare of the state. 
 To this kind of anarchy Gustavus III. put an end by a coup 
 d'etat in 1772, when, by the aid of his soldiers, he put the 
 Council of State in prison, and forced the Rigsdag, surrounded 
 by the military, to frame a constitution by which the executive 
 power, the command of the army and navy, the state patronage, 
 the creation of Peers, the right to enter and abandon alliances, 
 to make treaties and defensive wars, was again vested in the 
 Crown. But the brilliantly gifted monarch, the great patron of 
 learning, and founder of the famous Academy of Sweden, was 
 also a light-hearted, wasteful, and unscrupulous prince ; his war 
 with Russia, 1788-90, brought Sweden only loss and no advan- 
 tage. His hostile attitude towards the French republic and sub- 
 mission to Russian influence cost him his life, 1792. Under his 
 successors, the half-lunatic Gustavus IV., Adolph, who was de- 
 posed by a military conspiracy, and Charles XIII., the misfortunes 
 •of Sweden came to a final end by the loss of Finland in 1809, a 
 Joss which the Swedish nation, in spite of sore regret, has wisely 
 made up its mind never more to repair. It was recompensed to 
 some extent by the acquisition of Norway under the treaty of 
 Keil in 18 14, an arrangement which, in spite of a good deal of 
 .friction, has proved on the whole beneficial. Since then Sweden 
 has enjoyed a profound peace and made a magnificent use of 
 her opportunity. Not the least important of the innumerable 
 items of progress which during this period have ennobled and 
 .adorned the national life of the Swedish people, are the consti- 
 tutional laws of the country, namely, the Constitution proper of 
 June 9, 1809; the Parliamentary regulation of February 10, 
 1810, radically reformed in 1865, and sanctioned June 22, 1866 ; 
 the Law of Succession, September 26, 1810 ; and the Free Press 
 Regulation, July 16, 18 12. 
 
 By these laws Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, hereditary 
 in the male line only. The administrative power is vested in the 
 King alone, while the legislative he shares with the representatives 
 •of the nation forming the Parliament or Rigsdag. He can pro- 
 pose measures, and has an absolute veto. He is irresponsible 
 .and his person sacred, all responsibility resting on his ministers 
 who form the council of state. He is commander-in-chief by sea 
 .and land. He has a right to enter alliances and to make treaties 
 
212 National Life and Thought. 
 
 with foreign powers. He can, having consulted the council of 
 state, resolve on war and peace as he judges most profitable to 
 the state, in which matter the councillors of state are responsible 
 to the nation for their advice. The prerogative of supreme judge 
 is transferred from him to a supreme court of judicature composed 
 of twelve to eighteen judges. 
 
 The Rigsdag is no longer, as in former times, composed of the 
 four estates — the aristocracy, the clergy, the burgesses, and the 
 farmers, but by elected deputies. It is divided into two cham- 
 bers, called first and second chamber, both having equal authority 
 in all legislative matters. Qualified for the first chamber is a 
 person who has attained his thirty-fifth year, and has at least for 
 three years previous to his election been in possession of assess- 
 able real property to the value of 80,000 crowns (^4444), or on 
 capital or labour has paid taxes to the state amounting at least 
 to kr.4000 (^233). The members to the first chamber are- 
 elected for nine years by the so-called "landsting," or provincial 
 assemblies ; but in towns which are not represented in these 
 assemblies, they are elected by special deputies. The population 
 of each electorate for the upper chamber is fixed at 30,000. 
 
 Qualified for the second chamber is every member of a com- 
 mune having filled his twenty-fifth year, who has a domicile within 
 it, and a vote in its general affairs, provided he has, either in town 
 or country, assessable real property of at least the value of kr.iooo 
 (^50), or farms for life, or at least for five years an agricultural 
 estate of at least kr.6ooo assessable value, or pays voluntary 
 tax on a yearly income of at least kr.8oo. These deputies are 
 returned for three years, and are elected in rural districts by 
 electors, each of whom represents 1000 of the population of the 
 community, one for every jurisdiction, in the towns for every full 
 10,000 of the inhabitants. When the population of a jurisdiction 
 that returns one member numbers more than 40,000 inhabi- 
 tants, it is divided into two electorates, and returns two members* 
 Towns, whose populations do not amount to 10,000 inhabitants, 
 are grouped into electoral combinations, each of which shall 
 number not less than six, nor more than twelve thousand people,, 
 returning one member. Members for the second chamber must 
 have filled their twenty-fifth year, and have had the right of 
 communal vote for one year at least, before their election to the 
 Rigsdag. These deputies, in contrast to those of the upper 
 chamber, are paid members of the diet, receiving kr.1200 for 
 every session, and having their travelling expenses paid beside. 
 
Sweden. 213 
 
 The diet, which meets ordinarily on the 15th of January, can- 
 not, except at its own request, be dissolved till it has sat for four 
 months, unless, during the session, the King dissolves for re-elec- 
 tion one or both chambers. 
 
 The King nominates the speaker and deputy-speaker of both 
 houses. The standing committees of every ordinary Rigsdag 
 are : The constitution committee (20), the state committee (20), 
 the tax committee (20), each consisting of twenty members ; 
 further, the bank committee and the law committee, each con- 
 sisting of sixteen members. On all these committees both houses 
 are equally represented. The ministers can, ex officio, without being 
 members, attend and take part in the debates of both houses, but 
 •.have no vote unless they happen to be members of the standing 
 committees. Whatever measure both chambers pass by a 
 majority becomes a resolution of the Rigsdag. Any measure 
 failing to obtain a majority of votes in either chamber is thereby 
 defeated, except such as relate to the budget, for which special 
 regulations are provided. These are some of the most important 
 provisions of the present Swedish constitution, which, unlike the 
 paper constitutions of the continent, is, in common with that of 
 England, one of traditional growth, an organic systematisation of 
 the public life of the people, through which, at last, by heroic 
 endurance and patient trust in their indomitable free heart, the 
 no less gifted than noble-minded tillers of the soil of Sweden have 
 won the day, practically for ever — a very proper reward to those 
 who, through all the thunder-and- lightning period of Sweden's 
 existence in Europe as a great power, had to maintain the show 
 by the only thing which only too frequently was left them, their 
 best and dearest blood. 
 
 If an illustration were wanted to bring home the truism that 
 peace is the greatest blessing that any nation can enjoy, let the 
 history of the progress of Sweden in the nineteenth century be 
 attentively studied. The population has already doubled itself. 
 In 1800 it was 2,347,000; in 1885 it had risen to 4,682,000. Of 
 this population just about one-half is engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits. The value of the proceeds of this industry, varying, of 
 course, with varying seasons and harvests, amounts to between 
 twenty and thirty millions sterling. From 1840 to 1880 the 
 exports of cereals exceeded the imports to a considerable extent. 
 But under the present protective system this has ceased to be the 
 case. This protection, I should mention, only extends to cereals, 
 ■and is the result of the shortsighted policy of the Swedish agri- 
 
214 
 
 National Life and TJwugJit. 
 
 culturists, who command at present a preponderating influence in? 
 Parliament. In other respects Sweden continues to be a free- 
 trade state, a commercial policy which it adopted in 1854, and 
 which since then has produced results which are likely to link the 
 nation to that policy for ever. Thus the value of the manufac- 
 tures of Sweden amounted in 1850 to two million pounds, but in 
 1883 to more than ten and a half million. In 1850 the aggre- 
 gate value of exports and imports was calculated at ^£4,000,000 ;. 
 in 1884 it exceeded ^31,000,000. In 1850 the aggregate ton- 
 nage of ships inward and outward bound amounted to 858,827 
 tons, but in 1884 to 5,388,000. Such to Sweden have been the 
 results of free trade. 
 
 The mining industry of Sweden is in a state of constant and 
 rapid progress. For a long time, and, in fact, till only very lately, 
 its iron, on account of its good natural quality, has commanded 
 the price of the European market, where even still it ranks high.. 
 There are being worked at present more than 500 iron mines. 
 In 1884 the aggregate produce amounted to over 900,000 tons,, 
 while cast-iron stood at 416,958 tons, bar-iron at 267,534, and 
 sheet at 66,329 tons. The copper mines at that time produced 
 650 tons, those of silver 4000 lbs. troy weight. Pit coal has- 
 as yet been found only in one province, Malmohu, but in such 
 small quantity that the output of the mines only amounts to one- 
 eighth of the coal imported from abroad. 
 
 Railways have been in existence in Sweden for thirty-three 
 years. In 1856 the first railway of twenty-one miles long, 
 between Orebro and Nora was opened. In 1884 the total length 
 of rail was 4194 miles, of which less than half belonged to the 
 state, the rest to seventy-six private companies. At the same 
 time the telegraphic lines extended to nearly 13,000 miles. 
 
 With regard to the education of the nation, it is scarcely a 
 moot point that the Swedes are the best educated nation in 
 Europe. Primary education is not only compulsory but free, and 
 has been so for a long time, for every Swedish child. The in- 
 struction is conducted on a methodical system under government 
 regulation. For the supply of primary education there were 
 maintained, at the exclusive expense of the state, in 1884, no less 
 than 9925 national schools, with 12,048 teachers male and female. 
 In the larger parishes — some of which reach the size of many a 
 German principality, and one, Gellivare in Lapland, is larger 
 than the kingdom of Wurtemberg — the schools are organised on 
 the ambulatory system, the teacher taking up his abode and set- 
 
Sweden. 215 
 
 ting up his school at one farm after the other, according to the 
 convenience of attendance for the children. For higher educa- 
 tion there are provided 96 public schools, attended by 14,617 
 pupils ; and two universities — one at Upsala, 1375, the other at 
 Lund, in Schonen, erected 1668, for the wise purpose of welding 
 to the Crown all the more firmly the newly-acquired southern 
 provinces. The number of students at Upsala amounts to over 
 1900, with a teaching staff of 58 professors and 61 docents. At 
 Lund the attendance of students exceeds 800, and the teaching 
 staff counts 86 persons. At both universities, which are largely 
 endowed by the state, the teaching is conducted on the most 
 advanced lines of scientific method. In fact, the Scandinavian 
 universities altogether occupy a position in the very front rank 
 among the universities of the world. 
 
 Among the languages or dialects of Scandinavia the Swedish is. 
 by a long way the most euphonious and pure-sounding, with a 
 modulating intonation which gives it a peculiarly noble grace- 
 It is from no chauvinism, therefore, that the Swedes are proud of 
 their idiom and name it the metallic tongue. And even when 
 one of their greatest poets calls it the language of honour and 
 heroism, the poetical hyperbole does not far overshoot the mark. 
 For if there is any lesson that the history of Sweden teaches us 
 more than another, it is this, that the salient characteristics of 
 the race are honour and heroism. 
 
XII. 
 
 DENMARK AND ICELAND. 
 
 EIRIKR MAGNUSSON, M.A. 
 
 I SHALL, perhaps, best enable my audience to follow my 
 remarks by at once giving a brief summary of the main 
 points of my discourse. 
 
 Rapidly surveying the history of Denmark, I propose to show 
 how, by the inexorable law of readjustment which is inherent in 
 every false position, and not by faults of statesmanship only, 
 Denmark from a great power has come down to her present 
 position. I shall show how, instead of resulting in ruin, the 
 catastrophe of 1864 has proved a blessing to the long-tried and 
 long-wronged nation ; how it was due to the troubles in the 
 Duchies of Schleswick-Holstein, at least in part, that the absolute 
 monarchy passed into a constitutional one in 1848 ; and, finally, 
 how this constitution works, and how the constitutional principle 
 has been applied with regard to Iceland. 
 
 It is true that Denmark is a small kingdom, its territorial 
 extent amounting to but 15,000 square miles, or one-half of 
 Scotland, and naturally contributes but little to the political 
 forces now at play on the other side of the North Sea ; but it 
 is inhabited by a gifted and a brave race, and its history is full 
 of interest to those who, animated by broad human sympathy, 
 love to take a wide view of the changeful destinies of mankind. 
 
 In the very dawn of Scandinavian history, the Dane rises out 
 of the sea, as it were, with an art entirely unknown in Northern 
 Europe — the art of naval warfare. After the sack of Lindisfarne 
 in 793, Alcuin, the most accomplished scholar of the age, wrote, 
 ""Who ever heard of such a thing as war made by sea?" So 
 •entirely at that time was the peace of the sea trusted in, that, 
 both in Western Europe and in Great Britain, some of the 
 wealthiest religious establishments were erected close to the shore, 
 ■or out on the islands around it, in order to be as far removed as 
 .possible from the turmoil of robbing barons and plundering kings. 
 
2i8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 From the beginning of the ninth century the sea became, as one- 
 of their poets has expressed it, the Danes' path to power and 
 glory. Every creek and bay and river bore their keels into the 
 midst of some populous centre in the west of the old world. 
 The Frank, the Gaul, the Spaniard, the Italian, the Moor — not 
 to speak of the Anglo-Saxon in England, and the Celt in Ireland 
 and Scotland — had to yield their blood and treasure to this ruth- 
 less ruler of the sea, in ruinous plenty, for three hundred years. 
 The memory of this reign of terror still lives vivid in every Danish 
 breast, and has, unfortunately, always tended to infuse more or 
 less inconsiderate brusqueness into their dealings with nationali- 
 ties subject to their sway. This, however, is no peculiarity of 
 the Danes ; it is the common malady of conquerors. 
 
 The conquest of England and the reign of Canute the Great, 
 who even added Norway to his empire, brought Denmark to such 
 an height of power in Europe as it has never enjoyed since to the 
 same extent. That reign may be regarded as the culmination of 
 the Viking conquests, as the century following Canute's death 
 may, in a measure, be considered the period of reaction after the 
 long-sustained strain. During this century internal disorders, and 
 consequent weakness of the crown, rendered the country an easy 
 prey for the Slavonic populations, who were its nearest neighbours 
 on the south of the Baltic. Internal order was first re-established 
 under the able rule of Waldemar the Great (1157-82), who reta- 
 liated handsomely on the Vends, seized the island of Rugen, and 
 converted it, after the fashion of the time, to Christianity. The 
 conquests of this monarch were extended by his son Canute VI. 
 (1182-1202), not only to the Vends on the Continent, but also 
 to the territories now called Mecklenburg and Pomerania; and 
 his brother and successor, Valdemar the Victorious (1202-41), 
 extended the sway of Denmark along the whole southern border 
 of the Baltic, winding his victorious progress up with the con- 
 quest of Esthonia in 12 19. Once more Denmark was a great 
 power in Europe. But the fatal German axe was soon aloft 
 again, and Denmark's ascendency came to a total collapse in 
 1227, when, defeated in an expedition against a confederacy of 
 North German magnates, Waldemar became a prisoner of the 
 Count of Schwerin, and had to renounce all his Vendish and 
 German conquests. Another century of disasters now opened, 
 during which the selfish disloyalty of the aristocracy and the 
 Church, together with German aggression, so completely beggared 
 the crown that King Christopher II. (1319-33), in order to main- 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 2ig- 
 
 tain himself at all against his many foes, had to mortgage nearly 
 the whole of his kingdom, and after a disastrous fight with the 
 Holsatian Count Gert, practically lost it to the Germans. During 
 the anarchical period of eight years that followed his death in 
 1333, even the old Danish provinces of Sconen, Holland, and 
 Bleking in Southern Sweden passed under the crown of that 
 country. 
 
 But for the murder of Count Gert by the Danish nobleman,. 
 Niels Ebbeson, 1340, Denmark would now have become a 
 German state. So dark did the Danes regard this long period, 
 that when once more there arose a sovereign of ability, in the 
 person of Waldemar, the son of Christopher, who brought 
 coherence to the state and security to the people, the nation 
 conferred on him the suggestive title of " Day again." He recon- 
 quered the Swedish provinces, occupied the island of Gothland,, 
 and sacked the wealthy Hanseatic emporium of Wisby. A great 
 drawback to his otherwise successful reign was the disastrous war 
 which, for nine years towards its close, he waged with the 
 Hanseatic towns, whose commercial power in the Baltic had been 
 rapidly increasing ever since the close of the thirteenth century. 
 Waldemar left his realm, however, in a fairly organised condition 
 to his grandson Olaf, then only five years old. He was the son 
 of King Hakon VI. of Norway and Waldemar's exceedingly able 
 daughter, Margaret, the Semiramis of the North. Regent in 
 Denmark for her young son from the death of her father in 1375, 
 likewise in Norway on the death of her husband in 1380, Queen 
 of both kingdoms on the death of her son in 1387, elected 
 sovereign of Sweden in 1389 in recognition of the assistance she 
 had afforded the Swedes in expelling the hated and despised King 
 Albrecht of Mecklenburg, this mighty woman, by dint of personal 
 ability and the fortune of circumstances, was the first person 
 recorded by history as sole sovereign over the whole Scandinavian 
 race. Her great idea was that this union should not only be one 
 de facto, but should be secured by substantial guarantees, tending 
 eventually to organic unity, an idea which, if her successors had 
 possessed but a particle of her political sagacity, would probably 
 have changed the history of Scandinavia, especially that of 
 Denmark. She bestowed Schleswig on the Counts of Holstein as 
 an hereditary feud 1386, thereby securing peace in that fatally 
 dangerous corner. And in 1397 she brought about in Kalmar 
 the Act of Union, the main stipulations of which provided that 
 henceforward the three kingdoms should have one king; that he 
 
220 National Life and Thought. 
 
 should be chosen by representatives from all three kingdoms ; 
 that they should mutually assist each other against foreign foes ; 
 that each kingdom should be governed by its own laws. This 
 Union, though wisely conceived, never worked properly. Sove- 
 reigns and people were alike immature for a political experiment 
 •of so delicate a nature. National jealousies, aristocratic insolence, 
 hierarchical contumacy, and royal caprice were the chief internal 
 foes. The deathblow was given to it at last by that implacable 
 enemy of the aristocracy and hierarchy, King Christian II., 
 who, but for his ruthless cruelty, was one of the most able and 
 truly patriotic kings that ever occupied the throne of Denmark. 
 In the hope of rendering the Swedes more submissive to his 
 relentless rule, he caused to be massacred, in Stockholm, on the 
 8th of November 1520, two bishops and thirteen councillors of 
 State, besides some six hundred citizens, and by this act broke off 
 for ever the union of the two countries, after having lasted 
 nominally on paper for 126 years. 
 
 By the accession of the Oldenburg dynasty to the throne in the 
 person of Christian the First (1448) there arose on Denmark's 
 political horizon the ill-omened star which went down in the 
 blood of Dubbel, 1864. With this German family German 
 influence in Denmark took up its headquarters at court, and for 
 more than three centuries pervaded the national life, the language, 
 the laws, the literature of Denmark. There were able men among 
 these Oldenburgers ; but unfortunately for a small country with a 
 population within a million, trodden down by baron and prelate 
 alike, and with an exchequer in constant straits, they were, most 
 of them, far too recklessly warlike, and still more unfortunately so 
 seldom had really solid victories to boast of. The worst legacy 
 left them from previous reigns was the so-called "Haandfaestning" 
 or capitulation, which at every successive election from that of 
 Christopher II. in 1320, the barons and the prelates extorted from 
 their unwilling sovereigns down to the middle of the seventh century. 
 Every successive capitulation was more and more exacting, more 
 and more destructive to the power of the crown. Out of this 
 suicidal abuse grew eventually its very anti-climax, the absolute 
 monarchy in 1660, when the aristocracy insolently refused all 
 monetary assistance to the defence of the country, which the war 
 of Frederick III. with Charles X. of Sweden had brought to the 
 very verge of ruin. The Reformation had already broken the 
 power of the unpatriotic hierarchy by sweeping out the bishops. 
 Frederick III. therefore allied himself with the united estates of 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 221 
 
 the Burgesses and the Protestant Clergy, who were burning with 
 indignation at the ruinous selfishness of the barons, and succeeded 
 not only in putting for ever an end to the disastrous capitulations, 
 but also in securing an undisputed succession to his heirs, male 
 and female, on the understanding that he should give the kingdom 
 a constitution. Instead of that, however, he betrayed his allies ; 
 and in the so-called Kongeloo or King's law of 1665 established 
 absolute government in his realm, an act which remained in force 
 till 1848. Much as this King thus had achieved for the stability 
 of the crown, he lost, on the other hand, a great deal through his 
 war with Charles X. of Sweden, which cost Denmark for ever her 
 ancient possessions on the Swedish continent, the provinces of 
 Sconen, Holland, and Bleking. 
 
 A great credit is due to the Oldenburgers for having raised 
 Denmark from an insignificant to an important naval power. 
 Frederick II. (1559-88) was the real founder of the Danish navy,, 
 and already in his reign it did good service in breaking down the 
 commercial tyranny of the Hanseatic league. His successors one 
 after the other bestowed on the navy all the attention the 
 exhausted exchequer permitted. And it is with her naval arm 
 that Denmark has achieved her most brilliant triumphs. Niels- 
 Juel and Thordenskjold are naval heroes of world-wide fame. 
 And the wonderful engagement off Heligoland in 1864, where 
 three small Danish men-of-war engaged the combined squadrons 
 of Austria and Prussia, which to save itself from utter disaster had 
 to retire at last within the line of England's maritime jurisdiction, 
 showed that Danish tars were still the true chips of the old 
 Viking block. 
 
 Not the least of Denmark's many misfortunes was the loss of 
 her fleet to England in 1807, and the ruinous war in which she 
 became then involved for nearly three years. The worst of that 
 disaster was, that it was the result of shortsighted statemanship, 
 of an utter want of insight in the European situation, and of true 
 appreciation of the character of her friends. This event was 
 really the climax of a policy which Denmark had followed for a. 
 long time. The Danes have always, by natural instinct somehow, 
 had strong leaning towards France. And, strange to say, the 
 stronger the less France has done for them and the more they 
 have suffered for their Gaulish affection. If Denmark had entered 
 in 1807 the alliance proposed by England, how different would 
 her position be to-day ! 
 
 But there is another political friendship for which Denmark has 
 
222 National Life and Thought. 
 
 suffered even more, and may perhaps suffer irreparably in the end. 
 From the beginning of the eighteenth century (Frederick IV. 
 1 699-1 7 30) Denmark had begun to cultivate closer relations with 
 Russia through her naval ascendency in the Baltic. From that 
 time the Muscovite has kept a close watch on Denmark. His 
 influence in that country has been what it is everywhere where 
 he comes in contact with superior civilisation, reactionary and 
 repressive of freedom ; his policy treacherous. By way of illus- 
 tration, let me mention, that after the death of the greatest 
 statesman Denmark ever had, Bernstorf the Younger, in 1797, 
 who had given full freedom to the press and introduced such 
 reforms in the administration of the State as to bring it to a 
 really nourishing condition, it was Russia's first care to interfere 
 in the internal affairs of Denmark, to the extent of procuring 
 the abrogation of the press law and to introduce the censure. 
 Further, let me remark that when Denmark, on two occasions, 
 had assisted Russia against Sweden, in 1788 and 1809, and 
 Alexander I. had given Denmark a distinct pledge that, in con- 
 sideration of her alliance on the latter occasion, he would make 
 good to her the loss of her fleet, he not only did nothing of the 
 kind; but in 1812, three years after the conclusion of the Finnish 
 war, entered on negotiations with Bernadotte, the successor elect 
 to the crown of Sweden, which had for object the alienation of 
 Norway from Denmark, on condition that Sweden should act 
 the part of an ally to Russia in case of need. In her greatest 
 need, in fact, his Muscovitic majesty had made a miserable dupe 
 of Denmark. You may gauge the ruin of the country with but 
 1,000,000 inhabitants being burdened with a national debt of 
 ■over ^22,000,000, besides a debt of over ^16,000,000 sterling of 
 unguaranteed note issue, with its fleet gone, with Norway torn 
 away from it in 18 14 by Sweden, and Heligoland by England. 
 The notepaper debt was cleared off by the drastically, simple 
 process of State bankruptcy, which merely transferred the ruin 
 from the treasury to the holders of the paper, a shift which had 
 the most deplorable effect possible on the country's agriculture 
 and commerce. This was the outcome of Denmark's infatuated 
 policy in leaving her destinies in the hands of Russia and France. 
 Still, the unfortunate kingdom was not out of her troubles yet. 
 Its weakness meant a proportionate gain in strength to her arch- 
 enemy Holstein. Throughout the whole history of Denmark from 
 its first dawn all her troubles either rose directly from Holstein 
 -(Schleswick-Holstein), or were aggravated by the action of those 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 223 
 
 principalities. And now that she had paid the penalty of her warlike 
 follies and fond confidence in fickle friends, she still had to count 
 with her Dano-German Duchies. In the struggle which was now 
 soon to commence, Denmark no doubt did not always act with 
 unimpeachable wisdom and sagacity. She resorted at times to 
 high-handed, at others to underhand dealings. But she had dire 
 provocations to meet. It is perfectly unjust to lay at the door of 
 Denmark the eventual loss of these duchies. It was bound to 
 •come about sooner or later, no matter how justly, how considerately 
 Denmark might have acted. Denmark was still in the false 
 position in which fate had put her. The duchies were border 
 lands where two nationalities met. On one side the German, with 
 the immense sentimental Fatherland behind, believing in German- 
 ismus as in God, in German civilisation as a sacred mission, as the 
 salvation of the intellectual soul of the world ; on the other the 
 Danish, downtrodden by its very rulers, with a civilisation which 
 after all was chiefly borrowed from Germany, with precious little but 
 a strongly Germanized language in the way of a Scandinavian back 
 bone about it. It was inevitable, under such circumstances, that the 
 Holsteiners, to whose dukes Schleswig had over and over again 
 belonged as a royal feof, should wish to draw the bonds closer 
 between the two duchies ; and, above all, that they would not 
 stand any attempt at eradicating the German language out of that 
 part of Schleswig where it had become the common speech of the 
 people and driven Danish out of the field. On the other hand, it 
 was not only natural ; it was the duty of Denmark to protect the 
 Scandinavian nationality in Schleswick as best she could. She could 
 not do it in any way without rousing the jealousy of the German 
 neighbours who wanted to have the whole of Schleswick all to 
 themselves. The more masterly Denmark had managed the 
 matter, the more surely she would have exasperated the Germans. 
 By the beginning" of this century about one-half of Schleswick was 
 occupied by a German-speaking population. When Frederick VI. 
 in 18 10 attempted to take measures for the purpose of arresting 
 the forward march of German in the duchy, it was soon evident 
 what the Germans meant, for the royal word remained a dead 
 letter, so compact an opposition did it meet with from the German 
 officials and the clergy. 
 
 It is impossible for me to attempt in the brief space of an hour 
 to unravel the tangled skein of the political conflict which 
 eventually was settled by the sword in 1864. Only the principal 
 events can be touched upon, and that but briefly. , 
 
224 National Life and Thought. 
 
 The wave of revolutionary emotion which the July revolution 
 raised in 1830 brought also about in Denmark a national upheaval 
 which led to the first step towards a constitutional monarchy, by 
 King Frederick VI. calling together into four separate consultative 
 assemblies the four estates of aristocracy, clergy, burgesses, and 
 farmers, 1834. At the same time, a common government was 
 given to Schleswick-Holstein with common court of supreme 
 judicature, which helped the Germanisation of Schleswick forward 
 in a large measure. Christian VIII. (1839-48) pursued an exceed- 
 ingly indulgent and conciliatory policy towards the duchies, 
 appointing his own brother-in-law the Duke Frederick of Augus- 
 tenburg as viceroy of the principalities. But this only left all the 
 free play to German aspirations in Schleswick. And when his son 
 Frederick VII. succeeded to the throne in 1848-63, the long 
 meditated revolt broke out, and forthwith received military support 
 from Germany. 
 
 In this ominous state of affairs, which was seriously aggravated 
 by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1848, the King, 
 whose motto was, " The people's love my strength," resolved to 
 give to the country the constitution which every one was clamour- 
 ing for ; and on the 5th of June 1849 tne absolute monarchy came 
 to an end, and Denmark entered upon constitutional paths. After 
 three years the revolt in the duchies was quelled ; but instead of 
 now seizing the opportunity of incorporating Schleswick for good 
 and all, as was strongly urged by the Whole-state party in Den- 
 mark, the King, yielding to German diplomacy, gave to the 
 duchies in 1852 a constitution which practically amounted to 
 Home Rule, leaving under imperial control foreign affairs, the 
 army, the navy, the post office, and the national debt. These 
 matters were to be dealt with by the Council of State, in which 
 the duchies should be represented in the same proportion to their 
 population as Denmark was to hers. Seeing, however, that the 
 population of the duchies only amount to two- fifths of that of 
 Denmark proper, and the duchies consequently were left in a 
 perpetual minority, this arrangement was readily seized upon as 
 ground for disaffection, the fire of which was assiduously fanned 
 by the Holsatian and the German press especially on the sore 
 point that the Danes, who had taken measures in 1850 for pro- 
 tecting their language in Schleswick, were in fact suppressing the 
 German. This, no doubt, was in a measure true. The Danish 
 population was loyal, the German disloyal, in the disguise of 
 enforced peace. The consequences must be obvious. 
 
Den mark and Iceland. 225 
 
 In 1858 the imperial constitution was abrogated in the case of 
 Holstein (and Lauenburg), and the draft of a new constitution 
 was submitted to the representative assembly of the duchy. 
 Instead of discussing this government bill, the assembly simply 
 set up, as a counter proposal, a new constitution for the whole 
 kingdom, demanding that the monarchy should consist of three 
 parts, each on an equal footing with the other — Denmark proper, 
 Schleswick, and Holstein-Lauenburg. The proposal was probably 
 never meant but as an affront, nor was it taken seriously by Den- 
 mark. Long-continued negotiations, in which England endea- 
 voured to act the part of a mediator, led to no result ; and at 
 last, tired of the ineffective strife, the King of Denmark, without 
 further negotiations, incorporated Schleswick in the Danish mon- 
 archy by a proclamation of 30th March 1863, excluding Holstein 
 and Lauenburg. This step introduced the last act of the drama. 
 The King was called upon by the Federal Diet of Frankfurt to 
 rrescind his proclamation. Germany was convulsed by patriotic 
 indignation, and the political outlook grew most threatening. 
 Denmark was inexorable ; an execution was threatened ; and as 
 Denmark did not yield, was carried out in Lauenburg and Hol- 
 stein. Thus matters stood when the last of the Oldenburgers, 
 King Frederick VTL, died on 15th November 1863. 
 
 King Christian IX. now ascended the throne, in conformity 
 with the provisions of the London Protocol of 1852, which not 
 ■ only settled the question of the Danish succession, but practically 
 bound the signatory powers to guarantee the integrity of the king- 
 dom. The German powers, so far from acknowledging any such 
 duty, disputed, on the contrary, the King's right to the crown — a 
 dispute which, however, never went beyond a mere utterance of 
 opinion. These were sad times indeed for Denmark and the royal 
 house. Holstein was once more in revolt, supported by an army 
 of execution from the German "Bund." Alone, and abandoned 
 by the guarantors of her integrity, Denmark had now to face the 
 overwhelming forces of Austria and Prussia combined, who soon 
 overran the whole of Jutland ; and, after the storming of the forts 
 of Dubbel, where the Danes fought with dauntless valour (April 
 18, 1864), and the surprise of the fortified position of Alsen, 
 there was no choice left to the exhausted land but to sue for 
 peace. By the Treaty of Wiesma (October 30), Denmark had 
 to sign away not only the German territories of Holstein and 
 Lauenburg, but also the old Scandinavian territory of Schleswick, 
 .with half its population purely Danish-speaking. The provision 
 
 p 
 
226 National Life and Thought. 
 
 of section 5 of the Treaty of Prague (1866), providing for the- 
 restoration of the purely Danish northern part of Schleswick, is- 
 now a dead letter since 1878, when Austria gave her consent to 
 its abrogation. 
 
 Thus the last and the bitterest cup of Denmark's misfortunes 
 was drained. But the false position into which she had been 
 placed as a borderland ruling over a population of an alien and a 
 mighty race was rectified, and the real cause of all her most serious 
 troubles was removed, an incurable state disease, in fact, had 
 been cured by amputation. Was the sacrifice worth the cure ? I 
 think there are overwhelming reasons for an affirmative answer to 
 that question. It is but natural that the Danes should find it 
 hard to persuade themselves that the greatest wrong inflicted upon 
 them by the ruthlessness of brute force could be anything but an 
 unmitigated evil. Even their Scandinavian brethren on the other 
 side of the sound, at least, take the loss of Schleswick so seriously, 
 that there can never, they maintain, until Schleswick or North 
 Schleswick at least, is restored to Denmark, be a question of an 
 alliance of Sweden-Norway with Germany. With these national 
 susceptibilities it is easy to sympathise; but I think any one who 
 has taken the trouble of attentively following the history of the 
 relation of Denmark to the duchies, any one who knows what the 
 Germanistic propaganda means, especially under the new conditions 
 of that empire, if he is a well-wisher of Denmark, and capable of 
 taking a dispassionate view of a political situation, must hope and 
 trust that Denmark may never again have anything to do with 
 Schleswick. At present the Danes set their heart the more fondly 
 on the recovery of the duchy because they are firmly convinced 
 that the Czar of Russia is going to set the matter right, and on 
 that very ground he enjoys greater popularity in Denmark than 
 even the King himself. Imagine the Czar of Russia compelling 
 the German Empire to give up Schleswick to Denmark. What 
 would that mean ? Why this, that on the first opportunity given 
 or taken, the Germans would pick a quarrel with Denmark, and 
 make her pay the penalty of her simplicity on their own terms. 
 Let Denmark fence about and ward the Scandinavian nationality 
 in what is left to her of Jutland with all means in her power, but 
 to return to the course of her old quarrels with Teutonic aggression 
 and Germanistic aspirations is as impolitic a thing as could well 
 be conceived. In this respect, too, we must not forget that the 
 cause of Denmark is the cause of Scandinavia. The strong feeling 
 that animates all Scandinavians is the feeling of solidarity of race- 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 227' 
 
 The fear of the danger of Denmark's absorption in the mighty 
 Teutonic Empire is no idle hallucination. That event, unless the 
 Scandinavians, the Danes especially, are carefully, wisely, coolly 
 on their guard, may at any time come within the reach of practical 
 politics. The surest way of avoiding it is to keep clear, as long as 
 possible, of political entanglement in Schleswick. My advice is, no 
 doubt, unpalatable to my Danish kinsmen, but it does not follow 
 therefore that it is not politically wholesome. 
 
 A glance at the material state of Denmark now, as compared 
 with what it has been even at the most favourable times in her 
 past history, so far as comparison is possible, soon convinces us 
 that the country has never been in such a state of sure and solid 
 progress, never so prosperous before. Naturally, for the people 
 and the government can now give their undivided attention to the 
 great material interests and natural resources of the land. The 
 finances of the kingdom are in an exceedingly sound condition, 
 and are managed with ability and thrift. Not only does the 
 annual budget cover current expenses, but leaves considerable 
 surplus for the redemption of the national debt which, though 
 heavy, 170 millions = 9^ stlg., seems to sit very lightly on the tax- 
 payer. The yearly income of the State amounts to about fifty- 
 six million crowns, the yearly expenditure to fifty-three millions. 
 
 Denmark being, in the main, an agricultural country, agriculture, 
 stockrearing, and farm produce may be said to be the main springs 
 from which the wealth of the country flows. Nearly one-half of 
 the population is engaged in these trades ; and the progress they 
 have made during the last quarter of a century, both as regards 
 improved methods and as to the gross turn-out of the products, 
 reflects the highest credit on the Danish agriculturist. With great 
 energy and determination fenlands, moors, lakes, and shallow 
 inlets of the sea have been reclaimed for agricultural purposes all 
 over the land. Three-fourths of the whole area of the land is 
 now under tillage, and of that area over thirty per cent, has been 
 properly drained, chiefly of late years. The yearly value of the 
 cereal produce (oats, barley, rye, wheat) is estimated at from 
 180 to 190 million crowns; and the whole ground produce, 
 including hay, root-crops, etc., is estimated at 300 millions. Of 
 the cereal produce, the surplus exported abroad amounts in value 
 to thirty-three millions (nearly ^£2, 000,000). 
 
 In proportion to the population Denmark rears a larger stock 
 of farm animals than any other country in Europe. In 1876 
 there were no less than 350,000 horses in the country, nearly 
 
228 National Life and Thought. 
 
 1,350,000 cattle, 1,719,000 sheep, and over 500,000 hogs. And 
 up to that year the three last-named classes of animals had been 
 steadily increasing in number for some time. Along with this 
 increasing prosperity goes a constantly improving husbandry and 
 improved methods in the preparation of dairy produce. Thus 
 Danish butter commands now the highest price in the English 
 market of all foreign butter, and in that market alone Denmark 
 disposes of this one article of a quantity amounting in value to 
 one-and-a-half million sterling. Altogether, the export trade in 
 live animals and dairy produce is estimated at about four million 
 sterling. 
 
 Recognising the necessity of Denmark becoming a self-support- 
 ing country in timber, instead of importing that article, as at 
 present, to the amount of three-fifths of a million sterling yearly, 
 a powerful association, the so-called Moor Society, has been in 
 existence for some time, which works energetically at extending 
 timber culture in the country, especially throughout the wild 
 moors of Jutland. This Society has done an immense service to 
 the country by scientifically exploring the soil of these barren 
 wildernesses, and practically solving the question how they may 
 be reclaimed both for cereal and forest culture. 
 
 The Government, being keenly alive to the importance of the 
 agricultural interest for the welfare of the country, show a praise- 
 worthy liberality in supporting at the expense of the State a 
 High School for scientific, veterinary, and agricultural instruction, 
 which has had a most beneficial influence on the education of the 
 Danish farmer. Great encouragement is also given by the Royal 
 Agricultural Society, which has large means at its disposal, and 
 dispenses them freely, both in travelling, pensions, and otherwise. 
 
 In the industrial and manufacturing lines Denmark has 
 not progressed at the same rate it has done in the 
 agricultural business, the reason being want of the requisite 
 capital. But everything tends to progress even in these pursuits 
 also. The distillation of spirits, the brewing of beer, of which the 
 country exports large quantities to India, China, Australia, and 
 South America, and the manufacture of sugar, are all vigorously 
 progressive industries. Still more so is shipbuilding and iron- 
 smelting. Denmark's china is noted for excellency of quality and 
 tastefulness of design, and the art-furniture of Copenhagen enjoys 
 a special reputation in foreign markets. In fact, in art industry 
 Denmark not only leaves the other Scandinavian countries far 
 behind, but competes more and more successfully with foreign 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 229 
 
 countries. Throughout the country great interest is taken in 
 developing the artistic talents of the people, one of the principal 
 things taught in Sunday schools being drawing. 
 
 The foreign commerce of the country has also developed of late 
 years very rapidly. The. total average value of exports and imports 
 is calculated at 400 million crowns (over ^2 2,000,000). The 
 mercantile fleet numbers about 3000 sailing vessels, and nearly 
 200 steamers, with a total displacement of over 250,000 tons. 
 The coasts are well lighted by seventy lighthouses, and the more 
 dangerous waters with eight lightships. 
 
 Railway and telegraphic communication is in a state of constant 
 improvement. From twenty miles of rail in 1847 the length has 
 now considerably exceeded 6000 English miles. Where practic- 
 able the islands have been joined by railway bridges ; and Jutland 
 has now, besides a main line running through the whole length of 
 the country, several other parallel bylines, besides cross-country 
 lines, uniting the more populous centres with the main artery of its 
 traffic. Some of the lines have been built by private enterprise, 
 but by far the greater part by State support. I believe they are 
 all paying lines, the lowest rate of dividend being about 2\ per 
 cent. The total capital invested in Danish railways amounts to 
 over ^£7, 000,000. With the extension of the railways has gone 
 that of the telegraphic communication, the improvement of which 
 is being steadily attended to with great zeal. At present the 
 length of telegraphic wire amounts altogether to between eight 
 and nine thousand miles. 
 
 But I must pass on from Denmark's material progress, of which 
 my sketch does not form anything like even a satisfactory outline ; 
 and, I am sorry to say, I must altogether pass by the literary and 
 scientific position of the country, on which, by predilection, I 
 should have liked to dwell, not only because I myself owe a good 
 deal to Denmark in that line, but because there is so much in the 
 whole educational system of Denmark that is well worthy of 
 notice, and because she is producing so fast men of overtowering 
 eminence in their respective and particular lines. 
 
 From these pleasant considerations we pass over to the one 
 great failure of the country — its present politics. 
 
 I mentioned before that Denmark became a constitutional 
 monarchy in 1849. 
 
 The principal provisions of the Constitution are these : Every 
 king of Denmark, before he can assume the government of the 
 monarchy, must deliver a written oath that he will observe the 
 
230 National Life and Thought. 
 
 constitution. He alone is invested with the executive power, but 
 the legislative he exercises conjointly with the Assembly (Rigsdag). 
 He can declare war and make peace, enter and renounce alliances. 
 But he cannot, without the consent of the Assembly, sign away 
 any of the possessions of the kingdom or encumber it with any 
 State obligations. Laws and royal resolutions are so far binding 
 that they be signed by the king and the Cabinet minister to whose 
 portfolio they belong. The king's person is sacred and inviolable ; 
 he is exempt from all responsibility. The ministers form the 
 'Council of State, of which the king is the president, and where, by 
 right, the heir-apparent has a seat. The king has an absolute veto. 
 
 The Rigsdag (Assembly) meets every year, and cannot be 
 prorogued till the session has lasted for two months at least. It 
 consists of two Chambers — the Upper Chamber, " Landsting," and 
 the Lower Chamber, " Folketing." The Upper Chamber consists of 
 sixty-six members, twelve of which are Crown-elects for life, seven 
 chosen by Copenhagen, and one by the so-called Lagting of Faro. 
 The forty-six remaining members are voted in by ten electoral 
 districts, each of which comprises from one to three Amts, or rural 
 governorships, with the towns situated within each of them in- 
 cluded. The elections are arranged on the proportional or 
 minority system. In Copenhagen and in the other towns one 
 moiety of electors is chosen out of those who possess the franchise 
 for the Lower House, the other moiety is selected from among 
 those who pay the highest municipal rates. In every rural 
 commune one elector is chosen by all the enfranchised members 
 of the community. And the election of the representative of the 
 Landsting is thereupon transacted by the electors of the rural 
 communes conjointly with the highest-rated members of the 
 electoral district, as many in number as there are communes 
 within the electoral Landsting's circle. The town electors bear the 
 proportion of one to four to the electors of the communes (chosen 
 and highest rated). 
 
 The Lower House is elected for three years, and consists of 
 102 members; consequently there are 102 electorates or electoral 
 districts. According to the Constitution, every electoral district 
 should number about 16,000 inhabitants. As no revision of the 
 electoral districts has been undertaken since the constitutional 
 charter was given in 1849, many and very considerable alterations 
 have now taken place in respect of the population of the primitive 
 electorates — some having now doubled, others even quadrupled, 
 their population, as compared with 1849. If therefore a revision 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 231 
 
 ■of the electorate were undertaken now, the Lower House would 
 be increased by between twenty and thirty members. The Lower 
 House is elected by manhood suffrage. Every man thirty years 
 ■old has a vote, provided there be no stain on his character, and 
 that he possesses the birthright of a citizen within his district, and 
 has been domiciled for a year within it before exercising his right 
 ■of voting, and does not stand in such a subordinate relation of 
 service to private persons as not to have a home of his own. If 
 he has received poor-rate support, he must have repaid it, or been 
 excused the repayment. 
 
 The two Chambers of the Rigsdag stand, as legislative bodies, 
 ■on an equal footing, both having the right to propose and to alter 
 laws. Should the two Houses disagree, a committee elected by 
 both, and consisting of an equal number of members from each, 
 has to endeavour to settle the matter in dispute. The ordinary, 
 as well as the extraordinary, budget must first be laid before the 
 Folkething ; and to that House exclusively belongs the right of 
 impeaching Ministers. No tax can be levied, raised, or lowered, 
 no State loan be negotiated, no domains be sold, without the 
 authorisation of the Rigsdag. No taxes can be collected till the 
 budget is voted. 
 
 At present this very Liberal Constitution is not working 
 smoothly. As was to be expected, two parties have gradually 
 come into existence — a Conservative and a Liberal, or, as they 
 are termed after French fashion, the Right and the Left. The 
 country is governed at present arbitrarily against an opposition 
 in overwhelming majority in the Lower House. The dispute 
 between the Left and the Ministry does not really turn so much 
 upon conflicting views with regard to great public interests, as 
 upon the question whether Denmark has, or has not, to have 
 parliamentary government. There are, however, vital questions 
 — fiscal, agrarian, and military — in dispute into which time will 
 not permit me to go. But the one great central question is 
 parliamentary government. The Right represents chiefly the 
 educated and the wealthy classes ; the Left the mass of the people, 
 and is looked down upon by the Right. The standing objection 
 on the part of the Right to admitting the Left to the government 
 of the country has been hitherto that that party had no men 
 capable of undertaking the government. This has always seemed 
 to me to be the very reason why the Right should give way to 
 constitutional exigencies, rather than to carry matters on to the 
 legislative deadlock which at present is the order of the day in 
 
232 National Life and 7 liought. 
 
 Denmark. Surely, for a Ministry in such a minority that the 
 Opposition ean stop all legislative work, it is the wisest thing 
 possible to do to let an incapable party come into power, and by 
 its own incapability destroy its credit with the nation. Surely 
 the tenure of office by such a party could only be brief, and come 
 Speedily to an ignominious end, with the result that the nation 
 would transfer its suffrages to the Right. But of such a solution- 
 there seems to be no prospect at present ; and now the Right 
 lives in high hope that the forthcoming elections in January may 
 turn the scale in some manner at least in their favour, because 
 the Left party for the time being is divided in itself. 
 
 The technical reason why the parliamentary principle has not 
 yet won the day, lies in the fact that by the charter both 
 chambers, as constitutional factors, are placed on an equal 
 fooling. 'This, the Government maintain, makes it lawful for 
 the King to govern the country irrespective of the state of parties 
 in the Lower House as long as his ministry has a majority in the 
 Upper Chamber. This state of things has led to very unfortunate 
 results, the worst of which is, that the charter of the Constitution 
 has been unscrupulously set aside, and for the last four years 
 the taxes of the country haw been collected under a provisory 
 budget, which in no case has been sanctioned afterwards by the 
 Assembly. De facto therefore, Denmark is at present governed 
 on the lines of ministerial absolutism, or, which comes to the 
 same thing, by absolutism pure and simple. 
 
 In view of the general European situation, I regard it as the 
 supreme duty of the present ministry of Denmark to lose no 
 time in setting their house in proper constitutional order. And 
 seeing that the only possible way of doing it is to resort to the 
 method of parliamentary government, for which really the whole 
 nation is clamouring, the sooner that method is adopted the 
 better it will be lor Denmark. Then, first, such a legislative 
 dead lock as that now existing would be an impossibility. There 
 is nothing so dangerous in the government of States as for the 
 two opposing parties to persevere in the course of mutual exas- 
 peration until passion becomes the primary, patriotism the 
 secondary consideration. Denmark has plenty of men among 
 the Opposition able enough and patriotic enough to take the 
 Government worthily in hand. The experiment should be tried 
 while peace still prevails ; the excitement of wars and rumours 
 of wars should not be waited for; for then the sufferer would be 
 not so much the copper-headed ministry as the Young Dynasty 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 233 
 
 I said in the beginning that I would tell you how the con- 
 stitutional principle has been applied to Iceland. I have only 
 time briefly to touch upon that matter. In 1800 the old Althing 
 . (All Men's Assembly, General Diet), which had existed from 930, 
 came to an end. Forty-five years later it was re-established by 
 King Christian VIII. in the character of a consultative assembly. 
 At that time the constitutional question in Denmark had been 
 under consideration for ten years, and had found its first practical 
 expression in the estates' assemblies of 1834, which I have 
 mentioned already. The Althing at once began to direct its 
 attention to the question — What Iceland's proper position should 
 be in the Danish monarchy when eventually its anticipated 
 constitution should be carried out. The country had always 
 been governed by its special laws ; it had a code of laws of its 
 own, and it had never been ruled, in administrative sense, as a 
 province of Denmark. Every successive king had, on his acces- 
 sion to the throne, issued a proclamation guaranteeing to Iceland 
 due observance of the country's laws and traditional privileges. 
 Hence it was found entirely impracticable to include Iceland 
 under the provisions of the charter for Denmark ; and a royal 
 rescript of September 23, 1848, announced that with regard to 
 Iceland no measures for settling the constitutional relation of 
 that part of the monarchy would be adopted until a constitutive 
 assembly in the country itself "had been heard" on the subject. 
 
 Unfortunately, the revolt of the duchies intervened between 
 this declaration and the date of the constitutive assembly which 
 was fixed for 185 1. The Government took fright, being unfortun- 
 ately quite in the dark about the real state of public opinion in 
 the distant dependency, 1200 miles away in the North Atlantic, 
 and imagined that there something was brewing similar to what 
 was going on in the duchies. This fear had for a long time a 
 very unfortunate effect upon the progress of the negotiations 
 between Iceland and Denmark. The Icelandic population was 
 then, as it is still to-day, so thoroughly loyal to the Royal House, 
 that State-dissolving aims, as the Government would persist in 
 defining its fidelity to its own national institutions, never had 
 entered their heads. The Icelanders only wanted to abide by 
 their laws, and to have the management of their own home affairs, 
 but the so-called National-Liberal Government wanted to incor- 
 porate the country as a province in the kingdom of Denmark 
 proper. This idea the Icelanders really never could understand 
 as seriously meant. How was an island 1200 miles away to be 
 
234 National Life and Thought. 
 
 really governed as an incorporated province, and for what purpose? 
 This the Government never explained, and all the more suspicious 
 grew the Icelanders, who soon saw that it must mean for themselves 
 the abrogation of all the traditional privileges of the country. 
 Thus their opposition to the idea became one which numbered 
 every soul in the country except a few crown officials of the 
 highest class who had not the courage of their own opinions. 
 The constitutive assembly was brusquely dissolved by the Royal 
 Commissary when he saw that it meant to insist on autonomy for 
 the Icelanders in their own home affairs. And from 185 1 to 1874 
 every successive Althing (but one) persisted in calling on the 
 Government to fulfil the royal promise of 1848. It was no doubt 
 due to the very loyal, quiet, and able manner in which the 
 Icelanders pursued their case, under the leadership of the trusted 
 patriot, Jon Sigurdsson, that in 1874 the Government at last 
 agreed to give Iceland the constitution it demanded. But instead 
 of frankly meeting the Icelandic demands in full, they were only 
 partially complied with, and from the first the charter met with 
 but scanty popularity. The main fault of it is found to be, that 
 the seat of the Government is left at Copenhagen, and, conse- 
 quently, the administrative action is so seriously lamed on account 
 of the scanty communication. For some time- the successive 
 Althings have been busying themselves with revising the charter 
 of the Constitution, but so far their labours have been futile, 
 because the so-called Upper House, composed of six crown nominees 
 and six national deputies, mostly manages to "put the constitution 
 to sleep," as the parliamentary phrase goes in Iceland. But there 
 is no ill-feeling towards Denmark on the part of the Icelanders on 
 this score. Nor has there really ever been any such feeling in 
 Iceland. The people always draw a distinct line between the 
 Danish Government and the Danish Nation, with which they 
 always feel sympathetically akin, whatever their feelings towards 
 the Government may be. Hence there is no such thing in 
 Iceland as a race antipathy against the Danes. But it is often 
 felt that on their part the feeling is not reciprocated, no doubt 
 because they regard themselves as the ruling race. 
 
 There is, however, just now a growing feeling in Iceland that 
 the Government of Denmark is bent upon making the constitution 
 as ineffective as possible. This feeling, unfortunately, has been 
 seriously roused within the last few years, in consequence of a 
 very unfortunate financial scheme having been launched by the 
 minister for Iceland upon the financially utterly ignorant com- 
 
Denmark and Iceland. 235 
 
 munity in 1885, by which a so-called "Land's Bunk" was set up 
 for the country, for the purpose of "facilitating monetary 
 intercourse in the land and of promoting its industries." For this 
 purpose the minister for Iceland, advised by the directors of the 
 National Bank of Copenhagen, issued in 1886 half a million of 
 inconvertible, unguaranteed treasury notes, ranging in nominal 
 value from five to fifty crowns. This paper was, by the Bank Law 
 of September 18, 1885, made legal tender in the country. 
 Lawfully it could only circulate in the county itself. But that 
 principle has been disregarded by the administration who have 
 allowed people to depose the paper in the Danish Post Office 
 at Reykjavik against orders on the Danish Treasury which, of 
 course, have been paid out in good Danish currency of the realm. 
 By this manipulation all the treasury paper that has passed into the 
 Post Office has naturally ceased to be legal tender, and has become 
 valueless, having been taken beyond the boundaries of its 
 circulation and negotiated in a foreign market, where it has no 
 value. To recoup itself, the treasury of Denmark has made the 
 Icelandic exchequer redeem its absolutely worthless notes in gold, 
 the consequence of which is that on every Post Office Order the 
 Icelandic treasury loses exactly 100 per cent. In this manner 
 the poor country has lost already in less than four years nearly a 
 millions crown (between ,£50,000 and ^60,000). The affair is 
 creating a great sensation in the country, and an exceedingly bitter 
 feeling against the Government, who, though they are well aware of 
 the iniquity of the transaction, silently persist in their mad career. 
 
XIII. 
 LESSONS FROM THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. 
 
 PROFESSOR J. E. THOROLD ROGERS. 
 
 AS men become civilised, and as they become acquainted 
 with the history of their own and of other countries, the 
 habit of association grows upon them ; that is to say, they are 
 anxious to see, or, if they cannot see, to read accurately of those 
 parts of the world in which great events have happened, and in 
 which gr/eat deliverances have been wrought. 
 
 I should not think much of a man who, knowing at all the 
 facts of the case, gazed without emotion on the Pass of Ther- 
 mopylae or the field of Marathon, where, at critical periods of 
 the world's history, the march of Asiastic despotism was arrested 
 by the valour of a small State, not so big as some of our English 
 counties. Everybody knows the feelings of interest — I might 
 even say of affection— with which persons representing every 
 variety of religious thought, and some of them unassociated with 
 any form of religious belief whatever, visit and look over those 
 sites in Palestine, which are hallowed to memory as the scene, 
 as I think, of the greatest deliverance that ever happened to the 
 human race, because, at any rate, whatever else we may admit 
 about Christianity, it declares unfalteringly and unansweringly the 
 doctrine of the natural equality of man. 
 
 And in the same way there is a small, storm-vexed part of 
 Europe, rescued with difficulty from the sea, and preserved from 
 the incursions of the ocean by zealous care and anxiety, in which 
 one of the greatest deliverances that modern Europe has ever 
 witnessed, or ever been interested in, was waged through a war 
 which lasted for close upon forty years. This is the country of 
 which I am going to say a little to you to-night — the country of 
 Holland; and if there are places in Greece which could be 
 named, if there are places in Palestine which could be recounted, 
 which fill one with sympathy and that kind of faint, but, at the 
 same time, real feeling of wonder and thankfulness, so I have 
 
238 National Life and Thought. 
 
 always looked upon the Binnenhof at the Hague as one of the 
 holiest spots in modern Europe, because there the great deliver- 
 ance was planned, and there it was successfully carried out. 
 
 Now, before the struggle in Holland, of which I shall have to 
 say a few words, there were attempts made with more or less- 
 success to shake off the yoke of the aristocracy of idlers and 
 murderers, and to put in their place a body of men united in 
 a common purpose indeed, but who also knew that the con- 
 ditions of human life were labour. The Swiss, as early as 1307, 
 at the battles of Sempach and Morgarten, gave a taste of their 
 quality to the chivalry of Austria ; and let me tell you that in 
 my conviction, who have studied, perhaps, more deeply than 
 any living Englishman the doings of the chevaliers, that they 
 were the most portentous of shams. The Swiss vindicated their 
 independence, and, with one short interval, have preserved that 
 independence from the days in which they met the armed knights 
 of the Duke of Austria to our own time. 
 
 There was a similar struggle carried on in England a little over 
 five centuries ago. It has been my advantage to be able to point 
 out to this audience — and you know that most English historians 
 are excellent compilers of other people's knowledge — to point out 
 to writers of history what was the real meaning of that struggle, 
 which' came apparently to a sudden and tragical conclusion, not 
 a mile from the place in which we are. I refer to the so-called 
 insurrection of Wat Tyler. The insurrection of Wat Tyler was a 
 determination on the part of the whole industrial population in 
 this country, from Scarborough in the north, to Southampton in 
 the south, and throughout the whole of the eastern counties 
 (where alone, at that time, textile industries were carried on), to 
 resist the encroachments of the feudal aristocracy. It is true that 
 the multitude who rose against the landowners were cajoled ; it is 
 true that the leader of the insurrection was murdered by an 
 eminent supporter of law and order, the Lord Mayor of the time. 
 But the efforts of the insurgents were successful. Never after- 
 wards did the great landowners in the country try to constrain 
 either the peasant or artisan to forced labour, till such time as 
 the fruits of the victory having passed away from memory, a 
 conspiracy between the king and his nobles led again to the 
 enslavement of the English working man. 
 
 And, just in the same Way, there was an uprising — and the 
 echoes of it are still in our ears — in Bohemia, when John Ziska 
 led the peasants against the columns of an arrogant, and appar- 
 
Lessons from the Dutch Republic. 239 
 
 ently overwhelming aristocracy, and for more than two cen- 
 turies his descendants — his representatives in political union — 
 held sway there. 
 
 Similarly in Flanders, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 the industrial population was so determined to resist the pre- 
 tensions of the Roman Church — with what was associated with it, 
 the authority of monarchs, and of aristocrats, as long as they 
 remained in allegiance to the Roman Church — that the particular 
 industry which characterised what is now called Belgium, that of 
 the weaver, was taken as synonymous with a heretic. But 
 although a weaver was always a heretic, our monarchs in England 
 were exceedingly anxious to naturalise the arts of the weaver 
 amongst us, so as to turn to account that produce for which 
 England was famous in the Middle Ages, the wool of the country, 
 and being occasionally disposed to be rather indifferent to the 
 pretensions of the Court of Rome, actually welcomed these 
 industrious heretics, if so be the English people might learn their 
 craft from them. 
 
 Now, in three of the countries that I have mentioned — Eng- 
 land in 1381 and onwards, Bohemia in 1410 and onwards, and 
 the Low Countries from the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 owed the whole of the inspiration which determined them to 
 resist what they conceived to be unwarranted opinion and un- 
 warrantable authority, from the teaching of a single Englishman. 
 Latterly, a society in England has been printing the works of 
 Wycliff. From inquiries I have made among the leading mem- 
 bers of this society, it appears to me that the gentlemen who 
 publish the works of Wycliff do not read what he wrote. If they 
 did, they would discover that John Wycliff was not only the most 
 remarkable Churchman of his age, but the most remarkable 
 statesman and the most singularly far-seeing economist. Wycliff 
 found the doctrine which was very prevalent, very orthodox, and, 
 I regret to say, very harmful, that kings and rulers were respon- 
 sible to God alone. Wycliff expanded this doctrine by saying 
 they were also responsible to men ; and the responsibility of 
 kings and rulers to men is, I need not tell you, the very centre 
 of modern constitutional government. It is the basis of all our 
 liberties. As long as men were supposed to be responsible to 
 God only, they did not mend their ways. As soon as they 
 became convinced that they were to be made responsible to man 
 also, they began to improve. 
 
 Now, the form in which Wycliff put his argument may seem 
 
240 National Life and Thought. 
 
 strange to us. He laid down the doctrine — and this was all that 
 was known about his opinions till his great work was recently 
 published — he laid down the doctrine that " dominion was 
 founded in grace." He used, that is to say, current theological 
 expressions to indicate his political and economical meaning. 
 
 Now I will tell you what his interpretation of this was. It 
 was alleged, he said, against his view, that kings and rulers are 
 responsible to God only; but, he said, under no conception 
 except that which is utterly heretical, can God be the author 
 of evil ; but the practices of these persons plainly show that 
 their deeds are evil, and, therefore, their authority cannot be 
 derived from so high a sanction. All allegiance, says Wycliff 
 in explanation of his doctrine, is due only to proved worthiness. 
 That doctrine he inculcated ; that doctrine he taught the emis- 
 saries of his religion. This doctrine was taken over the whole 
 of the civilised world — was put down in most places by the strong 
 hand of power, but was remembered as an important and real 
 fact among the obscure sectaries that followed his teaching, and 
 who are much more the authors of the English Reformation — 
 the weavers, I mean, in Norfolk and other parts of England — 
 than the miserable caitiffs who yielded to the caprices and whims 
 of Henry VIII. It never passed out of the minds of these 
 people, and in our day it has borne fruit ; for assuredly, as I said 
 but now, the doctrine that all human authority is responsible to 
 man — I do not deny that it is responsible to God also — has had a 
 marvellously sweetening influence upon the conduct of public men. 
 
 The system is not perfect yet. There are a good many people 
 who want the salt rubbed in still. But, at any rate, the doctrine 
 is admitted, however little the practice may accord with the doc- 
 trine in certain individuals. I am afraid that we have got into 
 a strange position with regard to one of these doctrines — the 
 doctrine of ministerial responsibility. It seems to me that in 
 these times nearly the whole responsibility which a wicked man 
 getting into office has to suffer is that of being turned out again. 
 If I had my way, and, I believe, if morality had its way, some- 
 thing else would be in store for him besides this exceedingly 
 moderate reprobation. 
 
 Now, we have recently had a question raised as to what con- 
 stitutes nationality ; and without any definition being given of that 
 term, we have had the minor premiss in the nationality of par- 
 ticular peoples abundantly criticised. We are told that one of 
 the nations comprising the United Kingdom is a nationality, and 
 
Lessons from the Dutch Republic. 241 
 
 that another is not a nationality, without much evidence being 
 accorded on which to substantiate the distinction that is drawn 
 between the two. Now, if you come to look at it in the light of 
 origin, the Swiss are the most mixed of nations. A considerable 
 portion of them is distinctly Italian, derived, probably, from the 
 most ancient tribes which settled on the borders of Italy. A 
 considerable portion of them is German, not a little of them is 
 French, — that is to say, has been brought in ancient times dis- 
 tinctly under " Latin influences ; " but, if you go from one 
 extreme of Switzerland to the other, and all through its breadth, 
 you will find that the whole of the cantons are united in the same 
 determination to maintain, as far as possible, their individuality 
 and their nationality. No more mixed race can be conceived 
 than the Scotch. The northern part of Scotland, from the Tay 
 upwards, with the exception of some intermediate settlements, is 
 distinctly of Celtic origin. The southern part of Scotland is more 
 Anglo-Saxon than England itself, and represents a purer Teu- 
 tonic dialect than we speak, yet the whole of the Scotch have 
 been fused into one race. No doubt sentiment played a little 
 part in it, but the fact and the result remains. 
 
 I remember a very distinguished man some time ago said that 
 the crowning blessing of the Scotch people was the battle of 
 Bannockburn — it made them a nation — and the crowning mis- 
 fortune of the Irish people was the battle of Athenry. They were 
 fought in the same year ; the Irish never virtually made head 
 again, and the Scotch remained an independent nation till they 
 were taken into the English Constitution by a treaty, as well as a 
 union, and on terms of absolute equality, besides the fullest 
 respect being shown to their local institutions. 
 
 Now, nobody knows what was the origin of the ancient inhabit- 
 ants of Holland. They speak, as you know, a dialect of German, 
 which goes by the name of Low Dutch, but there is reason to 
 believe that all sorts of nationalities, from the earliest times, were 
 united, and inhabited that country. They constituted themselves, 
 as I shall point out to you, a new race. 
 
 Now, let us look for a moment at what the situation was when 
 the Dutch, in 1572, ventured upon a conflict with Philip of Spain. 
 Philip of Spain was a monarch who dreamed, as other monarchs 
 have before and after him^ of universal empire, and he filled some 
 of the most powerful states of Europe with dread. He was lord, 
 practically, of the New World. The donation of Alexander VI., 
 Pope and profligate, had bestowed upon him the whole of what is 
 
 Q 
 
242 National Life and Thought. 
 
 now called America, just as he bestowed on the House of Portugal 
 the whole of the Eastern world. The famous bull of the Pope 
 might not have meant it, but some of the captains who had been 
 brought up under the discipline of Ferdinand and Isabella, suc- 
 ceeded in adding vast kingdoms to the Spanish branch of the 
 Austrian family, and the whole of the richest metalliferous districts 
 of Central and South America passed under the sway of Spain. 
 The resources of the monarch of Spain appeared to be inexhausti- 
 ble. He had entirely overset the whole machinery by which the old 
 world was supplied with money, and was himself part owner and toll- 
 taker of allthegreat stores of precious metals which were being mined 
 in the new world. He was also the king over a country which 
 supplied the most redoubtable and the best-disciplined soldiery in 
 Europe. The Spanish infantry was the type of all that was cour- 
 ageous, of all that was resolute, of all that was ferocious and cruel. 
 The power of Philip II., the heir to these vast dominions, com- 
 prising also the principal industrial centre of the world, then the 
 Low Countries or the Netherlands, and now Belgium, seemed to 
 be greater than any other person could venture on encountering. 
 On the other hand, was a small country not very much larger 
 than Yorkshire, defended by incessant care from the encroachments 
 of the ocean, without manufactures, without trade, without com- 
 merce, and deriving a scanty substance from the fields which they 
 rescued from the deep. These men dared on the ground of 
 liberty and conscience to revolt, always under decent forms, and to 
 resist the overwhelming power of Spain. It is impossible to con- 
 ceive any conflict, the elements of which seemed more unlike and 
 more unequal; the one the richest and most powerful state of 
 Europe, the other the poorest and apparently the most helpless. 
 From 1572 to 1609 the Dutch carried on their struggle with 
 Philip and his successor ; they growing stronger and healthier 
 every day, he weaker and more contemptible. Of course this was 
 not the beginning of the struggle. The commencement of it was 
 twenty-two years earlier, with the establishment of the Spanish 
 Inquisition in the Low Countries, and it was against this establish- 
 ment of the Spanish Inquisition in the Low Countries, and the 
 entire control of the political system of what, for a short time, was 
 called the United Netherlands, that the conflict had its origin. 
 
 Now, in these days it would puzzle us why the monarchs of 
 Europe should have been so alarmed at religious dissent or dis- 
 content, why these powerful monarchs should have expended so 
 much resolution, so much money, and so many lives in subduing 
 
Lessons from the Dutch Republic. 243 
 
 so remote a portion of the earth. The reason was they knew that 
 freedom in religious opinions involved the development of politi- 
 cal freedom also. 
 
 When James I. said, " No Bishop, no King," he was uttering a 
 more sensible adage than he generally thought proper to lay down. 
 I do not mean to say that our Puritan forefathers more than two 
 centuries ago were perfectly wise and blameless in their actions 
 and in their policy because they were still infected with a mad 
 passion for securing uniformity, but at any rate they truly connected, 
 the doctrine of political liberty with the doctrine of religious 
 liberty, and they fought for both. And then, you see, there per- 
 meated these people that strange and undying proposition that 
 " Dominion is founded in grace," which is, being interpreted, 
 " Allegiance is due to the leader only on proof of his worthiness." 
 Now, he must have been a very astute courtier who could have 
 discovered that Philip II. was worthy, or Henry IV., or, for that 
 matter, Lewis XIV., all of whom aimed at universal empire, the 
 second having had his career cut short when he was just going to 
 precipitate the hideous Thirty Years' War, the last war of religion in 
 Europe. 
 
 Well, these Hollanders — inhabitants of a small country — a poor 
 country, with very few natural defences, except those which could 
 be adopted to their own apparent ruin — entered into this gigantic 
 struggle. The work was all done by themselves. It is perfectly 
 true that some help was accorded by our Queen Elizabeth. She 
 was a much wiser woman than some of her biographers make her 
 out to be. She was a very shrewd woman. She knew perfectly 
 well that the independence of Holland was a fortress against 
 the designs of Philip II. upon England; but then Elizabeth 
 was desperately poor, and very shifty. Her father had stolen 
 everything he could lay his hand upon, and squandered it in a 
 way which does seem to me quite incredible and quite inex- 
 plicable ; and she was left miserably poor. The Dutch had little 
 help from her. I am not certain whether they did not get more 
 mischief than help from the people she sent, for two of the 
 captains that went over, rejoicing in the historic names of Stanley 
 and Yorke, turned papists and traitors, and betrayed the towns 
 that were put into their hands and the standards. The Stanleys 
 have always been on the winning side ; they thought they were 
 then; perhaps they think themselves there now. I will not attempt, 
 even in your minds, to disabuse them of any impression of the 
 kind. There was a little help pretended to them by France — the 
 
244 National Life and Thought. 
 
 brother of the King of France went there as a commander-in- 
 chief, just as our Elizabeth sent her favourite Leicester, who made 
 nothing but a fool of himself during the time he was in Holland. 
 Anjou tried to seize part of what was then within the control of 
 the Dutch republic, and was deservedly shown up as a traitor and 
 a knave. But, almost at the very time when the Dutch fishermen 
 gained their first victory in the seizure of Brill, these reputed 
 friends of Dutch freedom were planning the massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, and William the Silent knew, all the time that he was 
 trying to get help from the French royal family, that the designs 
 of that family were — and I do not find fault with them from the 
 point of view of their own personal interests — to extirpate 
 patriotism and freeth ought over the whole world. Nothing was 
 really done by France — the Dutch did everything themselves. 
 
 The form, then, which the resistance of the Dutch to their liege 
 lord — that is the phrase the lawyers use ; lawyers are always in- 
 venting terms which are intended to obscure justice — the form 
 which the opposition of the Dutch took was a claim for freedom 
 of conscience. When they achieved their independence, after 
 a severe struggle, one of the stipulations which Philip III. of 
 Spain wished to press upon them was that they should show 
 toleration to Roman Catholics — that is to say, they claimed for 
 persons of their own religion that which they had been fighting 
 nearly forty years to refuse to the Dutch themselves. Of course 
 there is a good deal of inconsistency in human nature. The 
 Dutch naturally refused. If I were a diplomatist, and, on making 
 peace with a neighbouring power, the neighbouring power intro- 
 duced a clause into it that every inhabitant of the country I 
 represented should read the Ten Commandments and say the 
 Lord's Prayer every day, I should repudiate so preposterous a 
 condition. You have no right to impose it — however important 
 it may be to keep the Ten Commandments and to say the Lord's 
 Prayer. The Dutch, therefore, refused to be bound by the terms 
 of a treaty to toleration. But directly the treaty was granted in 
 a grudging way in 1609, the Dutch instantly granted toleration. 
 They took care, of course, that the public manifestations of the 
 religion, which had striven to put them down by violence, should 
 not be such as should cause offence to those who were liberated 
 from such attempts, but the reasonable enjoyment of every religion 
 was accorded. And many of you know the Dutch gave a harbour 
 and a refuge to the Jews when they were almost expelled, or, at 
 least, put under serious disabilities in the rest of the world. In 
 
Lessons f?'om the Dutch Republic. 245. 
 
 other words, the Hollanders, at the very beginning, learned that r 
 when they had fought for their own freedom, it was right for them 
 to grant freedom to others. You know those who had opposed 
 the working out of that. It has always struck me that one of the 
 grandest acts the democracy has ever done — that is, a form of 
 government in which there is no privileged class — was when the 
 inhabitants of the northern part of the great American Republic, 
 smarting with what they thought to have been an unjustifiable 
 and wanton rebellion, aggravated by its attempt to maintain the 
 greatest of all immoralities — personal slavery — had conquered, 
 they put a curb on themselves, and pardoned the arch-traitor, who 
 only died the other day. 
 
 Now, the old doctrine of Europe was that all subjects should 
 be of the religion of their rulers; and it must be admitted that 
 the heads of the Anglican Church — the community to which I 
 am proud to belong — -showed a marvellous alacrity in following 
 the will of their rulers. I use the expression clerical caitiffs 
 of the bishops who surrounded the throne of Henry VIII. 
 Hardly one sacrificed himself against the overweening haughti- 
 ness of that monarch. Now, during the time of Henry 
 VIII., you know that there occurred a great reformation in 
 Europe; but this doctrine, that the subject should be of the 
 religion of his monarch or his ruler, was not attacked. All that 
 Luther did was to kick out the Pope, and put the king in his 
 place, and the consequence is that, to me, the Lutheran reform 
 is, of all religious reforms, the most hollow and contemptible 
 that I know. He put the king in the place of God. He gave 
 no liberty to man whatever. There seems to be some discontent 
 with what I say. When the peasants rose in revolt against the 
 insupportable tyranny of their lords, the man who goaded these 
 lords on to take the bitterest revenge on the peasants was Luther 
 himself. He was not made of the stuff that Wycliff was. He 
 was not made of the stuff of the Lollards, who held to their own 
 view, although outward "manifestation of their opinion was sup- 
 pressed. He handed over the inhabitants of Northern Germany 
 from the Pope to the king, and I am not certain that they did 
 not make a change for the worse when the transfer came. 
 
 Now, what the Dutch laid down was the very reverse of this 
 position. We have followed in this matter — imitating them with- 
 out much gratitude. They laid down that the ruler should be 
 of the religion of his people, and there is a good deal to be said 
 for that. We found it was impossible in England that the 
 
246 National Life and Thought. 
 
 monarchy of this country, even with very limited powers, should 
 be of a religion which was antagonistic to the mass of the people, 
 and we sent a certain monarch flying because he was obstinately 
 determined, and we kept his descendants out of the throne be- 
 cause they were obstinately determined that they would not be 
 of the religion of the people. I do not mean to say that it does 
 not look like a certain violation of what may be called the prin- 
 ciples of absolute toleration, but if a person takes upon himself 
 the extremely comfortable and well-paid office of king, I think, 
 on the whole, he may be expected to submit to the conditions 
 that are involved. 
 
 Now, the Dutch won their independence by deeds of valour, 
 which would take me, not one evening, but the whole of the 
 Sunday evenings from now to midsummer, to recount. And 
 what was the result? They became the first commercial nation 
 in the world. They excited the envy and admiration of all other 
 people — I regret to say, envy and admiration that were turned 
 into bad and unjust intrigue. They were the source of 
 nearly all the learning that was developed with the revival of 
 letters. They invented all the principal arts of life. Among 
 other things, they were the principal persons who developed a 
 scientific agriculture, which was an object of admiration to our 
 own writers in England long before the English people had 
 the courage or the skill to adopt such a system of agriculture. 
 I regret to say that, in my opinion, the English nation was for a 
 long time the very stupidest in creation. There was no change 
 in its agriculture from the time of Edward III. — no improve- 
 ment — to the time of Charles I. You do not find a single 
 painter in England till centuries after the art had been developed 
 first across the water. You had Flemish and Dutch schools of 
 painting when the only persons who plied the art in England were 
 foreigners. Where did all your great artists come from ? Where 
 did Holbein come from ? Where did Vandyck come from ? 
 They were from foreign countries, and the first native-born 
 English artist you had was Thornhill, who painted those stupid 
 pictures in St. Paul's Cathedral. I always say that the English 
 school of art does not begin till the middle of the 18th century. 
 Well, we were just as backward in agriculture, we were just as 
 backward in letters. There was one thing, I admit, in which the 
 English people were very much to the front. They tried con- 
 clusions over and over again with bad rulers, and then deposed 
 them, and were not curious to inquire what became of them after 
 
Lessons from the Dutch Republic. 247 
 
 they were deposed. The whole of Western Europe was the debtor 
 of Holland in the arts of life. Its universities were frequented 
 up to the middle of the 18th century by numbers of people, 
 not only those who, by a narrow policy, were excluded from? 
 our own universities, but by men who themselves received the 
 benefit, such as it was, of some training in those ancient places 
 of education. 
 
 No doubt the Dutch committed errors. One of their gravest 
 errors — they sinned in good company — was their attempt to 
 maintain a sole market; that is to say, to get hold of certain 
 portions of the earth's surface from which they excluded the 
 ships and the sailors of every other country. We were just as 
 unwise. All our wars in the 18th century were for the main- 
 tenance of a sole market. We went into the war of the Austrian 
 succession with a view to improve our Colonial possessions. 
 
 The Seven Years' War was entirely for the purpose of a sole 
 market, and the war with the American Colonies was waged in 
 order to secure and maintain the same sole market that we had 
 got by the war that ended with the Peace of Paris. Not a doubt 
 the Dutch fell into this error. But it is an error which is being 
 fallen into now. Why do you think the French people want to 
 retain and to extend their African dominions — Algiers, Tunis, 
 Tripoli, if they can get it — but to maintain there a sole market, 
 and to exclude the goods of every other country ? What do you 
 think induced the illustrious Prince Bismarck to encourage 
 Colonial Empire in Germany, but to carry into it the German 
 tariff, and to exclude everybody else from the country? These 
 same follies are being perpetrated by statesmen at the present 
 day, and if you look to see what the result is, I will warrant 
 this, that it costs the German taxpayer the whole of twenty marks 
 in value for every twenty marks of goods he imports or exports. 
 He gets nothing by it. The Dutch fell into this error indeed. 
 They strove to exclude other people from the markets that they 
 had discovered and appropriated in the old world, and the result 
 was that the nations met them with jealousy, and nowhere more 
 than by the Governments of this country. 
 
 I think one of the most scandalous pages in our national 
 history is the conspiracy of the English Government — Stuart and 
 Hanoverian — against the integrity of the Dutch Republic. In 
 an evil hour, and against the remonstrances of the Dutch them- 
 selves, the Princes of the House of Orange intermarried with the 
 Stuarts. They only got one good Prince out of the lot of them ? 
 
248 National Life and TlwugJit. 
 
 and he was quite as serviceable to us as he was to them — 
 William III. Then afterwards the House of Orange were inter- 
 married with the Hanoverian family, and from that day they 
 have steadily declined. We did everything we could to check 
 their trade, to destroy their influence, and to do them harm. 
 We passed, for example, the Navigation Acts, with the sole pur- 
 pose of crippling and damaging the Dutch trade, and even so 
 great a man as Adam Smith, commenting on the Navigation 
 Acts, knowing that they were commercially mischievous, justified 
 them on the ground that defence was better than opulence. 
 They never gave one or the other ; they were no use to us at 
 all. 
 
 Whether one looks at the resources on the side of the two 
 Commonwealths, or whether one looks at the utter want of 
 military skill on the part of the weaker of the two, one is filled 
 with amazement at the courage and resolution of the Dutch. 
 Their first victories were on the sea — which was very natural, so 
 to speak, because they were expert fishermen, and finally they 
 became expert in more important maritime undertakings. If you 
 look at the benefits that they have conferred on modern Europe by 
 the development of the sciences and the arts — for they challenged 
 almost all the great discoveries that have been made in modern 
 times ; they have claimed, for instance, the invention of the tele- 
 scope, and yet the man I spoke to you about just now — Wycliff 
 — knew all about it, for in the very book to which I have been 
 referring, he gave a description of the telescope, and of the 
 wonders that it effects ; and then, as would be natural to the 
 theologian, he said, at the conclusion of his description of the 
 process by which a telescope was made, the function of this 
 instrument is like the function of faith, it brings things remote 
 near to us, and makes things small clear to us. But in those 
 days you must know that, if any man had any exceptional know- 
 ledge, he ran the risk of being accused of sorcery, and that was 
 even worse than heresy. 
 
 But it always seems to me that the greatest lesson that you can 
 derive from the history of the Dutch — for it is from these facts in 
 history that one should gather lessons — is that you should never 
 despair of being in a minority. No minority ever seemed more 
 hopeless than the minority of the Seven United Provinces when 
 they threw down the gauntlet to Philip of Spain. Minorities 
 have constantly been, to all appearance, hopelessly weak, and yet 
 are on the high road to victory. I remember, when I was a young 
 
Lessons from the Dutch Republic. 249 
 
 man, and took my part as an undergraduate at Oxford in the 
 liberation of the poor man's cupboard from the oppressive bread 
 tax, at which time I knew the eminent man who used to lecture 
 in this chapel, the body that supported this measure of justice to 
 the English people seemed very small and very feeble ; and yet, 
 within three years after the youngest of the party who advocated 
 the reform in Parliament went into Parliament, those laws were 
 irrevocably abolished. Never despair of a minority ! If your 
 conscience convinces you you are in the right, stick to it. To 
 stick to a minority is constantly a high act of religion. Do not 
 take the wicked advice of Lord Melbourne, and stick to the 
 unpopular side till the other get the upper hand, because, said 
 the old cynic, in this way you get an advantage from both sides : 
 but, even though it seem to be hopeless, if you are convinced 
 that a thing is right, stand to it. 
 
 I do not say that any of us in this day can win the well-deserved 
 reputation which Holland won among all those persons who study 
 impartially and wisely the course of European history, but the 
 strength of great movements is not made up by counting the units 
 of the force which compose it, but by adding one's own force to 
 that which already exists. Of all the pitiful kinds of vanity, none, 
 I think, is more pitiful than that of the man who wants to have 
 measured for him by his fellows what has been the part which he 
 has played in doing good to mankind. Let him work for his own 
 hand, for his own conscience, to the end which he puts before him. 
 The best heroes of the Dutch War of Independence were obscure 
 men. They had no great place, and they wanted no great place. 
 But they felt they should live, if not in the memory of their 
 countrymen, in the constant endurance of that great work to 
 which they had put their hand, and from which, unlike the miser- 
 able aristocracy of Holland, they never flinched. That at least, 
 the doing of one's ow r n work in one's own generation, for what one 
 holds to be a high and noble, and righteous purpose, is in every- 
 body's hands, and a man at least knows, when he carries out these 
 ends, that he is, if not seeking for a niche in the Temple of Fame, 
 doing that which is much better than all the reputation which 
 individual man can ascribe to individual motives and individual 
 
XIV. 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 ALFRED WATHELET. 
 
 IF Belgium has been for the last sixty years an independent 
 and free nation, the fact should not surprise any one 
 acquainted with her past history. Her present existence as a 
 well-characterised nationality, and the advanced development of 
 her political life, are better understood when one remembers the 
 many efforts and struggles of the old Flemings and Walloons for 
 conquering and maintaining their free charters, and for shaking 
 off the yoke of foreign domination. What Belgium at present 
 enjoys of liberties of all kinds, which many a greater country 
 must envy, is deeply rooted in her provincial and communal 
 institutions of the past centuries; while the brave citizens who 
 brought about Belgian independence in 1830 had received from 
 their forefathers many an example of a stern, if not so successful, 
 resistance against foreign masters. It will therefore be rational 
 to study Belgium as it is now in the light of the history of her 
 old times. 
 
 The name of Belgian is of Celtic origin. The Belgae of Caesar, 
 whom he calls the bravest in Gaul, were Celtic-speaking tribes, 
 who inhabited the territories between the Rhine, the Somme, and 
 the North Sea. During the first centuries several irruptions 
 brought in their midst numerous German tribes, who became the 
 majority ; among these arose the power and dynasty of Clovis. 
 From Belgian soil also — from the banks of the Meuse — sprang 
 afterwards the greatness of the race of the Pepins and Charle- 
 magne. 
 
 Then, from the ruin of the great empire of Occident, we see 
 Belgium dividing itself into a number of small sovereignties. 
 They were the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg; the 
 counties of Flanders, Hainault, Namur; the Prince-Bishopric 
 of Liege, and others. The county of Flanders became superior 
 
252 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to all others, while flourishing by its industry and commercial 
 activity. At the end of the fourteenth century, the main line of 
 the Counts of Flanders being extinct, their possessions passed 
 into the hands of the Dukes of Burgundy. 
 
 Duchies and counties were not the only power which had 
 sprung in Belgium from the darkness and chaos after the disso- 
 lution of the empire of Charlemagne. If here we see small 
 sovereign houses, there we see, in antagonism with them, free 
 communes, like distinct republics — each defending itself, having 
 its charters, its guilds, its courts of justice, its finances. Where 
 the communes are mighty, the dynasties are powerless ; where the 
 dynasties are strongly established, the institutions of the commune 
 remain undeveloped. We see the influence of the commune 
 predominate in Flanders and Liege ; while the reigning houses 
 rule over Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg. The communes of 
 Bruges, Ghent, Louvain, Liege, produce heroic tribunes like Van 
 Artevelde, Breydel, and De Coninck ; the Belgian dynasties, 
 after taking a brilliant part in the Crusades, give kings to many 
 a great throne — Godefroid of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem; the 
 Baldwins of Flanders and Namur, Emperors of Constantinople; 
 John, Count of Luxemburg and King of Bohemia; Charles of 
 Luxemburg and his descendants, Emperors of the Romans. 
 
 Among the numerous charters by which the communes 
 obtained recognition of rights eagerly vindicated, the Charter of 
 Albert de Cuyck., granted by that Prince-Bishop to the citizens of 
 Liege at such an early date as the end of the twelfth century, the 
 Great Charter of Bruges (1304), and the foyeuse Entree of Brabant 
 (1354), stand like monuments of liberal guarantees, proclaiming 
 individual freedom, right of association, judging of the citizens by 
 magistrates chosen from among their ranks, free administration 
 of the commune by the citizens. In Liege, so inviolable was the 
 domicile of any citizen, that there was a saying, Pauvre homme 
 en sa viaison roy est ; nobody could be arrested but by an order 
 of the echevins ; no taxes levied without the consent of the city ; 
 no military service required but for the defence of the territory. 
 In 13 1 2 another charter established in Liege the principle of 
 separation of the three powers — legislative, judicial, and executive; 
 and afterwards the "Tribunal des XXII." was instituted as a 
 sanction to the responsibility of all public officials. At that time 
 already the democratic spirit was triumphing in Liege definitely, 
 and Michelet can say that the Commune of Liege from the four- 
 teenth century gives the standard of the most complete political 
 
Belgium. 253 
 
 equality that ever existed. In Brabant, the Charter of Joyense 
 Entree openly proclaims the right of citizens to refuse obedience 
 to the sovereign who would not observe the communal liberties. 
 So we can go back to the free traditions of the communes for 
 the origin of many an enlightened principle of which Belgian 
 institutions can boast nowadays. That communal movement 
 which brought about the intervention of the burgess element 
 in public affairs, is intimately connected with the development of 
 the numerous guilds or corps-de-metiers, which, while bringing 
 honour and power to artisanship, had the happiest influence on 
 trade prosperity in the communes. Nor did the social progress 
 restrict itself within the walls of the cities ; for there dates also 
 from that time a great amelioration in the condition of the rural 
 masses by the alleviation or complete abolition of serfdom. The 
 history of the communes is not less characterised by their patriotic 
 resistance against foreign interference than by their free spirit ; and 
 the victory of the Flemish citizen-troops over a powerful French 
 army near Courtray in 1302 (battle of the Golden Spurs) may be 
 recorded, among others, as a glorious feat. 
 
 Frequent intercourse and treaties of the communes with each 
 other and with the sovereigns began to prepare the unification 
 of Belgium, which was to be accomplished under the Dukes 
 of Burgundy. That House succeeded, by wars and alliances, in 
 destroying the local dynasties, and partly in doing away with the 
 franchises of the communes, though these were to leave traces in 
 the institutions of the country down to the present day. While 
 the Dukes were centralising in their own hands the power over 
 the whole of the Netherlands, industry and commerce in Flanders 
 were enjoying a singular prosperity ; Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, were 
 the market places of half the civilised world. Charles the Bold 
 was the last Duke of Burgundy ; he had the passion of conquering, 
 without the qualities of a monarch; he could have been the 
 creator of an important kingdom, his disorderly ambition made 
 him only an adventurer. The daughter of Charles, Mary of 
 Burgundy, married in 1477 Maximilian, who was to be Emperor 
 of Germany. That union made the Netherlands the accessory of 
 other States, and so they were to be for centuries. 
 
 The ten years that Maximilian had the regency over the Belgian 
 provinces after the death of Mary were years of struggles between 
 that Prince and the States of Flanders and the communes of 
 Ghent and Bruges, and these patriotic bodies then showed admir- 
 able tenacity and fortitude in the defence of their privileges. By 
 
254 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the help of a powerful army Maximilian could be master of Ghent 
 and tear into pieces the charter of its privileges ; but, King of the 
 Romans as he was then, the proud Commune of Bruges kept him 
 for several months a prisoner, until he would swear on a public 
 place of Bruges, before an immense assembly, to observe the 
 peace consented by the States of Flanders. This solemn oath 
 did not refrain him from bringing again a foreign army, with which 
 he at length humiliated the Commune of Bruges as he had done 
 that of Ghent. 
 
 However, when the grandson of Maximilian, Charles V., 
 came into possession of the Netherlands, which he united to 
 that of Spain and the Empire, it may be said that the Flemish 
 race was at its apogee, having attained a degree of commercial 
 prosperity which was only to be equalled by her splendour in the 
 arts. Charles V. was born a Belgian himself, and remembered it ; 
 he associated the Belgians to all the great events of his long reign ; 
 Belgians were in his council and at the head of his armies ; but 
 he was fighting for a dream of universal dominion, never to be 
 realised. When Protestantism began to spread in the Low 
 Countries, Charles persecuted it implacably, and many artisans 
 from Flanders fled to Germany and England, where they brought 
 with them much of the Flemish trade and industry. Yet Charles 
 used a mild treatment if compared with the cruelties to which 
 religious exaltation led Philip II., who had nothing Belgian, no 
 heart for Belgians, but all the hatred of fanaticism in his soul. 
 These were the darkest pages of the history of the Netherlands, 
 when, the practices of the Inquisition tribunals having driven the 
 people into rebellion, Philippe sent the Duke of Alva to devastate 
 the country and erect scaffolds everywhere, 
 
 At length the northern portion of the Low Countries established- 
 its independence as the Republic of the United Provinces. 
 Belgium, which had much greater difficulties to resist, having no 
 natural defences when the Dutch had the water of the rivers and 
 the sea to protect them, remained under Spain. Philippe 
 granted the sovereignty of the Belgian provinces to his daughter 
 Isabella and her husband Archduke Albert, who attempted to 
 restore prosperity, and partly succeeded ; but after thirty-five years 
 of a peaceful reign, they died without issue. And again Belgium 
 was in the hands of Spain, sharing her declining fortunes, always 
 exposed to the first attack in the wars of Spain with France, and 
 of France with Holland, and paying for peace at the expense of her 
 own territory. 
 
Belg ium. 255 
 
 In 1 7 13 Belgium was assigned to Austria, and governed thence 
 sometimes smoothly, but with indifference by princes who lived 
 elsewhere. Dutch garrisons were in Belgian fortresses, and the 
 Scheldt was closed to Belgian navigation, and Antwerp entirely 
 separated from the sea. However, under the mild rule of Maria 
 Theresa, Belgium enjoyed a wiser administration and more 
 happiness than it had known for a long time. But this period of 
 calm was not to last under Joseph II., who, superior in knowledge 
 to those he was to govern, and more of a philosopher than of a 
 monarch, pretended to rule over his people as he would, says 
 a historian, have made a book. He attempted to curb the power 
 of the priests, but he excited the religious feelings of one of the 
 most Catholic countries that were. Then he gave much offence 
 to the States by trying to overturn the government. A few weeks 
 after the beginning of the French Revolution, a revolution broke 
 out at Brussels, mainly prepared by the monks who had been 
 deprived of their convents. But the success of this revolt did not 
 last, discord being among the leaders of the movement ; nor was 
 the return of Austrian soldiers endurable. The forces of the 
 French Republic soon invaded Belgium, and had no great 
 difficulty in conquering a country exhausted by interior divisions. 
 It is worth mentioning that with the French domination there 
 came to an end the temporal power of the Prince-Bishops of 
 Liege ; it had lasted for many centuries through an eventful and 
 interesting history, which would deserve special treatment, and 
 highly testifies to the free and patriotic spirit of the citizens of 
 Liege. 
 
 The generous ideas proclaimed in France in 1789 soon made 
 a deep impression in the Belgian provinces. The new spirit of 
 equality, of tolerance and progress which they introduced among 
 populations well prepared for it (this especially true of Liege), 
 was not the only beneficent influence of the French regime in 
 Belgium. Though its excessive centralisation met, especially in 
 Flemish provinces, with a latent force of resistance, the fact that 
 Belgians were then submitted to a common legislation and a 
 uniform administration did much to prepare them for national 
 unity. With a civil organisation which was a great improvement 
 on the complicated system of the past, Belgium also owes to the 
 French period the benefit of civil and criminal laws, of which the 
 greater part has remained in force till the present day. 
 
 In 18 14 no national dynasty could present itself to claim for 
 Belgium, and the Treaty of Paris gave it, as a heritage vacant, 
 
256 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to the Stadtholder of the United Provinces, who was raised to 
 the dignity of a king. Under several respects that reunion 
 seemed to be a reasonable arrangement. The industry of the 
 Belgian provinces was to find in the colonies and the large trade 
 of the Dutch an immense opening. Also a fusion existed already 
 between Flemings and Dutchmen, who had the same origin, 
 the same language, and had only been separated by the feudal 
 divisions of territories, and afterwards by the religious quarrels. 
 But how were the Walloon provinces, of French language, 
 customs, and sympathies, — how would these submit to the new 
 rule? The fundamental law of the new kingdom was a liberal 
 charter, but that is the only praise deserved by the Dutch 
 supremacy. The new monarchy represented in Belgium the 
 foreigner ; a mild and conciliatory policy would have made 
 Belgians forget this; but during the fifteen years of their rule, 
 neither the king nor the Dutch nation did what was necessary 
 to render themselves tolerable, and fault after fault was com- 
 mitted which rendered the necessity of a rupture unavoidable. 
 The use of the French language was not allowed in the public 
 and judicial acts ; an iniquitous electoral system secured the 
 political preponderance of the northern provinces, which had 
 only half the population of the southern ; in the north was the 
 seat of all the great public establishments, in which nearly all 
 places were given to Dutchmen ; also there was an anti-catholic 
 tendency in the laws, which was no small factor of discontent 
 among Belgians. A few unhappy incidents made the measure 
 full, and a revolution broke out at Brussels in August 1830, 
 which caused the whole of the Belgian provinces to rise in the 
 vindication of their independence. By driving Flemings and 
 Walloons into a common resistance. King William had greatly 
 helped them to bring together the elements of a nation. 
 
 Brave and able men were the chiefs of that movement, which 
 improvised in a few weeks of struggles an independent Belgium — 
 Rogier, Devaux, Lebeau, de Merode, de Potter, J. B. Nothomb, 
 and others — and seldom was seen a more remarkable assembly 
 of men of talent and eloquence than that National Congress 
 which gave Belgium its Constitution. A few months after the 
 Congress had met, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, proclaimed 
 King of the Belgians, swore before them to observe the funda- 
 mental pact. The independence of the new State, however, was 
 only recognised by the great Powers after very difficult diplomatic 
 
Belgium. 257 
 
 ^negotiations, in which the Belgian delegates, Van de Weyer, 
 Nothomb, Devaux, played their part with energy and skill. The 
 election of Prince Leopold was no small help to their endeavours 
 for winning the goodwill of the Powers. The young kingdom 
 was much indebted to France for the intervention at a critical 
 moment of a French army which successfully operated at the 
 siege of Antwerp and took the place from the Dutch. The 
 •sympathy of England under the ministry of Lord Grey and 
 Palmerston also greatly contributed to bring the recognition and 
 guarantee of Belgian independence and neutrality by the Treaty 
 of London of the 15th November 1831. Holland only acknow- 
 ledged the accomplished facts in 1839. 
 
 The Belgian Constitution is the pride of the movement of 1830. 
 It has attributed to civil society all the liberties that could be 
 brought by the republican system, while keeping the guarantees 
 -of monarchical heredity. It proclaims the equality of all citizens 
 before the law, the suppression of all privileges attached to 
 nobility, the liberty of the press, the liberty of teaching, the right 
 of free petition, the inviolability of home, the trial by jury for all 
 criminal and political charges and for offences of the press, the 
 free exercise of all religions and their equality, the exclusion of 
 all. interference of the State in religious matters. No other Euro- 
 pean country has fully enjoyed so many liberties. 
 
 The executive power belongs to the King, who exercises it 
 through his Ministers responsible before the two Chambers — the 
 Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. This principle of 
 •ministerial responsibility is one of the most important innovations 
 of the Belgian Charter compared to the fundamental law of 
 1 8 14. The King convokes, prorogues, and dissolves Parliament. 
 The throne is hereditary by order of primogeniture in the male 
 descendants. 
 
 The House of Representatives is elected for four years by 
 citizens above twenty-five years of age, and paying 42 francs in 
 taxes to the State. The Senate is elected for eight years by the 
 same body of electors, but only those who pay 2000 francs in 
 direct taxes are eligible, and they must be over forty years of age; 
 while the minimum age of twenty-five years is the only condition 
 for eligibility to the Chamber of Representatives. Parliament is 
 re-elected by half every two years for the Chamber, and every four 
 years for the Upper House, which arrangement greatly contributes 
 -to make the political system work smoothly, and to avoid the 
 peril of too sudden changes. All revision of the constitutional 
 
 R 
 
258 National Life and TJwitgJtt. 
 
 law must be demanded by the two Houses acting separately, and 
 can only be discussed after re-election of Parliament. 
 
 All judges are chosen by the King, on lists presented by the 
 Law Courts and the Senate and the Provincial Councils. 
 
 The national charter, of which we have thus given a brief 
 summary, has remained unaltered; it can be called a monu- 
 ment of rational freedom and liberality, and has had a great 
 and felicitous influence on the progress and prosperity of the 
 nation. 
 
 The provincial and communal laws are also deserving of great 
 praise. They leave to the provincial and local councils a con- 
 siderable authority, and the solution of many important questions. 
 Each of the nine provinces is administered by a governor, Avith 
 the assistance of a permanent delegation of six members of the 
 provincial council. This council meets every year to deal with 
 all matters of provincial concern ; its members are elected for 
 four years. Each of the 2500 communes has its administrative 
 body, with a burgomaster, several echevins, and a more or less 
 numerous communal council, elected for six years. Burgo- 
 masters, like the governor of the province, are appointed by the 
 King, generally in agreement with the majority of the Council. 
 Echevins, or assistants of the burgomaster, are chosen by the 
 Communal Council. The burgomaster and his echevins are the 
 local Executive Board, and share with the Council the gestion of 
 all municipal interests. 
 
 Under the beneficial effect of such laws, the Belgians have now 
 been for sixty years consolidating their national existence, and 
 working their politics in a most regular way ; not without very 
 acute controversies and agitations, but these were only the natural 
 outcome of the free play of institutions which are and will remain 
 dear to the nation. 
 
 Catholics and Liberals, the two parties, very nearly of equal 
 strength, which divide Belgian politics, have had several times in 
 turn the management of public affairs. They are respectively much 
 of the same nature as the Conservative and Liberal parties in other 
 countries ; but a special and important factor in Belgian politics 
 is the considerable influence of the Catholic clergy. The Belgian 
 populations being in majority intensely Catholic, the clergy have 
 kept a strong hold on the conscience of the people, and, naturally 
 enough, give their full support to a party whose first purpose is to 
 maintain the supremacy of the Church. Within the last twenty 
 
Belgium. 259 
 
 years the antagonism between Catholics and Liberals has become 
 more and more acute ; Liberalism has been many a time treated 
 on the other side as heresy; and though the Liberal leaders 
 denied that they were hostile to religious ideas, declaring they 
 only wanted the independence and neutrality of the civil power, 
 the tendency has been towards making political matters more 
 and more mixed with religious ones, so that leading Liberals are 
 nowadays nearly all out of the pale of the Roman Church, and 
 in fact of any Church, Protestantism having hardly made any 
 progress in Belgium. 
 
 During the first years of the Belgian government, predominance 
 belonged to the Catholics, though the two parties were then for 
 a time, so to say, in a latent state. The success of the Revolution 
 had been due to the union of both elements ; while the eyes were 
 still turned towards the frontier, the safety of the country 
 commanded to maintain that Union. In the Government, 
 Catholic and Liberal members were meeting on a friendly footing, 
 brought there more by the ascendency of their talent and their 
 devotion to the country than by a political party. However, as 
 the nation was beginning to feel reassured against the external 
 dangers, parties were soon organising themselves, and that 
 struggle was beginning, which is now more ardent than ever. 
 On the Liberal side were Devaux, Rogier, Lebeau ; on the other, 
 as an enlightened and tolerant Catholic, J. B. Nothomb. The 
 ministry headed by this remarkable man saw the last years of the 
 Catholic-Liberal Union. Fifteen years after the establishment of 
 the kingdom, that Union was banished from practical politics. 
 Under M. de Theux a real Catholic ministry was formed, of which 
 young M. Malou was the heart and soul. The Liberal ideas, 
 eloquently defended in Parliament, were then advocated through 
 the country with great talent and success at the Liberal Congress 
 in the same year. Laying down the programme of a new policy, 
 claiming the independence of the civil power, and obligation for 
 the heads of the clergy to remain within the limits of their 
 special functions, the Liberals carried so unanimously the opinion 
 of the great towns, that M. Malou had to give way, and a new 
 Cabinet was formed, with Messrs. Rogier and Frere Orban ; the 
 influence of the last soon became preponderant. It was due to 
 the confidence which the country professed for the Government, 
 as well as to the wisdom and great popularity of King Leopold, 
 that Belgium could pass in tranquillity through the storm which 
 in 1848 shook all Europe. By wise and opportune concessions 
 
260 National Life and TJiouglit. 
 
 to the democratic spirit, especially by reducing to the constitu- 
 tional minimum the tax required qualification for parliamentary 
 franchise, and by organising the civic guards in the country, they 
 prevented all excesses and disarmed demagogy. 
 
 The grave event which, on the 2nd December 185 1, placed 
 France once more under a despotic rule, produced its reaction 
 in the small neighbouring country. The great difficulties which 
 were created in Belgium by the government of Napoleon III. 
 on account of the attacks of the Liberal party against the man 
 of the 2nd December, the presence of so many French refugees 
 on Belgian territory, the threats of semi-official French papers 
 against the safety of Belgium as a nation, all that turned to the 
 profit of the Catholic opposition, and contributed to the retreat 
 of the Liberal administration. 
 
 The Catholic ministry under Messrs. De Decker and Vilain 
 XIIII. came to power with prospects of moderation and an omen 
 •of interior peace and prosperity, which soon proved deceiving. 
 Led by the exigencies of the Ultramontanes to present a bill 
 bringing privileges to the convents, namely, withdrawing from 
 the control of the State all legacies and endowments by private 
 persons in their favour, the ministry saw such an agitation spread 
 through the country against that measure that they had to 
 adjourn it, and soon after to retire. 
 
 Again in power after elections in favour of the Liberal party, 
 M. Frere Orban signalised his administration by important 
 economical measures, such as the abolition of the octrois and 
 the establishment of a system of customs tariffs approaching free 
 trade, and by organising at great expense the defence of the 
 country through an extended line of fortifications. After the 
 lamented death in 1865 of King Leopold I., the Liberal ministry 
 remained in power for five years under Leopold II. It should 
 not be forgotten to give credit to M. Frere Orban for having at 
 that time successfully resisted the perfidious designs of Napoleon 
 III. in the affair of the Luxemburg Railway, a railway through 
 Belgian territory, which the French government, knowing its great 
 strategical importance, wanted to get into their own hands ; but 
 the sagacious diplomacy and decisive action of M. Frere Orban 
 were able to counteract the plans of the French Emperor, which 
 would have brought upon Belgium an invasion during the 
 following war. 
 
 Since that time, Belgium, as if obeying a periodical wish for a 
 change in her politics, has had a Catholic ministry for eight years, 
 
Belgium. 26 r 
 
 a Liberal Cabinet during six years, and now has had again, since 
 1884, a Catholic administration. 
 
 The question of popular education is the one which has for 
 many years been the greatest object of division and eager dis- 
 cussions in Belgian politics. Under Mr. J. B. Nothomb in 
 1842, a law on elementary education had been passed which was 
 inspired by a spirit of compromise, leaving to the Catholic clergy 
 considerable prerogatives and influence in the schools. While 
 enacting that there should be at least one primary school in every 
 commune, that bill gave freedom to the communes to adopt one 
 or more private schools, possessing the legal qualifications, so as 
 to occupy the place of the communal school; it placed the 
 primary schools under the surveillance of the communal authorities 
 and Government inspectors, while the imparting of moral and 
 religious instruction was to be superintended by ecclesiastical 
 delegates. In the great towns, where Liberal ideas were predom- 
 inant, the schools under the law of 1842 were kept more indepen 
 dent from the influence of the clergy, but it is true to say that in 
 the greater part of the rural districts the Church was master of the 
 primary schools. When the elections in 1878 brought M. Frere 
 Orban to power, it was the general expectation of the Liberal party 
 that there should be a new law of primary education, based 
 strictly on the constitutional principle of independence of the 
 State towards the Church and equality of all creeds. The Bill 
 which was passed in 1879 stated that religious instruction would 
 be given in all schools either by the clergy of all creeds, or by a 
 special teacher chosen by the communal council. A special room 
 in the school was to be put at the disposal of the clergy to give 
 their religious teaching before or after school hours ; ecclesiastical 
 inspection of the schools was suppressed ; communal authorities, 
 were deprived of the faculty of adopting, unless by Government 
 permission, private or denominational (Catholic) schools instead 
 of the official ones. So the schools were taken away from the 
 influence of the clergy, to pass entirely under that of the State,, 
 independent of all creeds. The events did not allow this system 
 of lay schools to show lasting results. The bishops and clergy 
 undertook against the new law a campaign of resistance, which, SO' 
 to say, terrorised peasants and inhabitants of small towns. From 
 the pulpit, the schools of the State were condemned as atheistic ; 
 the bishops refused their priests the authorisation to give religious 
 teaching in the room offered them in every school ; sacraments were 
 
262 National Life and Thought. 
 
 refused to teachers and children of these schools ; under the threat 
 of excommunication, hundreds of teachers left the State schools. 
 The Liberal Cabinet defended itself with great energy; how- 
 ever, they had met more than their match, and the agitation 
 of which their bold innovation was the subject throughout 
 the country is one among the different causes which brought 
 the fall of the Frere Orban ministry in 1884. It was only to be 
 •expected that the first result of the great Catholic reaction at the 
 general elections of that year would be some new organisation of 
 elementary education so as to replace it under ecclesiastical 
 influence. The new law by which the Catholic majority realised 
 their purpose is in many respects different from the law of 1842 : 
 the schools have been put under communal autonomy, with the 
 faculty for the burgomaster and his council, whenever they have 
 the approval of the Government and the Committee of the 
 Provincial Council, to abolish the official school and adopt in its 
 place a private or denominational one ; religious teaching, under 
 ecclesiastical direction, can be inscribed or not by the municipality 
 in the programme of the schools ; if it is not inscribed in the 
 programme, and twenty heads of family claim against it, the 
 Government may oblige the municipality to adopt and support a 
 private school for the minority. In several large towns, the 
 communal authorities having refused to organise religious teaching 
 to be given by the Catholic clergy, they have had to provide for 
 private schools belonging to Catholic congregations, which compete 
 most eagerly against the official schools. The authorisation 
 granted by the Government to hundreds of rural communes to 
 adopt private schools instead of the old State schools has created 
 in the Liberal camp an irritation which can only be compared to 
 the anger among Catholics a few years before. 
 
 Another section of Belgian politics upon which parties have been 
 for many years most busily engaged is the question of electoral 
 franchise, whether for Parliament or for the province and 
 commune. The restricted suffrage, based upon a certain amount 
 paid in taxes, has been, especially for the last ten years, the object 
 of violent attacks from the more advanced section of the Liberal 
 party. Though it cannot be denied that to the restricted " suffrage 
 censitaire " and to the parliaments it elected are due all the great 
 reforms enjoyed by Belgium since her first days of independence, 
 and though every notable diminution of the electoral franchise 
 has proved an ultimate loss to the Liberal party, the Radical 
 minority among Liberals have been most eager in claiming for 
 
Belgium. 263 
 
 a revision of the constitutional charter with a view to abolish the 
 tax-paying privilege. One cannot see, however, that there is any- 
 thing like a great desire in the nation at large for such a serious 
 innovation, advocated by a body of politicians much more noisy 
 than numerous. The policy of M. Frere Orban, foreseeing that 
 universal suffrage at present in Belgium would be most certainly 
 Catholic, has been to resist with all his energy the idea of pro- 
 moting any too sudden change in the lowering of the franchise. 
 It has, however, been to the honour of that statesman, in his last 
 administration, to introduce into the electoral laws the new prin- 
 ciple of an educational qualification for the provincial and com- 
 munal franchise : to the body of electors by virtue of tax-paying 
 has been added a large number of electors by virtue of profes- 
 sions or positions (persons exercising liberal professions, holders 
 of diplomas, officials in public services, officers in the army or the 
 garde civique, etc.), and also by virtue of an electoral examination 
 passed successfully, according to the requirements specified by 
 the law. More than 100,000 citizens have been thus endowed 
 with the franchise. It is a very interesting experiment, which 
 may lead later on to an extension of the franchise for Parliament. 
 A singular fact in Belgian politics is that, by the turn of elec- 
 tions, it is not infrequent to see in Parliament a majority which 
 does not correspond to the real position and strength of the two 
 parties. The larger constituencies have a rather important num- 
 ber of representatives, who are elected with the scrutin de liste by 
 majority. As in districts like Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp, of 
 which alone the members occupy a quarter of the seats in Parlia- 
 ment, Liberals and Catholics muster often nearly the same total of 
 electors, it may happen that 200 voters or less have it in their 
 power to turn the scale and return to the Chamber thirty-two 
 Catholics or thirty-two Liberals, as they choose. Thus one 
 comes to results such as these: The Liberals having in 1878 the 
 majority in Parliament when the total number of electors who 
 had voted for them in the various districts was actually the 
 minority, and now there is in the House of Representatives a 
 number of ninety-five Catholic members against forty Liberals 
 only, when the strength of the two parties in the electoral body is 
 nearly equal. Such a system, in which the strongest majorities 
 depend upon a minimum of uncertain voters, is a wrong system ; 
 and fair-minded men on both sides, among whom the present 
 Prime Minister, M. Beernaert, and the eminent economist, M. 
 Lmile de Laveleye, are now advocating representation of minorities, 
 
264 National Life and TJiongJit. 
 
 which would render the direction of politics less a matter of 
 chance and give more stabilit} 7 to the Government, while securing 
 it a more solid and true basis in public opinion. 
 
 A study of Belgian affairs ought not to omit reference to a 
 question which has of late grown in importance — -the question of 
 languages. Since the kingdom of Belgium existed, French has 
 always been the language of the cultured classes ; and, in fact, it 
 is now more than ever understood, if not exclusively spoken, 
 among the great majority of Belgians. But since a few years 
 there has been a reawakening of the friends of the Flemish tongue, 
 who pretend theirs is much more a national language than the 
 French, for this peculiar reason, that it is hardly spoken anywhere 
 else than in Belgium. Flemings are certainly deserving of sym- 
 pathy when they think they must keep with a kind of veneration 
 the language of their brave forefathers, of their poets, and their 
 great novelist Conscience. But when they claim for and obtain 
 the use of Flemish in all public documents, on coins, and street 
 corners — more than that, in the law courts and public assemblies 
 — and want the obligation of knowing Flemish to be imposed 
 upon all officers in the army, it seems doubtful whether they are 
 pursuing a very useful and patriotic course. The future belongs 
 to the great languages spoken by millions and millions ; it does 
 not belong to the Flemish language. For the good of Belgium, 
 as well as for the peaceful union of her populations, it is to be 
 hoped that the practical preponderance of the French tongue 
 will not suffer too much from the pious zeal of a few Flemish 
 men of letters, who, as it seems, would like to create a barrier 
 between Flemings and Walloons. That barrier is not to be. 
 Exaggerations on either side have not provoked, so far, any 
 serious friction of feelings between the two elements ; and one 
 may trust that the good sense of the nation will always give reason 
 to the words of the poet, a "Walloon : " Fleming, Walloon, are but 
 Christian names; Belgian is the name of the family !" 
 
 With its large population of working men in the rich industrial 
 provinces of Liege, Namur, and Hainault, Belgium has seen for 
 some years an eager tendency develop itself among the working 
 classes to claim a better state of things for themselves. The 
 great strikes, which were not always without justification, have 
 impressed upon the public at large the necessity of doing some- 
 thing to better the material and moral life of the workman. 
 While wages were raised to a fairer level, both parties have met 
 to promote beneficial laws in the popular interest, namely, 
 
Belgium. 265 
 
 securing arbitral decision of differences between the workmen 
 and their employers, protecting the miners against underground 
 accidents, forbidding the employment of children and women for 
 heavy work, resisting the evil of intemperance, and so on. 
 
 If we take a general survey of Belgium at the present time, we 
 may consider her as a remarkable country for her great civic 
 liberties of all kinds, and the development of her political life. 
 Belgians love their institutions and national independence, which 
 have been bought at the cost of such hard times in the past 
 centuries and struggles on so many occasions. No doubt, if 
 ever the hour of danger should come, Belgian patriotism would 
 give a good account of itself. If there is a fault in the way 
 Belgians understand and practise politics, we should say it is that 
 the partisan spirit is too much infused in the life of the people ; 
 that a fair tolerance of adverse opinions is often left to be desired ; 
 and that the animosity between Liberal and Clerical interferes in 
 social as well as in public life, reducing sometimes political war- 
 fare to miserably petty and narrow strifes. 
 
 It has been said that Belgians have inherited many a good 
 quality from a singularly mixed ancestry ; in fact, with a steadi- 
 ness of their own, there is frequently to be found among them 
 something of the quickness and adaptability of the Frenchman ; 
 they are good-tempered and energetic, men of patience and 
 industry, fond of hard work. While they have shown a remark- 
 able progress in the agricultural art, their industrial works have 
 made them rivals of many greater nations ; and the fact that 
 Belgium, with her small territory of 11,000 square miles, occupies 
 the fourth rank among the nations of Europe by the importance 
 of her industrial production, is the best eulogy of her activity in 
 the material sphere. 
 
 In the happy development of independent Belgium, no small 
 praise is due to the two sovereigns who have presided for the 
 last sixty years over her destinies. When the National Congress 
 in 1 83 1 sent a delegation to the Castle of Claremont in Surrey to 
 offer the crown to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, they could not 
 have made a better choice. With his experience of men and 
 things, his deep knowledge of politics, his tact and wisdom,. 
 Leopold I. proved a most beneficent ruler to Belgium, while 
 being a model of a strictly constitutional king ; it is well remem- 
 bered to what a prestige he had attained in the council of 
 European sovereigns ; he was a great friend of this country, and 
 
266 National Life and Thought. 
 
 •enjoyed the sincere veneration of Queen Victoria. King Leopold 
 II. has been worthy of his father, being, like him, a popular and 
 enlightened sovereign, faithful observer of his constitutional duty, 
 impartial between the parties, and deeply attached to his people. 
 His earnest desire of opening new fields to Belgian interests 
 contributed to bring him to undertake his great enterprise in 
 Africa, which will ever ensure him a noble fame before all 
 nations. 
 
 Last year, in the House of Commons, 1 the name of Belgium 
 happened to be mentioned in debate, and Mr. Gladstone pro- 
 nounced these words of sympathy, which were gratefully noticed in 
 Belgian circles : "There is not in all Europe a monarchy of more 
 untainted honour ; there is not a government of more beneficent 
 operation ; there is not a spot on the map where constitutional 
 principles have been more faithfully and more beneficially 
 observed, from the time when that remarkable man, Prince 
 Leopold, was chosen the first King of Belgium, down to the present 
 moment, when the present King of Belgium has for so long been 
 engaged in treading in the steps marked out for him by his 
 father to the immense benefit of his country. (Loud cheers.) 
 I believe I am speaking the sentiment of the whole House when 
 I say that that monarchy has our sympathy (cheers) ; and should 
 the necessity arise, it would, I believe, on all proper occasions 
 have our support." (Renewed cheers.) 
 
 We could not look for a more appropriate conclusion than such 
 a precious testimony. Belgians could see in it, and in the way 
 the graceful utterance was received, a fresh proof that this 
 country will remain for them, as she has been, a powerful friend 
 and steady guardian of their independent position. 
 
 1 29th May 1889. 
 
XV. 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 HOWARD HODGK1N, M.A. 
 
 PROBABLY a very small proportion of the many thousands of 
 English tourists who every year spend their summer holiday 
 in Switzerland have realised that there are other interests in that 
 little land beside the grandeur of its mountains, the verdure of 
 its valleys, the beauty of its lakes, and the excellence of its hotels. 
 These last are the interests that engross the multitude, while the 
 soul-stirring history of the Swiss Confederation, and the pure and 
 simple democracy of its existing political institutions are, in 
 general, suffered to remain unnoticed ; yet knowledge such as this 
 could not fail to add to the enjoyment of the traveller in that land 
 of freedom. The picturesque scenery of Switzerland is world- 
 famed ; but the history of Switzerland is as picturesque as its 
 scenery. And the present Constitution, or rather Constitutions, of 
 Switzerland are as interesting to the student of politics as is its 
 history to the historian. 
 
 That history may be said to have begun about six hundred years 
 ago, when, in theyear 1291, the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwytz, 
 and Unterwalden entered into a perpetual alliance for mutual pro- 
 tection against their foes. But before summarising their history 
 from that day to the present, I propose to explain shortly what it 
 is that now gives a peculiar interest to Switzerland, from a poli- 
 tical point of view. 
 
 Switzerland is a very small country, one of the smallest in 
 Europe; and there are some people who are tempted to ignore 
 it, to say that so small a country can achieve nothing that is 
 great and glorious and worthy of observation. They think upon 
 it only as the holiday ground of Europe. 
 
 It is a small country, with an area about a quarter of that of 
 
 England and Wales, a population of under three millions — about 
 
 the same as Yorkshire — and hemmed in on west and north and 
 
 ■east and south by the four great European powers of France, 
 
 267 
 
268 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Germany, Austria, and Italy. Yet it has an interest quite apart 
 from that of any other small European country such as Belgium 
 or Portugal; for, small as it is, there are within it twenty-two (or, if 
 we count the three divided cantons, twenty-five) separate states, 
 generally called cantons, having distinct sovereign powers of their 
 own, which they can exercise free from the control of any other 
 state or authority whatsoever, thus differing entirely from our own 
 counties, and being very similar to the separate states of the 
 American Union, only with a more strongly-marked individuality ; 
 and these separate and independent cantons are now allied 
 together under one of the most perfect systems of Federal 
 Government that has ever been devised. 
 
 Professor Freeman gives the following definition of federal 
 government: "A union of component members, where the 
 degree of union between the members surpasses that of a mere 
 alliance, however intimate, and where the degree of independence 
 possessed by each member surpasses anything which can fairly 
 come under the head of mere municipal freedom." 
 
 The present Swiss Constitution dates from 1874, in which year 
 there was a total revision of the previous Constitution of 1848. 
 The object of the Constitution is declared to be : " To ensure 
 the independence of the country against foreign nations, to main- 
 tain internal tranquillity and order, to protect the liberty and 
 rights of the confederated citizens, and to increase their common 
 prosperity." 
 
 The cantons are declared to be sovereign in all respects so far 
 as their sovereignty is not limited by the Federal Constitution, so 
 far, that is, as the cantons have not given over a portion of that 
 sovereignty to the Federal authority, which is elected by them. 
 
 Now, what are the matters — the attributes of sovereignty — 
 which these five-and-twenty free and independent states have volun- 
 tarily relinquished, and deposited with the Federal power at Berne ? 
 
 The most important of these are : — 
 
 1. The right of declaring war and concluding peace, and of 
 making alliances with foreign states. But the cantons still retain 
 the right of concluding conventions among themselves on admini- 
 strative matters, and treaties with foreign states on commercial 
 matters and frontier relations. 
 
 2. The control of the army ; though each canton may maintain 
 a very limited number of troops of its own. 
 
 3. The entire postal and telegraph service is also under direct 
 Federal control. 
 
 
Switzerland. 269 
 
 4. The Confederation has the sole right of coining money ; 
 •determines the system of weights and measures ; has the monopoly 
 of the manufacture of war powder; and (recently) the manu- 
 facture and sale of spirituous liquors. 
 
 5. In order to meet the expense of carrying on the Federal 
 Government, it has the sole right of levying export and import 
 duties ; but it levies no direct taxation. 
 
 6. Certain other matters which strictly ought to be under the 
 control of the cantons, have been placed under the control of the 
 Confederation, because they affect the whole or a considerable 
 part of Switzerland, such, for instance, as the preservation of 
 forests, dykes for keeping in the big rivers, railways, and great 
 through roads, etc. 
 
 But you will see that, in spite of this subtraction from cantonal 
 .sovereignty, a great deal of sovereign power is left to be exercised 
 by the cantons themselves. The government of the cantons is 
 the rule, the government of the Federal body the exception ; and 
 in all other matters than those which by the Constitution have 
 been entrusted to the Federal body, each of these little Republics 
 is as sovereign, as independent, as England or France, or any of 
 the great powers of Europe. 
 
 The following are some of the matters in which the cantons are 
 still supreme : — 
 
 1. All civil and all criminal law; and the administration of 
 civil and criminal justice. 
 
 2. Cantonal and local police. 
 
 3. Land laws. 
 
 4. The organisation of the communes, or small local communi- 
 ties or districts. 
 
 5. The organisation of education. 
 
 6. The levying of taxes, except on imports and exports — for 
 instance, graduated or proportionate taxation both on property 
 and income — has now been imposed in a majority of the cantons. 
 
 You will see that these are very large and important powers 
 which the cantons still exercise; and yet consider the smallness of 
 some of the communities which exercise them. Two of them 
 have a population of 12,000 each. Thirteen, or more than half 
 of the cantons, have a population of under 100,000 each. 
 
 I have used the words " the powers which the cantons still 
 exercise;" for you must understand that these powers are not new 
 but old. Indeed, the tendency of modern times has been and 
 still is to curtail these powers, not to enlarge them. 
 
270 National Life and Thought. 
 
 This will be seen more clearly if at this point we take a brief 
 retrospect of Swiss history. 
 
 It may be said to have begun, as already mentioned, towards 
 the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 At that time Switzerland did not exist as a country, but the 
 germs of it were to be found in three little communities living in 
 three valleys, which ran down to the Lake of Lucerne, and in the 
 forests and mountains surrounding them. The names of these 
 three districts were Schwytz — from which the whole country after- 
 wards took its name — Uri, and Unterwalden, which, even earlier 
 than the time we are speaking of, was divided for some purposes 
 into the half-cantons Upper and Lower Unterwalden. No one 
 but the Emperor rightfully claimed any sovereignty over the 
 people ; and, thanks to the remoteness and inaccessibility of their 
 homes, their life was an independent one. But the house of 
 Hapsburg had considerable territorial rights within these districts, 
 by virtue of which the Hapsburgs were constantly endeavouring 
 to increase political sovereignty; and when in 1273 Rudolf of 
 Hapsburg himself became Emperor, there was naturally much 
 confusion of rights, which would have been much more serious but 
 for that prince's high qualities. 
 
 On his death, in the year 1290, the people of Uri, Schwytz, and 
 Unterwalden met, and, in self-defence, concluded a perpetual 
 alliance, agreeing on oath to protect each other, their persons, 
 families, and goods, against all comers, and to aid each other in 
 council and in arms, and each state put its common seal to the 
 document. From this date they styled themselves Confederates 
 or Eidgenosun {i.e. companions of the oath). They did well. 
 Albert of Hapsburg became Emperor in 1298, and, according to 
 tradition, he came into Switzerland anxious to incorporate the 
 three cantons with Austria, and on their refusing he sent among 
 them Austrian bailiffs or stewards (notably Gessler and Landen- 
 berg), who exercised a despotic power over them, oppressed and 
 maltreated them, levied exorbitant taxes from them, and imprisoned 
 them for the slightest offences, real or imaginary. 
 
 This treatment led to a renewal of the oath. In 1307, on the 
 green plateau of Rutli, on the shores of Lucerne, there met at 
 night some ten men from each of the three cantons (under the 
 leadership of Steuffacher, Fiirst, and Melchthel), and with hands 
 raised to Heaven they swore to live and die for the rights of the 
 oppressed people, neither to suffer nor commit injustice, to 
 respect the rights of the Count of Hapsburg, but at the same 
 
Switzerland. 271 
 
 time to place some check on the arbitrary acts of his tyrannical 
 bailiffs. 
 
 They fixed the 1st January 1308 for the execution of their 
 design. Before that date, however, Gessler, as tradition goes, 
 had been killed by William Tell. When the day arrived the plot 
 was successful ; Landenberg was driven from the country ; the 
 castles of the bailiffs were destroyed or taken ; and without loss of 
 blood the liberties of the cantons were restored, and once more 
 their alliance was renewed. 
 
 I must refer to Schiller's " Wilhelm Tell " for a poetical descrip- 
 tion of the somewhat obscure and traditional events of these years. 
 But history soon takes the place of tradition. Albert had been 
 slain in 1301, and in 13x5 Leopold of Austria invaded Switzer- 
 land Avith a large army, and for the first time the League proved 
 its power in battle by completely defeating him at Morgarten, and 
 driving forth from their country the Duke and the remnants of 
 his vanquished army of nobles. This struck a great blow at the 
 exercise of political rights by the house of Hapsburg. Henceforth 
 the Confederates are known as Swiss. And the next few years are 
 marked by several important additions to the League. As early 
 as 1332 Lucerne joined them, and the four forest cantons made a 
 perpetual alliance. In 1351 Zurich, threatened by Albert of 
 Austria, appeals for help to the Confederates, and then joins the 
 Confederation. In the following year Glasus and Zug are both 
 admitted, and in the year 1353 the League was greatly strengthened 
 by the accession of Berne. For more than a century these eight 
 cantons alone formed the Confederation. The sixty years from 
 1291 to 1353 had worked wonders in this little land. 
 
 But the Swiss had not yet won for themselves freedom. 
 Europe had not yet realised the united strength of these little 
 Republics which were thus growing up in their midst; while 
 the dwellers in mountain and in valley were still suffering 
 oppression at the hands of the tyrannical and tax-collecting 
 Austrian land-stewards. This oppression led to further resist- 
 ance; and the destruction of the castle of Rothenburg by a 
 party from Lucerne was the immediate cause of the advance 
 of young Leopold of Austria, whose avowed object was to 
 crush for ever the rising vigour of the Confederates. He was 
 nephew to the Leopold defeated at Morgarten. Leopold's 
 hostility was primarily against Lucerne ; but the other cantons 
 (apparently with the exception of Berne and Zurich), remember- 
 ing their oath, decided to join their forces in resisting him. He 
 
2.J2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 advanced, 5000 strong, against Sempach, which lies ten miles north- 
 west of Lucerne, intending, after having subdued the town, to pass 
 •on and attack the city. 
 
 But on the morning of the 9th July 13S6 he found opposed to 
 him the army of the Confederates, numbering barely 2000. By 
 Leopold's orders his cavalry dismounted, and, closing their ranks, 
 they formed with their shields one solid iron wall, which was 
 defended by their long lances. Against this wall the little Swiss 
 army poured itself in vain, but with most disastrous results to 
 itself. All seemed lost, when, according to tradition, which is 
 neither proved nor disproved, Arnold Von Winkelried of 
 Unterwalden, declaring that he would open a way for free- 
 dom, cast away his weapons, and, rushing forward, gathered into 
 his breast as many of the Austrian spears as his arms could 
 encircle. This device opened a space in the great armed wall of 
 the enemy through which his comrades could enter. The Swiss 
 victory was complete. Leopold and hundreds of his Swabian 
 knights were slain, and Winkelried, by his heroic self-devo- 
 tion, won for himself the everlasting gratitude of the Swiss 
 people. 
 
 Two years later (1388) the Austrians were again defeated, this 
 time by Glasus, almost without help, at the battle of Noefels. In 
 the early years of the next century we find Appenzels bearing the 
 chief brunt of the Austrian attack. Assisted by the Confederates, 
 she several times successfully repulsed Frederick of Austria,and the 
 latter proposed and concluded a fifty years' peace with the Con- 
 federates, in the year 141 2. This peace was broken not by 
 Austria but by the Swiss, who were urged on by the Emperor 
 Sigismund, also by the Church, to attack Frederick's territory in 
 Aargau. In spite of the protestations of many of the cantons, 
 who condemned this breach of faith, Berne, and at length all the 
 Confederates, conquered Aargau. Berne took the greater part of 
 it, and the remainder was governed in turn by the other cantons, 
 except Uri, who declined, from conscientious motives, to have any 
 share in the spoil. 
 
 But, alas ! " the love of money is the root of all evil " in Switzer- 
 land as elsewhere, When the Swiss had been fighting in self- 
 defence and for freedom they were united. Now there were 
 jealousies about this property they owned in common again. A 
 few years later a disputed claim to territory led to a quarrel 
 between Zurich and Schwytz. The Confederates offered to 
 separate, but Zurich declined, and this led to actual civil war 
 
Switzerland. 273 
 
 between the Confederates and Zurich. After much fighting and 
 bloodshed peace was restored in 1450. 
 
 Then for a time the Swiss are once more united in having to 
 face the terrible attacks of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who 
 came against them with great armies. And thus united they 
 defeated him in 1476 at Grandson, and took from him enormous 
 spoils of gold and precious stones. And later, in the same year, 
 he was once more completely defeated at Morat, and the year 
 after defeated and slain at Nancy. 
 
 But, alas ! when they were thus saved from their dangers and 
 peace was restored, the Swiss quarrelled once more amongst 
 themselves over the booty they had taken in war. The unsettle- 
 ment caused by so much fighting led to brigandage and internal 
 disorder. Many Swiss hired themselves out to foreign countries, 
 to fight as mercenaries. There were disputes also between the 
 towns and the country districts. The condition of Switzerland at 
 this time was far from satisfactory. 
 
 Several Diets or Assemblies of the cantons were held without 
 success ; discord usually prevailed at them. The same fate seemed 
 to be awaiting the Diet which was being held at Stans in the year 
 148 1 ; but an old hermit, called Nicholas de Flue, suddenly came 
 among them, and preached to them peace and concord. His 
 venerable dignity told upon them, and harmony was restored. By 
 the Convention of Stans the points in dispute were settled, and 
 Soleure and Freiburg were admitted to the Alliance. The effect 
 of the Convention was still further to increase the Federal 
 sovereignty, and to lessen the individual power of the cantons. 
 
 A few years later the Austrian attacks were renewed, but in 
 many engagements they were successfully repulsed by the Swiss, 
 whom this danger had again united. These incidents led in 1501 
 to the admission of Bale and Schaffhausen, and, in 1513, of 
 Appenzell, into the Confederation, which now numbered thirteen 
 states, and this number was maintained until the year 1798. 
 
 I need not dwell long on this period of nearly three centuries. 
 It is not marked by great victories or triumphs ; rather is it marked 
 by great internal discord, due primarily to religious wars, which 
 troubled Switzerland, as they did most other countries of Europe, 
 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for both the old 
 faith and the new had many adherents in Switzerland ; due also 
 to present revolts and political disturbances, for the town states, 
 such as Berne, Lucerne, etc., treated the rural population as sub-, 
 jects, in this differing from the old country cantons of Schwytz, 
 
 s 
 
274 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Uri, Unterwalden, etc., where the whole population were on the 
 same equal terms. The fact that these thirteen states held together 
 during all those troublous times, is itself a strong proof of the 
 national feeling in Switzerland. That there was so much discord, 
 arose from the want of a strong central executive. Much of the 
 remaining territory which now forms part of Switzerland, was at 
 that time connected with the Confederation, either as subject 
 states, such as Aargau and Thurgau, or bound to it by treaties, 
 such as the Grisons, the Valois, Geneva, etc. 
 
 The spirit of the French Revolution reached Switzerland, and 
 there was a rising of those who were being denied the privilege 
 of citizenship. In 1798 France interfered, and having defeated 
 the Swiss, she put an end to the old Confederation, and intro- 
 duced one united Republic for the whole of Switzerland, which 
 destroyed the old sovereignty of the cantons, and was most dis- 
 tasteful to the majority of the Swiss. It could not last long. In 
 1803 Napoleon drew up a form of Constitution, called the Act of 
 Mediation, which nearly restored the old Confederation, except 
 that a more regular Constitution is given to the Diet, and that six 
 new cantons were admitted, viz., St. Gale, the Grisons, Aargau, 
 Thurgau, Ticino, and Vaud. They had been subject or allied 
 cantons ; now they exercise sovereign rights as members of the 
 Confederation. 
 
 Then came the fall of Napoleon, but the great Powers recog- 
 nised the neutrality of Switzerland, and in 1815 approved of a 
 new Constitution, known as the Federal Pact, and three more 
 cantons, Valois, Neuchatel, and Geneva, making twenty-two in 
 all, were admitted. 
 
 The Federal tie was firmly maintained; there was a Diet for 
 general affairs, meeting in alternate years at Zurich, Berne, and 
 Lucerne. Each canton had one vote, but there was little unity 
 of purpose. 
 
 It was found that the central authority was not strong enough 
 to cope with agitation and discord throughout the country. The 
 cantons were too independent. The deputies they sent to the 
 Diets were delegates only, and could only vote according to 
 their instructions, and these instructions were varied and conflicting. 
 
 The spirit of revolution prevalent in Europe reached Switzer- 
 land, and by the year 1847 the Constitutions of nearly all the can- 
 tons had been modified and made more democratic. It became 
 evident that a change in the general Constitution was necessary. 
 It was precipitated by religious troubles. 
 
Switzerland. 275 
 
 Unfair treatment, as it was thought of the Catholics, especially 
 in Aargau, led to seven Catholic cantons forming a separate 
 League, known as the Sonderbund, in the interests of their 
 religion. This was clearly a violation of the Federal Pact. A 
 committee of the Diet, to whom the settlement of the disputes was 
 intrusted, declared the Sonderbund dissolved, and by a short 
 three-weeks' campaign they soon reduced the seceding cantons to 
 submission. 
 
 Then followed the work of drawing up a Constitution, that of 
 the United States being largely taken as a model. Two months 
 •sufficed to complete it. The new Constitution was at once 
 accepted by thirteen-and-a-half cantons, and was finally promul- 
 gated with the assent of all in September 1848. 
 
 It was a compromise. A stronger central power was created. 
 This gave compactness to the country, which better secured 
 peace both without and within; but it lessened the sovereignty of 
 the cantons. 
 
 In fact, a new epoch in Swiss political history began in the year 
 1848. The lower form of Federal Government, known as a system 
 of Confederated States, had previously existed. Now the full idea of 
 'Federal Government is for the first time introduced, which Pro- 
 fessor Freeman describes as " the most artificial production of 
 .political ingenuity." 
 
 According to Professor Dicey, "The sentiment which creates a 
 Federal state is the prevalence throughout the citizens of more or 
 .less allied countries, of two feelings which are to a certain extent 
 inconsistent — the desire for national unity, and the determination 
 to maintain the independence of each man's separate state. The 
 aim of Federalism is to give effect as far as possible to both these 
 sentiments." 
 
 Both these sentiments were prevalent in a marked degree in 
 Switzerland at the time of the Sonderbund war, the latter being 
 perhaps the stronger ; and effect was successfully given to both 
 of them by the new Federal constitution which was then 
 introduced. 
 
 There were now for the first time to be two Legislative Cham- 
 bers, together composing the Federal Assembly, in which the 
 •supreme authority of the Swiss Confederation is vested, subject 
 nevertheless to the rights of the people and the cantons as 
 hereinafter mentioned. 
 
 Of these two Chambers, the National Council is elected propor- 
 tionately to the whole population, one deputy being chosen for 
 
276 National Life and Thought. 
 
 each 20,000 inhabitants, and it represents the Swiss people as a 
 whole. 
 
 The Council of States, on the other hand, keeps alive the sove- 
 reignty of the cantons ; for each canton, great or small, sends two 
 members, and the mode of their election (whether directly by the 
 people or by the Cantonal Parliaments) and the terms of their 
 office is fixed by each canton individually. The deputies of the 
 National Council, on the other hand, are all elected for three 
 years ; and every Swiss, on attaining his twenty-first year, is qualified 
 to vote. 
 
 These two Chambers generally sit separately. But sitting 
 together, they constitute the Federal Assembly, and have power 
 to elect the members of the Government, or Federal Council, as- 
 it is called, and to choose the chief Federal officers. 
 
 Such is the general outline of the present Swiss Constitution. 
 There is one striking fact to be drawn from the history of this- 
 country, which should not be without its lesson to us, namely,, 
 that in Switzerland the constitutional movement throughout 
 several centuries has not been one of disintegration, but of 
 gradual cohesion, not of weakening the central authority, and; 
 giving greater powers to the separate governments ; but the sepa- 
 rate communities, starting with practical independence, have been 
 gradually giving up more and more of their authority to the 
 central power, and especially has this been so in the last 
 century. 
 
 Up to 1798 the Federal tie binding the thirteen cantons was 
 a very loose one, not amounting to much more than an alliance. 
 Other cantons were bound to them only by alliances. Then came 
 the short-lived Helvetic Republic, which in 1803 gave way to Napo- 
 leon's Act of Mediation, when a regular Diet, but with limited 
 powers, was created. Then came the Federal Pact in 181 5, and 
 also with a regular Diet ; but the central authority was still nearly 
 powerless. This has had to give way in 1848 to a much 
 closer union of the cantons in a Federal Constitution. And again 
 in 1874 a revised Constitution binds them still more closely 
 together. Even since that date there have been some partial 
 revisions ; and in the matters of marriage laws, factory laws, the 
 sale of spirits, and patent laws, the Confederation has been en- 
 croaching upon the cantons. And it seems certain that more power 
 must gradually come into the hands of the Federal authorities, for 
 convenience demands it ; the diversity of legislation in different 
 cantons, on common subjects, such, for instance, as bankruptcy 
 
Switzerland. 277 
 
 .and crime, being clearly productive of much inconvenience and 
 even confusion. 
 
 Professor Freeman's axiom that Federal Government must be 
 •closer combination of States, not a separation of United States, is 
 certainly true of Switzerland. 
 
 Personally one cannot help feeling sympathy for the smaller 
 and older States who, having been nearly sovereign for the last 
 five or six centuries, desire still to retain as large a portion of that 
 sovereignty as is compatible with a strong, united Switzerland. 
 But the Constitution is on the whole popular — both with those who 
 desire further centralisation, and think it will come gradually, 
 and with those who, favouring the sovereignty of the cantons, 
 think this is fairly secured to them under the Constitution. This 
 is the view of the late Sir F. Adam, British Minister at Berne, to 
 whose most interesting book on the Swiss Confederation I am 
 indebted for much material of this lecture. 
 
 The Constitutions of the several cantons, the manner in which 
 they exercise those sovereign powers which remain to them, differ 
 ^enormously; and subject to certain Federal restrictions, each 
 canton regulates its own constitution according to its own devices. 
 In olden times, the form of government in some of the cantons, 
 such as Berne and Lucerne, though republican, was intensely 
 aristocratic, the power being in the hands of a close corporation 
 or a few patrician families. In others, such as Zurich and Basel, 
 though all the townspeople had a voice in the government, the 
 country people were excluded. But the three original cantons 
 and the other rural cantons had all along been purely democratic. 
 Now, however, the sovereignty of each State must, according to 
 the Swiss Constitution, reside in the people of that canton. 
 
 But that sovereignty is very variously exercised. In some can- 
 tons the people elect a representative Pact, it may be for two 
 years, as in Geneva ; or for three, as in Zurich ; for four, as in 
 Vaud; or for five, as in Freiburg. These Parliaments not only 
 pass laws, but in most cantons choose the members of the Govern- 
 ment. In some cantons, however, such as Zurich and Zug, the 
 members of the Government are chosen directly by the people. 
 
 I need not, however, weary you with more examples of such 
 diversity. Enough if I call your attention to one of the most 
 striking and one of the most picturesque features of Swiss 
 political institutions, namely, that in some of the smaller cantons 
 there is no need for any representative Parliament at all. There 
 are half-a-dozen of these communities so small, numbering only 
 
278 National Life and Thought. 
 
 from 12,000 to 50,000, that instead of electing a Parliament to- 
 pass laws and vote taxes and choose ministers, the sovereign 
 powers of the canton are directly exercised by all the adult male 
 citizens assembled once a year in some historic spot in meadow 
 or in market-place, and there they transact all the necessary busi- 
 ness for themselves. 
 
 In the spring of 1886 I had the privilege of being present at 
 two of such gatherings — one at Stans, the capital of Nidwalden, and 
 the other at Altdorf, the capital of Uri. 
 
 In both cases the proceedings of the day were begun by High 
 Mass in the Church, which was attended by the Landamman, or 
 Prime Minister of the canton, and the remaining members of the 
 Government, and other officials, all of whom in Nidwalden wore 
 their robes of office. After Church the officials went in procession, 
 accompanied by a military guard and a band of music 5 to the 
 place of meeting; for in both the cantons the actual meeting, 
 place is in a green meadow a mile or two out of the town. In 
 Uri there is nothing special to mark the spot; but temporary 
 hustings are erected, forming a large ring, in the centre of which 
 sits the Landamman and the Land-schreiber, or Secretary of State. 
 In Nidwalden, on the other hand, there is a permanent earthwork 
 enclosure, of course with no other roof than the sky, surrounded by 
 a fine grove of chestnut trees, just then in their freshest green. 
 But in both cases the more distant surroundings, the green chalet- 
 covered slopes in the foreground, and giant mountains rising in 
 the background, whether the snow-capped heights of the Busin 
 or the rugged outline of Pilatus, formed an amphitheatre which it 
 would be hard to equal for beauty or for grandeur. 
 
 Passing over the brief and less exciting scenes at Stans, I will 
 give a short outline of the proceedings at the Landesgemeinde of 
 Uri. My companion and I obtained without difficulty front seats 
 on the hustings. 
 
 The Land-haibel, or chief of the ushers, whose duty it is to count 
 the voting, opened the business by a declaration as to the 
 qualification of electors. Then the Landamman, Herr Maheim r 
 made his retiring speech. He addressed the Assembly as " Dear 
 fellow-countrymen" (Liebe mit Landlente), and told them that 
 meeting them here at the end of his year of office, his heart was, as 
 ever, full of love for their little Heimatland (Home-country). He 
 then spoke of the great evils of spirit-drinking, which had been on 
 the increase in Switzerland, referred with satisfaction to the recent 
 Federal law (already alluded to), which placed the manufacture 
 
Switzerland. 279 
 
 and sale of spirits under the control of the Federal authorities, and 
 concluded this portion of his speech by appealing to his fellow- 
 citizens to live a self-controlled and moral life. 
 
 He then proceeded to recall the famous memories of early 
 times, and to make this, the five-hundredth anniversary of Sem- 
 pach, the keynote of his speech, which continued somewhat as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Faithful and dear fellow-countrymen," said he, " on the 9th 
 of next July/Jt will be just five hundred years since the famous 
 battle of Sempach was fought, which secured to us our liberties. 
 Important as were the League at Riitli and the fight at Morgarten, 
 that which was achieved by them was but dim and insecure. 
 Later, in the same century, came young Leopold of Austria against 
 the four forest cantons to crush them; but they went forth to 
 meet him, and Uri sent out her illustrious Conrad der Fraven. 
 It was a glorious and complete victory which the Confederates 
 achieved over a much more numerous enemy ; and it is only since 
 that famous battle of Sempach that our League has been strong, 
 respected, and feared. Dear, faithful fellow-countrymen, we hold 
 our Landesgemeinde to-day on the same spot where our ancestors 
 decided to fight for their liberties and for ours. Let us follow their 
 great example. It is true that the character of our warfare has 
 changed ; we have peaceful work to perform instead of waging war. 
 But we have our vigour and our existence to maintain, and it is only 
 through a childlike devout trust in God that we can do this. Let 
 future generations speak well of us too ; and though they will not 
 say that we have won victory in battle, may they be able to say of 
 us that we have preserved our religion and maintained the State, 
 and have handed down to them the same glorious inheritance. 
 
 "Let us now ask God's assistance, and that He will guide our 
 work aright. Let us each say five Ave Marias and five Pater- 
 nosters." 
 
 He ceased. The whole assemblage, numbering probably 
 upwards of two thousand, then rose to their feet, bared their 
 heads, and prayed in silence. During the time thus occupied 
 in prayer, which could hardly have been less than two minutes, 
 and seemed much longer, perfect stillness prevailed amongst that 
 great throng. The scene was a most impressive one. 
 
 Then followed the regular business. The Landamman was 
 re-elected, so were most of the other retiring officers. Most of this 
 business was formal, but the matter became animated when a 
 
28o National Life and Thought. 
 
 certain Herr Miiller, whose turn it was to retire, begged not to be 
 re-elected. A member of the Government receives as salary only 
 3f. (or 2S. 6d.) for each time the Government meets to 
 transact business. It is therefore not surprising that men should 
 often shrink from rather than seek after the labours of office. But 
 a man chosen by the people to fill a certain office in the State is 
 bound to serve. Hence Hcrr Midler's difficulty. He pleaded 
 the claims of his family, said he must consider their interests, and 
 felt that he could not attend further to public affairs. Two others 
 were against their wishes nominated to fill the office, and the 
 names of the three unwilling candidates were successively put 
 before the meeting. There was a close contest ; three times a 
 show of hands was demanded, but eventually Herr Miiller was 
 re-elected. And thus for three years more this poor man must 
 needs neglect his family to serve the State. Would that such 
 unselfish patriotism were common among our own politicians ! 
 
 The exciting business of the day was yet to come, viz. the 
 consideration of the Government Bill, which besides other fiscal 
 amendments, introduced progressive taxation, both on the capital 
 value of property, and on income, — the tax on income increasing 
 from a quarter per cent, on the lowest incomes to two per cent, 
 on the largest. 
 
 The debate was animated. It was clear from the cheers and 
 cries of disapproval what the issue would be. But if members 
 were on the side of the tax, one could not help thinking that the 
 arguments were against it, but perhaps this was prejudice. One 
 witty opponent said he thought the people did not understand the 
 principle of progression. He would explain. Suppose a cobbler 
 made a pair of boots for some one whose foot was six inches long, 
 and then another whose foot was twelve inches long ordered a pair 
 of boots, and the cobbler, instead of making the second pair twice 
 as long as the first, made it three times as long, that would be 
 progression, that is the principle of progressive taxation. 
 
 The Landamman wound up the debate, supporting, of course, 
 his own measure. It was carried by an acclamation, and by an 
 immense majority of votes, and this brought the meeting to a 
 close. It had lasted about four hours. 
 
 If it be thought that this is too hurried a way for determining 
 important questions of State, it must be borne in mind that a few 
 weeks previous to the meeting a printed official programme is 
 sent to every citizen. The laws to be proposed are set out in 
 full, a list of the offices to be filled, and details of the taxes to 
 
Switzerland. 281 
 
 be asked for. Thus the citizens have ample opportunity of 
 considering and discussing among themselves in private the 
 questions upon which they will shortly be called upon in public 
 •to decide. 
 
 I trust you will not think too much time has been devoted to 
 those Landsgemeinden. They are not the important feature in 
 Swiss political life to-day ; but, on the other hand, they are of great 
 historical and antiquarian interest. They are a perfect survival of 
 the oldest institutions of our race, and probably represent what 
 used to take place in the early year of our own country. Through 
 storm and revolution, through wars without and discords within, 
 these primitive institutions have been maintained, and form an 
 integral part in the practical working of the Swiss Confederation at 
 the present day. 
 
 The striking feature in Switzerland is to be found in the 
 extraordinary success which so far has attended the close form of 
 Federal Government which has existed since 1848, a period of 
 more than forty years. 
 
 It has on a move made Switzerland strong and united, as the 
 smaller Switzerland used to be when, in the fourteenth century, she 
 had to contend against the might of Austria, and has thus enabled 
 her to take up a stronger position towards the nations without, and 
 to prevent discord .between the various cantons within ; and yet 
 through all it preserves the identity, the peculiarities, the local 
 sentiments of the canton. 
 
 Little Catholic Nidwalden, with its 12,000 inhabitants, holds 
 its yearly Landsgemeinde. Her great Protestanfneighbour Berne, 
 with more than half a million inhabitants, has the complete 
 machinery of a representative Parliament. The most extra- 
 ordinary differences of language and religion exist among the 
 cantons of Switzerland. Some German cantons are all Catholic, 
 others practically all Protestant, others half and half. In Berne, 
 a Protestant canton, we find both Germans and French. In 
 Freiburg, a Catholic canton, we find both French and Germans. 
 Ticino is Roman Catholic and Italian. In the Grisons, where the 
 religions are about equally divided, we find a preponderance of 
 German, but also Italian, and the old-fashioned Romansch and 
 Ladin languages. Again, some of the cantons are violently 
 Conservative, other advanced in their Liberalism. Some are almost 
 wholly pastoral and agricultural, others have a large manufacturing 
 -and urban population. Truly, then, the Swiss may claim for 
 their Constitution a great success, when without destroying the 
 
282 National Life and Thought. 
 
 individualism of the cantons it effectually and amicably binds^ 
 together such contrary and diverse elements. 
 
 But it is not only in this successful binding together of diverse 
 elements that the Federal Constitution has achieved a great 
 success. Both it and the individual constitutions of the majority 
 of the cantons satisfy the two requirements of good government 
 laid down, which I think we may safely adopt. In the preface 
 to the Constitution which he framed for Pennsylvania, William 
 Penn stated that in his view the perfect form of government was 
 one " when the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws." 
 
 Let us see how far these two tests apply to Switzerland. The 
 laws rule in Switzerland, because the people who made the laws 
 naturally expect them to be obeyed, else where were the good of 
 making them. And they intrust the administration of those laws 
 to a government which is elected for a definite term of years and 
 holds office independently of the subsequent approval or censure of 
 the electing body. This is true whether of the Federal Council, 
 which, as before said, is elected for three years by the Federal 
 Assembly, or of the governments of individual cantons which are 
 similarly elected for a term. If the Federal Government 
 proposes some measure which is rejected by the Assembly, that 
 measure does not become law ; but the Government accepts the 
 rejection, it asks for no vote of confidence, nothing ensues in the 
 shape of a ministerial crisis, nor does it dissolve the Assembly, 
 for it has no power to do so. The Government having been 
 elected for a fixed term, remains at its post, and everything goes 
 on as before. The effect of this is to make the Swiss Government 
 during those three years that it lasts a strong Government. And 
 the Republican Swiss, like the Republican Americans, know well, 
 what we in monarchical England seem too often to forget, that a 
 strong executive is absolutely essential to the good government of 
 any country. 
 
 Bearing upon this, there are some further points about the 
 Swiss Federal Council which are well worthy of note. Their 
 salaries are small, only ^480 a year each. It is an almost 
 universal practice to re-elect the members of the Council when 
 their term of office expires, provided, of course, that they are 
 willing to remain in office. There have hitherto been only two 
 exceptions to this practice. The country therefore does not lose 
 the services of a capable, honest, and devoted administrator 
 because his own political views happen just then not to be in the 
 ascendant. This rarely is an excellent principal. 
 
Switzerland. 283: 
 
 It follows almost as a corollary from the last proposition that men> 
 of different political views sit and work amicably together in the 
 same Council. They may take strongly divergent views on individual 
 questions. It has even happened that two of their body have 
 risen in succession to support opposite sides in the debates in the 
 Assembly (which they are permitted to address, but of which 
 they are fiot members), and yet they will work harmoniously 
 together all the time in the administration of the country. The 
 majority in the Council generally belong to the same party as the 
 majority in the Assembly. But the majority in the Assembly 
 does not exercise its strict rights; there is a certain feeling of fair- 
 play which leads them to concede the principle that other parties 
 should at least be represented in the executive government. 
 
 Would that such a state of things existed in England, that our 
 politicians might, especially when in opposition, forget the petty 
 claims of party for the welfare of our common country ! Would it 
 not be for the benefit of the whole United Kingdom if the 
 Government thereof could be intrusted for a term of years to 
 good and capable men and administrators of whatever party. 
 We should eliminate from either party its less able and less trusted 
 members, and we should not have the ablest members of the 
 opposition perpetually thwarting the ablest men in office. 
 
 We see, then, that in Switzerland "the laws rule;" and more 
 than that, there is no other country in which it may so safely be 
 said that "the people are a party to those laws." 
 
 I have already explained how purely democratic is the com- 
 position of the Federal Assembly ; and have stated that " in it the 
 supreme authority of the Swiss Confederation is vested, subject 
 nevertheless to the rights of the people and the cantons as. 
 hereinafter mentioned." We now come to consider what are the 
 rights of the people and the cantons which impose limitations on 
 the power of the Federal Assembly. They are to be found in the 
 peculiar Swiss political institution known as the Referendum t 
 which means "the reference to all vote-possessing citizens of the 
 Confederation for acceptance or rejection of the laws passed by 
 their representatives in the Assembly." 
 
 If any charge is proposed in the Swiss Constitution, there must 
 be a Referendum ; but if any ordinary laws or general resolutions- 
 are passed by the Assembly, a Referendum takes place only if 
 such be demanded either by 30,000 citizens or by eight cantons. 
 When a change in the Constitution or any new law or resolution 
 is put to the Referendum, such change or law only comes into- 
 
284 National Life and TJwught. 
 
 force if a majority of the citizens participating the vote pronounce 
 in the affirmative, and if a majority of the cantons are also in 
 favour of the change. 
 
 Thus the new Constitution of 1874 was agreed to by 340,000 
 citizens against 198,000; and by fourteen-and-a-half cantons in 
 favour, and only seven-and-a-half cantons against. Now 
 supposing that twelve of the smaller cantons had voted against 
 the Constitution, and ten of the larger in favour of it, the reform 
 would not have been carried out, even though a majority of Swiss 
 citizens were in its favour. In this way something of the old 
 sovereignty of the cantons is secured. The voting is very simple. 
 All that the voter has to do is to deposit in the ballot-box his 
 voting-paper with either Yes or No written upon it. 
 
 This ultimate reference of important decisions directly to the 
 people secures a more purely democratic form of government 
 than anything that can be obtained by the necessarily defective 
 system of representation. It gives back to the Swiss people 
 something of that direct share in legislation which they possessed 
 before representative Parliaments were introduced, and which the 
 six small cantons still possess in regard to their own affairs, as we 
 saw when speaking of the Landsgemeinde. 
 
 The result of the system is said to be excellent. It makes each 
 citizen feel his own individual influence and responsibility; it 
 strengthens national and patriotic feeling ; extreme measures on 
 one side or the other have no chance of passing, and measures that 
 are passed naturally carry greater weight, having thus the direct 
 sanction of the majority of citizens. Radicals like the system, 
 because it is essentially democratic. Conservatives have become 
 its earnest supporters now that they find it acts as a check upon 
 hasty and radical law-making. 
 
 Not only does this system prevail in the Confederation, it 
 prevails in most of the cantons also. The cantons which have a 
 Landsgemeinde do not need it ; the others acquire many advan- 
 tages of the Landsgemeinde by means of the Referendum. 
 
 In seven of them the Referendum is compulsory ; that is, the 
 people must express their opinion directly on all important matters 
 as defined by the Constitution. Thus, in all these seven cantons, 
 any single expenditure above a certain limit, or increased annual 
 expenditure, must be submitted to the popular vote. In Berne the 
 limit is ^20,000. In Schwytz it is as low as ^2000, or ^400 
 additional per annum. 
 
 In seven other cantons there is an optional Referendum only ; 
 
Switzerland. 285 
 
 that is, that a certain number of citizens have a right to demand 
 the Referendum. 
 
 Freiburg is the only canton where there is no Referendum as to 
 laws or expenditure ; but even there it prevails as to the revision 
 of their Constitution. 
 
 It is evident that the Referendum, both federal and cantonal, 
 affords to the Swiss people a certain guarantee that they cannot 
 be governed by laws to the making of which they have not 
 themselves been parties. 
 
 There are many other phases in the political and social life of 
 Switzerland to which time will only permit a brief allusion. 
 
 Among such are the Communes, the units of political life in 
 Switzerland, which may be considered as the base from which first 
 the canton and then the Confederation is formed. They are purely 
 democratic. Two or three times a year a general assembly is 
 held of all male citizens belonging to the commune. The assembly 
 elects an administrative council of six or eight members, votes the 
 communal taxes, and decides important questions. The council 
 so elected looks after the roads, the police, the poor, public 
 instruction, and so forth. Most of the communes have property, 
 especially woods and pastures, in high Alps ; and this communal 
 property is also administered by the council in conformity with the 
 wishes of the commune. 
 
 It is this communal life which is, in some respects, the strength 
 of Switzerland. By it the Swiss nation has been trained from its 
 infancy — and each individual Swiss from his infancy — to habits 
 of law-making and administration. And when we add to this the 
 training which so large a proportion of the Swiss have for centuries 
 had as members of cantons — especially in the old free cantons — 
 it is not surprising that, at the present day, every Swiss is born a 
 statesman, and that the Swiss as a nation are pre-eminent in the 
 art of government. 
 
 With a population about two-fifths Roman Catholic, and three- 
 fifths Protestant, it is not surprising that the Constitution of 1874 
 declares liberty of conscience and belief to be inviolable, and 
 guarantees the free exercise of worship within the limits compatible 
 with public decency and order. It must be admitted, however, 
 that this limitation is somewhat strictly enforced. The order of 
 Jesuits is not allowed in Switzerland ; new convents cannot be 
 founded ; and in some cantons no religious processions are allowed 
 to take place in the streets. Considering this strictness against 
 Roman Catholics, we can well understand that the Salvation 
 
■2 86 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Army should so often be interfered with as being likely to cause 
 .a breach of the peace. All these limitations on religious worship 
 .are remarkable in so free a country as Switzerland. They no 
 doubt arise from the remembrance of so much religious discord in 
 the past ; a discord perhaps due to the fact that the Swiss are 
 earnest in their religion, and feel their differences keenly. 
 
 The Swiss are the best taught nation in the world. The Con- 
 stitution makes primary education compulsory, and it is given at 
 public expense ; but each canton has its own system. In some 
 cantons Catholic and Protestant children receive religious instruc- 
 tion together in the communal schools ; in other cantons it is given 
 separately. The best sites in town or village are chosen for the 
 schools, and public money is ungrudgingly spent on education. 
 As a result, every child in the Confederation, not mentally 
 incapacitated, is able to read and write. 
 
 But one must not prolong the description of all these various 
 phases of life in Switzerland, or tell of her marvellous success in 
 manufactures and in agriculture — a success obtained nevertheless 
 by the utmost skill and industry, and insufficient to obviate a 
 considerable annual emigration to America. This is no place for 
 a detailed description of the little Republic. My aim has been 
 rather to give you a brief outline of its history and development, 
 especially in connection with the existing forms of government; 
 and to rouse, if it may be, some enthusiasm such as the Swiss 
 feel in their country and its institutions. 
 
 They are all proud of their history — which, nevertheless, as we 
 have seen, is not common to all the cantons; they delight in 
 celebrating centenaries of its important events, and yet the ances- 
 tors of many of those who in 1886 were joyfully celebrating the five- 
 hundredth anniversary of the battle of Sempach, suffered defeat in 
 the army of Leopold. But that matters not now. These ancient 
 feuds are forgotten. Federalism has done its work ; it has succeeded 
 in binding together very diverse and even jarring elements, while 
 preserving the sovereignty of the cantons. It has succeeded in 
 enlarging the borders of Switzerland, and freedom within her 
 borders has thereby been enlarged also. 
 
 The principal object of this course of lectures is stated to be 
 "to modify our insular prejudices respecting foreign countries.' 
 There is no European country to whose history and institutions 
 Englishmen ought to be more alive than the Switzerland in which 
 they spend so many a pleasant holiday ; none in which they can 
 learn better the advantages of a strong yet popular executive, freed 
 
Switzerland. 287 
 
 from the tyranny of party warfare;, none in which they see better 
 the full ideal of Federal government ; yet few, perhaps, whose 
 history and institutions have received less attention from the 
 British public. To travel for the sake of historical or political 
 research is one thing, to travel for the sake of beauty of scenery 
 is another, but it is nowhere possible to combine these two pursuits 
 so effectually and so delightfully as in Switzerland. 
 
 Yet who considers for a moment when he takes the boat from 
 Lucerne to Fluelen, touching at Beckenried and Brunnen on 
 the way, that he has in those two-and-a-half hours been in four 
 successive Republics, each of them semi-sovereign and inde- 
 pendent? How many of the English travellers who daily in 
 summer are crossing the Brunig Pass, or winding with amazement 
 through the circular tunnels of the S. Gothard railway, dream for 
 -a moment that at Sarnen and at Altdorf they are passing green 
 meadows where the whole manhood of a free state still yearly 
 meets to choose its ministers, to vote its taxes, and to make its 
 laws ? 
 
 As one who has found intense enjoyment in the natural beauty 
 of Switzerland, and has felt that enjoyment quickened by the 
 study of the history and politics of her people, it is but discharg- 
 ing a debt of gratitude if I have been enabled this afternoon to 
 inspire some keener interest in Swiss freedom — in the story which 
 tells how that freedom has been won — and in the political 
 institutions under which it is safeguarded. 
 
XVI. 
 
 MODERN LIFE AND THOUGHT AMONGST THE 
 GREEKS. 
 
 J. THEODORE BENT. 
 
 I DO not propose in this lecture to confine myself to the narrow- 
 limits of the kingdom we now call Greece, but to give an 
 account of the condition in which we now find the whole of the 
 Greek race scattered through the towns, villages, and islands on 
 the Eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Somehow the en- 
 thusiasm for the Greek which was so keen during the first half 
 of this century, an enthusiasm which was fostered by our poets 
 and our classical students, has of late years cooled down into 
 something like indifference, as far as the modern Greeks are 
 concerned. Theories like that of Fallermayer have been widely 
 discussed, namely, that the modern Greeks are all of Albanian 
 blood, and that the descendants of the old race of heroes is extinct ; 
 this theory is doubtless in a measure true, on the mainland and 
 in the mountainous districts it is undoubtedly the case. The 
 Greeks were never a pastoral race, but gregarious, wedded to the 
 sea and commerce, hence we must look for the race always along 
 the seaboard, either in the big towns of the Levant, or in the 
 islands to which the barbarian races never penetrated. But into 
 this question of race I will not go, for it is an inexhaustible and 
 unsatisfactory one; suffice it for our purpose that we have now 
 existing a kingdom inhabited by people who call themselves 
 Greeks, and a much larger area inhabited by people speaking the 
 Greek tongue, a language much more closely akin to the language 
 spoken at the beginning of our era than the English which we 
 speak to-day is to the language spoken in the time of Chaucer : 
 and it is a curious but well-ascertained fact that the language of 
 the New Testament is much more akin to the language spoken in 
 Greece to-day, than it is to the language of Plato and Demosthenes, 
 that is to say, a period of eighteen centuries of turmoil and oppres- 
 sion has had less effect on the language than four centuries of 
 prosperity and literary activity. 
 
 289 rp 
 
290 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Let us first glance at the progress made by the present kingdom 
 of Greece during its sixty years of emancipation from Turkish 
 oppression. It is true that Europe is somewhat disappointed with 
 the position it has taken up amongst nations. It was expected to 
 develop itself like Italy has done, to become a power in the East, 
 to eventually take up the reins of government in the Balkan 
 provinces, with its capital at Constantinople. That is to say, we are 
 disappointed that a tiny, mountainous country, without resources, 
 for the most part sterile, the inhabitants of which, from long 
 disuse to government, t look only to local interests, and on whom 
 the idea of patriotism is only just dawning, has not as if by magic 
 blossomed forth into a ruling power. We might as well set Ireland 
 adrift by itself in the middle of the Atlantic, and expect it to rival 
 the British Empire, as expect the tiny Greek kingdom, with its two 
 million inhabitants, to take her position as a power in the East. 
 On a close examination, however, I think Greece, especially now 
 that it is becoming more united in a common cause, will be seen 
 to have done everything that any one in reason could have expected 
 of it. The first of the many difficulties it had to contend with 
 was want of union. Every town and every island scrambled at 
 the outset for its own separate advantage ; patriotism was a 
 quantity entirely unknown to them ; then again, a national Greek 
 failing was that everybody sought to be a politician, everybody 
 talked, and nobody dared to act. The outcome of this is still evident 
 in Athens, the smallest capital in Europe, yet the one which pro- 
 duces the greatest number of daily newspapers in proportion to its 
 size. Governments rose and fell with a rapidity that would be 
 startling even in a South American republic, until at last one 
 man, by his firmness, his ability, and his uprightness, has at last 
 stemmed this disastrous current, and is moulding Greece into a 
 steady system of practical politics. This man is Mr Tricoupis, 
 who spent most of his youthful days in England. He was educated 
 at Harrow, and made himself thoroughly master of our system of 
 legislature, and under his guidance it is being brought to a suc- 
 cessful issue on the old soil of Hellas. 
 
 Let us glance at the capital. Athens is all modern, and the 
 pity is that King Otho, out of sentiment, reconstructed it where it 
 is. If he had kept the ancient city with its Acropolis as a museum, 
 and built his capital at the Piraeus, it would have been infinitely 
 superior, both for those who wished to pursue commerce, and 
 those who wished to study archaeology. The rows of white 
 houses, the trim, clean streets, the public buildings and palaces, 
 
Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 291 
 
 are all the growth of the last half century. In 1832, as Professor 
 Jebb tells us, 'the inhabited dwellings in Athens consisted of 
 a few wooden houses, one or two more solid structures, and the 
 two lines of planked sheds which formed the bazaar ; ' and when 
 Otho became the first King of the Hellenes, not a single house 
 in his capital could be made fit for his accommodation. Now 
 the town contains a king's palace, an university, which, I think, 
 is one of the most perfect and elegant modern buildings I have 
 •ever seen, three national museums, free schools, hospitals, boule- 
 vards of fine marble palaces, squares and streets, and a population 
 of nearly 60,000. 
 
 No country, in proportion to its size and wealth, has spent half 
 as much on archaeological research as Greece has done during 
 the last twenty years. Excavations on a most elaborate scale have 
 been conducted on the Acropolis and elsewhere ; large museums 
 have been constructed to contain the treasures found in these 
 excavations, and those found by French, German, and American 
 excavators, for the Government now forbid the exportation from the 
 country of any works of art • and no country has spent more on 
 education. Education would seem to be one of the first instincts 
 •of returning life amongst the Greeks, an instinct even still more 
 remarkable in unredeemed Hellas, where the difficulties attend- 
 ing the advance of education have been infinitely greater, and 
 which we shall presently discuss at greater length. Young Greeks 
 swarm in the universities of Germany and France, where they 
 have gone to complete the already sound education given them 
 by their university at home, and it surprises all travellers who 
 visit Athens to see the multiplicity of book shops in the city. 
 Translations of the best known foreign books, histories, poems, 
 and novels written by modern Greek authors, and the evidence 
 of an exceedingly high state of mental culture pervades the 
 country. Mentally, the Greeks have made the most rapid strides 
 during their period of freedom ; they are a clever, far-seeing race, 
 amongst whom the brain power is far in excess of the physical 
 energy. 
 
 The development of railways in Greece is one of Mr Tricoupis' 
 pet schemes, and it is one which will have much to say to the 
 future of the new kingdom. The railway along the northern 
 coast of the Peloponese, from Athens to Patras, has already been 
 constructed, bringing the capital into closer communication with 
 the west; but the great line of rail which is, in five years, to 
 unite Athens with the main systems of Europe, has only just 
 
292 National Life and Thought. 
 
 been commenced this winter by English engineers. It will pass 
 up the classical valley of the Kephissus, and cross the mountain 
 ridge which divides the plain of Attica from Bceotia by the Phyle 
 Pass; thence it will run to Thebes, skirt Parnassus by Livadia, 
 Daulia, and the Lake of Orchomenos, penetrate into the plain of 
 Thessaly by the pass of Thermopylae, and reach the Turkish 
 frontier fifty miles beyond Larissa. This will leave a short gap 
 between the Greek system and the line down to Salonica, and 
 when this is finished it is confidently hoped that the line to Athens 
 will be the great overland route to the East, and that the harbour 
 of the Piraeus will succeed to the traffic which has for so many 
 years found its headquarters at Brindisi. 
 
 The town of Hermoupolis, on the Island of Syra, in the Cyclades, 
 is, perhaps, one of the most interesting specimens of modern Greek 
 commercial enterprise. During the Turkish days, it was the seat 
 of a Roman Catholic mission, and was under the direct protection 
 of the Kings of France. At the time of the revolution, Greek 
 merchants and labourers flying from Chios, Psara, and other 
 points where the Turks perpetrated wholesale acts of cruelty, 
 took refuge here, as on neutral ground. Syra in itself is a mere 
 barren rock, and at that time had not more than 1000 inhabitants 
 on it. By degrees the Greek merchants gathered round themselves 
 the nucleus of trade, and even before the declaration of inde- 
 pendence, Syra was a prosperous place. In 1825, the first two- 
 storied house was built; a few years later a barn-like church 
 and barn-like storehouses were erected on the beach ; Luke Ralli 
 christened the infant town Hermoupolis, and after the war of 
 independence, Syra grew with the rapidity of the mushroom towns 
 of the western hemisphere. To-day it has a population of 25,000 
 souls, fine warehouses, factories, a theatre, a town-hall, and 
 quays. Its harbour is one of the busiest in the Levant, it is the 
 central depot of the eastern telegraph in this part, and of 
 the Greek Steamer Company ; most of the outward and home- 
 ward bound steamers call here, and, next to Athens and Patras, 
 it is the most imposing place within the realms of modern 
 Greece. 
 
 From these points it will be seen that the little kingdom of 
 Greece has done well during its half century of emancipation, 
 but its resources are so limited that, unless it can get accession 
 of territory, it cannot hope to do better. ' Without Crete, Epirus, 
 and Macedonia,' writes one of the best modern Greek politicians, 
 ' Greece has no future ; ' and wealthy Greeks, the representatives 
 
Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 293 
 
 of Greater Greece, we might call them, have recognised the impos- 
 sibilities of their country by withholding their support from it. 
 They continue to live in Constantinople, England, France, Egypt, 
 and elsewhere, carrying on their commerce and enriching their 
 adopted countries, a race as scattered almost, and as commercial, 
 as the Jews; but at the same time they are by no means un- 
 patriotic. Far from it ; large sums of money find their way into 
 proper channels for the education and elevation of the Greek 
 nation still in bondage. They realise the fact that education is 
 the one weapon with which to fight Turkey, and to check the 
 advance of Russia in the East, and when it is a question of money 
 for the building of schools for Greeks in remote parts of the 
 Turkish Empire, the purse-strings of Greater Greece are always 
 open. Let us now glance at the component parts of the Turkish 
 Empire, Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, and the islands. Here 
 it is that we shall find the majority of the Greek-speaking popu 
 lation, and all, until quite lately, living in a state of the grossest 
 ignorance. Here has been a field for generosity far more de- 
 serving than the self-supporting institutions of free Hellas, and 
 into this channel we shall find that the money of rich Greeks 
 flows ever freely. 
 
 During the dark ages of oppression, the Greek Church was the 
 only community which contributed in any degree towards educa- 
 tion ; the monastic bodies and the village priests, too, did a praise- 
 worthy work in keeping alive the Greek nationality and the Greek 
 religion, but this was almost all they could do. After the revolu- 
 tion there came a thirst for a more extended system of education, 
 the spirit of patriotism was aroused, and central societies were 
 formed at Constantinople with a view to elaborating some scheme 
 for the elevation of the masses of the Greek population, scattered 
 through the Turkish Empire. For many years the progress made 
 towards this end was exceedingly slow, owing to the keen opposi- 
 tion of the Turkish Government, and it was not till 1861, when 
 the Porte found itself in a hopeless condition of finance, that the 
 Greeks were able to step in and literally purchase from their rulers 
 concessions for schools, and a concession for the existence, in the 
 very centre of the Ottoman empire, of a central educational body. 
 At first a so-called " central college " was formed by the Greeks of 
 Constantinople, which drew up for itself a wide line of action, and 
 established as the basis of its work the patriotic motive of raising 
 the Greek masses out of the depths of ignorance into which they 
 had fallen during the Ottoman rule. But this college failed, for 
 
294 National Life and Thought. 
 
 reasons which we need not here discuss, and finally handed over 
 its programme to a Society, which rejoices in the somewhat high- 
 sounding title of the "Hellenic Philological Syllogos," and which 
 three years ago tried to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, but 
 the Turks would not permit the demonstration. 
 
 To this Society is alone due the great advance in education 
 which has been made amongst the Greek population in the 
 Turkish dominions during the last twenty years. The influence 
 which has been effected by it over the masses is only now be- 
 ginning to be felt, and if its area of usefulness develops with 
 similar rapidity during the ensuing quarter of a century, little will 
 be left to be desired on the score of education. 
 
 This Society was not, as its name would almost lead one to 
 imagine, a literary society founded by a collection of literary men 
 — far from it. The men who in 1861 joined together with a view 
 of developing and spreading education amongst their compatriots 
 were, for the most part, bankers, shopkeepers, doctors, and priests, 
 not one of whom had at that time any special predilection for 
 literature or art ; and up to the present time it is from these classes 
 of society that the ranks of the Syllogos are filled. Hercules 
 Basiades, for example, who was for many years president of the 
 Society, is by profession a medical man. 
 
 The Society is distinctly patriotic, and has for its chief object 
 the instruction in letters of a vast population, of whom, fifty years 
 ago, only five per cent, of the males, and one per cent, of the 
 women, could either read or write. 
 
 The branches of the Society are manifold; there is the 
 archaeological branch, pure and simple, presided over by its 
 own chairman and directed by its own committee. This branch 
 has done admirable work in the preservation of ancient monu- 
 ments in and around Constantinople. Then there is the scien- 
 tific branch, likewise under the direction of a separate committee, 
 which has done all it can towards the advancement of scientific 
 research, and towards the amelioration of the sanitary condition 
 of one of the most unsanitary cities of Europe. Thirdly, we 
 have the financial committee, which looks after the internal 
 working of all the branches of the Society ; this branch has the 
 onerous duty of soliciting and collecting subscriptions, and of 
 attending to the demands made on the Society's resources by 
 the other committees ; but the most active and useful branch 
 is the educational, the committee of which has adopted the 
 work which the former college set itself as its own, namely, that 
 
Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 295 
 
 of spreading education through the Levant. It is with this 
 branch of the Society that we are now more especially in- 
 terested, so we will at once set out its scheme, which is as 
 follows : — 
 
 (a) The spread of education amongst the orthodox peoples 
 of the East, paying especial attention to female education, 
 whereby the mothers of the future Greek race may be enabled 
 to undertake the instruction of their children from their earliest 
 infancy. 
 
 (b) This object is to be brought about by the erection of boys' 
 and girls' schools wherever necessary, and by assisting already 
 established schools to increase their usefulness. 
 
 (c) Special attention is to be paid to the publishing and distri- 
 bution of good educational books for the use of these schools. 
 
 (d) Efficient schoolmasters and schoolmistresses are to be 
 sent from Constantinople to superintend these schools in re- 
 mote districts of the empire, where the same cannot be locally 
 provided. 
 
 (e) And lastly, the Society is to endeavour to establish colleges 
 for the better education of the lower clergy, whose immediate 
 work it is to cope with ignorance and superstition. 
 
 The carrying out of this scheme has naturally called for the 
 greatest liberality on the part of the wealthier Greeks, and the 
 substantial success which has been already achieved during the 
 short period of twenty-five years is the greatest testimony that 
 can be found to illustrate their genuine patriotism. 
 
 Throughout the period of four centuries of darkness which 
 succeeded the fall of the Eastern Empire, there always existed 
 amongst the Greek-speaking population an attempt at education 
 solely conducted by the clergy; their schools were known as 
 "simple" or "elementary schools," and the education therein given 
 to the boys who attended them was. limited in the extreme ; 
 specimens of these " simple " schools may still be found in out- 
 lying districts, where the central educational system has not yet 
 penetrated. The classes are generally held in the vestibule of the 
 church, or in a house close by, and are only opened at those 
 seasons of the year when the priest, who is usually the master, 
 is not obliged to be working in his fields. The scholars learn 
 the letters of the alphabet from written tablets, and when they 
 can read correctly a verse of the Psalter, they are sent home to 
 their work, and to forget the very shape of letters. Some few 
 only are permitted to prosecute their studies until they are able 
 
296 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to read the Psalms and the Gospels ; two or three at the most 
 ever attain to such a pitch of excellence that they are allowed to 
 read a portion of the service in church. When such a paragon 
 of intellect adorns a family, the grateful parents and relatives 
 will make a great feast in honour of the occasion ; they will 
 bring handsome gifts to the instructor as a testimony of their 
 gratitude, and the successful pupil is considered to be so superior 
 to the rest of his family, that he takes the name of Diakos or 
 Deacon, which name is treasured in his family for generations. 
 If such a youth feels inclined to take up literature as his pro- 
 fession in preference to the tilling of his ancestral fields, he may 
 proceed to the higher branch of writing, and from being the 
 secretary of the schoolmaster in his capacity of village scribe, 
 he may attain to the proud rank of schoolmaster and village 
 scribe himself. 
 
 It is on such material as this that the Syllogos had to build its 
 educational structure. Of course in some of the larger towns 
 there existed schools of a higher class ; these were at once incor- 
 porated into their scheme, and this was done by constituting 
 them as the heads of branch brotherhoods and societies incor- 
 porated with and constructed on the same principle as the 
 Syllogos at Constantinople. 
 
 Fifteen years after the foundation of this Philological Society, 
 there sprang into existence no less than eighty-four of these 
 independent branches, scattered all over the empire, which recog- 
 nised the educational committee in the capital as their central 
 head. By degrees, in some towns — such as Adrianople, for 
 example — reading-rooms were opened and libraries formed, and 
 the several branches of archaeology and science were added to the 
 already existing educational one, so that the constitution of the 
 mother society was reproduced at Adrianople in all its depart- 
 ments. 
 
 Now there are many more of these branches, and the work is 
 steadily advancing. Some of these offshoots have taken to them- 
 selves appropriate names ; that at Philippopolis was known as 
 "The brotherhood of good works," that at Smyrna is called 
 "The Homer," that in Patmos "The regeneration." It is re- 
 quired of each of these societies and brotherhoods that they 
 shall send periodical accounts of the work done and of the neces- 
 sities of each place for the beneficial extension of the system; 
 and in the journal, which the Central Society publishes periodi- 
 cally at Constantinople, side by side with accounts of archaeo- 
 
Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 297 
 
 logical discoveries and scientific research, we read the minutes 
 of the Educational Committee, which proves at the same time 
 the extent of the generous help already given, and the immense 
 field that there is for future development. 
 
 We will now proceed to take examples of the educational work 
 that is in progress from various points of the Turkish Empire. 
 Where the monastic resources are sufficient, and where help is 
 not urgently required, matters are allowed to pursue their old 
 course. On the island of Nisyros, for instance, we found the 
 Archimandrite Cyril, of the monastery of the Holy Virgin of the 
 Cave, the chief mover in the diminutive society on this island ; 
 besides acting as banker for the peasants and issuing cardboard 
 notes, an inch and a half square and of the value of one penny 
 each, signed by his name, as a medium for exchange, and, 
 besides paying for a doctor, who attends the poor people free of 
 charge, he has likewise, with the income of the monastic pro- 
 perty, established a boys' school and a girls' school at Mandraki, 
 the chief village on the island, which are presided over by efficient 
 teachers, who have been sent out thither through the agency of 
 the Society; the books of instruction have likewise been pro- 
 vided from the same source. But all this has been done at the 
 expense of the monastery, which is a prosperous one; and to 
 realise the real benefit of religious institutions on mankind, and 
 the readiness with which even effete monastic institutions work 
 for the advancement of the Greek race, one ought to travel in 
 the out-of-the-way corners of the Turkish Empire. 
 
 In Greece proper, the work of the monasteries is practically 
 over, since the Government has taken upon itself the sole super- 
 intendence of education, and is alone responsible for the im- 
 provement of the people. What monasteries once were, and 
 what good they have done, can now only be realised in Turkey ; 
 the smaller ones, as the one in Nisyros, for example, have pro- 
 vided education for the masses ; the larger ones, as Mount Athos, 
 have provided instruction in the higher branches of learning, and 
 act as universities ; and it is a question open to much doubt, as 
 to whether the Greeks have benefited by the transfer of educa- 
 tion from the priests, who have acted for ages as their protectors 
 from annihilation and barbarism, to the Government schools ; in 
 Turkey, as we have seen, they provide for the better education 
 of the clergy, and, if this can be effected, the priesthood will 
 continue as the natural instructors of their flocks. 
 
 On the neighbouring island of Telos, which is inhabited by 
 
298 National Life and TJwugJit. 
 
 semi-barbarous Greeks, living in a state of shocking ignorance 
 and superstition, the monastery, in a similar fashion, has of late 
 years commenced to work for the good of the people. Five 
 years ago, the monks decided to expend ^25 per annum on the 
 maintenance of a schoolmaster, who gave us a lamentable account 
 of the ignorance he found there, and which still exists among the 
 elder inhabitants ; but when we visited the school, each boy had 
 in his hands the books which the Society has printed for educa- 
 tional purposes, and the elder ones could read Xenophon quite 
 fluently, and translate it into modern Greek. The monastery of 
 Telos is far from being as rich as that of Nisyros, so the in- 
 habitants have to die without physic, and the girls have to grow 
 up without instruction ; but doubtless, in good time, the Society 
 will step in and see to the rectification of the latter deficiency, 
 for such ground as this is the field on which the Society has done 
 such admirable work elsewhere. But the island of Telos is only 
 thinly populated, and as remote a spot as well could be found 
 from any centre of civilisation. 
 
 In Macedonia, the Society can now boast of over twenty 
 affiliated branches, the chief of which are the "Educational 
 Brotherhood," at Kozane ; the " Educational Society," at Drama, 
 and the "Pieria," at Naousa; and from Macedonia we may 
 select an instance of the beneficial work which has already been 
 carried on. At the mountainous village of Deliachova, when the 
 Society commenced operations, it had most lamentable difficulties 
 to contend with. Here the mother tongue of the Greeks and 
 the Slavs alike was a barbarous Turkish patois ; and as none, 
 even of the better class, understood Greek, the great difficulty 
 was to obtain local assistance in the schools, and even those 
 available would only teach when there was nothing to be done 
 in the fields ; the population was considerable, and the church 
 could only manage to advance ^30 a year towards educational 
 purposes. This position of affairs was duly represented to the 
 Syllogos at Constantinople, and, through the Society's instru- 
 mentality, not only have proper Greek masters been provided, 
 and the necessary educational books, but also a girls' school 
 has been opened, that the future mothers of unborn Greeks 
 may be able to speak to their infants in the language of their 
 ancestors. 
 
 Fifteen years ago a valuable branch of the Society was estab- 
 lished at Adrianople, with the object of forming a central head for 
 the furtherance of education in Thrace ; it started with a subscribed 
 
Modem Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 299 
 
 income of 30,000 grossia, partly advanced by the Syllogos, and 
 partly by the richer inhabitants of the town ; ever since then this 
 income has been steadily on the increase, and the advantage of a 
 public reading-room and library are now enjoyed by the Greek 
 inhabitants of this large city, where not so many years ago the 
 exception was for a man to be able to read or write. One of the 
 most flourishing branches in Thrace is at Heraclea, on the Pro- 
 pontis, where previously, even though it was within easy reach of 
 the capital, the greatest ignorance prevailed, and immense benefit 
 has been conferred on a people who hitherto have known nothing 
 of patriotism and their own nationality ; whereas now, thanks to 
 the efforts of the Society, the fact has been brought home to them 
 that they are Greeks, and that the main object of their rulers has 
 been to keep them in ignorance of this fact. 
 
 In Asia Minor the war against ignorance has been waged by 
 the Society with equal success; here. many villages existed and 
 still exist where the Greeks are only recognisable by their religion, 
 the language and customs of the dominant race having been 
 universally adopted ; to these villages the Society has sought, to 
 the best of its abilities, to send instructors to teach the children 
 their ancestral tongue. We will briefly detail the history of the 
 foundation of the brotherhood of Argyropolis, near Trebizond — 
 it is a peculiarly interesting one, and one which serves to 
 illustrate the method adopted by the Society in carrying out their 
 work. 
 
 Argyropolis is a town in Armenia, and was founded and 
 chiefly colonised by Greeks who fled thither from Trebizond for 
 greater security after the Ottoman conquest ; it is situated in a 
 wild and sterile district, the land around is unproductive, and 
 timber is exceedingly scarce ; but the town grew rapidly in import- 
 ance, and took its name from the discovery of gold and silver 
 mines in the neighbourhood, and in the sixteenth century Argyro- 
 polis presented the appearance of eminent prosperity — churches, 
 schools, and other fine buildings were erected, and in addition to 
 the wealth that accrued to them from the working of the mines, 
 the inhabitants carried on a large carrying trade with the Asiatic 
 tribes from the East. After the lapse of years the mines were 
 exhausted, and the caravan trade from Eastern Asia found its way 
 into other channels, so that, owing to loss of employment and the 
 want of natural productions for sustaining life, those who continued 
 to live on at Argyropolis were reduced to the greatest state of 
 destitution ; the result being that, at the commencement of this 
 
300 National Life and Thought. 
 
 century, the once nourishing town was reduced to a mere village, 
 and of the numerous Greek families only a few hundreds remained, 
 and for these there was no education, their language degenerated 
 into an almost incomprehensible patois, and their only livelihood 
 was gained by depredations and other acts of dishonesty. 
 
 About twenty years ago a few of the respectable Argyropolitans, 
 who had settled at Trebizond for purposes of commerce, met 
 together and expressed their distress at the condition of their 
 native town ; they accordingly determined on making an applica- 
 cation to the Philological Society at Constantinople, which was 
 then in its infancy, for assistance in forming a scheme for ameli- 
 orating its condition ; and shortly afterwards, their statements 
 having been duly considered at headquarters, a brotherhood of 
 Argyropolitans was formed at Trebizond, and enrolled as one of 
 the Asiatic branches of the Society. With the generous assistance 
 which was obtained from Constantinople, this brotherhood was 
 enabled to open in Argyropolis, in the year 1870, a boys' school, 
 and three years later this was followed by the opening of a girls' 
 school ; and now, not only in Argyropolis are there good schools, 
 provided with efficient instructors and books from the central 
 head, but also the brotherhood has been enabled to establish 
 branch schools in some of the neighbouring villages. 
 
 Instances of the beneficent effect of the work done by the 
 Society might be enumerated indefinitely, but those I have given 
 will serve to prove the progress which has been made during the 
 last few years. As it at present exists, the Syllogos has representa- 
 tives amongst its members of the best and richest Greek families 
 in Constantinople ; it possesses a large building in Pera, containing 
 a good-sized lecture hall, reading-rooms, and a library, which is at 
 present unfortunately small, owing to the fact that their original 
 building was burnt in the great fire of Pera in 1872, when many 
 valuable books and manuscripts were destroyed. They have a 
 literary reunion every week, at which scientific and archaeological 
 papers, and they have periodical business meetings, at which the 
 secretaries of the several sections read minutes, which are published 
 in the journal under the head of Upa.-x.n7ta. 
 
 On realising this intellectual activity on the part of the Greeks, 
 one cannot help thinking that, if left to themselves, they would 
 soon settle the Eastern question in their own peaceful way ; 
 meanwhile, the fear of Russia, the jealousy of the Powers and 
 other causes, have led politicians to give a helping hand to the 
 expiring Turkish nation, whilst at the same time they distrust and 
 
Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks. 301 
 
 despise it, and now it is Western Europe, and England more 
 especially, that is the greatest check to the development of 
 Greater Greece. We call ourselves humane, we abolish slavery, 
 we are the champions of liberty all over the world, and yet 
 we support a nation which is tyrannising over the rightful 
 owners of the soil to an extent that in many cases is worse 
 than slavery. 
 
 The Island of Samos has been an independent principality for 
 fifty years; it has only a population of 25,000 Greeks, and the 
 progress which Samos has made, and the contrast it forms to the 
 neighbouring islands, is a proof of what the population of Greater 
 Greece could do if left to themselves. When they obtained their 
 freedom, the Samiotes were little better than mountain shepherds ; 
 there was not a rich man amongst them. Now the capital Vathy, 
 which has been entirely built in this period, has good houses, pre- 
 senting as their frontage an excellent quay over a mile in length. 
 The Samiotes govern themselves by a council of four. She has her 
 own code of laws ; nowhere in the world is property safer than it 
 is on Samos. The Greek prince who is sent from Constantinople 
 to look after Turkish interests and collect the small tribute is 
 absolutely powerless, and dare do nothing without the consent of 
 the council ; if he does do so, as happened a short time ago, the 
 Samiotes send him back to Constantinople in disgrace. 
 
 An hospital has lately been opened, and an university called the 
 Pythagoras, after the ancient Samiote philosopher. New roads 
 are in course of construction all over the island, and at three 
 different points around the coast, breakwaters are being built to 
 supply the one deficiency of the island, namely, the want of 
 harbourage. 
 
 It is like going out of paradise into purgatory to cross over from 
 free Samos to poor ruined Chios, which, before the war of in- 
 dependence, was one of the most prosperous marts in the East. 
 Of course the contrast has been intensified by natural causes, 
 the earthquake and the subsequent paralysis of trade. But in 
 spite of this overwhelming misfortune, no part of the Turkish 
 Empire has been subjected to more tyranny than Chios. After 
 the earthquake, the Turkish government magnanimously proposed 
 to remit the taxes for five years. Europe heard of this, and praised 
 the Turk, but Europe did not hear how the following year double 
 taxation was imposed, and double was established as the rate for 
 the future. I have been an eye-witness myself of this tyranny, 
 more marked in the outlying villages, where the cry of the 
 
302 National Life and Thought. 
 
 oppressed is not so easily heard. Some of the villagers are wild 
 with hope when they see an Englishman amongst them. They 
 remember the generosity displayed by our nation after the 
 earthquake, and they somehow believe that to England alone have 
 they got to look for help. Even now, in the ruined villages where 
 relief was distributed, prayers are offered up every Sunday in the 
 churches for Queen Victoria and her nation. Little do these poor 
 creatures realise that it is the English nation and English poli- 
 ticians who are the chief props and mainstay of their oppressors. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 i 
 
 H. ANTHONY SALMONE. 
 
 THE present mode of thought and condition of learning in a 
 great part of Turkey and the Mohammedan world may be 
 considered to be in exactly the same state as it was in Europe 
 some four or five hundred years ago. Notwithstanding this 
 general statement, it is still true that in certain portions of the 
 Ottoman Empire there have been during the past fifteen or 
 twenty years rapid strides in the paths of progress and advance- 
 ment. Turkey might have been at the present day equal to 
 any of the great European Empires had her progress not been 
 handicapped in many ways. Probably the main causes may be 
 found in the want of unity amongst her subjects, and the lack of 
 general education. 
 
 There is, unfortunately, in the greatest part of the Empire, this 
 lack of a national spirit, and the lack of that unity and concord 
 which so much helps to raise a people in spite of opposition and 
 rulers. It is because the people of Turkey have not sufficiently 
 striven to find that stepping-stone to greatness, that their lot is not 
 a hundredfold better than it is. 
 
 Those who have studied the question will, I think, agree with 
 me, that there hardly exists a more intelligent and more 
 industrious people than those races which now inhabit the 
 Turkish Empire. And it is to be hoped that with the spread 
 of education and an improved administration, the sons and 
 daughters of Turkey will be enabled ere long to vie With their 
 European brothers and sisters. 
 
 When speaking of European civilisation, it is impossible to 
 dissociate the progress which it has wrought in the way of 
 knowledge, and the improvement and development of the 
 higher instincts of mankind from the customs of society which 
 it has given rise to in late times. Although it cannot be denied 
 that much refinement and good taste are displayed in the modern 
 303 
 
304 National Life and Thought. 
 
 customs of civilised Europe, still it is to be hoped that the 
 Eastern races of Turkey will retain the picturesque customs of 
 their forefathers. Every country has its own laws, institutions, 
 and customs; and I maintain that it is far better for each race 
 with the spread of education to improve that which requires 
 improvement, rather than for them to adopt the customs of 
 another nation which are unsuitable to their characters and 
 country. So far, the introduction of European civilisation into 
 the East, and particularly into Turkey, has been in reality 
 productive of more evil than good. There are two reasons for 
 this ; the one is, that it came too suddenly upon them ; and the 
 second is, because the said civilisation was not through the 
 effort and work of the people themselves, the result of this being 
 that the majority of the people, instead of selecting and culling, 
 so to speak, the finest flowers and immortelles, as they should 
 have done, trusted to the forced and hothouse fruits, which they 
 greedily ate and which disagreed with them. A great number 
 learned all the vices and shallownesses of modern European civil- 
 isation, and ignored all the immortal blessing, which it has created 
 in the form of science, learning, and knowledge. 
 
 The date of the first appearance of the Turks in Europe has 
 never been clearly ascertained. Some assert that Turkish tribes 
 were settled in Southern Russia as early as the beginning of 
 Greek history. It is generally agreed, however, that they were 
 known to the Chinese long before the existence of any European 
 historian. 
 
 The founder of the present Ottoman Empire was Othman, 
 who reigned from 1288 to 1326. From his early youth, Othman 
 proved himself to be a daring warrior, and his power grew 
 gradually but surely, forming, as it were, the basis of the succeeding 
 glory which fell to the lot of the Ottoman dynasty. 
 
 During the reign of Urkhan, his son, a standing army was 
 established called yeni-cheri. In common with many other 
 Oriental words, this word was corrupted by Europeans into 
 Janizaries. The title of "Pasha" also came into existence at 
 this time, and several of the provinces were governed by them. 
 The origin of the word is from the Persian Pai-Shah, meaning 
 "the foot of the King." The power of the Ottoman Empire 
 now grew very rapidly, and the conquest of Constantinople was 
 attempted by several of the Sultans, but unsuccessfully. But in 
 May 1453, Mohammed II. met with greater good fortune ; for, after 
 a siege of nearly two months, Constantinople fell into the hands 
 
The Ottoman Emprie. 305 
 
 of the Turks. This great victory was quickly followed by several 
 important conquests, that of Servia, Peloponnesus, Trebizond, 
 Kaffa, and several provinces in Asia; and in Europe, Scander- 
 beg, Herzegovina, and Otranto also fell into the hands of the 
 Turks. 
 
 But the most glorious epoch in the history of the Turkish 
 Empire was during the reigns of Selim I. and his son Sulaiman. 
 
 Selim, who reigned in the year 1512 to 1520, was the first 
 Sultan of Turkey who received the title of Khalif, i.e. chief of 
 all Mohammedans, and successor to the Prophet. He was 
 acknowledged such by the Sheriff of Mecca, after the conquest 
 of Egypt and Syria, and Al-Mutawakil, the last Khalif of 
 the Arab dynasties, was deposed from his rank. The Sultans 
 of Turkey have been acknowledged ever since by almost all the 
 Mohammedans in the world as "Amir-ul Muminin," or chief of 
 the believers. Turkey possessed during the reign of Sulaiman 
 the finest navy in the world, and Europe trembled before the 
 •conquerors of Constantinople. 
 
 Although the reign of Sulaiman marked the most brilliant page 
 of Turkish history, the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire 
 may be dated from the closing days of this monarch's life. Never- 
 theless, the Empire continued to maintain her power, and towards 
 the end of the sixteenth century, in the reign of Murad III., was 
 still the terror of Europe. Besides European Turkey, Greece, 
 and the greater part of Hungary, she possessed all Asia Minor, 
 Armenia, Daghistan, Georgia, Western Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, 
 Baghdad, Syria, Cyprus, Arabia, Egypt, Algiers, Tripoli, and other 
 places. 
 
 A severe blow was dealt to Turkey during the reign of 
 Othman III., who, owing to the rapid rise of the power of Russia, 
 was induced to declare war against Catherine II. This proved 
 disastrous to Turkey. She lost several towns and fortresses, and 
 her fleet was destroyed by the Russians in the bay of Chesme. 
 Through the working of Russian agents, insurrection broke out 
 in Greece, Herzegovina, and other parts of the Empire. It might 
 be truly said that ever since that time, the troubles of Turkey 
 with Russia have never ceased. 
 
 Let us now inquire into the causes which led to the decline of 
 the power of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 During the reign of Sulaiman I., the Turks had arrived at the 
 summit of their glory, but it was an altitude that they were unable 
 
 u 
 
306 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to maintain, for from this time dates the commencement of their 
 retrogression. 
 
 Among the many factors which led to this retrogression may be 
 mentioned : — 
 
 i. A too great indulgence in luxuries. 
 
 2. Internal factions. The Viziers or Ministers by reason of 
 the continued absence of the Sultans (who were invariably at the 
 head of their armies abroad) obtained considerable power. The 
 direction and management of all state affairs were left to their 
 charge. This aroused jealousies and intrigues. 
 
 3. Demoralization of the army. Love of luxury becoming 
 widespread, engendered love of gold. The passion which ruled 
 amongst the soldiers was gain and plunder, not love and glory, or 
 a sense of duty. 
 
 The main factor probably was the baneful influence which the 
 Imperial harem (the ladies) exercised. 
 
 The progress of the Empire was also checked by the apathy of 
 the rulers towards commerce and trade. They little suspected 
 that liberty, wealth, and greatness are the blessings of industry. 
 All conquering races that have not consolidated their triumphs 
 with labour, and commerce have fallen into decay. Their fate was 
 such, because they looked upon industry and trade as servile, 
 trusting to the sword to gain them riches and independence. 
 This was precisely the fate of Turkey. Two or three hundred 
 years ago she was wealthy and powerful, feared by her enemies 
 and respected by her allies. Turkey was elated with pride after 
 her conquests. She thought but little of working out her resources, 
 of encouraging art and commerce, and of affording to her subjects 
 (whether Christians or Mohammedans) that protection which was 
 indispensable to their welfare. She left to all the nations of the 
 world a vast field for commercial enterprise, and a free market for 
 their productions. Hence such arts, sciences, and commercial 
 spirit as Turkey once possessed, were soon outstripped by the 
 gigantic development and the rapid improvement of the Western 
 world. The result to Turkey was a general financial embarrass- 
 ment. Having lost all her arts, and most of those immense 
 productions of industry which she at one time brought into the 
 market, she had to apply to foreign marts for all her needs, 
 exporting thither her gold and silver. 
 
 Two distinct populations inhabit the Turkish Empire. The 
 one (comprising many nationalities) is the native or aboriginal 
 
The Ottoman Empire. 307 
 
 population whose lot has been, for many generations, one of 
 subjection. This population is numerous, industrious, and 
 intelligent, and is made up of Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans. 
 The other, the dominant Turk, is an alien population, which 
 looks upon industry with disdain. These two constituent elements 
 of the population, productive and unproductive, contending one 
 with the other, kept the country in a state of immobility for nearly 
 four hundred years. The fatal jealousy and hatred which existed 
 between the governing and the governed classes, together with the 
 supineness of the rulers, subverted the native and caused the 
 introduction of foreign industries. Hence arose two directly 
 opposite political tendencies : the first, a combined foreign 
 interference in all matters of internal policy ; and the second, a 
 partial and selfish protection by alien powers of interests inimical 
 to Turkey. Europe, for the last sixty or seventy years, by 
 introducing all the products of her art and commerce, has been, 
 from a material point of view, the mistress of the Turkish Empire. 
 Europeans monopolised all profitable undertakings, such as steam 
 navigation, postal communication, etc. Thus between the 
 combined and partial interference of foreigners, and the struggle 
 of the two populations, the Turkish Government has to divide its 
 attention, its subjects meanwhile becoming more and more 
 neglected. 
 
 It must be remembered that there is a sharp distinction not 
 only between the races, but also between the classes of the people 
 in the Ottoman Empire. Many people designate any one who 
 happens to have been born within the limits of that Empire as 
 "a Turk." Now there are many subjects of Turkey who are as 
 little Turks as Osman Digma is a Frenchman, or the Mahdi an 
 Englishman. There is equally a vast difference in the customs 
 and ideas which prevail in different parts of the Empire. Amongst 
 the upper and educated classes of the Turks — I allude particularly 
 to the Pashas and Beys who swarm in Constantinople — there are 
 many who have either been brought up in the West, or received a 
 Western education. These, no doubt, would be glad to introduce 
 Western improvements into the Empire, but are prevented from 
 doing *so by the opposition of a vast majority who are very 
 conservative, and averse to modern European customs and 
 institutions. 
 
 Colleges and schools, comparable to the finest institutions of 
 the kind existing in Europe, are established in various parts of the 
 Empire, either by Europeans themselves or through European 
 
308 National Life and Thought. 
 
 influence. The establishments of the American missionaries and 
 those of the Jesuits are among their number. 
 
 The system of native education, under which the great mass of 
 the people is brought up, is still exceedingly poor, especially 
 among the Mohammedans. These have their Kuttab school, 
 which consists of a large dirty roOm under the care of a teacher. 
 On entering one of these schoolrooms, one sees a number of 
 children squatting on the floor, and rapidly swinging their bodies 
 to and fro, repeating, in a monotonous chant, passages from the 
 Koran. Their teacher, who probably may be dreaming of houris 
 and future bliss in Paradise, corrects their exercises. 
 
 One word as to the influence of the Mohammedan religion 
 upon the life and thought, not only of the people of Turkey, but 
 of the whole Eastern world. Whatever faults and evils are 
 attributed to Mohammedans, it must yet be allowed that they are 
 probably more sincere in their faith, and more true to the dictates 
 of their religion, than the believers of any other religion throughout 
 the world. A proof of this is that there are fewer Mohammedans 
 converted to Christianity than followers of any other religion. 
 
 There are a number of people who think that nothing said against 
 Mohammedans is bad enough ; but impartiality requires of us to 
 give Mohammedans their due. 
 
 The Koran, it should be understood, is regarded by them not 
 alone as a book of Divine inspiration. The Koran is their rule 
 of faith, their code of civil and criminal law, and their universal 
 directory in all matters intrinsic and extrinsic to themselves. 
 Although its dictates are simple, so far as the principles of the 
 doctrine go, nevertheless there is great diversity of opinion, owing 
 greatly to the complexity of its language. Mohammed laid down 
 strict rules as to pilgrimages, fasts, and other things to be done ; 
 but it does not appear that he enumerated and enlarged upon those 
 things which should not be done. Besides the Koran, they 
 have a great many traditions of which some have been accepted 
 and others rejected. One of these traditions, or rather legends, 
 is very amusing. It runs as follows : — " At the end of time, 
 when everything will be in confusion, the Prophet will appear 
 to the faithful in the form of a huge sheep. Then, by a special 
 miracle, his followers will be transformed into fleas, and crowd 
 into the wool of the sacred sheep, and be carried by him up into 
 Paradise." 
 
 Mohammedanism has had a remarkable influence on the laws 
 
 
The Ottoman Empire. 309 
 
 and institutions of every country into which it has spread. The 
 Arabic language, the language of its sacred book, has similarly 
 influenced the tongues and dialects of many nations. Turkish 
 literature is by no means poor ; but it cannot be compared to the 
 literature of the early Arabs. The ideas of the majority of later 
 works, especially in Turkish, are borrowed from the West. 
 
 The study of Arabic opens to the Western student a vast field 
 of literary research. Let me quote the following passage on the 
 subject from the pen of Mr. Bosworth-Smith of Harrow: — 
 
 " During the darkest period of European history the Arabs for 
 five hundred years held up the torch of learning to humanity. It 
 was the Arabs who then 'called the Muses from their ancient 
 seats;' who collected and translated the writings of the great 
 Greek masters ; who understood the Geometry of Apollonius, and 
 wielded the weapons found in the logical armoury of Aristotle. 
 It was the Arabs who developed the sciences of agriculture and 
 astronomy, and created those of algebra and chemistry; who 
 adorned their cities with colleges and libraries, as well as with 
 mosques and palaces ; who supplied Europe with a school of 
 philosophers from Cordova, and with a school of physicians from 
 Salerno." 
 
 Before concluding my lecture, I should like to say a few words 
 with regard to the relations of this country with Turkey. 
 
 England is most assuredly the one European power whose 
 relations with Turkej should be closer, and whose interest in her 
 must be greater than that of any other foreign nation. The reason 
 is that England possesses the greatest Eastern Empire in the world, 
 the Queen ruling over a greater number of Mohammedans than 
 any other potentate. Hence, necessarily, her interests are of 
 unparalleled importance in the East in general, and Turkey in 
 particular, because the Sultan is the Khalif of Islam, and the 
 recognised head of the Mohammedan world. The Sultan should, 
 therefore, be the natural ally of England. 
 
 It would be advantageous to England to help Turkey in the 
 readjustment of her internal affairs. England could win the con- 
 fidence and friendship of the Eastern races by greater intercourse 
 with the people, and by pointing out, in a gentle and reasonable 
 way, the advantages that would accrue to them from an improved 
 state of things. It is by thus proving that England is the friend 
 and ally of the Eastern world, that she can constitute and maintain 
 her position as the undoubted mistress of the East. 
 
3io 
 
 National Life and Thought. 
 
 The Oriental mind requires leading, not driving. One cannot 
 make a horse drink, but once led to the water he invariably does 
 so. Let us, then, whenever an opportunity occurs, help by our 
 sympathy and our interest to lead the people of Turkey to the 
 fountain of knowledge, enlightenment, and advancement. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 WHY DOES NOT THE SICK MAN DIE? 
 
 C. D. COLLET, EDITOR OF "DIPLOMATIC FLY-SHEET." 
 
 THE proximate dissolution of the Ottoman Empire has been 
 a fertile theme for poets, theologians, and politicians for 
 more than four hundred years. Waller made it the subject of a 
 poem, which he presented to James II. But the Revolution 
 of 1688 swept away the Stuart dynasty, and left the descendants 
 of Othman reigning at Constantinople. 
 
 William Eton, many years resident in Turkey and in Russia, 
 wrote, in his "Causes of the Decline of Turkey," that Turkey 
 must very soon be overwhelmed by the Empress Catherine of 
 Russia, and the followers of Mahomet be entirely driven from 
 "the countries in Europe which they have usurped;" and in the 
 advertisement to his fourth edition, published in 1809, he de- 
 clared, of a new chapter in the book, that "it will show that the 
 awful crisis I foretold is nearly arrived." 
 
 This was in 1809. In 1807 the British fleet, under Admiral 
 Duckworth, had made an unsuccessful attempt to bombard Con- 
 stantinople, while another fleet, in the same year, bombarded 
 Copenhagen, thus aiding Russia in the straits which both in the 
 north and the south most circumscribed her power of aggression. 
 In 1809, England made peace with Turkey, but in 181 2 she 
 terminated her bloodless five years' war with Russia by the Treaty 
 of 181 2. Then she commenced the character of the candid friend 
 of Turkey, which she has ever since kept up. The Treaty of 
 Bucharest (1812) robbed Moldavia of the province of Bessarabia 
 which introduced Russia to the Danube, where in 1883 her posi- 
 tion as one of the Danubian European Commission was finally 
 and triumphantly established. 
 
 In 1827 England's friendship for Turkey, which was manifested 
 by constant advice to submit to the demands of Russia, was some- 
 what disturbed by the " untoward event " at Navarino, where the 
 Turkish fleet was destroyed by the combined fleets of Turkey's 
 three allies — Russia, England, and France. This cleared the way 
 
312 National Life and Thought. 
 
 for Russia to invade Turkey, which she did in 1828. The first 
 year of invasion was far from triumphant ; the second brought the 
 peace of Adrianople, on the 14th September 1829. But fraud 
 assisted the Russians even more than force. Colonel (afterwards 
 General) Chesney, in his " History of the Russo-Turkish Cam- 
 paigns of 1828 and 1829," page 245, says : — 
 
 "It is pretty certain that he (Sultan Mahmoud) would have continued the 
 war at all hazards, had he been aware that at that moment the Russian com- 
 mander, now Marshal Diebitsch Zubalkouski, had not more than from i5>ooo 
 to 17,000 bayonets. A defective commissariat, and a still worse medical 
 department, caused disease to commence its work as soon as the invaders 
 reached Adrianople ; at a grand review which took place on the 8th of 
 November 1829, and at which the author was present, there were scarcely 
 13,000 men of all arms in the field." 
 
 The British Ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Robert Gordon, 
 advised the Sultan to sign the Treaty of 14th September, and, on 
 the 31st October, his relative, Lord Aberdeen, despatched to St. 
 Petersburg a quasi-protest, which was hidden in the archives of 
 the Foreign Office till, on 30th June 1854, the House of Com- 
 mons, on the motion of Mr. Layard, requested a copy of it. Only 
 then was it given to the world. 
 
 This hypocritical protest was addressed, according to the usual 
 form, to the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who was to 
 read it to the Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, " and, if desired, to 
 give his Excellency a copy." In it Lord Aberdeen told the Czar, 
 in the most affectionate manner, that, as a matter of fact, he was 
 a violator of his word, and that the stipulations of the Treaty were 
 inconsistent with the desire which he had expressed for the inde- 
 pendence of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 This protest, like Waller's poem and Eton's history, contained 
 a prediction. Lord Aberdeen referred to the anxiety on the part of 
 those Powers, who have always felt a deep interest in the preser- 
 vation of the system " of the European balance established by the 
 Treaty of Paris (1814), and at the Congress of Vienna (1815) ;" 
 and he said : — 
 
 " This anxiety must be greatly increased when, in addition to the unavoid- 
 able weakness and prostration of the Turkish Power, it is found that fresh 
 causes are brought into action which are obviously calculated to hasten and 
 ensure its utter dissolution." 
 
 This was twenty years after Eton's prophecy. Greece at this 
 epoch became separated from Turkey, and the Mahometan in- 
 habitants were expelled from Wallachia and Moldavia, to 
 
Why does not the Sick Man die ? 313 
 
 strengthen by their loyalty those parts of the Empire to which 
 they might repair. Turkey, however, was not " overwhelmed," 
 nor were the followers of Mahomet driven across the Bosphorus. 
 
 If we were to inquire into the details of the Crimean war, we 
 should find that the Turks, after having driven the Russians out 
 of the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, were 
 handicapped by the assistance of England, France, and Sardinia. 
 
 The essential agreement, between Russia on the one hand and 
 the Allies on the other, is established by the despatch of Count 
 Nesselrode, 29th June 1854, in which he said that, as regards 
 the civil and religious rights of the Sultan's Christian subjects, 
 the Czar "would be ready to give his concurrence to a European 
 guarantee for these privileges;" and by the reply of M. Drouyn 
 de L'Huys, in his despatch of 2 2d July 1854, in which he agreed 
 that " France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia shall 
 lend their co-operation to obtain " these privileges for the Chris- 
 tians "from the initiative of the Sultan." 
 
 This alliance of the five Powers, afterwards increased to six, by 
 the admission of Sardinia, succeeded in obtaining a further separa- 
 tion of the Danubian Principalities from Turkey and the exclu- 
 sion from the Black Sea of the Turkish fleet, which was stronger 
 than that of Russia. This was effected under the pretence that 
 if was an insulting restriction upon Russia's power. Turkey 
 observed the treaty religiously ; Russia armed her merchant 
 vessels and mail packets, and thus compelled the Circassians to 
 leave their country, whose blockade by Russia deprived them of 
 the means of subsistence. Then Russia tore up the Treaty — 
 running the risk of having one day to meet the Turkish fleet in 
 the Black Sea, but gaining the prestige attaching to the power of 
 being free from all restrictions, even when made by a solemn and 
 an equal treaty. 
 
 The gain of Russia by the Crimean war cannot be accurately 
 estimated by any who are not aware of the efforts that Turkey 
 was making to emancipate herself from the restrictions, commer- 
 cial and otherwise, under which she laboured. But Russia had 
 undermined the Turkish power in the three Danubian Princi- 
 palities, and, although she had not expelled it, she was able — 
 through England and France, who, with Austria, Prussia, and 
 Sardinia, joined Russia in the European Concert for the regulation 
 of the Principalities — to facilitate the process of disintegration. 
 The war of 1877-8 accomplished the severance of the three 
 Danubian Principalities, and of that of Montenegro, from the 
 
314 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Ottoman Empire, and, for the purpose of their future severance, 
 created the Principality of Bulgaria and the Province of Eastern 
 Roumelia. 
 
 But the effect of this disintegration has not been entirely un- 
 favourable to Turkey. Roumania, which still recollects the 
 devastation of the Russian armies which occupied it "like a 
 cloud of locusts" in 1848-52, and which she contrasted so un- 
 favourably with the contemporaneous occupation by the Turks, 
 is not disposed to become a Russian province, and does not 
 consider herself called on for gratitude to a Power which, as she 
 now sees, deceived her into the belief that she was acting as a 
 liberator. 
 
 It is different with Montenegro and with Servia. But it re- 
 mains to be seen how far Russia will succeed in her glaring 
 attempts to incorporate these provinces. 
 
 From the time that Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were con- 
 stituted, Russia set to work to unite them into a Russian province; 
 but, though they have pretty nearly accomplished their union, it 
 is as a Turkish province. Roumania, Bulgaria, and Eastern 
 Roumelia do not yet form a flowery path for the march of the 
 Russian troops to Constantinople. 
 
 In 1688, and in 1809, and again in 1829, Turkey was about 
 to be overwhelmed by Russia. Now, after 61 years, 81 years, 
 202 years, in which Russia has gradually secured the aid of all 
 the European Powers, the Sultan still rules at Constantinople, 
 the Moslem has not been driven across the Bosphorus. 
 
 Why have the predictions of the Christian prophets failed of 
 accomplishment? Why has the diagnosis of the European 
 doctors not penetrated the secrets of the Asiatic Constitution? 
 Why has not " civilisation " driven " barbarism " out of Europe ? 
 Why does not the sick man die ? 
 
 Among many causes of this persistent vitality, three are pre- 
 eminent. The first is the fraternal spirit of the Mahometan 
 religion, which is fully embraced by the Turks. The simplicity 
 of the Monotheism of Mahomet must have been a refreshing 
 breeze to all senseful men whose priests were engaged in dis- 
 putes about the nature of Christ, and the rank of the different 
 persons in the Trinity. The Mahometan religion recognises the 
 substantial equality of all Mussulmans, and the Turks know no 
 hereditary rank except in the family of the Sultan. The con- 
 quered Christians who accepted Islam were at once invested 
 with all the privileges of the governing race. These privileges 
 
Why does not the Sick Man die ? 315 
 
 included the duty of national defence. Honour and duty thus 
 went hand in hand, and the purity of their morals is still evinced 
 in the noble disinterestedness which encourages Turkish soldiers 
 to go on serving without mutiny, while their pay is many months 
 in arrear. 
 
 The second cause has been the liberty and the self-government 
 accorded to those who refused to accept Islam, and continued 
 to belong to one form or another of the Christian faith. The 
 usual system in the Turkish provinces, where religions are mixed, 
 is to recognise the religious chiefs as the municipal rulers of 
 their congregations. The archbishops and bishops of the 
 Greek Church, of the Roman Catholics, of the Protestants, 
 Jews, Romanist Armenians, and Gregorian Armenians, instead 
 of being subject to disabilities, or proscribed the realm by 
 the Government Church of Islam, as they would have been 
 in this country at the Reformation, are all invested with 
 authority. Of course every election has to be sanctioned by the 
 Sultan, just as in England the Lord Mayor, after election, is 
 presented to the Lord Chancellor for the approval of the Queen. 
 But no creed is imposed on any of their churches by any govern- 
 ment authority. The Christians, too, in consideration of a money 
 payment, have generally been exempted from military service. 
 
 In Greece, before the Revolution of 182 1, the organisation 
 was different. In the continent, in the Morea, and in the 
 islands, the communal system was more secular, and in each 
 of the three the forms varied infinitely, but the principle was 
 everywhere the same. The councils were elective. Henry 
 Headley Parish, Secretary to the British Legation in Greece 
 from nth November 1830 till May 1834, in his "Diplomatic 
 History of the Monarchy of Greece" (1838), gives a chapter on 
 the communal rights of Greece under the Turkish rule, which 
 shows how erroneous is the ordinary opinion on that subject. 
 We can afford only one extract from this chapter, which was ex- 
 tracted from a Greek journal called " Le Sauveur," published 
 at Nauplia in 1834, under the Royal Regency. 
 
 ' ' Each province had a Baluk Bask/, or chief of the gendarmerie, under 
 the orders of the Voyvode and the provincial council. 
 
 " The council might displace him whenever it thought proper, without 
 referring to Turkish authority. 
 
 ' ' No tax of any kind, which was called for by the wants of the govern 
 ment or of the country, could be levied without the express consent of the 
 provincial council, as well as that of the mayors of towns, burghs, and villages. 
 The mayors assessed this tax proportionally amongst the families." 
 
316 National Life and Thought. 
 
 At the end of this chapter Mr. Parish remarks : — 
 
 "Such was the simple and beautiful system of administration which the 
 Greeks had enjoyed until the year 1820, and under the shade of these institu- 
 tions they had advanced in population, commerce, administrative knowledge, 
 and mental cultivation beyond any conquered or tributary people of modern 
 times. In 1820 their merchant vessels covered the Mediterranean. When 
 the revolution broke out, the merchant navy of Greece consisted of 600 vessels, 
 mounting, in all, 6000 guns. The cities of Hydra, Spezia, Ipsara, Scio, and 
 others were rapidly rising to the fame of the Hanseatic, Venetian, and Genoese 
 Republics, when it suited the purpose of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, for the 
 third time, to revolutionise Greece." 1 
 
 Mr, Parish says that, under the Venetian rule, the population of 
 the Morea was 190,653; under the Turks, in 1820, it was 458,000. 
 It was much diminished during the war of independence. Mr- 
 Frederick Martin, in his "Statesman's Year-Book" for 1880, puts 
 it at 743>494- 
 
 At the conferences of Poros in 1828, under the influence of Sir 
 Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the 
 envoys of the three protecting Powers — Russia, France, and Eng- 
 land — declared that : — 
 
 "In the establishment of a hereditary government in Greece, it would be 
 both unjust and dangerous to deprive the Greeks of the representative prin- 
 ciple, for even under the Turkish rule they elected their municipal magistrates,, 
 and their ' Notables ' were generally invested with the right of apportioning the 
 taxes imposed by the Porte." 2 
 
 In the process of constructing the Greek monarchy, the repre- 
 sentative system was, by great exertions, planned by Russia, and 
 carried on by her in conjunction with her satellites, England and 
 France, very much weakened. Mr. Stillman, a celebrated Phil- 
 Hellenist, who, when American Consul in Crete in 1866, gave 
 considerable assistance to the insurrection against Turkey, bore 
 testimony to this in an article in the " Fortnightly Review," 
 November, 1880, when he said that, "under the Turkish rule the 
 municipal liberty is much greater than in the kingdom of Greece." 
 He draws a picture which is well worth the consideration of all 
 who think that they are doing good service by detaching provinces 
 from the mild sovereignty of the Sultan, and placing them under 
 the bureaucratic government of some petty sovereign under 
 Slavonic protection. From this article we extract the following. 
 The article was written at the time that the Berlin Conference was 
 adding territory to Greece in Epirus and Thessaly : — 
 
 "As a friend of Greece, and especially as an admirer of its courageous, in- 
 1 Parish's "Greece," p. 44. " Ibid, p. 74. 
 
Why does not the Sick Man die ? 317 
 
 domitable, and warm-hearted people ; not blind to its vices, but knowing that 
 its virtues far surpass them, if those of any people can be said to do so, I ask 
 myself the question others have asked me, and will ask now — What can be 
 done, if Greece is in this desperate condition, to make her fit for the new- 
 responsibilities Europe proposes to bestow upon her ? The answer is in one 
 word — Decentralisation — a radical change of the constitution to one on the 
 Swiss plan, with the fullest administrative liberty to the commune, entire 
 abandonment of the system of nomarchs, 1 re-establishment of the original 
 States as provinces, and the remission of the provincial affairs to elective pro- 
 vincial governments ; in short, the most complete separation of the general 
 Government at Athens from the affairs of the country consistent with keeping 
 a firm, federal bond, the maintenance of the army, navy, and diplomacy under 
 a common direction, and, as far as possible, the removal of the central adminis- 
 tration and the civil service from the vicissitudes of an ignorant universal 
 .suffrage or unreasonable changes. 
 
 " That the Government is not strong enough to bring about complete assimi- 
 lation is shown by the fact that it has been obliged to leave the Ionian Islands 
 in the condition, in most respects, in which it got them. It has never been 
 able to establish uniform taxation, or to abrogate special laws or institutions. 
 It has generally planted the seeds of great discontent when it has done any- 
 thing in the way of centralisation there. In a voyage through the Ionian 
 Archipelago last spring-time, I found everywhere increasing discontent with 
 the Government of Athens, and a growing regret for English rule, as well as a 
 contempt for Athenian law. Ten years ago I could find nothing of the kind. 
 And not only from the islands, but from almost every part of Greece where I 
 have been, or where I have friends, I hear the same growing complaint against 
 the absorption by the Government of the liberties and prosperity of the pro- 
 vinces, and the same outcry against over-centralisation. Even the poor sem- 
 blance of municipal liberty is not respected, for the demarch, or mayor, though 
 elective, is utterly powerless for good, as he cannot even construct a road 
 without the consent of 'the Central Government, while even illegal infringe- 
 ment of the prerogatives of the municipality are not uncommon. As to the 
 elections, woe to the Demarch who acts against the will of the Ministry. 
 
 " Decentralisation will remove the great objection to enlargement of the 
 kingdom, and will even make it practicable to a greater extent than will be 
 found possible under the present form of government. It will permit the new 
 provinces to come in with their local administration unchanged ; and it is a 
 curious fact that, under the Turkish rule, the municipal liberty is much greater 
 than in the kingdom of Greece. There is a great and substantial danger that in 
 annexing a population so large and so habituated to that particular kind of 
 liberty which will be denied it by the Greek Constitution, Greece may find 
 itself in the position of a gun that fires a shot heavier than itself — the gun will 
 go farther than the shot. If, for instance, Crete were to come, as the Greeks 
 all hope it will, into the assembly of the Greek States, and the Islanders, 
 accustomed to an extraordinary amount of provincial independence, and even 
 to an insular autonomy within certain limits, were to experience the operations 
 of a Greek administration, with nomarchs appointed from Athens, etc., etc., I 
 am certain that two years would not elapse without a revolution and a separa- 
 tion. And the plain truth is, that Crete is to-day better and more intelligently 
 
 1 The nomarchs are appointed from Athens. 
 
3 1 8 National Life and Thought. 
 
 governed than the Hellenic kingdom has ever been, and is, indeed, a model of 
 government for populations so situated. " 
 
 The Greek nation has increased in population since there have 
 been no Turks in Greece against whom it could rise in rebellion, 
 but it is far from possessing the energy, the patriotism, or the 
 habit of self-government which it displayed seventy years ago. 
 The municipal liberties which the Roman and the Turkish con- 
 querors respected has been destroyed by the protection of Russia, 
 France, and England. 
 
 The municipal liberty so remarkable in Greece was not con- 
 fined to that country. When, in 1880, the Secret Societies in 
 Bulgaria were endeavouring to eject the Greeks from the Church 
 of St. Marina, in Plovdiv, they addressed letters to the Bulgarian 
 villages, calling for evidence that, thirty years before, the Church 
 had been constructed chiefly by the subscriptions, not of Greeks, 
 but of Bulgarians. The letter commenced as follows : — 
 
 " Call a meeting of the members of the Council of Elders, and summon to 
 that meeting the old men of your village who, thirty years ago, were at the 
 head of affairs in the village. You will then question them minutely, in order 
 that each may recollect what you have contributed from the village towards 
 the restoration of the Church of St. Marina in Plevdiv." 1 
 
 If the spirit of the Greeks has been broken by the seventy years' 
 persecution of Russia, it must be remembered that, during the 
 whole of that time, Russia was supported by England, sometimes 
 by design, sometimes by inadvertence. It has yet to be seen 
 whether the Bulgarians will meet with a similar fate. Since the 
 brigand-like kidnapping of Prince Alexander, England has not 
 actively assisted Russia in Bulgaria. 
 
 In order to appreciate the encouragement given by the Sultans 
 to commerce, it is necessary to recollect the many impediments 
 to commerce enacted in England, and in particular the pro- 
 hibitions made for the protection of English manufacturers, and 
 even agriculturalists, against the commerce of Ireland. During 
 the reign of William III., it was even proposed to make it felony 
 to import Irish cattle into England. 
 
 The Hatti Sheriffs of the Sultan according liberty of trade 
 to the Rulers of England, France, Venice, and Poland, are indeed 
 couched in an Oriental style of imperial condescension. 
 
 The Emperor and Conqueror of the earth, who by Divine grace 
 is the King of Kings of the world, and the dispenser of crowns to 
 
 J Turkey No. 5 (1880). Correspondence respecting the condition of the 
 Mussulman, Greek, and Jewish populations in Eastern Roumelia, p. 268. 
 
Why does not tlie Sick Man die ? 319 
 
 monarchs, granted them to the most glorious among the great 
 Princes professing the faith of Jesus, and the most conspicuous 
 amongst the potentates of the nation of the Messiah, and every 
 time that the Hat was renewed it was mentioned that the exalted 
 Christian potentate who had made professions of sincerity and 
 friendship, had demanded and received permission for his 
 subjects to come and go into these parts, "in addition to other 
 special commands, to the end that, in coming or going, either by 
 land or sea, in their way, passage and lodging, they might not 
 experience any molestation or hindrance from any one." 
 
 But the provisions were really liberal, and protected the 
 merchants from all that petty system of annoyance by which it is 
 possible to destroy the effect of general regulations. It is true 
 that the custom-house officers often tried to override these liberal 
 regulations, and that the merchants, through the governments, 
 had to remonstrate. But the original grants of permission were 
 always repeated on demand. To the number of seventy-five, 
 including the repetitions, these capitulations are given in Mac- 
 Gregor's Commercial Tariffs, No. 8, "The Ottoman Empire," 
 published by command in 1843. 
 
 We can give only four : — 
 
 " No. 30. That the English merchants, having once paid the customs at 
 Constantinople, Aleppo, Alexandria, Scio, Smyrna, and other parts of our 
 sacred dominions, not an asper more shall be taken or demanded from them at 
 any other place, nor shall any obstacle be interposed to the exit of their 
 merchandise. 
 
 " No. 39. That customs shall not be demanded or taken on the merchandise 
 brought by them in their ships to Constantinople, or any other part of our 
 sacred dominions, which they shall not (of their own free will) land with a 
 view to sale. 
 
 "No. 51. That the merchants of the aforesaid nation, having once paid the 
 customs on the merchandise imported into Constantinople, and other ports of 
 our sacred dominions, and on those exported therefrom, as silks, camlets, and 
 other goods, and, being unable to sell the said goods, are under the necessity 
 of transporting them to Smyrna, Scio, and other ports ; on their arrival there, 
 the governors and custom-house officers of such ports shall always accept their 
 teskares, and forbear exacting any further duty on the said merchandise. 
 
 " No. 54. That the English merchants, having once paid the duties on their 
 merchandise, at the rate of three per cent., and taken them out of their ships, 
 no one shall demand or exact from them anything more without their consent ; 
 and it was moreover expressly commanded, that the English merchants should 
 not be molested or vexed in manner aforesaid, contrary to the capitulations." 
 
 These permissions are called capitulations because they are 
 heads of what is granted only on one side. They are not treaties, 
 
320 National Life and Thought. 
 
 for they stipulate nothing on the part of the Sovereign to whose 
 subjects they were given. 
 
 In 1809 we made a Treaty of peace with Turkey, whom we had 
 attacked without reason. Article IV. renewed what is called 
 "The Treaty of Capitulations of the Turkish year 1086 (a.d. 
 1675)," anc * declared that they shall continue to be observed and 
 maintained as if they had suffered no interruption. 
 
 The following is Article V. : — 
 
 " In return for the indulgence and good treatment afforded by the Sublime 
 Porte to English merchants, with respect to their goods and property, as well 
 as in all matters tending to facilitate their commerce, England shall recipro- 
 cally extend every indulgence and friendly treatment to the flag, subjects, and 
 merchants of the Sublime Porte which may hereafter frequent the dominions 
 of His Britannic Majesty for the purposes of commerce." 
 
 The return for the restoration of the capitulations which the 
 Turkish Plenipotentiary expected was that three per cent, ad 
 valorem should be the highest duty on Turkish trade with Eng- 
 land ; but Mr Adair said that this was not a proper thing to 
 consider in a treaty of peace, but only in a treaty of commerce ; 
 and he said something about its being impossible under the 
 Navigation Laws. This was true, but showed the injustice of 
 England. The first part of Mr Adair's argument did not prevent 
 him from accepting the confirmation of the capitulations in the 
 Treaty. 
 
 There were other capitulations which, after the time of Charles 
 II., were so extended that not only British merchants, but their 
 descendants, are exempted from Turkish jurisdiction. This is no 
 part of the reason why the sick man does not die. On the con- 
 trary, it is a most important part of the European Concert or 
 conspiracy against the Ottoman Empire. We must, therefore, 
 quote an anecdote which shows the extent to which this abuse 
 has been carried : — 
 
 "The dragomans of the consulates go every day to the chief police office, 
 and claim their respective subjects who may have been taken up during the 
 night on their predatory excursions. On one occasion the British or the 
 Austrian dragoman, it does not matter which, claimed a thief, who, in the 
 usual course, was released. Two days later, a merchant had a large sum of 
 money in his house, and, having been warned that his house was likely to be 
 attacked, he applied for and received four Turkish policemen to guard his 
 premises. An attempt to break in was made in the night by a band of 
 burglars who did not know the house was guarded; resistance was made, 
 pistols used, and two of the burglars killed. The dead bodies and the captured 
 survivors were brought to the public station; and next morning, when the 
 
' Why does not the Sick Man die ?' ^21 
 
 dragomans came to claim their own, the Zabtieh Pasha conducted one of them 
 to the dead burglar, and said : — 
 
 " 'There is your subject; you had better have left him in my hands two 
 days ago, and he would not have had an opportunity of returning to his evil 
 ways, and be in the state in which you now see him.' " x 
 
 A people that survives such a system as this must contain a 
 principle of immortality. 
 
 Such a people are the Turks. 
 
 1 " The East and the West," by the third Lord Stanley of Alderly, page 37. 
 
XVIII. 
 EGYPT. 
 
 J. c. m'coan. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the events of the past eight or nine years — to 
 say nothing of the modern fashion of Eastern travel — have 
 familiarised most of us with the geography of Egypt, it 
 may be convenient to introduce the necessarily rapid sketch of 
 its history and present condition which is to form the subject 
 of this afternoon's paper, by a brief notice of its physical area and 
 limits. 
 
 A glance at the map will show that it occupies the north- 
 eastern corner of the African Continent, where it is linked to 
 Asia by the Isthmus of Suez, and separated from Europe by the 
 Mediterranean Sea. Its shore-line along the old historic sea 
 extends from Cape Hazai'f to El-Arish, the frontier of Palestine, 
 and includes the three ports of Alexandria, Rosetta, and Damietta, 
 to which has now to be added Port Said, at the entrance to the 
 Suez Canal. Westwards, it is separated from the Fezzan and 
 Tripoli by the Libyan Desert ; and, eastwards, is bounded by a 
 line drawn from El-Arish to Akabah, at the head of the Red Sea 
 Gulf of that name ; and thence, enclosing the Peninsula of Sinai, 
 across to the western coast of the Red Sea down, at present, as 
 far as Suakim; and, on the south, by the First Cataract at 
 Assouan, about 400 miles as the crow flies from the Mediter- 
 ranean, or nearly 600 if measured by the windings of the Nile. 
 
 The area thus enclosed was computed by the French survey, 
 made during Napoleon's short occupation of the country, to be 
 115,000 square miles; but of this only some 10,000 were then 
 cultivable, the rest being rocky and desert waste. Since then, 
 improved irrigation has added nearly a fifth to this arable total • 
 but owing to still defective methods of distributing the river water 
 — on which the fertility of the whole depends — only some 5000 
 square miles are now under actual tillage. From Assouan, the 
 ■ old, mysterious river winds without an affluent — with, indeed, 
 323 
 
324 National Life and Thought. 
 
 only two farther south, from its far-away source among the Equa- 
 torial lakes — down, nearly due north, through a narrow valley, 
 which, though spreading at parts into spacious plains, closes in at 
 others to the river's banks, and so averages a width of only about 
 seven miles. Twelve miles below Cairo the great stream divides 
 into two branches, which, forking north-east and north-west, form 
 the great plain called, from its shape, the Delta, and empty them- 
 selves into the Mediterranean at Rosetta and Damietta. The 
 five other ancient mouths of the river have long ago silted up,, 
 and their courses can now be hardly traced over the great alluvial 
 flat and through the network of canals and lakes which interpose 
 between the sea and this point. Strictly, Alexandria lies outside 
 the Delta, but in common phrase the latter includes the whole of 
 the cultivable land, as well east and west as within the two 
 branches of the river. Few or no monumental remains of remote 
 antiquity have as yet been found in this vast triangular tract of" 
 nearly 5000 square miles; but it is now the most densely 
 populated and, with its great port of Alexandria, the most com- 
 mercially active section of Egypt. In fertility, too, it is surpassed 
 by only one other — the splendid valley of the Fayoum — which,, 
 formed by a deep sinuosity in the Libyan Mountains some 80 
 miles south-west of Cairo, and abundantly watered by an artificial 
 cut from the Nile, blooms over 700 square miles with the most, 
 varied and luxuriant vegetation. 
 
 There remain only to mention the five Oases, those 
 
 " Tufted isles 
 
 That verdant rise amid the Libyan wilds," 
 
 varying in size from the Great Oasis, of 200 miles long by 20 
 broad, to the small Wah-el-Sirvah, or Oasis of Amnion, famous as 
 the site of the great Jovian temple and oracle, whose priests pro- 
 claimed Alexander's sonship to the god and foretold his mastery 
 of the world. Without these, however, the upper river valley to- 
 Assouan, the Fayoum, and the Delta give a total area of about 
 t 2,000 square miles, which— plus the strip of Red Sea coast 
 from Suez to Suakim, and the almost "no man's" wilderness of 
 Sinai down to Akaba — may now be said to form the Egypt of the 
 Khedive. Less than a dozen years ago Ismail Pasha claimed 
 sovereignty from the Mediterranean to the Equator, but with the 
 sacrifice of Gordon at Khartoum that bubble burst ; and, although 
 we now garrison an outpost at the Second Cataract, the Egypt 
 proper of modern politics and trade — as that also of the Exodus 
 — lies within the limits I have roughly sketched. 
 
Egypt. 325 
 
 A couple of miles beyond this southern boundary of the First 
 Cataract lies the sacred island of Philce, the mythical burial-place 
 of the great god Osiris. To the ancient Egyptian this was the 
 most sacred spot on earth, more than Mecca to the Mussulman, 
 or Calvary to the Christian, and the most solemn oath he could 
 swear was, "By Him — the Un-named and Un-nameable — that 
 sleeps in Philce ! " The temple ruins of this gem of the Nile are 
 amongst the finest in Egypt; but as they lie beyond the strict 
 frontier line, they can receive only this passing mention. 
 
 Such, then, are the present limits of Egypt proper — nearly as 
 they were 6000 years ago— enclosing a cultivable area about 
 equal to the square mileage of Belgium, or to that of our own four 
 •counties of Hertford, Lancashire, York, and Lincoln. Yet, small 
 as this was and is, in historic interest and in the measure of its 
 influence on human civilisation, this Valley of the Nile transcends 
 every other country in the world. Historically, it is unique. 
 While China and India were still wrapped in legendary mist, and 
 long before even legend began the story of Europe anywhere 
 between the Mediterranean and the White Sea, Egypt had a 
 settled government and an advanced civilisation. Britain and 
 Gaul were covered with primeval forest, and their inhabitants were 
 nearly, if not altogether, as savage as are now the cannibals of 
 New Guinea and the Solomon Islands ; the semi-mythical War of 
 Troy was yet 1000 years in the future, and both Buddha and 
 Confucius were unborn for still 500 years later, when great cities, 
 arts and sciences, an established religion, and a matured civil 
 polity whose surviving monuments still excite the wonder and 
 admiration of the traveller, already flourished in the realm of the 
 Pharaohs. However chronologists may differ by not merely 
 hundreds, but even thousands of years, certain it is that the 
 antiquity of Greece and Rome is but a thing of yesterday as 
 compared with the hoar antiquity of Egypt. From the Nile 
 Valley it was that Greece derived the first inspirations of her art, 
 her sciences, her literature ; and improving them in the light and 
 fulness of her own exquisite imagination, handed them down to 
 imperial Rome, whose mission it was to diffuse them over Western 
 Europe. Egypt was, in fact, the cradle of the world's civilisation, 
 whence, over the great " Mid Sea," spread the influences which 
 even yet are operative in redeeming the farthest parts of the earth 
 from barbarism. 
 
 The historical evidence on which this claim to advanced 
 civilisation in a remote antiquity rests is based on hieroglyphical 
 
326 National Life and Thought. 
 
 inscriptions on the Nilotic monuments, on papyri discovered 
 among their ruins, and on passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 On many points, of course, the knowledge thus derived is vague 
 and imperfect ; but a collation of the whole authenticates Egyptian 
 annals nearly up to a level with those of Greece and Rome. So 
 far back, however, do these links in Nilotic history extend, that 
 chronologists differ, as I have said, in fixing their commencement,, 
 not by centuries merely, but by more than 3000 years — Boekh 
 reckoning it at 5702 B.C., and Sharpe at 2000 B.C. ; but Lepsius' 
 nearly mean computation of 3892 B.C. is generally accepted as the 
 most proximately accurate ; and from that sufficiently far back 
 point in the track of time, or near to it, we may date the beginning 
 of the first of the five eras into which Egyptian history divides 
 itself. 
 
 How and whence Egypt herself derived the earliest germs of 
 her civilisation, has much exercised and divided antiquarian 
 opinion. But what seems to be the best supported conjecture is 
 that, far back in pre-historic time, an Aryan migration from 
 Western India, travelling from the Indus to the Persian Gulf, and 
 thence along the coast of Arabia to the shores of the Red Sea,, 
 found its way into Abyssinia and Nubia, and there sowed the 
 seeds of arts and institutions which thence spread later down the 
 narrow channel of the Nile Valley, where they took root and 
 ripened into the cultured civilisation that glorified Memphis and 
 Thebes long before Cecrops laid the first crude brick of Athens, 
 or Abraham drove his flocks from Chaldea. This hypothesis is 
 supported by the striking resemblance which is known to exist 
 between the usages, the superstitions, and the mythology of the 
 ancient inhabitants of Western India and those of the first settlers 
 on the Upper Nile. Thus the temples of Nubia exhibit the same 
 features, whether as to style of architecture or the form of worship 
 to which they were devoted, with the similar buildings near Bom- 
 bay. In both countries large masses of rock have been excavated 
 into hollow chambers, the sides of which are decorated with 
 columns and statues of men and animals carved out of the same 
 stone ; and in both are found solid blocks weighing many hundred 
 tons, separated from the adjoining mountain, and lifted into the 
 air by mechanical methods, the secret of which puzzles the ablest 
 of our modern engineers. Nor are these architectural resemblances 
 the only features in common between Western India and the long 
 strip of country watered by the Nile. Others of nearly equal 
 historical value have been recognised by archaeologists, which 
 
Egypt. 327 
 
 similarly support this conjecture of early connection between the 
 two countries. 
 
 But whatever may have been the genesis of Egyptian civilisa- 
 tion, we reach its historical commencement somewhere about 
 4000 b.c, near to which Manetho, a native priest who wrote in 
 Greek about 300 B.C., placed the beginning of the first of the thirty 
 dynasties which, with three hundred or more sovereigns, filled 
 the long span of time down to b.c. 527, when the first of the five 
 eras was closed with the conquest of the Persians under Cambyses. 
 Agreeing with Herodotus, who visited Egypt 150 years earlier, 
 Manetho — probably founding his " Chronicle " on documents then 
 in existence — named King Menes as the first of the native 
 monarchs who throughout that long chain of sovereignty ruled this 
 Land of Egypt. To Menes or his immediate successor is ascribed 
 the foundation of Memphis, at an easy day's donkey ride from 
 where Cairo now stands, and the sole relic of whose long-dead 
 magnificence is a prone statue of Rameses II., the greatest of all 
 the Pharaohs. It is not, however, till towards the end of the third 
 dynasty, some 500 years later, that Pharaonic history begins to be 
 inscribed on the monuments, and that we have in them, except 
 during two great gaps, definite, if not indisputable, records of what 
 followed. On this authority we know that the great Pyramids of 
 Ghizeh, near Cairo, were built by Pharaoh Shufus — the Cheops of 
 Herodotus — who reigned conjointly with his brother during the 
 fourth dynasty, any time between B.C. 3200 and B.C. 2300, as 
 chronologists differently reckon. Of these oldest and grandest of 
 human monuments, which by book and picture are now familiar 
 to the most untravelled, I need merely say that the slightly higher 
 of the two called " Great " occupies an area of eleven acres — 
 about equal to that of Lincoln's Inn Fields — with a height of 480 
 eet, or 127 feet higher than the cross of St. Paul's. Like most 
 visitors to these colossal " memorials of the world's faith," I have 
 explored the interior and climbed to the summit of the larger one ; 
 but while the long crawl inwards and upwards to the mortuary 
 chamber in its centre was rewarded only by the sight of Pharaoh's 
 empty sarcophagus, the view from the top a hundred times repaid 
 the fatigue of the ascent. Seemingly close below, though nearly ten 
 miles off, lies Cairo in all its Oriental picturesqueness, its domes, 
 minarets, and feathery palm-clumps rising clear and sharp in this 
 most pellucid of atmospheres; behind it the range of the 
 Mokattem hills, trending in broken links to the Red Sea ; north- 
 wards, beyond the lonely obelisk of Heliopolis, the luxuriant 
 
328 National Life and Thought. 
 
 vegetation of the Delta stretching away to the lakes that separate 
 it from the Mediterranean; while east and west flows the sacred 
 and mysterious Nile, dotted far into the distance with sails 
 that flash in the sun ; nearer, the palm-groves that wave over 
 buried Memphis; beyond these, the scattered smaller pyramids of 
 Sakara and Dashour; and, farther away, the winding valley of 
 Upper Egypt losing itself in the hazy distance half-way up to 
 Thebes. There is, indeed, no other view in Egypt, and few in the 
 world, to compare with that which delights the eye and feeds the 
 imagination from this Great Pyramid top. The second of these 
 huge mountains of stone is some forty feet lower, with propor- 
 tionately narrower base ; but as it stands on higher ground, the 
 difference in size is hardly perceptible. On the same plateau 
 cluster six other smaller pyramids — the whole, it may now be 
 taken as proved, forming part of the great royal necropolis of 
 Memphis. They are the grandest graves in the world, but — 
 despite the ingenious theories of Professor Piazzi Smyth — they are 
 nothing more. 
 
 In a sand-hollow a few hundred yards south-east of the Great 
 Pyramid, stands, or rather crouches, the colossal Sphinx — " gazing 
 straight on with calm eternal eyes" across the vista of seven 
 thousand years, for, according to Mariette Bey, the famous French 
 Egyptologist, it was already old before the stupendous gnomon of 
 Cheops was built. But of this again no description need be 
 attempted. From Pliny to the latest book-maker on Nile travel, 
 its solemn and majestic presence has been the theme of a hundred 
 pens. The prophetic rhapsody of Eothen may, however, be once 
 more quoted : " Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and 
 Egyptian kings, upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman 
 conquerors, upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern Empire, upon 
 battle and pestilence, upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian 
 race, upon keen-eyed travellers — Herodotus yesterday, Warburton 
 to-day — upon all and more this unworldly Sphinx has watched, 
 and watched with a Providence, with the same earnest eyes, and 
 the same sad, tranquil mien. And we, we shall die, and Islam 
 wither away ; and the Englishman, straining far over to hold his 
 loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit 
 in the seats of the Faithful ; and still that shapeless rock will be 
 watching and watching the works of the new busy race, with 
 those same sad, earnest eyes, and the same tranquil mien 
 everlasting." 
 
 More than mere allusion to the other great monumental antiqui- 
 
Egypt. 329 
 
 ties of Egypt would be beyond the scope of this paper ; and I 
 need, therefore, only say that they nearly all lie south of Cairo, 
 .scattered along the river from the rock-tombs of Beni-hassan to 
 Abydos, Denderah, Thebes, Esneh, Edfou, and Philce — the 
 shattered but still splendid memorials of a dead faith and civilisation 
 Tvith which the world can nowhere else show anything to compare. 
 To those who care for scholarly and picturesque description of 
 nearly the whole, I can recommend no better guide than Miss 
 Amelia B. Edwards's Thousand Miles up the JViile, a book which 
 is most valued by those who know Egypt best. 
 
 From reference to these relics of far-away time, it is hardly 
 .a transition to return to the chronological point at which I 
 digressed — the fourth of Manetho's thirty dynasties, which ended 
 somewhere about 2000 B.C. The records of the fifth and sixth 
 offer little that is of modern interest, except, perhaps, the fact of 
 Abraham's visit to the Egyptian Court during the reign of Pharaoh 
 Phiops (of the sixth), about 1900 B.C. Of the next four dynasties 
 which covered some 500 years, nothing is certainly known, as the 
 monuments are again silent, and Manetho's names and dates, 
 unless based on papyri which no longer exist, can at best be 
 -conjectural. During the twelfth it was that Joseph the Hebrew 
 was "found in a pit," and was, some years afterwards, when 
 " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," promoted to be the 
 prime minister of Pharaoh Osirtesen L, somewhere about B.c. 
 1700. From the thirteenth to the seventeenth dynasty occurs 
 another long monumental blank, during some 500 or more years 
 •of which, it is believed, occurred the invasion and rule of the 
 Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who were apparently of Arab race. 
 These aliens were at length got rid of by a rebellion promoted by 
 the native Prince Aahmes I., of the eighteenth dynasty. During this 
 and the following dynasty, Egypt attained perhaps her highest point 
 of civilisation. Then it was (in the nineteenth) nourished the great 
 Rameses, whose colossal statue, as already remarked, is now the sole 
 relic of Memphis. Seventeen centuries after this greatest of the 
 Pharaohs had been interred in the superb temple which his genius 
 and power had erected at Thebes, Germanicus visited that famous 
 capital, and the Egyptian priests, as Tacitus relates, read to him from 
 the monumental records the deeds and victories, the treasures and 
 tributes, the resources and the subject realms of this great king. 
 His empire stretched northward to the shores of the Caspian, 
 southward beyond the Second Cataract, westward to the interior 
 •of the desert, and eastward it included Arabia. His son and 
 
330 National Life and Thought. 
 
 successor, Pharaoh Menephta, is generally identified as the 
 Pharaoh of the Exodus. And here may, perhaps, be conveniently 
 mentioned the explanation now accepted by the best modern 
 criticism of the alleged miraculous passage of the Red Sea by the 
 flying Israelites and the destruction of their Egyptian pursuers. 
 
 Brugsch Bey, a German savant, who spent several years investi- 
 gating Egyptian archseology during the reign of the late Khedive 
 Ismail, and whom — as also the late Mariette Bey and Professor 
 Maspero, along with Brugsch, the greatest of modern Egypt- 
 ologists — I have had the pleasure of meeting more than once at 
 Cairo, has given special attention to this subject, and has, it may 
 fairly be said, demonstrated the route taken by the Israelites, and 
 rationally shown how their passage of the Red Sea took place- 
 There is evidence that even in historic times what is now called 
 the Gulf of Suez extended as far north as, and included, Lake 
 Timsah, now nearly about midway in the Suez Canal. By the 
 time of the Israelites, however, it had, through evaporation and 
 other physical causes still in slow operation, receded to the Bitter 
 Lakes, and a shallow had been formed between those deeper 
 depressions and the present northern extremity of the Gulf. Up 
 south-eastwards of Lake Timsah travelled the Israelites from the 
 Land of Goshen to this ford, and here, during a favourable wind 
 which left it nearly dry, they crossed to the other side of the 
 Gulf. The pursuing Egyptians, endeavouring to follow at the 
 same point, were caught by a change of wind which swept the 
 southern waters up over the ford, with the result of engulfing 
 Pharaoh and his host before they could pass. That the Hebrew 
 writer, full of belief in the special providence of his tribal God for 
 his people, should have regarded and recorded this as a miracle 
 expressly wrought in their behalf was natural enough, and the 
 modern orthodox acceptance of this view has been consistent 
 with — indeed necessitated by — the now generally obsolete dogma of 
 plenary inspiration. But with the surrender of this, miracle in the 
 matter loses its raison d'etre, and the most religious mind may well 
 accept an explanation of the event which is at once sufficient, 
 rational, and naturalistic. The date of it, I may add, is generally 
 fixed about 1650 b.c. 
 
 The records of the next three dynasties furnish little of 
 modern interest, but early in the twenty-third Egyptian and 
 Hebrew history begin to synchronise during the reign of Pharaoh 
 Shishak, who, as recorded on the propylon of the great temple of 
 Karnak and in the twelfth chapter of Second Chronicles, besieged 
 
Egypt. 331 
 
 and captured Jerusalem about 970 b.c. His successor, Osorthen, 
 is also probably the Zerah of the Bible, who was defeated at 
 Mareshah by Asa, King of Judah. Again, some 350 years later, 
 after various alternations of friendship and hostility between the 
 two kingdoms, the twenty-third chapter of Second Kings similarly 
 confirms the Theban hieroglyphs in recording the defeat of Josiah, 
 King of Judah, at Megiddo, by Pharaoh Nechoh, and his own sub- 
 sequent overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar. Less than ninety years 
 later, the Pharaonic era virtually ended with the twenty-seventh 
 of Manetho's dynasties, when, in 527 b.c, the Persians under 
 Cambyses invaded Egypt, and for nearly 200 years reduced it 
 to the rank of a Persian province. During most of this time, 
 however, a native revolt was kept alive in Upper Egypt by the 
 princes of three further dynasties until, in 350 B.C., Nectanebus 
 II. was driven into Ethiopia, and with him — the very last of the 
 Pharaohs — closed this longest and grandest era in Egyptian 
 history, extending over more than 3500 years. 
 
 Here, perhaps, would be the point at which to say something 
 about the religion of the ancient Egyptians, which coloured and 
 gave their character to the whole polity and social life of the 
 nation during this long span of time. But as much has yet 
 to be sketched, I must content myself with saying that it is still an 
 unsolved problem whether the Egyptians believed in one supreme 
 God, whose attributes were merely symbolised in their numerous 
 deities, or whether the whole structure of their faith resolved 
 itself into a solar myth with many ramifications. Amoun-Ra, the 
 Sun god, is certainly the most ancient object of worship found 
 upon the monuments ; but whether the great luminary was merely 
 regarded as the visible type of a supreme and invisible deity, or 
 was itself adored as the paramount divinity of an extended 
 Polytheism, is what the most authoritative Egyptologists much 
 dispute. Be the theological fact what it may, Herodotus 
 describes the Egyptians as "extremely religious, and surpassing 
 all men in the worship they rendered to their gods." But on the 
 religious belief and worship of this remarkable people, as on much 
 else respecting them, I cannot do better than refer any curious 
 hearer to Dr. Birch's admirable Guide to the Egyptian Rooms of 
 the British Museum, in which a concise but most scholarly 
 statement of our existing knowledge on the subject will be 
 found. 
 
 The second, or Persian, era of Egyptian history lasted less 
 than 200 years, when, in 332 B.C., the Greek era began with the 
 
33 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 easy conquest of the country by Alexander the Great. The 
 mission of Egypt in the great economy of the world's history 
 may now be considered to have terminated. The spirit of the 
 ancient race, long a flickering flame, died out completely with 
 the appearance of the great Macedonian. The nation was well 
 prepared for the change. A long commercial and military 
 intercourse with Greece had saturated it with Greek ideas ; just 
 as the literature, art, and religion of Greece had already been 
 largely coloured by the literature, art, and religion of the land 
 of the Pharaohs. Hellenic colonies had sprung up along the 
 Red Sea. The Thebaid had been traversed by Greek historians 
 and philosophers. Greek soldiers mustered in the Egyptian 
 court. Greek settlements were planted in the Delta. In fact, 
 the condition of things in Egypt in the fourth and fifth 
 centuries before Christ may be compared to that which, 1500 
 years later, prevailed in England during the reign of Edward the 
 Confessor ; so that the people in both countries underwent a long 
 preparation for the introduction of a new dynasty and an alien 
 government. Just as England was Normanised before the 
 conquest, so was Egypt still more Hellenised before its subjuga- 
 tion by Alexander. 
 
 Of this third era of Nilotic history I have time to say little 
 more than that the Macedonian conqueror introduced no violent 
 changes into the laws and local government of the country. 
 While garrisoning it with a Greek force, he restored the privileges 
 of the priests and repaired the temples of the deities. His chief 
 work was the founding of Alexandria, in B.C. 332 — a monument 
 which, even if he had no other, will sufficiently perpetuate his 
 name. At his death, in B.C. 322, the vast empire constructed 
 by his genius fell to pieces, and Egypt fell to Ptolemy Soter, one 
 of his generals, under whom the country was still further 
 Hellenised. The abstract religion of the priests of Osiris and 
 Pthah was dethroned, and a misty philosophical theurgy with a 
 poetical mythology of Egyptian gods with Greek attributes, 
 reigned in its stead. Alexandria gathered within its walls the 
 learning of the age. Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second of 
 this Greek line, founded the celebrated Alexandrian Library, 
 encouraged the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, and 
 patronised the labours of the historian Manetho, already men- 
 tioned. Under his two successors, the intellectual and industrial 
 activity thus promoted still further expanded, and commerce 
 developed until the merchants of Alexandria supplied half Europe 
 
Egypt. 333 
 
 with corn, linen, papyrus, and all the rich products of the East. 
 Time compels me to pass over the remaining eight of the twelve 
 sovereigns of this time (three of whom were women) who ruled 
 Egypt for 300 years, till we reach the last of them, the 
 famous Cleopatra, whose beauty and passion — as wildly recipro- 
 cated by the great Roman — wrought ruin for herself and Antony. 
 With much of her history Shakespeare has familiarised all 
 readers of our tongue ; and I need say nothing, therefore, to 
 remind any one of how, after beguiling Julius Caesar himself, 
 she next, after his death, threw the magic of her beauty and her 
 address over Mark Antony, or of how, after her cowardice or 
 treachery had lost him the battle of Actium and the dominion 
 of the world, he followed her to Alexandria, and, there for love 
 of her, found death on his own sword. Shakespeare makes her 
 in turn kill herself by an asp-bite, to escape the humiliation of 
 figuring in a Roman triumph ; but, in strict history, there is no 
 proof of how she ended her wild and passionate life by her own 
 hand, b.c. 30. 
 
 With the death of Cleopatra, Egypt ceased to exist as an 
 independent kingdom ; and, except during the brief interlude of 
 a second Persian occupation, was for 670 years ruled as a province 
 of the Empire by Roman prefects. Although disturbed by several 
 native revolts, the Romans, with their usual energy, largely 
 developed the revenue and resources of the country, until it 
 became the rich and abounding granary of the Empire. But the 
 chief modern interest of this period lies in the rise and growth of 
 Christianity in Alexandria, where a fierce warfare was maintained 
 during the third and fourth centuries between the partisans of 
 the new faith and the decaying influences of Paganism. Then 
 followed conflicts as bitter beween the victorious Christian factions 
 themselves, one swearing by Arius, and the other by Athanasius 
 (the latter, by the way, not being the author of the creed which 
 goes by his name). In a.d. 379, the Emperor Theodosius gave 
 its official deathblow to the old native religion by an edict 
 prohibiting the worship of idols, and ordering as many of the 
 temples as had not already been converted into Christian Churches 
 to be closed. And thenceforth the splendid fanes with which the 
 piety and the magnificence of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies had 
 crowded the banks of the Nile, fell into the decay in which the 
 modern tourist finds them. But the old religion died hard, and 
 for more than a century later numbered amongst its adherents 
 most of the learned and scientific classes, and the students of the 
 
2 34 National Life and Thought. 
 
 schools of philosophy for which Alexandria had become famous 
 One of the best remembered incidents of the persecution which 
 was waged against these was the savage murder — at the instigation 
 of Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria — of the beautiful Neo-Platonist 
 philosopher, Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, 
 and familiar to us all as the heroine of Kingsley's fine novel that 
 bears her name, — one of the thousand historic illustrations that 
 between so-called Christian and Pagan fanaticism there has never 
 been much to choose. 
 
 With its conversion to Christianity, the history of ancient Egypt 
 may be said to close. Over its later annals, until quite modern 
 times, I must pass rapidly. In a.d. 640 the Greco-Roman 
 dominion came to an end with the invasion and conquest by the 
 Arabs, under Amrou, the lieutenant of the Caliph Omar, the 
 second successor of Mahomet. The conqueror offered the 
 Prophet's usual terms to the vanquished — conversion, tribute, or 
 •the sword. A large proportion of the Coptic (or old native) 
 population, whose Christianity was only skin-deep, accepted the 
 first, and readily embraced Islam, while the remainder and the 
 Greco-Romans elected to pay tribute. To this great apostasy of 
 Christian Copts was in a few years added a large Moslem immigra- 
 tion from east and west ; and thus, besides the ruling caste, chiefly 
 Arabs of pure blood from the Hedjaz, was formed the great 
 labouring class whom we call the fellaheen, and who now number 
 nearly four-fifths of the whole population of Egypt. Of these, the 
 majority, especially in Upper Egypt, have preserved the closest 
 feature resemblance to their sculptured and pictured ancestry on 
 the monuments; and, as Champollion and later Egyptologists 
 have proved, the Coptic language, which now survives only in 
 their Church liturgy, is as unmistakably the old Pharaonic tongue. 
 In it, therefore, . we have still a link with the far-off time of five, 
 .six, or seven thousand years ago. 1 
 
 1 The clue to this lingual mystery was supplied by the discovery, in I799» 
 of the Rossetta Stone, near the little Delta port from which it takes its name. 
 This basaltic block, which now forms one of the treasures of the British 
 Museum, bears on its polished front a tri-lingual inscription in Hieroglyphical, 
 Demotic, and Greek characters, purporting to be a decree of the priests of 
 Egypt in Council at Memphis, in honour of Ptolemy V. (about B.C. 196). 
 This guided Dr. Young in 1818 and Champollion three years later (quite 
 independently) to the true principles of hieroglyphic interpretation, and became 
 in fact the key to the whole hieroglyphic literature on monument and 
 ipapyrus which has been so fruitfully studied by later Egyptologists. 
 
Egypt. 335 
 
 For more than three centuries after the Mahometan conquest, 
 Egypt remained a province of the Baghdad Caliphate until, in 
 970, Moez, the fourth of the rival Fatimite Caliphs who reigned 
 in North Africa, conquered the country, built Cairo, and made it 
 the seat of government. This dynasty ruled Egypt for two 
 hundred years, when, in 1171, on the death of its last sovereign, his 
 Vizier, the famous Saladin, the chivalrous hero of the Crusades, 
 seized the vacant throne. 
 
 Not being a descendant of Mahomet, he could not assume the 
 Caliphate, and so took merely the title of Sultan, thus severing the 
 secular from the religious sovereignty, which continued to be repre- 
 sented by a son of the late Caliph. As the theatre of this great 
 prince's main achievements lay outside Egypt, I need say nothing 
 of his successful resistance to the combined forces and the best 
 military genius of nearly all Europe in the Holy Land. For is it 
 not all written in Mill's History, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and 
 a score of other chronicles of the time ? 
 
 Saladin died at Damascus in 11 93, and then, sixty years later, 
 followed the revolution of the Mamelukes, a numerous body of 
 guards composed of Turkish and Circassian slaves whom the 
 great Sultan and his successors had organised and drilled beyond 
 any other Eastern soldiery of the time. For about 1 30 years these 
 mixed mercenaries ruled Egypt, till, towards the end of the fourteenth 
 century, the Circassians overthrew the Turkish Mamelukes, and 
 for another hundred years monopolised the anarchical government 
 that followed. Then came the Ottoman conquest, under Sultan 
 Selim I., in 1517 — the next, and as yet the last, dynastic land-mark 
 in Egyptian history. 
 
 In historical justice, and to avoid the baldness of mere chrono- 
 logy, I should here say a word as to the indebtedness of Egyptian 
 literature and art to these Saracenic dynasties. First at Alexandria, 
 and afterwards at Cairo — as in Syria, at Baghdad, and in Spain, 
 the Caliphs fostered learning and the arts with a munificence 
 unequalled by either their Greek or Roman predecessors, and 
 which stands in still more marked historic contrast to the neglect 
 of both by their Tartar successors of Stamboul. Besides them- 
 selves founding many great libraries and colleges for the higher 
 education, they encouraged the endowment of secondary and 
 primary schools by private liberality, till almost every town and 
 village of the country had its medreeseh or koultba. Thus it was 
 that while Europe was sunk in the intellectual gloom of the 
 Middle Ages, Egypt again became the home of science and 
 
336 National Life and Thought. 
 
 philosophy, which flourished there as, after the decline of the 
 Baghdad Caliphate, they flourished nowhere else but in the 
 Moorish colleges of Spain. With the fall of the Fatimites, this 
 splendid patronage ceased, and thence on through the turbulent 
 Mameluke reigns and the still more anarchic times which followed 
 the Turkish conquest, Egyptian learning steadily declined, till the 
 savants who accompanied Bonaparte's expedition found even in 
 Cairo hardly a trace of the letters and art that were rivalling those 
 of Cordova and Seville when Peter preached the first Crusade. 
 If learning and the arts, therefore, have declined in Egypt, it is 
 but fair to note that not Islam, but the rule of the Turk, which 
 blights wherever it falls, is to blame for the fact. 
 
 For two hundred and fifty years Turkish Pashas, commissioned 
 from Stamboul, exercised from Cairo a fitful vice-sovereignty over 
 the Delta and the Nile Valley. But the power of the Mamelukes,, 
 who still constituted the military force of the province, had been 
 only scotched ; and during the latter years of this period they 
 recovered much of their former authority, with the result of such 
 anarchy as rendered the country an easy conquest for Napoleon 
 in 1798, when, in the historic battle of the Pyramids, he crushed 
 the force of all the Mameluke Beys, and made himself master of 
 the country, till driven out of it by the British under Abercromby 
 and Hutchinson in 1801. Then, on our retirement, came to the 
 front Mehemet Ali, the son of an Albanian petty trader at Cavalla 
 in Macedonia, who had come to Egypt as one of a small Turkish 
 contingent in time to be badly beaten by the French at Aboukir. 
 His courage and energy had, however, so distinguished him that, 
 soon after the British left, he had won such popularity with the 
 army and the Cairene skeikhs that, in 1805, these together 
 proclaimed him Viceroy, and the Porte deemed it politic to recall 
 its own nominee and ratify the nomination of the young Albanian 
 brigadier. 
 
 How the new vali, or governor, as his official title was, in turn 
 baffled the intrigues of the Stamboul divan to effect his overthrow, 
 how he made himself sole master of Egypt by exterminating the 
 Mamelukes, rescued the Hedjaz from the Wahabees, organised a 
 powerful army and navy on the European system, annexed the 
 Soudan, conquered Syria, and, after annihilating the Turkish army 
 at Koniah in 1832, would have carried his victorious standards to 
 the Bosphorus if Russia had not interposed, I need not tell. As 
 little need be said of the hollow treaty which recognised his 
 feudal sovereignty over Egypt, Crete, Syria, and the large district 
 
 
 
Egypt. 337 
 
 •of Adana in Asia Minor, on the sole condition of his paying 
 'tribute. Fresh complications followed in 1839, when the total 
 defeat of the Turks by Ibrahim Pasha at Nezib reopened the 
 defiles of the Taurus to the victors, and but for the speedy 
 intervention of the European Powers would have placed Asia 
 Minor and Constantinople itself at their mercy. But here our own 
 Government interfered, and the operations of Stopford and Napier 
 •on the coast of Syria forced Mehemet Ali to surrender that 
 province and content himself with the international recognition of 
 his own and his family's right to Egypt only. This was guaranteed 
 by the treaty of 1840 between the Porte and the European Powers; 
 .and his- title to Egypt having been thus affirmed, by the public 
 law of Europe, Mehemet Ali devoted himself during the next seven 
 years to the social and material improvement of the country, with 
 an aggregate of results which has fixed his place in history as the 
 '" Peter the Great " of Egypt. Indeed, except some additions and 
 further reforms made during the reign of his reputed grandson, 
 Ismail Pasha, the whole administrative system, up till less than 
 ten years ago, was, in the main, his work; and notwithstanding many 
 admitted defects, it was at his death incomparably the most 
 ^civilised and efficient of then existing Mussulmen Governments. 
 
 In 1848, this great satrap, then verging on his eightieth year, 
 was attacked by a mental malady, induced, as it was said, by a 
 potion administered in mistaken kindness by one of his own 
 •daughters, and the government was taken over by his adopted 
 son, Ibrahim Pasha, the hero of Koniah and Nezib. He lingered 
 till August 1849, but Ibrahim had already pre-deceased him; and 
 Abbas, a son of the latter, succeeded to the viceregal throne. 
 Though born and bred in Egypt, Abbas was a Turk of the worst 
 -type — ignorant, cowardly, sensual, fanatic, and opposed to reforms 
 -of every sort. Thus his feeble reign of less than six years was, 
 in almost everything, a period of retrogression. On a night in 
 July 1854, he was strangled in his sleep by a couple of his own 
 .slaves, — acting, it was variously said, on a secret order from 
 Constantinople, or at the behest of one of his wives. 
 
 To Abbas succeeded Said, the third son of Mehemet Ali, an 
 .amiable and liberal-minded prince who retrieved much of the 
 mischief done by his predecessor, but lacked the vigorous 
 intelligence and force of character required to carry on the great 
 work begun by his father. His reign will be chiefly memorable 
 for the concession and commencement of the Suez Canal, the 
 •colossal work which, while benefiting the trade of the world, has 
 
 Y 
 
338 National Life and TJiought. 
 
 cost so much to Egypt, Said died in January 1863, and was; 
 succeeded by his nephew Ismail Pasha, the second son of 
 Ibrahim. 
 
 As most of the leading incidents of this Prince's reign, as- 
 also the chief features of his character, are still fresh in the public 
 memory, I need merely recall a few of the more salient of both.. 
 Amongst the former, history will give the first place to his creation 
 of the huge public debt which forms the main element of a. 
 problem that still confronts Europe. But, for this the same 
 impartial judge will at least equally blame the financial panderers- 
 who ministered to his extravagance, with exorbitant profit to- 
 themselves, but at ruinous cost to Egypt. On the other hand,, 
 it is but historical justice to say that Ismail did much for the 
 material progress of the country. He added more than a iooo> 
 to the 200 miles of railway in existence at the death of Said. 
 He greatly improved the irrigation, and so increased the cultivable- 
 area of the country ; multiplied the primary schools, and 
 encouraged native industries. For so much, at least, history will 
 give him credit. As memorable, though less meritorious, were 
 the magnificent fetes with which, in 1869, he opened, the Suez: 
 Canal, the great work which England had so long opposed, but 
 through which — as if by the irony of history — the first ship that, 
 passed flew the English flag, and to the present traffic of which; 
 we contribute more than eighty per cent. In personal character,, 
 Ismail was of exceptional intelligence, but cruel, crafty, and 
 untrustworthy both in politics and in his private relations. At 
 length, when no longer able to pay the usurious interest exacted 
 by the bondholders, our own and the French Governments — 
 moved by Messrs. Friihling and Goschen and the other influential' 
 loanmongers — in 1879 induced the Sultan to depose him and set 
 up his son, Mehemet Tewfik, in his stead. It may be mentioned, 
 that Ismail Pasha was the first of these Ottoman Viceroys who- 
 bore the title of " Khedive," which is a Perso-Arabic designation; 
 signifying rank a shade less than regal. This he obtained in. 
 1867 by heavy bribes to the Sultan and his chief ministers, as- 
 he had the year before by similar means ousted his brother and 
 uncle from the succession, and secured it for his own eldest 
 son, — in virtue of which the latter now nominally reigns. 
 
 Of Ismail since his fall, a word or two will suffice. Carrying 
 away with him an enormous private fortune, he settled for a time 
 in Naples, and thence, for some years, made frequent and 
 lengthened visits to Rome, Paris, London, and elsewhere, on 
 
Egypt. 339 
 
 errands of unsuccessful intrigue, to recover his lost throne. 
 Then, having everywhere failed, in 1888 he shook the dust of 
 the West from his feet, and turned in hopeless resignation to the 
 Mecca of fallen Pashas — Stamboul — and there, in a palace by 
 the Bosphorus, he now lives a virtual State prisoner. Had he 
 played his part better, he might, with the full sympathy of Europe, 
 have been the independent sovereign of a restored Arab kingdom. 
 As it is, he is politically as dead as the Pharaohs. 
 
 Before, in conclusion, rapidly reviewing the decade since Ismail's 
 fall, a word may be here conveniently said as to the actual 
 social and religious condition of the country which he so waste- 
 fully ruled for nearly seventeen years. Its population — which 
 includes Arabs, Copts, Turks, Nubians, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, 
 and Levantines of every shade of mixed Eastern and European 
 blood — numbers in all about 6,000,000, of whom the settled Arabs 
 (or fellaheen) exceed 4,500,000, who are all Mussulmans. The 
 Christian Copts reckon about 500,000; the Nomad Bedouin 
 acknowledging allegiance to the Khedive (who are also Mussul- 
 mans), about 350,000 ; the Turks, chiefly descendants of the 
 official class since the Conquest, about 15,000; the Nubians, 
 hitherto mostly slaves, but now practically freed by quite recent 
 law, about 50,000 ; native Greeks and Jews, each about 20,000 ; 
 Abyssinians, 5000; Armenians, 15,000; and Syrians and various 
 foreigners, about 100,000. 
 
 Of this total, the felaheen almost monopolise the agriculture. 
 The Copts, also in part farmers, are mainly handicraftsmen and 
 clerks in the Government Offices. The Nubians and Abyssinians 
 are mostly domestic servants ; the Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, 
 shopkeepers and traders ; and the foreigners anything and every- 
 thing for which such a field offers an opening. Thanks to recent 
 English administration, the revenue of about ^"10,000,000 raised 
 from this mixed aggregate now leaves a small surplus over expen- 
 diture ; and but for the exactions of Mr. Goschen's clients, the 
 bondholders, the taxation which this entails might be greatly 
 reduced. As it is, the fellaheen — for the first time in Egyptian 
 history — if still heavily taxed, are no longer fiscally plundered and 
 oppressed. 
 
 Of the religion of this large majority of the Egyptian population, 
 I have the courage to say that I esteem it much above the 
 pseudo-Christianity of the minority. As the result of long 
 residence and wide travel in the East, I do not hesitate to testify 
 that Islam — away from the corrupt administrative centres — is, in 
 
340 National Life and Thought. 
 
 point both of faith and morals, a higher religion than the debased 
 Christianity of nearly all the Eastern Churches. I go farther, and 
 say that the Mohametanism of most of these Egyptian fellaheen, 
 as of the moral Turks of Asia Minor, embodies more truth and 
 less error than did the Papacy in its grosser form. Thus, the faith 
 of Saladin was essentially more Christian than that of Cceur de 
 Lion, and Mecca was the shrine of a purer worship than mediaeval 
 Rome. Little is it to be wondered at that, in Egypt and throughout 
 the East generally, with such illustrations of Christianity before 
 their eyes, both Arab and Turk have been proof against the 
 Western missionary. 
 
 The virtual bankruptcy in which Ismai'1 left the country 
 speedily bore fruit in administrative collapse and military revolt, 
 the latter headed by the notorious Arab), now a State prisoner 
 in Ceylon. Of our own inglorious bombardment of Alexandria, 
 in the alleged interest of restored order, the less said the better ; 
 even though the commanding Admiral received a peerage, the 
 thanks of Parliament, and ^30,000 for silencing a few old- 
 fashioned forts with a fleet of modern iron-clads, and the 
 burning of Alexandria thrown in. As rapidly would I slur 
 over our subsequent not more glorious operations on land, in 
 which a British army corps routed Arabi's rabble at Tel-el-Kebir — 
 with similar extravagant reward to the General in command* 
 These, and our subsequent costly but futile campaign on the 
 Upper Nile, culminating in the tragical failure to save Gordon 
 at Khartoum, will form a chapter in Egyptian history of which 
 no Englishman, of any party, can be proud. But, in spite of 
 all this honouiiess blundering, the stars in their courses have 
 been too strong for our so-called statesmanship; and although, 
 in 1883, I heard Lord Hartington, in reply to a question in 
 the House of Commons, promise that our last redcoat should 
 have cleared out of Egypt within six months from that time, 
 our flag (as I then ventured to predict) still floats over Cairo, and 
 from Alexandria to the Second Cataract our protectorate is now 
 an accomplished — if as yet diplomatically an unacknowledged — 
 fact. Mehemet Tewfik reigns, but we rule; and great has 
 already been the gain to Egypt. Eor the first time for more than 
 six thousand years, a just, merciful, and uncorrupt Government 
 is being established — such as from Menes to Ismail has never 
 ruled the Nile Valley before. Although in party politics my 
 own vote is not given to Lord Salisbury, I frankly admit that 
 much of the credit for this is due to the policy of more courage 
 
Egypt 341 
 
 and greater regard for our national interests in Egypt which he 
 has followed during the past four years. But Kismet, Fate, the 
 Providence which shapes events, underlies and directs it all; 
 and, so far as human prescience can forecast, the Englishman 
 has planted a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and will keep 
 it there until, in turn, the star of our own Empire sets. Having 
 put our hand to the plough, we cannot now draw it back. 
 
XIX. 
 
 SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO. 
 
 J. C. COTTON MINCHIN. 
 
 MY lecture is styled " Servia and Montenegro," but the 
 people that inhabit the two territories known on the map 
 .as Servia and Montenegro are one and the same. If you ask a 
 Montenegrin what language he speaks, he replies, " Serb." 
 
 The last of the Serb Czars fell gloriously fighting at Kossovo in 
 1389. To this day the Montenegrin wears a strip of black silk 
 upon his headgear in memory of that fatal day. 
 
 In the present lecture I shall endeavour to trace the history of 
 the Serb race from the earliest times, and to describe the fall and 
 resurrection of this brave but unfortunate people. 
 
 Early in the seventh century, in the reign of the Emperor 
 Heraclius, the Asiatic provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire 
 were overrun by the Arabs, and adopted the Mahommedan 
 religion. In the same reign the Serbs settled south of the 
 Danube in the regions where they are now found. These coun- 
 tries are to-day severally known as Servia, Old Servia, Bosnia, and 
 Herzogovina. Roughly speaking, the north-western slice of the 
 Balkan Peninsular has been inhabited by Serbs from the seventh 
 •century after Christ. Montenegro was then and for many 
 ■centuries later without any permanent population. Even as late 
 ,as the fifteenth century the Black Mountain was only visited by 
 herdsmen during the summer season. If we take a bird's-eye 
 view of this primitive Servia, we see a race of shepherds 
 inhabiting the banks of the Drina, the Bosna, and the Morava, 
 .and driving their flocks in summer weather to those lofty moun- 
 tains, where, as the national songs relate, the darkness of the forest 
 is relieved by white rocks or perpetual snows. For centuries the 
 Serbs lived under the rule of native chiefs, solely of their own 
 election. This government was patriarchal, but not national. 
 The scattered tribes did not yet constitute a State. A national 
 King was yet to come. In the ninth century the Serbs and 
 
344 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Bulgarians were converted to Christianity. The Apostle of the 
 Slavs, " Mithodius" was one of the world's greatest men. He was 
 not only the missionary of the Slavs, but the greatest of Slav 
 patriots, for he is credited with creating the Slavonic alphabet 
 Although the creed adopted by the Serbs was that of the Eastern 
 Church, they always remained attached to a national as opposed 
 to the Greek Church of Constantinople. To the Western Division 
 of Christianity they were ecclesiastically opposed ; to the Eastern, 
 politically. 
 
 It is the fashion in some quarters to disparage monastic estab- 
 lishments; but the fact remains, that it is mainly to the monasteries 
 that the Serbs owe the retention not only of their religion, but of 
 their nationality. When the waters of Turkish oppression covered 
 Servia, the monasteries formed the arks of Christian faith and 
 freedom. There seems no reasonable doubt that the conversion 
 of Bosnians to Islamism was due to the few religious Houses in 
 their country. It has been the misfortune of Servia to have 
 suffered at the hands of her neighbours. Greeks, Venetians, Turks, 
 Austrians, and Russians have each in turn been a thorn in her 
 side. The earliest records of her history are a record of attempts 
 by the Greek or Eastern Empire to absorb her. These attempts 
 commence with the fourth century, and proved unsuccessful. 
 Three hundred years later (1353) the Turks crossed the Hellespont.. 
 The Eastern Empire was then sunk into absolute impotence. The 
 Bulgarian kingdom was " nodding to its fall." Servia alone of the 
 Balkan lands was prosperous and powerful. During the thirteenth 
 century the aim of a Serb king was to acquire a firm footing on 
 the Adriatic. His title was, " By the grace of God, King of all 
 Serbian lands and to the sea coast." With the fourteenth century 
 his ambition took a wider flight eastwards as well as westwards. 
 Stephen Dushan, the most famous of Serb emperors, could not 
 as such ask for the obedience of the Greeks ; he therefore called 
 himself the Macedonian Christ-loving Czar. A monarch so 
 powerful as Stephen Dushan, Emperor of the Serbs, Bulgarians,, 
 and Greeks, seemed destined by Providence to check the advances 
 of the Turks. The Osmanli entered Europe in 1353 — Stephen 
 Dushan died on his march to Constantinople in 1355. His death 
 was followed by anarchy in Servia. On the 15th June 1389 was 
 fought between the Turks, the Serbs, Bosnians, and Albanians 
 the battle of Kossovo. Both the Serb " Krajl " and the Turkish. 
 Sultan were slain. Further details are lost, but the result is only 
 too well known. 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 345. 
 
 Near Vranja, in a gloomy mountain pass, there stand the ruins- 
 of a Roman fortress. Such they are to the antiquary, but to the 
 peasant they are the ruins of a castle of Kralevitch Marko. 
 The rocky mountains which stand on either side of the castle are 
 called the Hill of the Cross and the Hill of Weeping, because 
 there the hero of Serb legend first heard the news of Kossovo. 
 Ever since that day till within the memory of living men, the Serbs 
 may truly be said to have borne the cross and wept. They have 
 been the scapegoats for the sins of Europe. As Mr. Gladstone 
 once expressed it, they were the barren beach upon which the wave 
 of Ottoman conquest broke, while behind them flourished the 
 harvests of culture and of commerce. To continue the metaphor,, 
 so strong was the wave that it carried all before it — even up to the 
 gates of Vienna. We only know Turkey in its decrepitude ; in 
 Nisch we have a reminder of what a power she once was. The 
 bridge across the Nischava bears the following inscription : — 
 
 "Constructed by Vizier Mehemet Pasha, Governor General of Buda 
 Pesth, 161 1." 
 
 The Norman Conquest of England was effected by a race not 
 more numerous than the English. Servia was overwhelmed by a 
 race that could boast of an empire that stretched from Adrianople 
 to [Bagdad, and from the Caucasus to the Straits of Gibraltar. 
 But even to this mighty wave of Conquest there were limits. 
 Bulgaria, Constantinople, Greece, and Bosnia all in turn suc- 
 cumbed to the Turk. The brave Serbs who escaped from 
 Kossovo found a sanctuary in the mountains that overlook the 
 Bay of Cattaro. Their leader, Ivo, surnamed Tsernoi (Black),, 
 gave the name of Tzrnogora (Montenegro) to these desert rocks. 
 
 I well remember entering Montenegro from Dalmatia. We: 
 had no sooner crossed the frontier than my guide (who was an 
 Austrian subject) slipped from his horse, and knelt and "kissed 
 the consecrated earth." The soil of Montenegro may well be 
 called consecrated ; for what higher form of consecration can the 
 fatherland receive than the blood of his sons shed in his defence ? 
 Servia having become a Turkish province, her colonists created 
 in Montenegro a new and independent Servia. The memory of 
 Ivo the Black is still green in the country. Springs, ruins, and 
 caverns are called after him, and the people look forward to the 
 day when he will reappear as a political Messiah. But Ivo's 
 descendants proved unworthy of him ; they committed the un- 
 pardonable sin of marrying aliens, and early in the sixteenth 
 
346 National Life and Thought. 
 
 •century the last descendant of Ivo the Black retired to Venice. 
 From 1516 to 1697 Montenegro was ruled by elective Vladikas or 
 Bishops; from 1697 to 185 1 by hereditary Vladikas. For the 
 Montenegrins the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries 
 formed a period of incessant warfare. No wonder that Danilo 
 Petrovitch at first refused the honour of being their Bishop. The 
 throne of Montenegro nearly proved to him a martyr's throne. 
 He was condemned to be crucified by a Turkish Pasha, from 
 whom he had purchased a safe-conduct. He bore the cross a 
 day's journey, and must have already felt the agony of death, when 
 he was ransomed. This happened in 1702. Up till 1703 the 
 Serbs of the mountain were no more absolutely independent of 
 the Sultan than their enslaved kinsmen of the plain. The 
 Havatch or Sultan's slipper tax was levied on the mountaineers. 
 In 1703 Danilo Petrovitch celebrated his consecration as a Chris- 
 tian Bishop by ordering the slaughter of every Mussulman who 
 refused to be baptized. This massacre took place on Christmas 
 Eve 1703. It is easy for us enjoying all the blessings of civilisation 
 to rebuke the Montenegrin for returning in kind on his pitiless 
 persecutor the very cruelties which he suffered himself at his 
 hands. It is one of the accursed results of oppression that it begets 
 oppression. The slave of to-day is the enslaver of to-morrow, 
 thus realising the poet's words — 
 
 " Nos nequiores, mox daturos 
 Progeniem vitiosiorem." 
 
 While the Montenegrin was wading through blood to peace and 
 freedom, the Serb of the plain was ground down by exactions of 
 every kind. His fate was rendered even worse by the interven- 
 tion of Europe. The only freeman left in Servia was the brigand 
 or heydnc. Veliko, a leader in the Serb War of Independence, 
 was a typical heyduc. When the Russians, of whom Veliko 
 thought so highly that he could never believe Napoleon to have 
 advanced as far as Moscow, told him not to call himself Heyduc, 
 which signified a robber, he replied, " I should be sorry if there 
 were any greater robber than I am." Yet Veliko, who would 
 risk his life for a few piastres, was as generous as he was rapacious. 
 "If I possess aught," he would say, "any one may share it with 
 me ; but if I have not anything, woe be to him who has and 
 does not permit me to share it with him." He used to pray that 
 Servia might be engaged in war so long as he lived, but that 
 .after his death she might have peace. His prayer was granted. 
 
Set via and Montenegro. 347 
 
 He fell gloriously defending Negotin against the Turks. His 
 last words were, "Stand firm." This was in 1813, and we are 
 .anticipating. 
 
 In 1804 Kara George, or Black George, headed a rising in 
 Servia, and drove out the Turk. In this he was unaided by the 
 foreigner, and succeeded, thanks to native valour and his own 
 indomitable will. Kara George was by calling a swineherd, and 
 by the grace of God a hero. It may seem ridiculous to compare 
 him to his great contemporary Napoleon ; yet if we consider the 
 means that were at the disposal of the two men, and the results 
 ■of their labours, we must admit that the Servian overcame greater 
 difficulties than the Corsican, while the good Black George did 
 in his lifetime has not been interred with his bones. When 
 Napoleon died at St. Helena he left behind him the legacy of 
 Imperialism which was to cost France so much blood and 
 treasure. When Kara George died, his mantle fell on Milosch. 
 To these two men Servia owes her great idea, which means the 
 independence and freedom of her people. If Kara George is 
 -the Achilles of Servian story, Milosch is the Ulysses, and to the 
 wisdom of Milosch his countrymen owe even more than to the 
 valour of Black George. 
 
 Kara George was a most extraordinary man. He was very 
 taciturn, and would sit for days without uttering a word. Pomp and 
 display he despised, but was not insensible to the charms of gold 
 In peace he lived as a peasant; in war he was a warrior who 
 for years passed as invulnerable and unconquered. His very 
 justice was terrible. His only brother violated a maiden. Kara 
 George ordered him to be hung at his own door, and forbade his 
 mother to wear mourning. If we consider his services to the 
 •cause of Servian independence and European freedom, his 
 •character assumes heroic proportions ; but the age in which he 
 lived rendered the growth of gentler qualities impossible. It is 
 an astounding fact that the deliverer of his country was the slayer 
 of his own father. In 1787 Kara George took part in a rising, 
 and found himself compelled to flee. Not wishing to leave his 
 father behind, he took him with him ; but the nearer he approached 
 the Save River, which divided them from Austria, the more averse 
 •did his father become to cross it. At last the old man positively 
 refused to go further. " How," exclaimed Black George, " shall 
 I live to see thee slowly tortured to death by the Turks ? It is 
 better that I should kill thee myself," and seizing a pistol, he shot 
 him dead. Such, then, was the man who summoned his countrymen 
 
348 National Life and Thought. 
 
 to arise from Turkish oppression or be for ever bondmen. They 
 obeyed his summons, and for nine years acknowledged him as chief- 
 
 In 1813, when the rest of Europe was engaged in settling the 
 Western question with Napoleon, the unhappy Serbs were en- 
 gaged in their own eternal Eastern question. We have no> 
 written evidence on the subject ; but it is generally thought in 
 Servia that Black George acted on the advice of Nedoba, the-. 
 Russian consul at Belgrade, when he fled the country. However 
 this may be, Kara George, the invincible warrior, deserted his- 
 country in its hour of danger. Such conduct, in such a patriot,, 
 must ever remain one of the psychological mysteries of history, but 
 the unexpected characterises all the actions of this extraordinary 
 man. Forgetful of Veliko's dying words, "Stand firm," Kara 
 George, with Nadoba and most of the Voivodes, fled across, 
 the Danube. The Turks again repossessed the whole country. 
 In this reign of terror the downtrodden Rayahs had but 
 one man to look to, and that man was Milosch. " Among the 
 faithless, faithful only he." In his country's direst need he- 
 remained true to her, and Servia has not proved ungrateful. The 
 descendants of Milosch Obrenovitch are now the Royal House of 
 Servia. 
 
 On Palm Sunday 18 15 Milosch raised the standard of revolt in the 
 village of Takovo. Milosch was a despot, but he was one of those 
 despots to whom his countrymen look back with grateful recollection. 
 He first made his country independent, and then prevented her 
 dismemberment. I should require more time than is at my 
 disposal to trace the close connection between the struggle in 
 Europe against Napoleon and the struggle in Servia against the 
 Sultan. Suffice it to say, that when France was dominant in 
 Europe, Turkey was dominant in the Balkan Peninsula; and 
 Wellington's victory at Waterloo secured not only the independence 
 of the West, but the freedom of the Christian Rajah of Eastern 
 Europe. It is a curious but little known fact that on the return of 
 Napoleon from Elba, subscriptions were raised among the Christian 
 traders of several towns in the Ottoman Empire with the object of 
 preventing Napoleon again becoming Emperor. In addition to 
 these foreign and external causes for the overthrow of the Turkish 
 power in Servia, there were other reasons most honourable to> 
 Milosch which explain his success. There is a principle of 
 retribution in the affairs of nations as of individuals ; and the 
 victories of Kara George, accompanied as they were by cruelty,, 
 brought no lasting peace. To the honour of Milosch, he not only 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 349 
 
 kept faith with the defeated Turk, but treated him with signal cle- 
 mency. On one occasion some Mohammedan women who fell into 
 his hands were so touched by his generosity that they exclaimed, "A 
 religion which commanded such conduct must be the true one." 
 
 It is now my duty to refer to one of the blackest incidents in 
 Serb history. In 18 18 Kara George crossed over the Danube to 
 Semendria in Servia. He came at a most critical time, when 
 •divided councils would have again brought the country under the 
 Turkish yoke. It is the opinion of the best authorities that it was 
 not by the order of Milosch that Kara George was put to death, 
 but the ugly fact remains that the Leader of the first Serb 
 Revolution was murdered by a Serb, and on Serb soil. 
 
 In 181 7 Milosch was proclaimed hereditary Prince of Servia 
 by the National Assembly. Milosch was never a favourite with 
 Russia, and even as late as 1820 the Russian Ambassador at 
 Constantinople used to speak of the elect of the nation as M. 
 Obrenovitch. Nil Popov, the Russian historian, admits that 
 Russia " feared that Milosch would secure for Servia a position 
 like that of Moldavia and Wallachia; and that having once 
 obtained freedom of internal legislation, he would aspire also to 
 an independent foreign policy." The government of St. Peters- 
 burg have doggedly adhered to a plan of action long ago laid 
 down. Their motto is not, "The East for Eastern People," but, 
 "The East must either be subject to Russia, or become the prey 
 to endless strife and discord.'" The history of Servia forms a sad 
 sermon to that text. In 1830 the autonomy of Servia was at 
 length solemnly recognised by the Porte, and Milosch proclaimed 
 "the father of the Fatherland." 
 
 ' One incident only marred the triumph of Milosch. It was 
 stipulated by the Hatti-scheriff that the Mahommedans should 
 leave the cities. The Governor of Belgrade, who was a corrupt 
 man, demanded a price before withdrawing his troops. Milosch, 
 who thought he had already paid the Pasha enough, refused to 
 concede this last demand. The matter was referred to the arbi- 
 tration of the Czar, and Nicholas decided in favour of the Turks. 
 If asked why the descendants of Milosch still rule over Servia, 
 and not the descendants of Kara George, my answer is that every 
 step in Servian progress is connected with the Obrenovitch 
 dynasty. The liberation of the country, the creation of a peasant 
 proprietary, the final withdrawal of the Turkish troops from 
 Belgrade in 1862, the independence of the country, the extension 
 of its territory, and the making of its railways, — all of these are 
 
350 
 
 National Life atid Thought. 
 
 among the results of Obrenovitch rule. The founder of the 
 dynasty had in 1830 a great opportunity of making his people 
 free as well as independent. Eut Milosch had lived too long with 
 Turks to be a lover of freedom. " Am I not the master ? " he was 
 heard to say, " and shall I not be at liberty to do what I please ? " 
 Acting on this principle, he burnt one of the suburbs of Belgrade, 
 because he wished to erect new buildings on the site. He 
 exacted bond-service, and the tradesmen of Belgrade had to close 
 their shops and assist the Prince in his hay harvest. Milosch, 
 however, rendered one splendid service to posterity. His followers 
 urged him to perpetuate in Servia the Turkish system of large 
 landowners. This had been done in Wallachia, when the 
 Mahommedan had been replaced by Christian landlords. The 
 Spahis had been driven out of Servia, and there were specious 
 arguments in favour of giving their large estates to the leaders of 
 the War of Liberation. It would also have facilitated the 
 collection of the revenue. Milosch resisted the temptation, and 
 distributed the estates of the expelled Turkish landlords among 
 the peasantry. Peasant proprietorship has proved an unmixed 
 blessing to Servia, and Serbs are most zealous of retaining 
 it. Nowhere else in Europe, not even in France, has the 
 cultivator so firm a grip of the land. It might be thought that one 
 who had freed his country from the invader, and its soil from the 
 landgrabber, would have reigned secure, but this was not to be. 
 In 1839 Milosch abdicated. The reason for this step was that 
 he refused to accept a constitution which Russia and Turkey had 
 concocted for him. This charter vested the actual government 
 of the country in a Senate composed of Milosch's rivals, and 
 entirely independent of that Prince. The vice of this foreign 
 constitution was that it was anti-democratic, no less than anti- 
 dynastic. Milosch was succeeded first by his son Milan, and on 
 Milan's death by Michael. Michael was too gentle for the 
 troubled times in which he lived, and after a two years' reign he 
 too started upon his travels. History repeats itself, and the fall of 
 the House of Obrenovitch in 1842 was mainly due to its own 
 dissensions. Wife worked against husband, brother against 
 brother, and thus their adversaries prevailed against them. 
 
 Louis Philippe brought the bones of Napoleon from St. 
 Helena and interred them at the Invalides. The Napoleonic 
 legend was thus revived, and France was cursed with the Second 
 Empire. A similar result followed from similar causes in Servia. 
 In 1842 the widow of Kara George died Michel, who was the 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 351 
 
 very soul of chivalry, buried her with great pomp and state by 
 the side of her husband. The intriguing Senators, or Defenders 
 of the Constitution, as they styled themselves, who had exiled 
 Milosch, felt their position insecure while a son of their old 
 master remained on the throne. They therefore utilised this 
 public funeral to revive the Kara George legend, and pointed to 
 his son as the hope of the nation. Accordingly, when Michel 
 crossed the Save, Alexander Kara Georgevitch was elected Prince 
 of Servia. From 1842 to 1858 the son of Black George lived— 
 he .can scarcely be said to have reigned— in Belgrade. During 
 these seventeen years this feeble son of a strong man did 
 absolutely nothing for his country. His reign was a blank. 
 Late in 1858 he fled from Servia, and Milosch ruled in his stead. 
 Milosch is the Grand Old Man of Serb history. His mere 
 presence in Servia checked the intrigues of foreign powers. He 
 died peacefully in his bed. If you wish to read his epitaph, look 
 around at the prosperous peasant proprietors of Servia. The 
 creation of these forms a varnish which (in the eyes of his 
 countrymen at least) covers all his faults. Michel succeeded his 
 father. Never were father and son more unlike. Milosch could 
 neither read nor write, and his virtues were rather of a public than 
 a private order. Michel possessed a cultivated mind, and was 
 great enough to forgive his enemies. Milosch was an intensely 
 personal ruler. " L'etat c y est moi" might have been his motto. 
 Michel had a nobler device, "The law is the supreme will in 
 Servia." The one blot on Michel's character was his determin- 
 ation after thirteen years of marriage to divorce his wife. Her 
 barrenness was her only fault. In moral turpitude the conduct 
 of Michel cannot for one moment be fairly contrasted with that 
 of his successor, yet here again history repeats itself. Michel's 
 prime minister Garaschanine resigned rather than countenance 
 this step. Garaschanine's son, as prime minister to King Milan, 
 acted exactly as his father had done. In both cases misfortune 
 overtook the faithless husband. Prince Michel was murdered by 
 convicts in the park at Topschidera near Belgrade. There 
 seems to be no reasonable doubt that these wretched murderers 
 were tools of the Kara Georgevitch faction, if not of Kara George- 
 vitch himself. The son of Kara George was condemned by a 
 Hungarian Court to twenty years' imp?'isonment as the instigator 
 of the crime ; and a special clause, that was promulgated in the 
 Constitution by the Regency under Prince Michel's successor, 
 excluded for ever from the throne of Servia the family of Kara 
 
.35 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 ■George. Michel was succeeded (1868) by Milan, the grandson 
 of Zephrem, the brother of Milosch. As Milan was barely four- 
 teen years of age, a Regency of three was appointed. Of these 
 three Regents, one was the famous Ristitch, who after an interval 
 of twenty years again finds himself the Regent of a boy king. 
 
 We must now return to the Serbs of the Black Mountain. The 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were for Montenegro a 
 struggle for existence. In the nineteenth century began their 
 struggle for an outlet to the sea. The fall of Venice would 
 naturally have given the mountaineers the bay of Cattaro, had 
 not the French stepped in and annexed Dalmatia. Marmont was 
 in command of the French troops, and he reproached the Vladika 
 Peter I. with the national practice of cutting off the heads of their 
 enemies. "We do so," replied the Bishop, "and why not? 
 Which is worse, that we should take off the heads of the French 
 who are our enemies, or that the French should take off the heads 
 of their King and of their fellow-citizens. We do so to our foes, 
 you to your fellow subjects." But Peter did not hold his own 
 merely in wordy warfare. In 18 13, with the aid of the British 
 fleet, he took Cattaro from the French, but (pursuant to an 
 .arrangement between Russia and Austria) was compelled sub- 
 sequently to relinquish it to the latter power. One word must 
 be said about the new territory which has been given Montenegro 
 by the treaty of Berlin. Confined to her former small limits, 
 Montenegro had done great things in the past; but she might 
 have become a source of danger in the future, standing, as she 
 did, like an entrenched camp in the midst of Europe. All this 
 had been remedied by the cession of Dulcigno to Montenegro. 
 There may, indeed, have been more brilliant strokes of policy ; 
 but seldom has the foreign policy of England been more just to 
 all concerned, or more fraught with good to the whole of Europe. 
 In giving Dulcigno to Montenegro, Mr. Gladstone has given the 
 principality a window through which it can peep into Europe, 
 and with seeing it may come to imitate. Montenegro has now 
 given hostages to fortune. She is no longer a little mountain 
 State with nothing to lose and everything to gain from going to 
 war, but a State with a seaboard and a territory that lies outside 
 the charmed circle of her rocks. 
 
 Peter I. of Montenegro, the brave but obscure antagonist of 
 Napoleon, died in 1830, at the age of eighty. So simple were 
 his ways of life, that in his last illness he had not even a fire in 
 the cell that served him for a bedroom. His nephew, Peter II., 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 353 
 
 was a wise ruler, ruling by the true divine right of being the best 
 man in his country. At his own wish he was buried on the 
 summit of a lofty mountain, a fitting spot in which to bury a 
 poet. For there, " On the Crown of the Mountain," the name of 
 his greatest poem, he peacefully slumbers in the calm moonlight, 
 and there he receives morning's first beam. The glorious rulers 
 of the Black Mountain might, if urged to take rest, have given 
 the famous answer, "Rest above;" they took none on earth. On 
 the death of Peter II., Prince Danilo, the uncle of the present 
 Prince, went to Russia to be consecrated Bishop of Montenegro. 
 The Czar seems to have laughed him out of this ancient practice ; 
 and the late Prince, instead of converting himself into monk and 
 bishop, returned to his own country and married. Of course, 
 there was a great uproar among the Conservatives, but it is a 
 very grave question whether they were not right. Up to 1851 the 
 Montenegrins had been wont to look up to the Prince of Servia 
 as the head of the Serb race, while the Serbs of the Danubian 
 principality looked up to the Vladika as the head of the Serb 
 Church. All this was changed in 1 85 1. The Prince of Montenegro 
 became the rival of the Prince of Servia. Danilo was, however, 
 so great a man that he could afford to take a second place. He 
 declared himself the first soldier in the army of the Prince of 
 Servia, and he recognised in Michel the head of his race. 1 
 
 The close alliance of the two Serb princes would have been 
 fruitful in blessings to their own subjects, and would have 
 strengthened a hundredfold the prospects of European peace. 
 Soon after his famous utterance of goodwill and union with Seryia, 
 Prince Danilo was assassinated at Cattaro (i860). The secret 
 springs of this crime will never be disclosed until that day when 
 all secrets will be revealed. It is at least significant that prior to 
 Danilo's murder Russia withdrew the annual allowance she had 
 been in the practice of making to him. The withdrawal of this 
 allowance produced a deficit in the national revenue, which 
 Prince Danilo endeavoured to cover by fresh taxes. These taxes . 
 
 1 A treaty existed between Prince Michel and Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, 
 by which the latter recognised the Prince of Servia as the leader of the " Serb 
 Movement," and bound himself to support any plan Prince Michel might 
 form for the delivery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But after Prince Michel's 
 murder, on a hint from St. Petersburg, Prince Nicholas declared the treaty 
 to be no longer in force. 
 
 For another instance of Russian mischief-making, see Minchin's Growth 
 of Freedom in the Balkan Peninsula (John Murray), page 88. 
 
 Z 
 
354 National Life and Thong Jit. 
 
 •caused disturbances, and the disturbances were followed by 
 Prince Danilo's assassination. He was succeeded by his nephew 
 Nicholas. 
 
 Our brief history has now been brought down to the reigns of 
 two living Serb rulers — the ex-King Milan and Prince Nicholas 
 of Montenegro. It would be impossible within our limits to 
 narrate here the story of the two Serb campaigns against Turkey 
 (1876 and 1877), of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
 by Austria Hungary (1878), of the extension of territory and 
 founding of the kingdom (1882), of the abortive Radical rising in 
 1884, of the disastrous campaign against Bulgaria in 1885, of the 
 divorce and abdication of King Milan. To pass over this last 
 event without comment would, however, be cowardly and unjust 
 to the Serbs themselves. The mistake Nicholas Christitch and 
 his Cabinet committed was that they believed in their King. It is 
 the old cry of him "that hangs on princes' favours," "Had I 
 served my God with half the zeal I served my King, he would not 
 in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies." 
 
 King Milan said he would abdicate if he did not get his 
 divorce. To save the country from the dangers attending a 
 prolonged minority, the King's wish was gratified; and when 
 Milan found himself relieved of his wife, he quickly relieved 
 himself of his kingdom. In all history you can find no instance 
 of a monarch purchasing his own ease at such a price to his 
 country. I recently received a letter from a Serb statesman. I 
 regret that I cannot quote from it. If you can imagine a letter 
 from Lord Chancellor Clarendon, written after his fall, to an 
 intimate friend, you will gather but half the bitterness of that 
 letter. It was the outpourings of a loyal soul which has found 
 out that the idol of his life was a fraud. To compare Milan to 
 our own Charles II. is to do injustice to our own sovereign. He 
 at least did not spend the taxes of his country in a foreign 
 capital. He kept up some semblance of royal self-respect, and 
 died in the country of his birth. The spectacle of their ex-King a 
 voluntary exile in a strange land is to a Serb the very quintessence 
 of baseness and corruption. It was not a Radical, but Garaschanine, 
 who described Milan's abdication as "a flight from the battle 
 field." 
 
 Before this lecture closes a few words must be said about the 
 present government and condition of the two Serb countries. 
 The Montenegrin government is soon described ; it is purely 
 despotic, untempered by regicide, and, it must be added, is as 
 
Service and Montenegro. 355 
 
 popular as it is absolute. The Serb of the mountain is intensely 
 national, and will always fight against a foreign despot. The 
 Serb of the kingdom goes further than this — he would be free not 
 ■only from foreign but domestic tyranny. He is the Frenchman 
 of the Peninsula, and is always ready to fight for an idea. Of all 
 European countries, Servia should be to the political observer of 
 to-day the most interesting, because in Servia alone is Socialism 
 the keystone of the arch. You are aware that before his 
 abdication King Milan gave the royal assent to a new Servian 
 constitution, of which I will now give you some of the leading 
 features. 
 
 There are two National Assemblies or Skupshtinas. The one 
 is the Ordinary Skupshtina, and the other the Extraordinary or 
 •Grand Skupshtina. Under the old Serb constitution every 
 .arrondisement and every chief town of a department returned one 
 ■deputy to the Ordinary Skupshtina for every 3000 taxpayers. For 
 arrondisement or department towns, if under 3000 taxpaying 
 inhabitants, one member was allowed. If, after an election in the 
 ■bigger places, a group of under 3000 remained unrepresented, this 
 group was allowed another member. For instance, if the town of 
 X had 9000 odd taxpayers, it would return four members to the 
 Skupshtina, one for each 3000, and another for the surplus. Thus 
 the number of members in Skupshtinas under the old Constitution 
 was an accident dependent upon the distribution of population. 
 Under the new constitution this minority representation has been 
 .slightly limited. In addition to the popular representatives, the 
 King had a right of nominating to the ordinary Skupshtina a 
 member for every three elected. The Grand Skupshtina is elected 
 entirely by popular vote. Now, under the new constitution, each 
 department elects a member for each group of 4500 taxpayers ; 
 and if a group of less than 4500, but over 3000 electors, have no 
 representative, they are allowed to count one member more. 
 Just as four members were formerely given to London on account 
 of the city's past services in the cause of English liberty, so the 
 two villages of Dobrinje and Takovo are allowed a member each, 
 as being the birthplaces of Kara George and Milosch Obrenovitch. 
 Every male Serb (whether a Serb by birth or naturalisation) who 
 is twenty-one years of age, and pays fifteen francs a year in direct 
 taxes, is entitled to a vote. And here may be mentioned a 
 patriarchal survival that we find in parts of Servia existing along- 
 side of manhood suffrage. This is the Zadruga. The great poet 
 whom we have just lost was not blind to the ills and calamities of 
 
356 National Life and Thought. 
 
 life, but he looked at trouble as motes in the sunshine of God's- 
 love. The Turkish conquest was indeed a fiery furnace, but it was 
 a furnace that has purged the democratic ore of Serb society from 
 the dross of feudalism. After Kossovo the Serbs reverted to the 
 patriarchal form which the Slavonic settlers had carried with them 
 into the Balkan Peninsula when they settled there in the times of 
 Heraclius. Equality and fraternity reign within the paling of the- 
 Zadruga or house community. It is forbidden, as far as possible,, 
 to alienate their property, or to subdivide it among their members.. 
 No superiority is recognised save that of age and parentage. The 
 Serb Constitution gives a vote to every adult male member of a 
 Zadruga, although the head of the family does all the taxpaying 
 for his clansmen. The chief democratic feature in the new 
 Constitution is that the King no longer has a right to nominate 
 members to the Ordinary Skupshtina. Under Article ioo of the 
 new Constitution (an article on which I have reason to believe 
 King Milan insisted) two of the members elected by a Depart- 
 ment (not towns) must be the holders of a foreign university 
 degree or Serb "faculty." This article does not apply to the 
 Grand Skupshtina; in other respects the mode of election to> 
 both is identical. 
 
 A Grand Skupshtina contains twice the number of members 
 that an Ordinary Skupshtina contains. A Grand or Extraordinary 
 Skupshtina is now sitting. It was called together under a pro- 
 visional law of the Council of State to remodel the laws, which 
 have in many cases been strained in direct opposition to the 
 spirit of the new Constitution. For instance, the Constitution 
 appears plainly to intend that if the voting power of Department 
 X be four members, and if the voting power of the town Y two- 
 members, that the total representation of X and Y together shall 
 be six. The Radicals, however, will it otherwise. To increase 
 the power of the county electors, who plump for the Radicals,, 
 the votes of Y are added to the votes of X, and thus X returns, 
 six instead of four numbers, and X and Y together return eight 
 instead of six numbers. 
 
 Every elector is eligible for election to either Skupshtina under 
 the following conditions. He must be a resident in Servia, 
 unless he be a State employe in a foreign country ; he must be 
 thirty years of age, and pay thirty francs a year in direct taxes. 
 No criminal, nor bankrupt, nor that very useful public servant — 
 a policeman — can sit. A Government employe, if elected, loses- 
 his post and any benefit from past services unless he be — 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 357 
 
 1. Either an actual Minister or one en dispensabilite. 
 
 2. A member of the Council of State. 
 
 3. A Minister Plenipotentiary, Diplomatic Agent, or Consul- 
 •General. 
 
 4. President or Member of the Tribunal of First, Second, or 
 Third Instance. 
 
 5. Professor of High and Superior Schools, Engineer, and 
 Doctor in the State Service. 
 
 6. Retired Employe. 
 
 Ministers have ex-officio seats in the Skupshtina, and have no 
 ■necessity for election or selection on taking a portfolio. There 
 is no right nor left of the President's chair, but each member 
 .sits where he pleases, save that the front bench is reserved for 
 Ministers. 
 
 Payment of Members and Triennial Parliaments are both in 
 force in Servia. Members of the Ordinary Skupshtina are given 
 their travelling expenses and a daily allowance during Sessions. 
 The amount of this allowance will be fixed by the present 
 Assembly, and used to be between ten and twelve francs a day. 
 The Grand Skupshtina is always elected for some particular 
 purpose, viz.: — 
 
 1. To settle matters relative to the Dynasty and succession to 
 .the Throne. 
 
 2. To elect the Regents. 
 
 3. To deliberate on a change in the Constitution. 
 
 4. To examine questions relative to a modification of territory. 
 
 5. Whenever the King thinks fit to summon it. 
 
 A Grand Skupshtina is dissolved when the particular object for 
 which it was summoned has been attained. 
 
 The local government of Servia is on the following lines : In 
 villages where the taxpayers number 200, the Mayor will have a 
 Municipal Council of ten members ; where the taxpayers number 
 ■over 200 and under 500, he will have sixteen Councillors; where 
 ,there are over 500 taxpayers he will have twenty Councillors. 
 Belgrade has a Council of thirty-two. Councillors are unpaid, 
 but Mayors and Sub-Mayors (Kmets) are elected and paid by the 
 taxpayers. Any elector is eligible to be a Kmet, unless he be an 
 ■employe whose duty brings him in direct touch with the Mayor- 
 alty. If a Mayoralty is composed of several villages, the President 
 or Mayor is elected by the entire Mayoralty, while each village 
 .elects its own Kmet. Mayors and Kmets discharge the duties 
 
358 National Life and Thought. 
 
 that in England are intrusted to our paid and unpaid magistrates.. 
 They are elected for a term of two years. The number of Kmets 
 for each village is determined by the amount of work they have to 
 get through, and their salaries, as well as those of the Mayors, are 
 settled by the Municipal Councils. Two Councillors are attached 
 to each Kmet, or failing them, two honest peasants as assistants.. 
 I cannot tell you in what the difference between the two classes 
 of assessors consists, unless the test of honesty is not to be 
 applied to a County Councillor. What we should call police 
 cases are tried by the Mayor and two Kmets. The accused is 
 given no choice as to the manner of his trial, and must go before- 
 a jury on three charges only, viz. — arson, murder with robbery,, 
 or robbery with violence. 
 
 The new Press Law is all that it should be — in theory. It 
 Avould be well if in practice it were half as perfect. The corre- 
 spondents of the Standard and the Doily News have both been 
 expelled from Servia ; the former has been allowed to return, but 
 the latter is still an exile at Semlin. Some hundred lawsuits are- 
 said to be hanging over various Opposition newspapers, and fifty 
 of them over the celebrated Peter Theodorovitch, who has wisely 
 betaken himself to Italy. This whilom Radical leader was charged 
 with writing and speaking against the ex-King, and when acquitted 
 on that charge, was imprisoned "par vote correctionelle? A 
 power of giving a month's imprisonment was vested in the- 
 Prefects under the old law, but has (they say) been repealed by 
 the new Constitution. Let us hope so. 
 
 The daily wages of skilled labour in Servia may be reckoned 
 at from 5 to 6 francs a day, and unskilled from 2 francs to> 
 2*50 a day. The best miners are Italians, who nearly all prefer 
 piecework. In fact, except with navvies and farm labourers — a 
 7-ara avis in Servia — piecework is the rule. A working man can 
 live well in Servia on a franc a day ; but, there is no denying it r 
 he is most heavily taxed. On this, as on so many other topics,, 
 you cannot do better than refer to the Report on the Trade of 
 Servia for the years 1887 and 1888, made by Mr. Macdonald, our 
 Consul at Nisch, which is the best account of Servian trade that 
 it has ever been my pleasure to peruse. What a peasant lives on 
 is a bit of bread, black and hard like sunburnt mud, and an onion, 
 and such fare as this does not cost him more than twenty or thirty 
 centimes a day. A good deal more goes in raki. The Serbs are 
 not teetotallers ; but, so far as my observation goes, they are not: 
 drunkards. 
 
Servia and Montenegro. 359 
 
 The National Debt of Servia amounts to fourteen millions or 
 ^8 per head of the population. The chief exports of Servia are 
 pigs, dried plums, and wine, and for the year 1888 scarcely- 
 exceeded in value one-and-a-half million sterling. The exports 
 from Servia into this country for 1888 only amounted to ^3259,, 
 and the imports from Great Britain for the same year to about 
 ^110,000. In the commercial dependence of Serbs on their 
 powerful neighbours across the Save and the Danube, no less 
 than in the occupation of Bosnia, a country inhabited in the main 
 by the same Serb race, you must seek for the causes of the 
 unpopularity of Austria in Servia. There are 458 miles of railway, 
 and on these railways you pass through a land of the most varied 
 scenery — a land whose soil is extraordinarily fertile ; whose plains 
 team with cattle and swine, and are yellow with maize and wheat ; 
 whose orchards are blue with the plum ; whose rivers abound with 
 fish ; whose hills are vineyards ; and whose mountains are covered 
 with oaks, ancient enough to have witnessed the march of the 
 conquering Osmanli. 
 
 Young as Servia is, she is already cursed with "sweating." A 
 new well was made for a friend of mine. The contractor charged 
 him 175 francs, but the Italian who dug it out to a total depth of 
 eight metres told my friend he only got twenty francs for the job. 
 Consul Macdonald, on the 24th page of his Report, gives a strik- 
 ing instance of " sweating." The peasant women who make the 
 carpets of Pirot are mostly in the hands of taskmasters, who pay 
 them, as a rule, the sweating wages of 3! d. and a little bread per 
 day. Our Consul offered a Pirot peasant the town price for a large 
 carpet. Had his offer been accepted, the whole of the profits 
 (instead of being divided with the middleman) would have gone 
 direct to the producer. Not only was his offer declined, but so 
 unreasonable a price was demanded, that he was compelled to 
 buy from the retail merchant. Apparently this Serb bondsman 
 preferred to be " sweated " by his countryman to selling at a profit 
 to an alien. The hatred of a Serb for a foreigner is an unfortunate 
 fact. It is the honourable distinction of the Progressist that he 
 alone among Serb politicians has'never pandered to this foible. 
 
 The only strike I have ever heard of in Servia occurred quite 
 recently at Nisch, when eighty mechanics at the railway station 
 struck work on account of delay in payment of their wages. They 
 also demanded the expulsion of all foreigners from the lines. 
 There are, however, so many holidays in Servia that workmen 
 might stay away without being missed. There are no Trade 
 
,360 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Unions, as we understand them, but there are Trade Guilds or 
 Esnafs. These are a curious survival of the Middle Ages. They 
 form the Guilds of the various trades, and regulate the condition 
 of apprentices and the privileges of master and workmen. They 
 receive no State support, and are maintained by employers and 
 workmen for the following purposes : — 
 
 1. To help old and sick members incapacitated from work. 
 
 2. To help destitute members. 
 
 3. To help widows and orphans of members, especially in 
 educating the latter. 
 
 4. To pay the travelling expenses of members in search of work. 
 
 5. To give alms in church on feast day of Patron Saint of 
 Esnaf. 
 
 The Esnafs exist independently of each other in the towns of 
 Servia ; there is no federation among them. There is no Em- 
 ployers' Liability Act, and damages for accidents are privately 
 arranged. Education is the bright spot in the social system of 
 the Serbs. It is both compulsory and free, and in the case of a 
 promising lad includes his studies both at the Belgrade and a 
 foreign university. In 1834 there was not a school in the country, 
 except in the chief towns — in all, perhaps twenty-five. In 1884 
 scarcely a village was without one. This subject has been fully 
 dealt with by me elsewhere. 
 
 There are three political parties in Servia — Liberal, Progressist, 
 and Radical. There are three Regents — Ristitch, Belo Mar- 
 covitch, and General Protitch — who are all practically Liberals. 
 Ristitch is the former chief of the party called Liberal. His 
 admirers call him the Bismarck of the Balkans. No one can deny 
 his patriotism, nor his desire to make Servia the Piedmont of the 
 Balkan Peninsula. Belo Marcovitch is a dashing soldier, who 
 took Nisch and Vranja from the Turks, but grave doubts exist as 
 to his integrity. He was impeached before the Skupshtina for 
 embezzlement, but was acquitted. General Protitch belongs to no 
 political party, and may fairly be described as a King's Friend. 
 He is a brave soldier, an indefatigable worker, and an honourable 
 man. If the " Liberals " are the Conservatives of Servia, the Pro- 
 gressists might be called her Whigs. They are unrepresented in 
 the present Grand Skupshtina, which consists of — 
 
 Liberals, 15. 
 Progressists, none. 
 Radicals, 102. 
 
Servia and Montenegro. '.'.. 361 
 
 The Progressists held office from 1880 to 1888 ; great, therefore, 
 has been their fall. It is, however, noteworthy that at the 
 Communal elections of last December the Liberals and Progressists 
 coalesced. Party feeling runs very high ; and only last year 
 a peasant told a friend of mine that his house had been burnt 
 over his head by his fellow villagers merely because he was a 
 Progressist. The Radicals are now in office, but their power is 
 not absolute. The Regents and the Cabinet agree together about 
 as well as our House of Lords and a Radical House of Commons. 
 A Serb, who knows Ristitch well, said to me, " Yes, he is Regent 
 again, but this time he is like a tiger behind bars." Besides the 
 Regents there are other rocks ahead of the Radical ministry — their 
 inexperience of office and the high hopes that have been excited 
 by their promises. The Progressists say, and with some force, 
 that the culture and intelligence of the country is with them. On 
 the other hand, the present Radical Government are showing a 
 vigour and an honesty which may falsify the prophecies of their 
 opponents. The cleavage between the two parties — Radical and 
 Progressist — is twofold, one foreign and one domestic ; the 
 cleavage between the Radical and the Liberal is mainly domestic. 
 The Radical was for Russia, and in this supported Ristitch ; the 
 Progressist was for Austria. Whether this will remain so is 
 •doubtful, as the St. Petersburg Cabinet has always hitherto 
 supported the Opposition in Servia. The principle which divides 
 them in home politics is the objection of the Radical to the 
 foreign capitalist. The Radical wishes to keep Servia an agricul- 
 tural country ; the aim of the Progressist, when in power, was to 
 open up the resources of Servia by aid of foreign capital. To the 
 Radical this means the degradation of native labour. He fears 
 that large fortunes will create a proletariat. At present Servia is a 
 land of very moderate incomes, where wealth does not accumulate, 
 .and where men do not decay. Every rood of land maintains its 
 man. There are no poor laws, because there are no poor. If a 
 beggar accosts you, you may be sure he is a foreigner. The mass 
 of the Serb nation is wealthier than any other. This was shown a 
 few years ago, when two- thirds of the capital of the National Bank 
 was subscribed by Serbs, who took from one to five shares each. 
 The sunshine in which the peasantry bask is not without its 
 shadow — flattery. Entire parts of verbs, such as gerunds, have been 
 •discarded by some Serb writers, who in their desire to show their 
 sympathy with the masses, have imitated their uncultured language 
 to such a degree as themselves to become uncouth and unintel- 
 
362 National Life and Thought. 
 
 ligible. Let us not however fall into the opposite error of dispar- 
 agement. The energy with which the Serbs have surmounted 
 difficulties in the past give us grounds for believing that they will 
 show the same energy in the future. Freedom is the only thing 
 in this world for which too high a price cannot be paid. The 
 Serbs have lived up to this principle, ay, and died for it. They 
 have worked out their own salvation. Blotted out from the map, 
 Servia has again appeared, her boundaries marked out by the 
 swords of her own sons. Let us extend the hand of good fellowship' 
 to a race which, " through a cloud, not of war only," has at length, 
 taken its place among the free nations of Europe. 
 
XX. 
 JEWS IN THEIR RELATION TO OTHER RACES. 
 
 THE REV. S. SINGER. 
 
 I WOULD like to express to you, however imperfectly, the 
 sense of obligation under which I feel at having been in- 
 vited to take part in this series of discourses on National Life 
 and Thought. Your course of lectures would certainly have 
 lacked one element of completeness if it had, even by implication, 
 excluded from the community of nations one of the oldest, tough- 
 est, most virile, and most distinctively marked of races. " The 
 amount of information which people do not possess " about Jews 
 " is really prodigious." In an age of insatiable inquiry, when the 
 electric light of publicity plays upon almost every phase, and 
 illumines almost every nook of the inner life of nations and 
 families, there is no race on the face of the earth at once so 
 ubiquitous, and therefore so open to observation, and at bottom 
 so little understood. You may not go all the way with what 
 Heine wrote in his Confessions; to the main idea, however,, 
 contained in one of his remarks, you can hardly withhold your 
 assent : " Neither the conduct nor the essential character of the 
 Jews is understood by the world. People think they know them 
 because they see their beards ; but more than that never was 
 perceived of them ; and as in the Middle Ages, so they continue 
 in modern times, a wandering mystery." x But whose fault is it 
 if they rem'ain a wandering mystery? The more people, and 
 especially our own countrymen, know about Jews, the more they 
 will find that the greatest of all mysteries in reference to them 
 is that there is no mystery. Unlike the shrines of other nations, 
 even our Holy of Holies contained no secret. What of mystery 
 need there be then about us, unless it be the riddle, as insoluble 
 to us as to you, of our existence, and of the dual current, about 
 which I shall presently have to say more, that can be traced along 
 the whole channel of our lives. 
 
 1 Heine's JVerke, xi\ r . 296. 
 363 
 
364 National Life and Thought. 
 
 With the particular doctrines, positive or negative, held by the 
 majority of those who are in the habit of assembling here, I need 
 hardly say I do not in any way identify myself. But your action 
 in regard to my own particular community seems to me to claim 
 some recognition. If I were to go this afternoon into a place of 
 worship of any of the numerous sects into which Christendom is 
 divided, I should hear the Jews spoken of eloquently, dully, 
 learnedly, ignorantly, wisely, absurdly, lovingly, angrily, as the 
 case might be : the only thing which the greater part of the state- 
 ments there to be listened to would seem to me, as a Jew, to 
 lack, would be an approach to verisimilitude. Among public 
 bodies the distinction is in an eminent degree yours— that in 
 your search for truth you have gone on this, as on former 
 occasions, to those who may be presumed qualified to speak with 
 authority upon subjects with which they personally are best 
 acquainted. 
 
 On Wednesday evening last, in all the Synagogues of Jewry, 
 there was read aloud to the congregations there assembled an 
 old story, to which, whatever else Bible critics may have to say 
 about it, they will not deny the merits of dramatic force, and, as 
 regards the major part of the book at least, literary skill. It was 
 the account of the perils and deliverance of that remnant of the 
 house of Israel which, after the fall of the first Temple, found a 
 home in lands, later on to form part of the Medo-Persian empire. 
 One of the neatest passages in the book is the preamble where- 
 with the Grand Vizier of Ahasuerus introduced to the King his 
 project of what might be called " a short way with Jews." Many 
 such "short ways" have been proposed at various times. Dur- 
 ing the height of the anti-Semitic fever in Berlin, about the 
 wittiest thing that emanated from our opponents was the issue 
 of a mock railway-ticket, marked " To Jerusalem. Single ticket. 
 No return tickets issued." This was not Haman's method ; but 
 what he had to say was interesting for another reason. It was 
 not all falsehood ; that would have been too clumsy. Haman 
 knew his master too well to offer even such a gobe-mouches, a 
 dish of undiluted lies. It was by no means all truth ; it was 
 a deft mixture of the two, with the evident object that the un- 
 truth might pass current by reason of its being in good company, 
 just as those who utter counterfeit coin are generally found pass- 
 ing genuine pieces along with the others in order to cover, and 
 divert suspicion from, the spurious ones. " There is one people," 
 said Haman, " scattered abroad and dispersed among the 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 365. 
 
 peoples." Undeniable, — the solidarity of the Jewish race is a 
 fact as patent as their dispersion ; they are one people, though 
 scattered. "And their laws are diverse from those of all other 
 people." That is only fractionally true. "And they do not 
 keep the king's laws." That is distinctly false, and the infer- 
 ence drawn therefrom, that " it is not to the king's profit to 
 suffer them," is consequently baseless and invalid. 
 
 Severe as the accusation sounds, one might assert that these 
 words express not inaptly the sentiments with which, until com- 
 paratively recent times, most of the nations among whom it has 
 been Israel's lot to be divided regarded them. They have resented 
 that singular and tenacious union among Jews, which no geogra- 
 phical distribution seems able to break up ; they have blamed them 
 for a spirit of separateness,. which is both good and evil ; — good 
 in so far as every race has to work out its own destiny on its 
 own lines ; evil in so far as it is the result of the treatment to 
 which their persecutors have subjected them. They have, de- 
 clared them to be a burden and a misfortune to the State, with 
 no more grounds than confident ignorance, envy, and the 
 desire to have " their spoil for a prey," require to justify them- 
 selves. 
 
 In the history and literature of the Jews a very different tale 
 is to be read. When once the work of the conquest of Canaan 
 was effected, — and not many European nations have the right to 
 sit in judgment upon Israel in such a case, — no State of ancient 
 times was more hospitable to the stranger. On the basis of 
 certain fundamental principles of morality, there was one law of 
 right, of protection and love for him and the native. In the 
 very Temple of the God of Israel, the prayers of the stranger 
 were welcome. The aboriginal races lived side by side with the 
 conquerors on terms of good-humoured tolerance. When the 
 Jewish State fell, though they neither forgot Jerusalem nor gave 
 up the hope of a return thither, it was in no rancorous spirit 
 that the Jews lived among their captors. " Seek the peace of 
 the city whither I have caused you to be carried captive," was 
 the Divine message which Jeremiah delivered to his exiled 
 brethren, " and pray for it unto the Lord, for in the peace 
 thereof shall you have peace." 
 
 Their Temple a second time destroyed, and their land a prey 
 to the enemy, the Jews once more found a home in Babylon, 
 where the Parthians presented an invincible front to the passion 
 of Rome for universal empire. Congregations and schools arose, 
 
366 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the produce of whose labours forms to this hour the chief intel- 
 lectual food upon which Rabbinic Judaism is fed all the world 
 over. Yet so completely did affection for their new country 
 become rooted within them, that one of their leaders of that 
 period could maintain that " he who quits Babylon for Palestine 
 transgresses a positive command." l 
 
 The language of the country became not merely the vernacular 
 •of the Jew; it acquired a quasi-sacred character, and prayers 
 composed in the Aramaic dialect found their way into the liturgy 
 of the Synagogue, and have been retained there to the present 
 time. Then, too, the principle was established which is expressed 
 in the Talmudic maxim, "The law of the State is everywhere 
 binding law for the Jew " 2 — a principle that ever since has regu- 
 lated the relation of the Jew towards the Gentile communities 
 among whom he has been domiciled, and is itself an explanation 
 of the singularly law-abiding character of the whole race. 
 
 Without loosening his hold upon his own distinctive laws and 
 customs, the Jew never at any time was lacking in the conscious- 
 ness of a union with a larger world outside his own race. He 
 read the lesson of the unity of mankind in the first pages of his 
 Bible. The central doctrine of his religious system — the Unity of 
 God — drove that belief still deeper into his heart. The brother- 
 hood of man was the logical consequence of the fatherhood 
 of God. "When God created Adam," says the Talmud, "He 
 gathered dust from all parts of the earth, and with it formed the 
 parent of the human race." 3 Stripped of its garb of allegory, the 
 saying means that the whole world is the home of man, that the 
 very diversities in the families of mankind are within the original 
 design of the Creator, and, as complementary one to the other, 
 help to establish their essential unity. It was no empty rhetoric 
 that spoke in these words. One practical result of such a theory 
 was, for example, the doctrine : " To rob a heathen is worse than 
 robbing an Israelite, because, in addition to the breach of the 
 great moral law, there is the profanation of the name of God." 4 
 Where will you find a broader and loftier spirit of religious toler- 
 ance than that which is contained in this comment of the Midrash 
 on Canticles : " 'My beloved went down to feed in the gardens, 
 and to gather lilies' — 'the gardens' — these are the Gentiles 
 throughout the world, and 'the lilies' — these are the righteous 
 among them " ? Or in this, from a work that was the offspring of 
 
 1 Berachoth 24b. 2 Baba Kama 113a. 
 
 3 Sanhedrim 38a. 4 Tosefta Baba Kama 10. 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 367 
 
 one of the darkest periods of Israel's fortunes : " I call heaven 
 and earth to witness that, whether it be Israelite or Gentile, man 
 or woman, everything depends upon the deeds that are done, how 
 far the Holy Spirit shall rest upon a mortal ? " x 
 
 That not all utterances concerning non-Israelites are conceived 
 in the same strain, will be readily imagined. The relation of Jews 
 to other races has, of course, been regulated to some extent by the 
 relation of other races to the Jews ; and the one will never be 
 _properly understood and be done justice to until the other has been 
 thoroughly grasped. It is, however, no part of my purpose this 
 ;afternoon to recite to you a chapter out of the Romance of 
 Jewish Martyrdom. Read only what Christians, like Dollinger 
 and Schleiden, have written on this subject, and you will not need 
 to listen to the grim and ghastly record from Jewish lips. This 
 only I will say, that in nothing has Christianity been so un-Christ 
 like as in its treatment of the Jew, from Church fathers, and 
 popes, and grand inquisitors, and Catholic emperors, to Pro- 
 testant reformers, statesmen and rulers, and that there never was 
 a religion which suffered so little as Christianity during its estab- 
 lishment compared with the suffering it has itself caused since — 
 two centuries of intermittent persecution endured, against sixteen 
 centuries of incessant persecution inflicted. 
 
 Until the end of the last century, all attempts on the part of 
 the more tolerant among the Gentiles to assert for the Jewish race 
 the status of full brother to other races proved abortive. Even 
 the British Parliament, which, in 1753, passed the Jews' Naturali- 
 sation Bill, was led to revoke its own righteous action the follow- 
 ing year, in obedience to clerical prejudice, commercial jealousy, 
 and popular clamour. It is to the French Revolution that the 
 Jews owe their improved position in the modern world. That 
 prolific parent of good and evil has at least deserved well of 
 them. It was the first to do justice, full and unequivocal, to those 
 whom every other great political movement passed over as too 
 insignificant or too contemptible to be taken into account. 
 Mirabeau and the Abbe" Gregoire, the one in his desire to secu- 
 larise the State, the other in his policy of Christianising the 
 Revolution, as our historian Graetz 2 puts it, both urged on a move- 
 ment which, in an incredibly short space of time, succeeded in 
 effecting the complete emancipation of all the Jews under the rule 
 of the Republic. On the 17th September 1791, the National As- 
 sembly decreed the abolition of every exceptional enactment pre- 
 
 1 Tana d'be Elijahu 9. 2 See vol. xi., ch. 5. 
 
368 National Life and Thought. 
 
 viously in force against them, and thus made them by law what they 
 had previously been in heart, citizens of their country. He who 
 started as the child, afterwards to become the master of the 
 Revolution, proclaimed the same great principles of religious 
 equality wherever his victorious eagles penetrated. Since that 
 dawn of a better time, the light has spread more and more, though 
 even now it is only here and there that it has shone forth unto 
 the perfect day. 
 
 If, now, you direct your attention to the attitude of Jews towards 
 their neighbours, you are made aware of a most extraordinary, 
 and, in its degree, unique combination ; you perceive a national 
 individuality of singular strength and distinctiveness, side by side 
 with an equally remarkable power of adaptation to the varying 
 circumstances of their existence. I admit it sounds like a contra- 
 diction ; but reality is often a potent reconciler of theoretical 
 impossibilities, and here, at all events, is a contradiction which is 
 being acted out before our very eyes, one that in the play and 
 alternation of forces furnishes all the elements for one of the 
 most impressive dramas of humanity. One side of the national 
 character has been depicted by Goethe in words to which all the 
 greater weight may be attached, seeing that they breathe anything 
 but a spirit of partiality towards the Israelitish people : " At the 
 Judgment-Seat of God, it is not asked whether this is the best, 
 the most excellent nation, but only whether it lasts, whether it 
 has endured. There is little good in the Israelitish people, as its 
 leaders, judges, chiefs, and prophets a thousand times reproach- 
 fully declared ; it possesses few virtues and most of the faults of 
 other nations ; but in self-reliance, steadfastness, valour, and, 
 when all this could not serve, in obstinate toughness, it has no 
 match. It is the most perseverant nation on earth ; it was, it is, 
 it will be to glorify the name of the Lord through all ages." 1 
 True as much of this undoubtedly is, it is not the whole truth 
 regarding the Jewish people. The other side of their character is 
 not less recognisable. They have the power of adapting them- 
 selves to their surroundings with a rapidity and completeness that 
 is altogether unparalleled. I do not propose to enter into the 
 philosophical inquiry, What constitutes a nation ? But I do 
 venture to contest the assumption that it requires so many 
 generations of residence on the soil, and the ability to show that 
 your ancestors, upon arriving on these shores, slew the ill-prepared 
 natives, and took violent possession of their land and other effects, 
 
 1 Wilhelm Meisters Wandeijahre, II. 2. 
 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 369 
 
 in order to constitute you a true Englishman. A man's country 
 is the place where he enjoys the protection of the laws, where he 
 pursues his vocation without let or hindrance, where his home is 
 fixed, hallowed by the tender ties of family life, where the interests 
 and the welfare of his neighbours have become interwoven with 
 his own, where he can worship God according to the dictates of 
 his conscience, and where his life is able to perfect itself in every 
 ■direction. Given these conditions, or the chief of them, and the 
 Jew not only becomes soon mentally acclimatised, and assimilates 
 himself to the society by which he is surrounded, but reproduces 
 its distinguishing characteristics in an accentuated form in him- 
 self, becoming, as at this day he is often found to be, more 
 German than the Germans, more French than the French, more 
 English than the English. By way of pendant to the judgment 
 of Goethe, let me cite a noteworthy utterance of one of the most 
 gifted women of our race, a valued friend of Emerson's, one whose 
 brilliant career closed far too soon for her people's good, though 
 not too early for her fame. " Every student of the Hebrew lan- 
 guage," says Emma Lazarus in her Epistles to the Hebrews, "is 
 aware that we have, in the conjugations of our verbs, a mode 
 known as the intensive voice, which, by means of an almost im- 
 perceptible modification of vowel points, intensifies the meaning 
 of the primitive root. A similar significance seems to attach to 
 the Jews themselves in connection with the people among whom 
 they dwell. They are the intensive form of any nationality whose 
 language they adopt." 
 
 Is it well to have kept a people like this at arm's length ? It 
 is not alone the Jews who have been sufferers by such a policy. 
 What monasticism did in one direction by withdrawing for many 
 centuries many of the best intellects and noblest characters from 
 the active business of life, that was done in another by the 
 systematic repression of the special genius of the Jew, and his 
 exclusion from all national fellowship. Both systems have tended 
 to the world's own impoverishment. 
 
 Leaving generalisations, however, let us regard the Jews in 
 their relation to some of those countries where they have found 
 a home. As types, let us take three, as widely varied as possible 
 — -Russia, Germany, England. 
 
 It is, of course, notorious that the Jews of Russia are, with 
 comparatively few exceptions, but loosely attached to their fellow- 
 subjects, and to the country which is to them in the place of a 
 fatherland. But the marvel is not so much that they are loosely 
 
 2 A 
 
37® National Life and Thought. 
 
 attached, as that they are attached at all. It is not easy to form 
 a conception of the wretchedness in which a system of legalised 
 inhumanity has steeped the lives of between three and four mil- 
 lions of our fellow-men. From his birth upwards, the Russo- 
 Polish Jew is the object of a persecution which, were it not that 
 he has inherited a vast capacity for endurance from generations 
 of luckless ancestors, would soon suffice to crush the whole man 
 within him. Almost every avenue to an honourable livelihood is 
 closed against him. Barriers are put up in his own country, 
 beyond which he dare not pass. Certain provinces are set apart 
 for his domicile — they are an enlarged ghetto, outside whose 
 boundaries he strays at his peril. The whole of the interior is 
 shut against him, as though he were a 'leper. When he sets foot 
 in it, it is on his way to Siberia. He is enough of a foreigner to 
 be denied the rights of other Russians ; he is just Russian enough 
 to be heavily taxed. If he has sufficient means to pay for it, he 
 may purchase at a high price the privilege of being allowed to 
 establish himself in the capital, or in a few other important towns. 
 But this elevation has no power of raising his wife to the same 
 status, and should he leave his property to her, the State will not 
 lend itself to so unnatural a proceeding, and takes charge of the 
 inheritance in perpetuity. If he is drawn for the army, and dis- 
 appoints the string of hungry officials by not bribing them to 
 secure his exemption from military service, he and his family bid 
 each other farewell, without much hope of meeting each other 
 on this side the grave. With his fellow-recruits he is drafted off 
 to the other extremity of the colossal empire ; for it is the Russian 
 principle — and in this it is quite impartial in its treatment of Jews 
 and Christians — not to foster anything like local attachments in 
 its soldiery. Needless to say that he has no chance of rising 
 from the ranks, whatever his military qualities may be. 
 
 But what is resented with especial severity is the thirst for 
 knowledge which, despite all repression, the Jew so often manifests. 
 He presents himself, perhaps fully qualified in all other respects, 
 for admission into a Russian University. The chances are that 
 the doors will be closed against him, as the percentage fixed by 
 law of Jewish to other students has already been reached, or has 
 been lowered by a recent Ukase. That the Jew should become 
 more cultured than his taskmaster is not to be thought of. He 
 cannot even be a Christian any longer in peace. The temptation 
 has been, and still remains, very strong to rid one's self by a 
 single effort, a single concession (the greatest, however, which 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 37 r 
 
 a man of honour can make) of all these galling disabilities. 
 With this object, and in order to ease the transition to their own 
 conscience, a few Jews have occasionally gone over to Luther- 
 anism, such a step being deemed not so gross a breach with 
 former habits of thought as joining the Russian Church, with 
 its image and relic worship. Within quite recent years, how- 
 ever, Lutheranism has been declared no resting-place for a Jew 
 who wishes to be considered a Russian, and there is now, in 
 a very mundane sense, no salvation for him outside the pale 
 of the Orthodox Russian Church. Add to all this, that a 
 persistent scorn, more biting and degrading than the knout, 
 dogs him at every turn and movement of his life, and that the 
 knowledge that there is one section of the populace against 
 whom all manner of crimes can be perpetrated without disgrace 
 and with comparative impunity, is apt to demoralise the most 
 virtuously disposed of people, and it will be seen that the fate 
 of the Russian Jews is about as melancholy and as desperate 
 as that to which any portion of the human race is at this moment 
 condemned. The hardest thing about the whole business re- 
 mains to be spoken : these despised outcasts are in many ways, 
 intellectually and morally, the superiors of their tormentors. 
 If any one considers this a mere piece of racial or religious 
 bias, let him read the address of Archbishop Nicanor at the 
 University of Odessa in September last. No professional ad- 
 vocate of the Jewish cause could have more effectively con- 
 trasted the Russian and the Jewish characters, or could have 
 spoken in more glowing language of the industry, the sobriety, 
 the self-denial, the parental and filial devotion, the love of 
 learning, and the unswerving attachment to their faith of these 
 same Russian Jews. 
 
 But they are charged with displaying an invincible spirit of 
 exclusiveness, and with taking to ignoble pursuits, to the voca- 
 tions of the usurer and the innkeeper, who make their profit 
 out of the follies and the vices of their fellow-men. — You shut 
 up a man in prison without cause, and accuse him of being 
 unsociable. You take from him every serviceable brick and 
 stone, and bid him build his hut of mud, and then you are 
 surprised that he has soiled his hands. 
 
 What an opportunity now lies before the Autocrat of all the 
 Russias and his ministers ! True, there is danger in making 
 concessions to an awakening people : is there no danger in re- 
 fusing them? By a single exercise of his authority, the Czar 
 
37 2 National Life and Thought. 
 
 could break every chain that has so long fettered and disfigured 
 his Jewish subjects. And he, or whoever may do it, would have 
 his reward in the bursting forth of a pent-up spirit of loyalty 
 and patriotism, for there is not a people on earth more quick to 
 forgive injuries, and more grateful for kindnesses, than the Jews. 
 But truth makes its way slowly to a monarch's ear. Have not 
 others also long been crying for justice in that land where the east 
 and the west have met, and barbarism and civilisation are so 
 strangely mingled ? We must not complain if their claims take 
 precedence over ours. The Sun of Freedom has always shone 
 last into the gloomy recesses of the Ghetto. 
 
 Turn now to Germany. The problem there is different in 
 kind, but in certain respects even more acute. The Jews are 
 accused, strange to say, of diametrically opposite faults. On 
 the one hand, they are condemned for hemming themselves in 
 with a tribal exclusiveness which nothing can pierce, for placing 
 around them an icy barrier no warmth of neighbourly love can 
 melt ; on the other hand, they are charged with being too much 
 en evidence, with wanting to take their share and more of public 
 affairs, with desiring to make themselves indispensable to their 
 country. It would, perhaps, not be a bad thing to let the ob- 
 jectors settle their differences, which seem to fairly cancel each 
 other, and then to deal with the remainder, if any. 
 
 The attitude of the Teutonic anti-Semite recalls a grim story 
 narrated of the Emperor Hadrian in an old rabbinical work. x 
 A Jew, happening one day to meet the Emperor, greeted him 
 respectfully. "Who art thou?" said Hadrian. "A Jew," was 
 the humble reply. " And thou, a Jew, art so bold as to greet the 
 Emperor ! Thou shalt pay for it with thy head." Aware of the 
 luckless fate of his brother Israelite, another Jew, who chanced 
 to cross the Emperor's path, thought it wise to show more dis- 
 cretion, and omitted the customary sign of homage. Hadrian 
 stopped him, and again asked, "Who art thou?" "A Jew." 
 " And thou darest to pass the Emperor without greeting him ! 
 Off with his head!" The counsellors who accompanied him, 
 perplexed at this strange procedure, expressed their astonish- 
 ment that such punishment should be dealt out alike to him 
 who did and to him who did not greet the Emperor. " Think 
 you," said he, "-Hadrian needs to be taught how to rid himself 
 of those whom he hates ? " Something of the same spirit pre- 
 vails among those who, in their hostility to the Jews, are utterly 
 
 1 Midrash Echah. 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 373. 
 
 regardless of the inconsistency and even the absurdity of their 
 charges against them. It is enough that they hate them. Need 
 those who hate be logical as well ? 
 
 Nominally, indeed, all Germans are equal before the law. But,, 
 during the last fifteen years or so, anti-Semitism, that hideous 
 recrudescence of the worst passions of the middle ages, that 
 " stain upon the German name," as the Emperor Frederick called 
 it, has striven to place and to keep the Jew under a relentless 
 social ban. There is no more cruel instrument of torture than 
 social persecution and contempt can become in unscrupulous 
 hands. One illustration may suffice. In Germany, the army is 
 everything. The empire exists for the army, though in official 
 parlance the army is said to exist for the empire. Under the 
 law of conscription, the Jews have to render their period of 
 service exactly like the rest of the population. Perfectly just. 
 But of all the Hebrews who have ever served in the army, and 
 they are to be numbered by tens of thousands, one or two only 
 have been permitted, and that with the utmost difficulty, to rise to 
 the rank of officer. They may shed their blood on the battlefield, 
 may make the heaviest sacrifices for the good of the fatherland, 
 as they did in the great war of Liberation as well as in 1870; 
 they may render the most heroic, though less conspicuous, ser- 
 vices in giving medical aid *to the wounded on the field and in 
 hospitals ; but that they should wear the epaulettes of an officer 
 would be a not-to-be-thought-of enormity. Not even baptism can 
 wash the old Adam out of the Jewish soldier. The corps of 
 officers will have none of him in any shape or colour. 
 
 The Jews of Germany have their faults — faults that especially 
 offend because they are so conspicuously within view of all the 
 world : they do not know how to bear with becoming modesty 
 their recently acquired wealth and power. But their worst fault 
 is that they are too clever, while they lack the grace which Mr 
 Lang's Prince Prigio acquired after many adventures, of being 
 clever without seeming so. In England, when the proletariat was 
 enfranchised, the cry among sensible politicians was: "Now let 
 us educate our masters." In Germany, even before the first 
 instalments of liberty and equality were doled out to them, the 
 Jews began to educate themselves. With the widening of their 
 opportunities in our own time, there has gone an educational 
 development that has in it something truly astounding. With 
 a total population, including Prussia, of about 45,000,000, Ger- 
 many had, in 1887, 562,000 Jews, or 1 Jew to 80 of the general. 
 
374 National Life and Thought. 
 
 population. One would expect something like the same propor- 
 tion to be maintained between Jews and non-Jews in the educa- 
 tional world. What, however, is the actual case ? Among 1326 
 University Professors (exclusive of those who hold chairs in 
 theology) in the German Empire, there, are 98 Jews, or about 
 one-fourteenth instead of one-eightieth of the total : of 529 Privat- 
 Docenten, 84 are Jews, or about one-sixth. In these capacities 
 they hold distinguished positions in the various faculties of medi- 
 cine, law, philosophy, arts, science, and agriculture. A similar 
 state of things is observable in the High Schools. Taking Berlin 
 as an example, with a population of 1,400,000, including 67,000 
 Jews, we find that the total number of students, boys and girls, 
 in the gymnasium, Real - Schulen, Fach - Schulen, and Hohere 
 Tochter - Schulen amounts to 23,481; of these 18,666 are 
 Christian, and 4,816 are Jewish students — that is, the Jews are 
 four or five times as numerous as their proportion to the rest 
 of the population would lead one to expect ; or, to state it in 
 another way, every thousand Christian inhabitants of the Prussian 
 capital furnish 14 students to these schools ; every thousand 
 Jewish inhabitants supply 72 students. 
 
 I take these statistics not from a Jewish, but from a Christian 
 source, the Anti-Semiten Katechismus, published in Leipsic in 
 1887 — a book cunningly designed to provide Jew-baiters with all 
 weapons of offence in a handy form, and to rouse the animosity 
 and indignation of German Christians against everything Jewish. 
 Its most triumphant passages are those that point to the status of 
 the Jews in the educational world as a peril to the State. Surely 
 we may be pardoned if, while accepting the figures cited by our 
 enemies as accurate, we desire no higher praise than is involved 
 in a condemnation based upon such grounds. 
 
 Now, contrast the position of the Jew in both Germany and 
 Russia with that which he holds in England. The English are 
 slow to move in the direction of any political change, but when 
 the time is ripe for it, and the change is made, it is made 
 generously, ungrudgingly, and without irritating reservations. It 
 is not surprising to those who know how to read the Jewish 
 character that, among the many races and religions contained 
 within the limits of the British Empire, there is none that 
 has more completely identified itself with the national senti- 
 ments and aspirations than the Jews. Making allowance 
 for the difficulties of undoing the results of long periods of 
 misrule, and of inherited tendencies consequent in great mea- 
 
Jews in their Relation to Other Races. 375 
 
 sure upon such misrule, the transformation has been astounding 
 at once in its rapidity and in its thoroughness. In every walk 
 of life, Jews are taking their share : in professions, in commerce, in 
 handicrafts. They have developed a degree of public spirit and 
 a civic excellence for which they were little credited before the 
 experiment had been made. They are to be found among the 
 the foremost in every philanthropic and educational movement, in 
 every undertaking tending to the national welfare and honour. 
 It would be difficult to find within the whole range of modern 
 history a more perfect realisation than the Jews of Great Britain 
 present of Mr. Freeman's theory concerning the influence which 
 an adopting community is able to exercise upon its adopted mem- 
 bers : " It cannot change their blood ; it cannot give them new 
 natural forefathers ; but it may do everything short of this — it 
 may make them in speech, in feeling, in thought, and in habit, 
 genuine members of the community which has artificially made 
 them its own." 1 
 
 Perhaps the clearest proof of the manner in which the Jews 
 have assimilated the national life of this country is their attitude 
 in regard to politics. On the supposition, into the merits of 
 which this is not the occasion to enter, that the division into 
 political parties is a good thing for this country, the Jews con- 
 tribute in their measure to the general benefit. They are the 
 appanage of no political party ; they are to be found in every 
 one, reflecting not unfairly the differences of opinion prevailing 
 in the various constituencies themselves. Of course this would 
 be impossible if their emancipation here had been an incomplete 
 one. As it is, their interests are identical with those of the rest 
 of the population. There is, fortunately, no Jewish question to 
 distract their attention from the wider duties of citizenship. Ill 
 would it fare with a Jewish clergyman who should venture, from 
 his pulpit or elsewhere, to dictate to his congregants how they 
 should or how they should not vote. 
 
 Just now, indeed, the public mind is strangely agitated by an 
 industrial question in which the mass of immigrants of the Jewish 
 race and faith are mainly concerned. I believe the agitation 
 will, before long, die a natural death. The saving common 
 sense of the British people will not suffer fresh disabilities to 
 be invented for, and to be imposed upon, one of the most law- 
 abiding sections of the population. It is one thing to protect 
 them against themselves, as others have had to be protected, 
 
 1 " Race and Language," by Edward A. Freeman. 
 
376 National Life and Thought. 
 
 by improved factory legislation ; it is another to condemn them 
 and their fellows to the dismal fate which certainly will befall 
 them if England for the first time reverses its traditional policy 
 in their case. It is not conceivable that the land whose boast 
 it used to be that it afforded an asylum impartially to kings 
 fleeing from their fickle subjects, and to subjects fleeing from 
 tyrannical kings, will shut its gates upon those who are drawn 
 hither by the same law of nature as that which bids a plant 
 seek the light and the air. 
 
 But you ask, perhaps, apart from the present relations of the 
 Jews towards other races among whom they have found a home, 
 have they any thought or hope of ultimate independence as a 
 nationality with a territorial base and a political centre? Is 
 Palestine still the Land of Promise to the house of Israel? I 
 wish I could answer that inquiry in the name of all my brethren 
 with a single voice. Upon no question, unfortunately, are 
 opinions more widely divided, though upon none has the teaching 
 of the Synagogue from time immemorial been more unanimous, 
 decided, and emphatic. Leaving aside those vacant souls, whose 
 conception of happiness is to be saved the trouble of thinking, 
 and the responsibility of believing, the Jewish camp is divided 
 into two parties. There are those among us who have neither 
 heart nor mind for a restored Jewish state and a revived Jewish 
 nationality. The whole notion is uncongenial to them. They 
 will not pray for it, nor hope for it. The ancient memories have 
 died within them, stifled by the weight of their new prosperity. 
 They dispose of the bare suggestion with a smile, and quote the 
 well-worn jest of the wealthy Parisian Jew who declared that, 
 when the throne of David was re-occupied by one of his de- 
 scendants, he would make application for the post of ambassador 
 of his Judaic majesty at the Court of Paris. But it would be a 
 grave error to suppose that such a method of regarding the 
 destiny of Israel had altogether displaced the faith of centuries — ■ 
 a faith sealed with blood and tears, a faith that lent the one 
 poetic charm to the dark and dreary lives of fifty generations of 
 our fathers. There is still a goodly band of brethren in whom 
 that faith is as full of vitality to-day as ever it was in Israel's 
 history. Every time they open their Bible or their Prayer-Book, 
 the sacred flame is fed within them. With a keen eye they watch 
 the progress of events in the East, note with glad satisfaction that 
 the Jewish population of Palestine has trebled within the last 
 half-century, that agricultural colonies are springing up on all 
 
Jews in tJieir Relation to other Races. 377 
 
 sides, and that the exiled children of Judah no longer seek the 
 land of their fathers merely to let their bones mingle with the 
 hallowed soil. Tears of genuine sorrow and of passionate yearn- 
 ing still flow at the recital on the anniversary of the destruction 
 of the Temple of elegies like those of the Castilian Jehudah 
 Halevi : — 
 
 Zion, 
 
 Hast thou no greeting for thy prisoned sons, 
 
 That seek thy peace, the remnant of thy flock ? 
 
 I would pour forth my soul upon each spot 
 
 Where once upon thy youths God's spirit breathed : 
 
 Prostrate upon thy soil now let me fall, 
 
 Embrace thy stones, and love thy very dust. 
 
 vShall food and drink delight me, when I see 
 
 Thy lions torn by dogs ? What joy to me 
 
 Shall daylight bring if with it I behold 
 
 The ravens feasting on thy eagles' flesh ? 
 
 But where thy God himself made choice to dwell 
 
 A blest abode thy children yet shall find. 
 
 If you ask me, Where are the men to come from who are to 
 bring about this revolution, not in the career alone, but within the 
 very hearts of a nation, who are to vanquish the indifference, to 
 purify the sordid aims, to enlarge the narrow hopes, that make up 
 the lives of Jewish as of other Philistines, I answer, I do not know. 
 But I know that the same question would have remained un- 
 answered if it had been put before the stirrings of the pulses of 
 the national idea was felt in Greece or in Italy, before the genius 
 of a Byron or a Mazzini rekindled the extinguished hopes and 
 ambitions of) these nations. 
 
 Nor is it easy to say how this end is to be brought about. Two 
 oaths, says a doctor of the Talmud, God imposes upon Israel, 1 
 First, that they shall not seek the restoration of their land by 
 means of violence, and next, that they will not rebel against the 
 nations among whom they dwell. That is to say, it is not to 
 physical force, but to the growth of moral influences, that we are 
 to look for the realisation of our ideals. " Not by force, nor by 
 might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." It is in the Jewish 
 race itself that the breath ot enthusiasm is needed, without which 
 no nation ever worked out, or deserved to accomplish its own 
 regeneration. If, in contemplating the actual condition of mind 
 of multitudes of his brethren, the believer in the destinies of Israel 
 does not always meet with a sympathetic response, he is not dis- 
 
 1 Cethuboth ma. 
 
378 National Life and Thought. 
 
 mayed or disheartened ; he looks to a higher than earthly source 
 for the vivifying impulse, and, face to face with the apathy and 
 the ridicule of the world, he prepares to fall in with the train of 
 thought to which the poetess, who has already enlightened us on 
 one side of the Jewish character, gives utterance in the " New 
 Ezekiel : " — 
 
 What ! Can these dead bones live, whose sap is dried 
 
 By twenty scorching centuries of wrong ? 
 Is this the House of Israel whose pride 
 
 Is as a tale that's told, an ancient song ? 
 Are these ignoble relics all that live 
 
 Of Psalmist, priest, and prophet ? Can the breath 
 Of very heaven bid these bones revive, 
 
 Open the graves, and close the ribs of death ? 
 Yea, Prophecy, the Lord hath said again : 
 
 Say to the wind, Come forth and breathe afresh, 
 Even that they may live upon these slain, 
 
 And bone to bone shall leap, and flesh to flesh. 
 The spirit is not dead, proclaim the word. 
 
 Where lay dead bones a host of armed men stand ! 
 I ope your graves, My people, saith the Lord, 
 
 And I shall place you living in your land. 
 
 And the other peoples of the earth, have they anything to tear 
 from the realisation of these hopes ? Which of them will be 
 losers ? Will not all of them rather be gainers by the reconstitu- 
 tion of a community which, without abandoning either its own 
 character or its mission, " carries the culture and sympathies of 
 every great nation in its bosom," and which has no heart for a 
 future of national glory apart from the glory and the welfare of 
 mankind ? 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE GYPSIES. 
 
 F. H. GROOME. 
 
 I CONFESS I was somewhat amused at being asked to lecture 
 on the Politics and National Aspirations of the Gypsies. 
 For the Gypsies have no politics ; they have less than no national 
 aspirations. What is the Gypsies' fatherland? Egypt, say the 
 Gypsies; India, say Gypsiologists — of Egypt and of India the 
 Gypsies are equally ignorant. And yet with something Indian 
 they are thoroughly conversant — their mother-tongue. Is there 
 any man here who has served in India as soldier or civilian ? 
 Let him, on leaving this hall, walk southward to Battersea, west- 
 ward to the Potteries in Notting Hill, or far eastward to Wan- 
 stead Flats, and go into any tavern there ; the chances are, 
 sooner or later, he will light on some tawney-faced men, dis- 
 coursing in what at first may sound like gibberish, but in which, 
 if he listen closely, he will presently recognise familiar Hindu- 
 stani terms, as chi'iri, "knife," or pdni, "water." Those tawney 
 faced men will be Gypsies ; their speech bewrayeth them. Yet 
 tax them with being Gypsies, they will surely deny it ; for there 
 is, they know, a prejudice against Gypsies, even as in Scotland 
 there is a prejudice against natives of Paisley. Two Scotchmen 
 were travelling in a railway carriage. One of them, a Glasgow 
 man, said presently, "Ye'll be frae Greenock, I'm thinkin'?" 
 " Na, I'm no frae Greenock." " Ye'll be frae Renfrew, then ? " 
 "Na, I'm no jeest frae Renfrew." "Man, ye'll no be frae 
 Paisley?" "Ay; but, sure as deith, I couldna help it." That 
 is pretty much the Gypsy's feeling, only he will be more reti- 
 cent ; for barely a century since it was death, by law at least, to 
 have been born a Gypsy. 
 
 People ask me sometimes, "What is a Gypsy? Is not every- 
 one a Gypsy who lives in a tent or a caravan ? " Certainly not ; 
 no more than a cat who takes up her quarters in a dog-kennel 
 becomes a dog. True, tent-dwelling is the typical Gypsy manner 
 
 379 
 
380 National Life and Thought. 
 
 of life ; still, there are thousands of Gypsies who pass all their 
 lives within four walls ; as also there are thousands of vagrants 
 who are not Gypsies who have not a drop of the blood or one 
 word of the language. " Well, then," I am asked, " but are 
 not all Gypsies dark ? " To which I answer, Certainly, the 
 typical Gypsy, the full-blooded Gypsy, is dark; still, I have 
 known unquestionable Gypsies who are fair, even red-headed. 
 Thus, the ultimate test is the Gypsy or Rdmani language, a 
 language unwritten in books, but handed down by word of 
 mouth from generation to generation ; a language whose secret 
 has been jealously guarded, so that few, very few, but Gypsies 
 can speak it. Hence, if a Gypsy is accosted by a stranger in 
 Rdmani, he jumps at once to the conclusion that that stranger 
 must be a Gypsy. 
 
 A friend of mine, a clergyman, who has long been a student of 
 Rdmani, was a master, some years ago, in a public school. One 
 day he was walking from the schoolhouse to his home, arrayed in 
 college cap and gown, when he saw an old Gypsy woman sitting, 
 outside his gate, with a pile of baskets. " Kiishto divvus, Dya" 
 (Good day, mother), he said to her. She looked at him reproach- 
 fully, exclaiming, "Pretty Gypsy you, to go dressed that monkey 
 fashion ! But there, Gypsies have took to queer ways nowadays ! " 
 
 I was myself at Scarborough once. I was going out to a 
 picnic, rather a big affair ; and I was walking on the Esplanade, 
 waiting for the carriages, and smoking a cigar, when I saw an old 
 knife-grinder, grinding away at a pair of scissors. I had a good 
 look at him as I went past, and then I turned again, and had a 
 better look. He certainly was a Gypsy. So, " Shar shan, borV r 
 (How d'ye do, mate ?), I said to him. He dropped the scissors, 
 crying, " Lord bless us all, and I thought you was a gentleman. 
 How de do, boy ? " And then we fell into discourse. 
 
 Another time I was at Westminster, when I saw two tinkers, 
 and a look was enough to tell me they were Gypsies. One was 
 tall, hook-nosed, and elderly; the other a slim, good-looking 
 young fellow; but both were the colour of a copper tea-kettle. 
 So, coming up by them presently, " How d'ye do ? " said I in 
 Rdmani. And the tall one answered, "And how are you, my 
 brother ? I haven't set eyes on you since I don't know when." 
 Which seemed likely enough, because he had never seen me in 
 his life. "No," I said, "it is a goodish while." And as we 
 walked on talking, I learnt they were two of the Lovells, living 
 at Battersea. By-and-by Mr Hooknose says, " You'll take a 
 
The Gypsies. 381 
 
 glass with us, brother?" So we went into a bar, and first be 
 paid for glasses, and next I paid for glasses. And then : " Yo u 
 haven't been long out, brother ? " " No ; not very long." " Seven 
 years, wasn't it, brother?" "Seven years it was." "About a 
 horse, brother?" "Ay, about a horse." After which I came 
 away, leaving my two acquaintances persuaded that I was some 
 Gypsy or other (to this day I know not who) that had got seven 
 years' imprisonment for horse-stealing. Not wholly flattering to 
 myself; still, they did not mean it unkindly. 
 
 But I wouldn't have you go away with the idea that a Gypsy 
 takes every strange Gypsy for a horse-thief. There are Gypsies 
 and Gypsies, good and bad, rich and poor, well-educated and 
 ignorant. I know of one who is a clergyman ; another, in the 
 Staffordshire Potteries, has founded a rival to the Salvation Army; 
 in the United States there are Gypsy landowners of great wealth 
 and intelligence (one recently left a fortune there of a million 
 sterling) ; in the south of France there is a Gypsy horse-dealer, 
 who has sent all his sons to the university ; in Wales, in Hungary, 
 and in Russia the Gypsy musicians are the musicians of the 
 country. Nor, though, as I said before, the Gypsies are reticent 
 as to their Gypsy birth, must you fancy they are at heart the least 
 ashamed of it. Nothing of the kind. From his cradle upwards 
 — if ever he possessed a cradle — the Gypsy child thus might 
 parody some well-known lines : — 
 
 " I thank the goodness and the grace, 
 That on my birth hath smiled ; 
 And made me in this Gentile land 
 A happy Gypsy child. " 
 
 No saying is oftener in the Gypsy mouth than this : — " There's 
 nothing worse than nasty gaiijoes " — gaujoes meaning "Gentiles," 
 or all who have not had the privilege of Gypsy birth. 
 
 Isn't it strange, then, to reflect that, less than two centuries 
 since, the Gentiles were hanging the Gypsies for the mere fact of 
 their birth — nay, even hanged Gentiles who dared to consort with 
 Gypsies. Here in England, at Aylesbury, in 1577, Rowland 
 Gabriel and Katherine Diego — a woman, mark you — were hanged 
 for " feloniously keeping company with other vagabonds, vulgarly 
 called and calling themselves Egyptians, and counterfeiting, trans- 
 forming, and altering themselves in dress, language, and behaviour." 
 At Durham, in 1592, five men were hanged for "being Egyptians." 
 At Bury St Edmunds, thirteen Gypsies were executed shortly 
 before the Restoration, and others at Stafford shortly after it. 
 
382 National Life and Thought. 
 
 So late even as 181 9 (only seventy years ago), it was carried 
 unanimously at the Norfolk Quarter Sessions that all Egyptians 
 are punishable by imprisonment and whipping. In 1827, the 
 judge at Worcester Assizes announced the determination of him- 
 self and his brother judges to execute horse-thieves, especially 
 Gypsies ; and in 1864, at Hayle, in Cornwall, seven Gypsies were 
 charged before the Rev. Uriah Tonkin with the heinous offence 
 of " sleeping under tents," and were sentenced to three weeks' 
 imprisonment with hard labour. These criminals were a mother 
 and her six children, aged twenty, sixteen, fifteen, thirteen, ten, 
 and eight years. 
 
 In England, however, a pardon was granted in 1591 to Robert 
 Hilton, and in 1594 to William Stanley, Francis Brewarton, and 
 John Weekes for the felony of calling themselves Egyptians ; and 
 England throughout was almost merciful compared with Scotland. 
 Witness the following jottings from Scotch records. Four of the 
 Faas were hanged in 1611 ; two Faas and a Bailie in 16 16; six 
 Faas and two others in 1624, when also, "some days later, there 
 were brought to trial Ellen Faa, widow of Captain Faa, Lucretia 
 Faa, and other women, to the number of eleven, all of whom 
 were in like manner convicted, and condemned to be drowned in 
 the Nor' Loch of Edinburgh," where to-day are the beautiful 
 Princes Street Gardens. In 1636 the Sheriff of Haddington 
 passed doom on a whole company — " the men to be hanged, and 
 the women to be drowned ; and such of the women as has chil- 
 dren to be scourged through the burgh of Haddington, and burnt 
 in the cheek." Then, in 1698, seven Bailies were executed, as were 
 two more in 17 14; and in 1701 James M'Pherson, James Gordon, 
 and Peter and Donald Brown were hanged at Banff, the sheriff 
 further ordaining that "the three young rogues now in prison 
 this day have their ears cropt, be publicly scourged through the 
 town of Banff, be burnt upon the cheek by the executioner, and 
 be banished the shire for ever under pain of death." This James 
 M'Pherson was rather a notable character. He had been leader 
 of twenty-seven armed followers, with a piper playing at their 
 head ; and his target and huge mediaeval two-handed sword are 
 preserved at Duff House. His fiddle-neck is an heir-loom in the 
 Cluny-Macpherson family. Burns tells us how — 
 
 " Sae rantinly, sae wantonly, 
 Sae dauntingly gaed he ; 
 He played a spring, and danced it round 
 Below the gallows tree." 
 
The Gypsies. 383 
 
 And relics more precious than either sword or fiddle-neck are 
 his rude, reckless " Rant," and the beautiful air to which he set 
 the same. He played it as he walked to execution, and, at the 
 gallows foot, proffered his instrument to who would take it, but, 
 no man venturing, snapt it across his knee. 
 
 Now observe, I pray you, that in all these cases the crime was 
 not murder or pillage, but the being what God had made them, 
 or, as the law put it, being "called, known, held, and reputed 
 Egyptians." So late as 1770, those words formed part of the 
 indictment brought against two Gypsies, who were hanged on 
 Linlithgow Bridge. When I think of that pitiless legislation. I 
 am reminded of the cruel old Norfolk gardener. He was hoeing 
 one day, and a frog hopped out before him. " I'll larn you to be 
 a frog," said crabbed Roger, and hoed it forthwith in pieces. So 
 " I'll larn you to be Gypsies," said British lawgivers, and the 
 gallows was their means of education. 
 
 It was ten times worse on the Continent. In Roumania, till 
 1856, the Gypsies (200,000 in number) were slaves, cruelly and 
 barbarously treated. "In the houses of their masters," wrote 
 the British Consul, "they are employed in the lowest offices, 
 live in the cellars, have the lash continually applied to them, and 
 are still [in 1855] subjected to the iron collar and a kind of 
 spiked iron mask or helmet, which they are obliged to wear as 
 a mark of punishment and degradation for every petty offence." 
 Roumania, you will remember, was one of those down-trodden 
 nationalities of whose wrongs we have heard so much. In the 
 French Basque country, in 1802, the Gypsy bands around 
 Bayonne and Mauleon were caught by night as in a net, huddled 
 on shipboard, and landed presently on the coast of Africa. And 
 in Germany, for two whole centuries, the Gypsies were hunted 
 down like wild beasts. In 1720, in the day's "bag" of one 
 Rhenish potentate, among deer, wild boars, and other game, 
 occurs this entry : — " Item, a Gypsy woman, with her sucking 
 child." 
 
 In startling contrast to this persecution, the Gypsies have, 
 during five centuries, been often countenanced by persons of 
 the highest rank. On the Continent, they received letters of 
 protection more than once from Pope and Emperor; and to-day 
 in Austria, the Archduke Joseph is a prince among Romany 
 Ryes (or " Gypsy gentlemen "), as Gypsies call the lovers of their 
 race. In England, about 15 18, Thomas, Earl of Surrey, enter- 
 tained " Gyptians " at Tendring Hall, Suffolk ; in Scotland, in 
 
384 National Life and Thought. 
 
 1540, James V. entered into a formal league or treaty with his 
 "lovit John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt," granting him 
 authority to execute justice upon his company and folk, conform 
 to the laws of Egypt. There, too, in 1559, as he was riding one 
 day from Edinburgh to Roslin, Sir William Sinclair " delivered 
 an Egyptian from the gibbet in the Burgh Moor, ready to be 
 strangled. On which account," adds good Father Hay, " the 
 whole body of Gypsies were of old accustomed to gather in the 
 marshes of Roslin, where they acted several plays during the 
 months of May and June. There were two towers which were 
 allowed them for their residence, the one called Robin Hood, 
 the other Little John." I might multiply similar instances; 
 enough, that in 1750 the then Prince and Princess of Wales 
 drove to visit the Gypsy queen, Bridget, in Norwood Forest ; and 
 that Prince Victor of Hohenlohe has sat in the Gypsy tent of 
 Lazarus Petulengro at the Liverpool Exhibition of 1886. 
 
 Now, how are we to reconcile this contradiction, that the 
 Gypsies should thus have been persecuted with the one hand, 
 and caressed with the other. Well, I have no hesitation in 
 affirming that the persecution was largely due to the imputation 
 of crimes, of which the Gypsies are not, were never, guilty. You 
 yourselves will have heard that they are kidnappers, stealers of 
 children. It is an old charge, older than John Bunyan's days, 
 who likens his feelings as a sinner to those of a child carried off 
 by the Gypsies. Chief Justice Popham, who was born in 1531, 
 is said, while quite a child, to have been stolen by a band of 
 Gypsies, and for some months or years — on this point authorities 
 differ — to have been detained by them. It is further alleged 
 that they disfigured him, and burnt on his left arm a cabalistic 
 mark. In a Scotch witchcraft trial of 1586 there is mention of 
 a Mr William Smith, who, besides being the king's smith, was 
 also a 'great scholar and doctor of medicine.' He, it seems, 
 had, when eight years of age, been 'taken away by an Egyptian 
 into Egypt, which Egyptian was a giant, where he remained ten 
 years, and then came home.' At the time of the trial he was 
 away again — this time with the ' good neighbours,' or fairies. Or 
 there was the famous Adam Smith, author of the Wealth of 
 Nations. He, too, as a boy is said to have been carried off by 
 Gypsies, and not to have been recovered for several hours. Or 
 there was the alleged abduction of Elizabeth Canning, which 
 made such a stir in London in 1759 ; or that of Elizabeth Kellen 
 in 1802 ; or that of Anna Bockler in 1872. The last was the only 
 
The Gypsies. 385 
 
 child of a rich Pomeranian farmer, and no fewer than forty-seven 
 German Gypsies were imprisoned on suspicion of having kidnapped 
 her. A twelvemonth later, as luck would have it, her corpse was 
 discovered in one of her father's barns, where the farm-boy, her 
 murderer, had buried it. That case is typical of many more. 
 Elizabeth Canning turned out a rank impostor ; so, too, did the 
 other Elizabeth. Indeed, my investigations of every alleged in- 
 stance of kidnapping have always resulted in a verdict of acquittal, 
 or, at most, in a 'not proven.' Gypsies have too many children 
 of their own to trouble themselves with other folk's brats. But 
 in almost every Gypsy family, the purest even, there will be one 
 white sheep ; one child of the dozen will be comparatively fair, 
 will bring out some far-away strain of Gentile blood. And 
 strangers noticing this child have jumped to the conclusion that 
 a fair Gypsy is a rarer fowl than a black swan. " They must have 
 stolen it," is the cry ; and hence, in all likelihood, arose the myth. 
 A yet more monstrous charge has been that of cannibalism. 
 In the old edition of Chambers' Encyclopedia, it was gravely stated 
 that Gypsies " were or are wont to eat their parents ; " and in 1782, 
 little more than a century since, forty-five Gypsies, men and 
 women, were beheaded, broken on the wheel, quartered alive, 
 or hanged for cannibalism. Among them were their Bishop 
 and their "Harum Pasha," the ornaments in whose cap were 
 valued at £600. The manner of their detection was thus : 
 Arrested first by way of wise precaution, they were racked till 
 they confessed to theft and murder; then were brought to the 
 spot where they said their victims were buried, and, no victims 
 forthcoming, were promptly racked again. "We ate them," at 
 last was their despairing cry ; and straightway the Gypsies were 
 hurried to the scaffold ; straightway the newspapers rang with 
 blood-curdling narratives of Gypsy cannibalism. Then, when it 
 all was over, the Emperor sent down a commission from Vienna, 
 the outcome of whose investigations was that nobody was missing, 
 that no one had been murdered — but the Gypsies. This was in 
 Hungary, but even in England, in 1859, a judge seems to have 
 entertained a similar suspicion. In that year, at the York Assizes, 
 a Gypsy lad, Guilliers Heron, was tried for a robbery, of which, 
 by the way, he was innocent. " One of the prisoner's brothers " 
 (I quote from the Times) said they were all at tea with the 
 prisoner at five o'clock in their tent ; and when asked what they 
 had to eat, he said they had an urchin cooked. His Lordship 
 (Mr Justice Byles) : " What do you say you had — cooked urchin ? " 
 
386 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Gypsy : " Yes, cooked urchin. I'm wery partial to cooked urchin." 
 His lordship's mind, says the reporter, seemed to be filled with 
 horrible misgivings, until it was explained to him that urchin was a 
 provincialism for "hedgehog," and that hedgehogs are a favourite 
 Gypsy delicacy. 
 
 I am not here to hold a brief for the Gypsies. I do not 
 pretend they are immaculate. Crimes of violence have been 
 rare among them : murder almost unknown. And I could give 
 you some striking instances of Gypsy honesty, for Gypsies are 
 trustworthy, in proportion as they are trusted. But 1 freely own 
 that there still are Gypsies who are " light-fingered, and use 
 picking," even as there were when Andrew Boorde wrote about 
 them, and that was two hundred and fifty years ago. Then, too, 
 the older Gypsies would sometimes make off with another man's 
 halter, and the other man's horse at the end of it — a crime, 
 however, now obsolete in these days of telegraphs and the rural 
 police. And there is fortune-telling, with which Gypsies still 
 delude the credulous. I certainly am not going to say one word 
 in defence of fortune-telling ; it is quite as silly, if not quite so 
 mischievous, as table-turning ; silly, although an African traveller 
 of my acquaintance is firmly persuaded of its truth. Years ago 
 he had the lines of his hand read by a Gypsy girl near London. 
 He was not a doctor then, he had no idea of ever becoming a 
 traveller, yet she told him (so he tells me) that a doctor he was 
 to become, that he was to cross the seas, and wander in strange 
 lands, was to be in peril of his life, but should come safe through, 
 return, and marry, and so forth. And once in the heart of Africa 
 he was in deadly peril of his life, for he stood with a noose round 
 his neck, in a crowd of infuriated savages ; but he thought of the 
 Gypsy girl's words, and how all she had said had come true, and 
 he laughed, feeling sure of his safety. And seeing him laugh, 
 they released him ; they dared not harm a man so resolute. So, 
 at least, my friend told me, a few weeks since, at our club. In 
 return, I told him another fortune-telling story of another friend 
 of mine, an artist, who visited some Gypsies at Dunbar. They 
 told him his name, and where he came from, though he had only 
 just landed a week before from Melbourne. He was greatly im- 
 pressed with their powers, was quite certain there must be some- 
 thing in palmistry. However, a few months after, he met the 
 same Gypsies in Fife, and, of course, he again consulted the 
 oracle. " Look here," he said to Mrs Petulengro, " that first 
 time you told me my name, and I gave you five shillings : now 
 
The Gypsies. 387 
 
 this time, I'll give you ten if you'll let me into the secret of 
 your power." " You will, my gentleman ? " Certainly he would. 
 "Well, then, my gentleman, don't you remember coming into 
 the tent, and sitting down a bit ; then you got up, and went out- 
 side with one of the boys to have a look round the camp, but 
 you left your umbrella behind, with your name and address on 
 it ? " So there was that mystery solved ; but to think he had 
 never hit on the solution ! 
 
 Gypsies never offer to tell me my fortune ; once, indeed, I took 
 a young lady to have hers told, and my Gypsy friends were half 
 indignant with me. Didn't I know better, they asked, than to go 
 and encourage such foolishness. Mere foolishness often it is, a 
 passing jest ; but fortune-telling, or rather fortune-seeking, has 
 sometimes assumed a very much darker form. Thus, in the trial, 
 three hundred years ago at Edinburgh, of Lady Fowlis for witch- 
 craft, incantation, sorcery, and poisoning, we learn that she had 
 sent one of her servants to the Egyptians, to have knowledge of 
 them how to poison the young Laird. The errand must have 
 miscarried, since the poison was got from a merchant in Aberdeen. 
 And in the Times for February and March 1862, there was a long 
 account of a police case against a Gypsy woman, Georgina Lee, 
 twenty years old, who appeared in the dock with a baby in her 
 arms.' She and her husband camped, it seems, on Hounslow 
 Heath, and one day she called at a gentleman's house near by. 
 She got telling the servant-girls' fortunes, told the cook what she 
 knew to be true, that she was to marry a Marquis. Then the 
 drawing-room bell rang ; the lady too wanted to have her fortune 
 read, wished to know if she should be married again within the 
 twelvemonth, and finished by offering Georgina a sovereign for 
 something that would kill her present husband. So, on Friday, 
 Georgina returned with a powder wrapped up in a paper, and the 
 lady then told her that, if it did any good, she would give her 
 ten shillings. But Georgina wanted cash down, and, the lady 
 refusing, got hustled out of the house. In the middle of which 
 hustling, the happy husband comes upon the scene, and gives 
 Mrs Lee in charge for attempting to obtain money on false pre- 
 tences. False they undoubtedly were, for the powder turned out 
 to be nothing but harmless chalk. So, after a fortnight of remands, 
 Georgina Lee was sentenced to three months' hard labour ; the 
 lady got — nothing. 
 
 Yes, fortune-telling has brought the fortune-tellers into trouble 
 as often as favour. But the Gypsies have higher claims on our 
 
388 National Life and Thought. 
 
 consideration. Imprimis, they are excellent company, able to 
 converse with prince or peasant, and to give a good answer to 
 each, for they have seen much, .and know how to describe what 
 they have seen. Secondly, to the Gypsies we are indebted for, it 
 may be, three-fourths of our fairy tales. M. Jourdain, you will 
 remember, was surprised to find that all his life long he had been 
 speaking prose without knowing it. You also may be surprised to 
 learn that from earliest childhood you and your grandmothers 
 (especially your grandmothers) have been hearing or telling Indian 
 fairy tales. Yet, according to some very high authorities, our 
 most familiar nursery stories — Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and all 
 the rest of them, are as certainly Indian in origin as is the 
 Romani or Gypsy language. No, says Mr Lang, that cannot be ; 
 it is impossible that stories which orginated in India can have 
 reached Siberia, and Europe, and Africa, and America, by oral 
 transmission, and within the historical period. Impossible, quotha. 
 The Gypsies came originally from India, and even during the two 
 last centuries we find large bands of Gypsies journeying from 
 Poland to China, from Turkey to Sweden, from Hungary to 
 Algeria, from Corfu to Liverpool, from Portugal to Brazil, and from 
 England to the States, New Zealand, and Australia. And these 
 ubiquitous, much- wandering Gypsies possess versions of all our 
 familiar fairy-tales, only versions often much better than our own. 
 In Turkey, Gypsies have long filled the role of professional story- 
 tellers ; nor even in London is that role unknown to them, for it 
 was in St James's Street that Mr Campbell of Islay picked up two 
 Gypsy tinkers, from whom he and Sir George Dasent extracted 
 eight good folk-tales, all about princesses, magic hats and sticks, 
 castles of copper and silver and gold, and such-like. Now, one 
 of the Gypsies, Mr Campbell informs us, played the fiddle by ear, 
 and was commonly sent for to wakes, where he entertained the 
 company with stories, which comes very near the professional 
 story-teller. 
 
 Thirdly, the race has a marvellous faculty for music. Some 
 of you very likely have heard the Blue Hungarian Band. That 
 band consists wholly of Gypsies. The Abbe Liszt — a high 
 authority — ascribed to the Gypsies the creation of Hungary's 
 national music, and certain it is that over all South-Eastern 
 Europe, every musician is almost certainly a Gypsy, and every 
 Gypsy is certainly a musician. That is only partially true in 
 England. I know an estate in Norfolk, where there were great 
 rejoicings when the son and heir came of age, and his father, 
 
The Gypsies. 389 
 
 Lord Omnium, promised a sovereign to every Gypsy fiddler who 
 should put in an appearance. Twenty appeared, each man with his 
 violin, and a grand show they made as they played all altogether, 
 standing in a semicircle. " But," one of them told me years 
 afterwards, " there were only twelve on 'em really knew how to 
 fiddle ; the rest of us had soaped our fiddle-strings, so as not to 
 make no noise when we drew the bow over them. But we each 
 got the sovereign." Welsh Gypsies, as a rule, are more musical 
 than their English brethren, and many of the celebrated Welsh 
 harpists are Gypsies, whilst the Gypsy Aliens were the most 
 famous of the Border bagpipers. 
 
 Playing cards again, are by some supposed to have been 
 brought into Europe by Gypsies from the east. The tented 
 musicians, refugees from Hungary and Lorraine, who about 
 1555 discovered the Stourbridge fire-clay, were very possibly 
 Gypsies. To Gypsies also have been ascribed the saddler's 
 craft, and the introduction into Europe of gunpowder. But, even 
 though we concede to the Gypsies the credit of having introduced 
 folk-tales, the czardas, playing cards, glass-making, saddlery, and 
 artillery, yet we may not have half acknowledged our full in- 
 debtedness. 
 
 To the Jewish race, now so dispersed, so despised, you owe 
 religion — all your hopes for the life to come. What if to the 
 Gypsy race, similarly dispersed, and ten times more despised, you 
 owe all, or well-nigh all, that renders this present life liveable — a 
 knowledge of the metals? Without the metals life would now 
 seem impossible. Every mouthful of bread we eat, every article 
 of clothing we wear, the house we live in — these all have in some 
 way or other demanded the use of metal. Yet we know that 
 three thousand years ago the dwellers here in Great Britain had 
 absolutely no knowledge of the metals, had no better implements 
 than tools of stone. Then, says Sir John Lubbock, the art of 
 working in bronze was introduced into Europe from the East by a 
 small-handed race like the Egyptians or the Hindus — a nomade 
 race, too, who practised the self-same methods in different lands, 
 and who, whether acquainted or not with iron, were exclusively 
 workers in bronze. What race this was he leaves an unsolved 
 problem, except that it certainly was not the Phoenicians. But 
 several foreign archaeologists have been led independently to the 
 conclusion that this unknown race, small-handed like the Gypsies, 
 nomade like the Gypsies, and, like the Gypsies, immigrants from 
 the East, was indeed none other than the Gypsy race. It looks 
 
39° National Life and Thought. 
 
 at first a daring paradox, but, examined closer, the paradox sen- 
 sibly diminishes. To begin with, we know absolutely nothing of 
 the date of the Gypsies' first appearance in Europe. It may have 
 been one thousand years ago, it may have been three thousand ; 
 all we can say is, that history is silent, and that its silence speaks 
 for a /re-historic arrival of the Gypsies. Secondly, at the present 
 day, the Gypsies in South-eastern Europe may be said to mono- 
 polise the blacksmith's craft and the coppersmith's. In Tran- 
 sylvania, for instance, if you want your horse shod, you have to 
 send him to a Gypsy farrier ; if your kettle has a hole in it, you 
 get it mended by a Gypsy tinker. Indeed, so exclusively is the 
 smith's a Gypsy (and therefore a degrading) trade, that in Mon- 
 tenegro, when in 1872 the Government established an arsenal, no 
 native Montenegrins could be induced to fill its well-paid posts. 
 And a traveller tells me that in Asia Minor it is just the same : 
 the Gypsies have still a like monopoly of metal -working, the 
 native shoeing-smith being no true smith in our sense at all. 
 He is supplied by Gypsies with horseshoes of various sizes, and 
 merely hammers them on. Now, it is hard to conceive how the 
 Gypsies could have usurped so all -important an industry, far 
 easier to imagine that it must have been always theirs. Thirdly, 
 even at the present day, the Gypsy coppersmiths of South-eastern 
 Europe will forsake the land of their birth, and for seven years 
 wander all over Europe, everywhere manufacturing copper vessels. 
 Even now they must often arrive at remote country places where 
 the methods of working in copper are clean unknown; as it is 
 now, it may well have been two thousand, three thousand years 
 before. Fourthly, nearly all the early notices of Gypsies refer to 
 them as metal-workers. Thus, an Austrian monk wrote of them 
 almost seven centuries ago as " cold smiths," workers, that is, in 
 the cold metal. "They have no home or country," he says; 
 " everywhere they are found alike ; they wander through the 
 world, abusing people with their knaveries." Again, in the old 
 Byzantine writers, we light on mention of certain so-called komo- 
 dromoi (roamers, that is, through the villages). These komo- 
 dromoi, it appears, were both copper and goldsmiths, wandering 
 through the country, and using bellows made of skins, like those 
 of some Greek Gypsies described by a German traveller in 1497. 
 Now, if these komodromoi were Gypsies, as there is every reason 
 to suppose they were, they are strangely connected by tradition 
 with the central event in the world's history — the Crucifixion. 
 For, according to a Greek apocryphal gospel, as also to a legend 
 
The Gypsies. 391 
 
 still current in Montenegro, it was a komodromos or Gypsy who 
 forged the nails for the Crucifixion ; wherefore the whole race has 
 been thenceforth accursed of heaven. The Gypsies of Alsace and 
 Lithuania have a tradition of their own, opposed to, and in all 
 likelihood devised expressly to refute, this legend. How there were 
 two Jew brothers, Schmul and Rom-Schmul. The first of them 
 exulted at the Crucifixion ; the other would gladly have saved 
 our Lord from death, and, finding. that impossible, did what little 
 he could — stole one of the nails. So it came about that Christ's 
 feet must be placed one over the other, and fastened with a 
 single nail. And Schmul remained a Jew; but Rom-Schmul 
 turned Christian, and became the founder of the whole Rdmani 
 race. This Gypsy legend offers a plausible explanation of what 
 has long puzzled antiquaries, that in the most ancient crucifixes 
 there are always four nails, in later ones only three. The earliest 
 known example of this daring innovation is a copper crucifix of 
 Byzantine workmanship, dating from the close of the 12th cen- 
 tury. Now, if Gypsies had then, as now, a practical monopoly 
 of metal-working in South-eastern Europe, this crucifix must have 
 been fashioned by a Gypsy, when the three nails would be an 
 easily intelligible protest against the Gentile libel that those nails 
 were forged by the founder of his line. 
 
 Be that as it may, I have shown that the Gypsies have possibly 
 been greater benefactors to the Gentiles than even was Watt or 
 Stevenson. I have shown, too, that the Gentiles rewarded them 
 — as benefactors often are rewarded — with persecution. For surely 
 any wrong-doings of the Gypsies fade into insignificance by the 
 side of the wrongs that were done them. How, then, have the 
 Gypsies emerged from that persecution ? None the better for it, 
 of that one may be positive. Still, as they possess no written 
 histories to preserve the recollection of their wrongs, so to-day 
 their feeling towards Gentiles is one more of contempt than of 
 hatred. The Gentile seems to the Gypsy less clever than himself, 
 a poor, credulous fool, who believes in fortune-telling, and who 
 can generally be done in a horse bargain. Indeed, this odd sense 
 of superiority is latent (or blatant) in even the poorest Gypsies. 
 
 They are not patriotic — why should they be? During last 
 century many were impressed, but they do not make good 
 soldiers or sailors. In a Spanish campaign years ago, two soldiers 
 dropped out of the opposing ranks, and the tide of battle rolled 
 by them. Presently one half rose from the ground, and espying 
 the other's corpse, as he fancied, crept forward to plunder. But 
 
392 National Life and Thought. 
 
 the other dead fox was not to be caught like that. He, too, rose, 
 and then suddenly there were cries of recognition — " Zincalo ! " 
 " Romani chal ! " For the one was a Spanish, the other an 
 Austrian, Gypsy. Five minutes later they were sharing a flask of 
 schnaps, and drinking damnation to the Spanish and Austrian 
 services. 
 
 Still, the Gypsies are no cowards when they have got to fight 
 for themselves. They have shown that often, from Tom Winter's 
 day down to Jim Mace's. But if you want Gypsy fights, you must 
 go to George Borrow. There is the one, described to him by 
 Jasper Petulengro, between the Bow Street runner and the Gypsy. 
 The runner knew that his man would pass through a certain lane, 
 so he posted himself there one cold, moonlight night. And, after 
 long waiting, he " heard a gate slam, and then the low stamping 
 of horses ; and presently he saw two men on horseback coming 
 towards the lane through the field behind the gate. The man who 
 rode foremost was a tall, big fellow, the very man he was in quest 
 of. The other was a smaller chap, not so small either, but alight, 
 wiry fellow, and a proper master of his hands when he sees occa- 
 sion for using them. Well, brother, the foremost man came to 
 the gate, reached at the hank, undid it, and rode through, holding 
 it open for the other. Before, however, the other could follow, 
 out bolted the runner from behind the tree, kicked the gate to 
 with his foot, and, seizing the big man on horseback, ' You are my 
 prisoner,' said he The Gypsy clubbed his whip, and aimed a 
 blow at the runner, which, if it had hit him on the skull, as was 
 meant, would very likely have cracked it. But the runner received 
 it partly on his staff, and then, seeing what kind of customer he 
 had to deal with, dropped his staff and seized the Gypsy with both 
 his hands, who forthwith spurred his horse, hoping, by doing so, 
 either to break away from him, or fling him down. But it would 
 not do ; the runner held on like a bull-dog, so that the Gypsy, to 
 escape being hauled to the ground, suddenly flung himself off the 
 saddle. And then happened in that lane such a struggle between 
 those two — the Gypsy and the runner — as I suppose will never 
 happen again. But you must have heard of it ; every one heard 
 of it ; every one has heard of the fight between the Bow Street 
 runner and the Gypsy." 
 
 " No," says Borrow, " I never heard of it till now." 
 "All England rung with it, brother. There never was a better 
 match than between those two. The runner was somewhat the 
 stronger — all those runners are strong fellows — and a great deal 
 
The Gypsies. 393 
 
 cooler, for all of that sort are wondrous cool people. He had, how- 
 ever, to do with one who knew full well how to take his own part. 
 The Gypsy fought the runner, brother, in the old Roman fashion. 
 He bit, he kicked, and screamed like a wild cat, casting foam 
 from his mouth, and fire from his eyes. Sometimes he was be- 
 neath the runner's legs, and sometimes he was upon his shoulders. 
 What the runner found most difficult was to get a firm hold of 
 the Gypsy, for no sooner did he seize him by any part of his 
 wearing apparel, than the Gypsy either tore himself away, or 
 contrived to slip out of it, so that in a little time the Gypsy 
 was three parts naked ; and as for holding him by the body, it 
 was out of the question, for he was as slippery as an eel. At last 
 the runner seized him by the Belcher handkerchief, which he wore 
 in a knot round his neck, and, do what the Gypsy might, he 
 could not free himself. And when the runner saw that, it gave 
 him fresh heart, no doubt. ' It's no use,' he said, ' you had 
 better give in. Hold out your hands for the darbies, or I'll 
 throttle you.'" 
 
 "And what," asks Borrow, " did the other chap do who came 
 with the Gypsy ? " 
 
 " I sat still on my horse, brother." 
 
 " You ! " says Borrow ; " were you the man ? " 
 
 " I was he, brother." 
 
 " And why didn't you help your comrade ? " 
 
 " I have fought in the ring, brother." 
 
 " And what had fighting in the ring to do with fighting in the 
 lane ? " 
 
 " You mean not fighting. A great deal, brother ; it taught me 
 to prize fair play. When I fought Staffordshire Dick, t'other side 
 of London, I was alone, brother. Not a Gypsy to back me, and 
 he had all his brother pals about him. But they gave me fair 
 play, brother, and I beat Staffordshire Dick, which I could not 
 have done had they put one finger on his side the scale, for he 
 was as good a man as myself, or nearly so. Now, brother, had I 
 but bent a finger in favour of the Gypsy, the runner would never 
 have come alive out of the lane, but I did not, for I thought to 
 myself, fair play is a precious stone." 
 
 Are Englishmen and Gypsies changed since then ? It seems 
 that Englishmen are. 1 
 
 1 This was written just after the prize fight in Belgium between Slavin and 
 Smith, when the Australian was brutally mauled by English roughs. 
 
 2 C 
 
394 National Life and Thought. 
 
 Here in London there must be hundreds of Gypsies ; here in 
 London there must be hundreds, thousands of cage birds. As 
 the caged lark to the free, wild lark, so is the city Gypsy to his 
 country brother. The former may have some smattering of 
 book-learning, the latter not know big B from a bull's foot ; else 
 the life-long tent-dweller in quiet lanes has small cause to envy 
 the Battersea hawker. It is easy sneering at the " noble savage," 
 but an open-air life does possess an ennobling influence. And 
 though a Gypsy boy may know nothing of the three R's, and 
 even less of all your schoolboard 'ologies, he can give you the 
 (unscientific) names of every bird that flies, and every herb that 
 grows, which knowledge Solomon himself was proud of. To 
 step out of one's tent right into the star-lit night, to fall asleep 
 to the murmur of a brook, all one's life long to lie in nature's 
 bosom — that life, with few cares about Heaven, is Heaven already. 
 But, like other wild creatures, our country Gypsies are threatened 
 with extinction. Enclosure acts have struck a deadly blow at 
 English Gypsydom, driving the wanderers from grassy hedgeside 
 and breezy common to the dingiest purlieus of our dingiest 
 towns. A pity for them ; a pity, too, for poet and painter. One 
 morning, some years ago, a poet was crossing Snowdon with a 
 friend. " She was not what is technically called a lady, yet she 
 was both tall and, in her way, handsome, and was far more 
 clever than many of those who might look down upon her, for 
 her speculative and her practical abilities were equally remark- 
 able. Besides being the first palmist of her time, she had the 
 reputation of being able to make more clothes-pegs in an hour, 
 and sell more, than any other woman in England. The grandeur 
 of that Snowdon sunrise was such as can only be seen about 
 once in a lifetime, and could never be given by any pen or 
 pencil. 'You don't seem to enjoy it a bit,' was the irritated 
 remark of the poet to the Gypsy woman, who stood quite silent, 
 and apparently deaf to the rhapsodies in which he had been 
 indulging, ' Don't injiy it, don't I ? ' said she, removing her 
 pipe. ' You injiy talkin' about it. I injiy lettin' it soak in.' " 
 No London Gypsy may hope to look upon a Snowdon sunrise. 
 
 I should have liked to tell you more about Gypsy life, that life 
 which the song says is a merry one. And so it is ; but even 
 Gypsies die, and, therefore, their life is not without its sorrows. 
 Eight years ago come May, a letter reached me in Edinburgh 
 from old Lementina Lovell. There is never very much in 
 Gypsies' letters beyond loves and greetings, and such-like. This 
 
The Gypsies. 395 
 
 letter was no exception ; it ended thus : " Lancelot [her youngest 
 son] sends his duty, and would take it very kind in you to look 
 in, if so be as you are round this way, for he is dying." As luck 
 would have it, I had nothing just then on hand, and was wanting 
 a holiday • so I started that night for Loamshire. Next morning, 
 exactly at sunrise, I reached the little roadside station, from which 
 I had twelve miles to walk to the Lovells' encampment. It was 
 a delicate, clear morning, sweet with the scent of hawthorn and 
 hyacinth, and as I walked, I heard my first cuckoo on the 
 right hand — sure omen of coming good. My way took me 
 down into the valley, where lies the sleepy little town of Clun, 
 and up out of the valley on to the hills which separate 
 England from Wales, and on which, as I knew, the Lovells 
 were encamped. I had still half a mile to go, when a Gypsy 
 child met me — little Ariselo Lovell, nephew to Lancelot. I 
 have said that all Gypsies know the Gypsy language. This 
 child is the one exception — he is deaf and dumb. Yet already, 
 at six, he had invented an odd sign-language of his own ; 
 its sign for me the twirling an imaginary moustache. And now 
 in that strange sign-language he tried to acquaint me with his 
 uncle's state, then ran on ahead to tell them I was coming. At 
 the camp I found a multitude of Gypsies, for all Lancelot's 
 brothers and sisters, with their wives, and husbands, and children, 
 had gathered from every airt to see him go. All through that 
 day they kept coming, the last the grandmother, a little old, old 
 woman, who had journeyed a hundred miles. She came into the 
 tent where Lancelot lay, sat down on the earth, and, covering 
 her head with her mantle, said : " Kino shorn, chawolle " (Little 
 children, I am weary). And all that day lay Lancelot, dreamy, 
 but conscious, wholly free from pain. Towards evening he said 
 to his elder brother, Pyramus : " Play to me." 
 
 How well I remember the scene. 
 
 The tents were pitched upon the western hill-slope. Beside 
 them ran Offa's Dike, reared centuries before to keep out the 
 Welsh marauders ; the silver Tame flowed beneath ; and beyond 
 stretched the beautiful Welsh country, all shimmering through 
 the soft blue wood-smoke of the fire that smouldered outside. 
 Some sat within the tent, but more on the turf without — the 
 children awe-struck, puzzled. The sinking sun slanted through 
 the tent-opening, and lighted up Lancelot's face, which was lighted 
 up, too, by happy recollections. For Pyramus, the cunning 
 fiddler, was playing the dear old Welsh melodies. First, the 
 
396 National Life and Thought. 
 
 " March of the Men of Harlech," and then from its stirring tones 
 he slid imperceptibly into the tender "Shepherd of Snowdon." 
 And as he played he wept, the big, strong man. "Play that 
 again, my Pyramus," said Lancelot. And Pyramus did play it 
 again, but not quite to the end, for, as the last bar opened, 
 Lancelot died. Then there was lamentation in the tents of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Printed at The Edinburgh Press, 9 and 11 Young Street. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aargau taken by Swiss, 272. 
 Abbas Pasha, 337. 
 Aberdeen, Lord, and the Czar, 312. 
 Abolition of class privilege in Hungary, 
 
 45- 
 Abolition of Serfdom in Belgium, 253. 
 Abolition of the Corn Laws, 249. 
 Aborigines of Sweden, 2©i. 
 Abraham's visit to Egypt, 329. 
 Absolutism in Austria overthrown by 
 
 Viennese, 25. 
 Absolutism in Denmark, 232. 
 Adam created, 366. 
 Adam weary of Paradise, 157. 
 Adam, Sir F., on Switzerland, 277. 
 Adaptability of the Jews, 368. 
 Adrianople, peace of, 312. 
 Adulteration, 64. 
 Adventures in Spain, 170. 
 ^Esthetic influences in Spain, 170. 
 Africa and Italy, 149. 
 Agriculture in Austria, 30. 
 Agriculture in Denmark, 227. 
 Agriculture in Hungary, 49. 
 Agriculture in Italy, 137. 
 Agriculture in Spain, 167. 
 Alas, Leopoldo, 174. 
 Albert of Hapsburg, 270. 
 Alcuin on naval warfare, 217. 
 Alexander the Great ends Egypt's 
 
 mission, 332. 
 Alexander II., 99. 
 Alexander II. and peasant proprietors, 
 
 120. 
 Alexander VI., 241. 
 Alexandria, 324. 
 Alexandria founded, 332. 
 Alexandrian Library, 332. 
 Althing in Iceland, 233. 
 America discovered by Norwegians, 
 
 183. 
 American Secession War, 66. 
 Amer-ul-Muminin, 305. 
 Ammon, Oasis of, 324. 
 Amusements in Germany, 82. 
 Ancient inhabitants of Belgium, 251. 
 Anglican Church, 245. 
 Antique agriculture of Spain, 167. 
 Antiquity of Armenia, 1. 
 Antiquity of Egypt, 325. 
 Anti-Semiten Katechismus, 374. 
 Anti-Semitism in Germany, 373. 
 
 Apathy of rulers for trade in Turkey, 
 306. 
 
 Appenzell joins Swiss Confederation, 
 273- 
 
 Arab conquest of Egypt, 334. 
 
 Arabi, 340. 
 
 Arabs and Arabic, 309. 
 
 Arbitration, 66. 
 
 Archimandrite Cyril, 297. 
 
 Architectural resemblance in India and 
 Egypt, 326. 
 
 Architecture in Italy, 136. 
 
 Area of Belgium, 265. 
 
 Area of Denmark, 217. 
 
 Area of Egypt, 323. 
 
 Area of Italy, 136. 
 
 Area of Russia, 87. 
 
 Area of Switzerland, 267. 
 
 Argyropolis in Armenia, 299. 
 
 Armenia and a Russian occupation, 
 16. 
 
 Armenia and British trade, 17. 
 
 Armenia and Russia, 6. 
 
 Armenia as a nation, 1. 
 
 Armenia, by M. Sevasly, 1. 
 
 Armenia, divisions of, 5. 
 
 Armenia, extinction of, as a nation, 3. 
 
 Armenia for Armenians, 16. 
 
 Armenia, government in, 13. 
 
 Armenia, Greeks in, 299. 
 
 Armenia, its antiquity, I. 
 
 Armenia, its derivation, 2. 
 
 Armenia, its fertility, 5. 
 
 Armenian charge against Turkey, 7. 
 
 Armenian Christian and military ser- 
 vice, 13. 
 
 Armenian claims upon England, 17. 
 
 Armenian girls legally abducted, 8. 
 
 Armenian grievances, 6. 
 
 Armenian literature, 5. 
 
 Armenian minerals, 5. 
 
 Armenian press gagged, 13. 
 
 Armenian rivers, 5. 
 
 Armenian three dynasties, 2. 
 
 Armenian usurers, 15. 
 
 Armenian village, system of rape on, 
 8. 
 
 Armenian zoology, 5. 
 
 Armenians embrace Christianity, 3. 
 
 Armenians help Crusaders, 3. 
 
 Armenians, famous, 4. 
 
 Arnold, M., 74. 
 
 2 D 
 
398 
 
 Index. 
 
 Art industry in Denmark, 228. 
 
 Art in Greece, 291. 
 
 Artel, the, 97. 
 
 Assimilative force in Poland, 131. 
 
 Athens and Brindisi, 292. 
 
 Athens, modern, 290. 
 
 Athletics, 74. 
 
 Austria and Belgium, 255. 
 
 Austria and Germany, 24. 
 
 Austria and Great Britain, 27. 
 
 Austria and Hungary, 24-42. 
 
 Austria and Hungary — Misunderstand- 
 ings between Governments, 46. 
 
 Austria and Irishmen, 27. 
 
 Austria and Italy, 142, 144. 
 
 Austria and Russia, 30. 
 
 Austria and the War of 1806, 66. 
 
 Austria as the China of Europe, 23. 
 
 Austria, by D. S. Schidrowitz, 19. 
 
 Austria, disparaging remarks about. 19. 
 
 Austria drives back the Turks, 22. 
 
 Austria governed by Autocrats, 27. 
 
 Austria, Jesuits in, 23. 
 
 Austria, late Crown Prince of, 26. 
 
 Austria, modern, 24. 
 
 Austria, not a nation in itself, 24. 
 
 Austria, only favourable notice of, 19. 
 
 Austria, residence of Emperor, 26. 
 
 Austria, the bulwark of Christian Eur- 
 ope, 21. 
 
 Austria, the country of the Eastern 
 Marches, 21. 
 
 Austria, the Landtage, 29. 
 
 Austria, to-day and yesterday, 24. 
 
 Austrian absolutism overthrown, 25. 
 
 Austrian agriculture, 30. 
 
 Austrian education, 30. 
 
 Austrian land-stewards, 271. 
 
 Austrian manufactures, 30. 
 
 Austrian parliamentary institutions, 29. 
 
 Austrian political backwardness, 23. 
 
 Austrian politics tabooed, 28. 
 
 Austrian population, 27. 
 
 Austrian reaction in 1852, 28. 
 
 Austrian religion, 29. 
 
 Austrian watering-places, 31. 
 
 Austro-Hungarian monarchy, 28. 
 
 Austro - Hungarian monarchy estab- 
 lished, 47. 
 
 Autocracy in Austia, 27. 
 
 Babenbergers, 22. 
 
 Backward state of Turkey, 303. 
 
 Bale joins Swiss Confederation, 273. 
 
 Baltic provinces, Germans in, 90. 
 
 Baltic provinces, the prevailing popula- 
 tion of, 90. 
 
 Baneful influence of Imperial harem, 
 306. 
 
 Barn-lock, 207. 
 
 Battle of Athenry, 241. 
 
 Battle of Bannockburn, 241. 
 
 Battle of Bravollr, 202. 
 
 Battle of Grandson, 273. 
 
 Battle of Koosovo, 343. 
 
 Battle of Mohacs, 34. 
 
 Battle of Morat, 273. 
 
 Battle of Morgarten, 271. 
 
 Battle of Nancy, 273. 
 
 Battle of Noefels, 272. 
 
 Battle of Sempach, 272, 279, 286. 
 
 Bauchrecht, 119. 
 
 Bazan, Emilia Pardo, 175. 
 
 Beales, Edmund, and Poland, 113. 
 
 Becquer, 172. 
 
 Beer-houses in Germany, 76. 
 
 Belgse of Caesar, 251. 
 
 Belgian characteristics, 265. 
 
 Belgian charters, 252. 
 
 Belgian clergy, 258. 
 
 Belgian constitution, 256. 
 
 Belgian electorate, 262. 
 
 Belgian House of Representatives, 257. 
 
 Belgian patriotism, 265. 
 
 Belgian political parties, 258. 
 
 Belgian provincial and communal 
 
 laws, 258. 
 Belgian serfdom abolished, 253. 
 Belgian trade, 253. 
 Belgian working men, 264. 
 Belgium and France, 255. 
 Belgium and the united provinces, 256. 
 Belgium assigned to Austria, 255. 
 Belgium, by Alfred Wathelet, 251. 
 Belgium Independent, 256. 
 Belgium's ancient inhabitants, 257. 
 Bent, J. Theodore, on Greece, 289. 
 Berlin, 83. 
 
 Berlin Treaty and Article 61, 7, 15. 
 Berne, 268. 
 
 Berne joins confederates, 271. 
 Bernstorf the younger, 222. 
 Bible translated into Swedish, 208. 
 Bilini, 99. 
 
 Bindes, Norwegian, 194. 
 Binnenhof at the Hague, 238. 
 Birch, Dr., on Egypt, 331. 
 Birgir Earl, 207. 
 Bismark, 56. 
 
 Bismark on the Poles, 131. 
 Bjornson, Bjornstgorne, 195, 198. 
 Black Sea and Turkey, 313. 
 Bohemia and Hungary, union of, 40. 
 Bohemia uprising and peasants, 238. 
 Boris Godunov, 95. 
 Borrow on the Gypsies, 392. 
 Bow Street runner and the Gypsy, 392. 
 Brcekstad, H. L., on Norway, 181. 
 
Index. 
 
 399 
 
 Brander, Dr. George, on Russia, 99. 
 Bravollr or Bravalla, Battle of, 202. 
 Brindisi and Athens, 292. 
 British merchants exempt from Turkish 
 
 jurisdiction, 320. 
 British trade and Armenia, 17. 
 Brugsch, Bey, on the passage of Red 
 
 Sea, 330. 
 Bryce, James, on Armenians, 4. 
 Bucharest, Treaty of, 311. 
 Buda retaken from the Turks, 41. 
 Bulgaria and Russia, 93. 
 Bulgaria created, 314. 
 Bull, Seflor Don Juan, 161. 
 Burgundy, House of, 252. 
 Burke on Poland, 116. 
 Burnett on Poland in 1807, 1 1 6. 
 Byron on Armenia, 4. 
 Byzantine Greeks, 100. 
 
 "Caballeria," 163. 
 
 Cairo, 327. 
 
 Cairo built, 335. 
 
 Campbell on fall of Poland, 118. 
 
 Campbell on Poland, 116. 
 
 Canaan, conquest of, 365. 
 
 Cannibalism and Gypsies, 385. 
 
 Canton right, 268. 
 
 Cantons of Switzerland, 268. 
 
 Caps and hats, 210. 
 
 Carlyle and Germany, 54. 
 
 Carlyle on Poland, 116. 
 
 Casimir II., addressed by a deputy, 
 
 124. 
 Castilian, the, 166. 
 Catherine II., 96, 101. 
 Catherine and Turkey, 305, 311. 
 Catherine on Poland, 116. 
 Catholic Clergy in Belgium, 258. 
 Catholicism and Greek Church, 95. 
 Catholics in Belgium, 261. 
 Causes which led to decline of Ottoman 
 
 Empire, 305. 
 Cavendish College, Cambridge, 79. 
 Celts, 21. 
 
 Champollion on Coptic language, 334. 
 Characteristics, national, accentuated 
 
 by Jews, 369. 
 Characteristics of Sweden, 215. 
 Charles the Bold and the Swiss, 273. 
 Charles V., 58, 254. 
 Charles X. and Denmark, 221. 
 Charles XII., 209. 
 Charles XII. , wars of, disastrous to 
 
 Sweden, 210. 
 Charters of Belgium, 252. 
 Chesney's History of Russo- Turkish 
 
 Campaigns, 312. 
 Chevaliers, portentous shams, 238. 
 
 Chios, tyranny in, 301. 
 
 Chlop, the head of the family, 117. 
 
 Chosen people, 70. 
 
 Christian II., 220. 
 
 Christian Jews in Germany, 373. 
 
 Christianity in Egypt, 333. 
 
 Christianity in Sweden, 202. 
 
 Christianity un-Christlike, 367. 
 
 Christians in Armenia, 8. 
 
 Christians in Turkey and Napoleon, 
 
 .348. 
 Christmas Trees in Germany. 70. 
 Church ritual and Spanish character, 
 
 171. 
 Church, the noblest in Europe, 22. 
 Civil war in Hungary, 46. 
 Civil war in Switzerland, 272. 
 Civilisation, first steps in, 201. 
 Cleopatra, 333. 
 Clergy in Belgium, 258. 
 Clergy in Greece, 295. 
 Climate of Italy, 137. 
 Colleges and schools in Turkey, 307. 
 Collett, C. D., on Armenia, 1. 
 Collet t, C. £>., on Why does not the Sick 
 
 Man die? 311. 
 Collins, Samuel, 98. 
 Cologne, Coleridge on, 81. 
 Commerce and adventure of Italians, 
 
 136. 
 Communal charters of Belgium, 252. 
 Communal movement in Belgium, 253. 
 Communes in Switzerland, 285. 
 Compulsory universal military service 
 
 adopted in Hungary, 50. 
 Conquerors, malady of, 218. 
 Conquest of Canaan, 365. 
 Conscription in Germany, 63. 
 Constantinople and Copenhagen, 311. 
 Constantinople, ta!< en by Turks, effects 
 
 of, 93- 
 Constantinople taken by the Turks, 
 
 3?4- . 
 Constitution of Austria, 27. 
 Constitution or Grundlov of Norway, 
 
 185. _ 
 Constitution of Sweden, 21 1. 
 Constitution of Sweden and England, 
 
 213. _ 
 Constitutional government, beginning 
 
 of, in Hungary, 39. 
 Consuls in Turkey, 320. 
 Convention of Stans, 273. 
 Cooked urchin, 385. 
 Copenhagen and Constantinople, 311. 
 Copernicus, 123. 
 Coptic language, 334. 
 Cosmopolitan and patriot, 36. 
 Council of States in Switzerland, 2761 
 
40o 
 
 Index. 
 
 Countries, foreign, ignorance of, 53. 
 Country houses in Germany, 84. 
 Country inns in Spain, 164. 
 Courage of Dutch, 248. 
 Crime, imputation of, to Gypsies, 
 
 . 383- 
 Crime in Galicia, 132. 
 Crimean war, 313. 
 Crispi Signor, 154. 
 Croatia, 45. 
 
 Croatia obtains Home Rule, 48. 
 Croato-Serbs in Hungary, 37. 
 Crown Prince of Austria, the late, 26. 
 Crucifixion and Gypsies, 390. 
 Culture, 72. 
 
 Cyril, Archimandrite, 297. 
 Czar and Lord Aberdeen, 312. 
 
 Daily life of Norwegians, 194. 
 
 Daily press in Athens, 290. 
 
 Danes at sea, 218. 
 
 Danilo, Prince, assassinated, 353. 
 
 Danilo, Petrovitch, orders massacre of 
 
 Mussulmans, 346. 
 Danish agriculture, 227. 
 Danish art industries, 228. 
 Danish exports and imports, 229. 
 Danish manufactures, 228. 
 Danish navy founded, 221. 
 Danish official insolence in Norway, 
 
 184. 
 Danish railways, 229. 
 Darwin and Goethe, 78. 
 DAzeglio, Massimo, 146. 
 Deak, Francis, prepares the ground for 
 
 the achievements of 1848, 44. 
 Death of a Gypsy, 394. 
 Death of Milosch, 351. 
 Decentralisation for Greece, 317. 
 De Lavergne, Monsieur, 120. 
 Delegations, in Austro-Hungary, 29. 
 Democracy in America, 245. 
 Democracy in Spain, 170. 
 Democratic struggle, 238. 
 Denmark and Charles X. of Sweden, 
 
 221. 
 Denmark and England, 221. 
 Denmark and France, 221. 
 Denmark and Germany, 218. 
 Denmark and Holstein, 222. 
 Denmark and Iceland, by Eirikr Mag- 
 
 nusson, 217. 
 Denmark and Russia, 222. 
 Denmark, area, 217. 
 Denmark, end of absolute monarchy, 
 
 224. 
 Denmark, literary and scientific, 229. 
 Denmark, the reformation in, 220. 
 Denmark's apogee, 218. 
 
 Denmark's constitution, 229. 
 Denmark's evolution of constitution, 
 
 217. 
 Denmark's material state, 227. 
 Denmark's present politics, 229. 
 Depopulation of van, 12. 
 Depretis, Signor, 154. 
 De Vogue, Melchior, on the Russian 
 
 novel, 109. 
 Diakos or deacon in Greece, 296. 
 Dialect of Holland, 241. 
 Dialects of Scandinavia, 215. 
 Dicey on Federal State, 275. 
 Dickens, Chas., 74. 
 "Died of Starvation," 20. 
 Diet in Sweden, 212. 
 Diets in Austria, 28. 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, on Armenia, 16. 
 "Dominion was founded in Greece," 
 
 740. 
 Donkeys in Spain, 168. 
 Dostoievski, 109. 
 Drawing taught in Sunday Schools, 
 
 229. 
 Du Chaillu on the Viking, 182. 
 Duckworth's, Admiral, attempt on 
 
 Constantinople, 311. 
 Dulcigno, given to Montenegro, 352. 
 Dunajevski, 133. 
 Dutch arL, 246. 
 Dutch claim freedom of conscience, 
 
 244. 
 Dutch courage, 248. 
 Dutch grant toleration, 244. 
 Dutch Independence, heroes of, 249. 
 Dutch Jews, 244. 
 Dutch language, 241. 
 Dutch Republic, Lessons from, by Pro- 
 
 fessorj. E. Thorold Rogers, 237. 
 Dutch struggle with Spain, 242. 
 Dynasties, three, of Armenia, 2. 
 
 Early history of Switzerland, 267. 
 East, the, and the West, by Lord 
 
 Hanley of Alderly, 321. 
 Eastern Roman Empire in seventh 
 
 century, 343. 
 Education among the Greeks, 291. 
 Education in Austria, 30. 
 Education in Germany, 54. 
 Education in Hungary, 30-50. 
 Education in Germany, 54. 
 Education in Norway, 196. 
 Education in Servia, 360. 
 Education in Sweden, 214. 
 Education in Switzerland, 286. 
 Education in Thrace, 298. 
 Education in Turkey, 307. 
 Education of Jews in Germany, 373. 
 
Index. 
 
 401 
 
 Edwards, Miss, "Thousand Miles up 
 the Nile," 329. 
 
 Egypt, a Persian province, 331. 
 
 Egypt, a province of the Baghdad 
 Caliphate, 335. 
 
 Egypt, a Roman province, 333. 
 
 Egypt and English, 340. 
 
 Egypt and Greece, 332. 
 
 Egypt and Greek art, 325. 
 
 Egypt and India, architectural resem- 
 blance, 326. 
 
 Egypt and Israel, 330. 
 
 Egypt and the Mamelukes, 335. 
 
 Egypt, Arab conquest of, 334. 
 
 Egypt probably of Aryan origin, 
 326. 
 
 Egypt, by J. C. M'Coan, 323. 
 
 Egyptian fire eras, 327. 
 
 Egyptian trade, 333. 
 
 Egypt's apogee, 329. 
 
 Egypt's antiquity, 325. 
 
 Egypt's area, 323. 
 
 Egypt's mixed population, 339. 
 
 Egypt's mission ended, 332. 
 
 Egypt's native religion's death blow, 
 
 333- 
 
 Egypt's religion, 331. 
 Eidgenosum or confederates, 270. 
 Elementary education in Belgium, 261. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, and Holland, 243. 
 Emancipation of commune.. 98. 
 Emancipation of Jews, 367. 
 Emancipation of serfs in Russia, 96. 
 Emigration from Germany, 63. 
 Emigration from Spain, 177. 
 Emigration from Switzerland, 286. 
 Emmanuel and the Crimea, 143. 
 Emmanuel and Sardinia, 143. 
 Emmanuel at Novara, 146. 
 Enclosure Act and English Gypsydom, 
 
 394- 
 
 England and Austria, 27. 
 
 England and Denmark, 221. 
 
 England and Germany, gain by study 
 of each to other, 55. 
 
 England and Greater Greece, 301. 
 
 England and Hungary, analogy be- 
 tween, 33. 
 
 England and Poland, trade between, 
 127. 
 
 England and Turkey, 301, 309. 
 
 England, first home of liberty, 122. 
 
 England of the East, 33. 
 
 England supports Russia, 318. 
 
 England Turkey's candid friend, 311. 
 
 England a thousand years since, 181. 
 
 English and Norsemen, 181. 
 
 English dissensions, 114. 
 
 English goods in Poland, 128. 
 
 English Government against Dutch 
 Republic, 147. 
 
 English in Egypt, 340. 
 
 English interests in Armenia, 17. 
 
 English literature in Germany, 78. 
 
 English merchants in Turkey, 319. 
 
 English nation mainstay of Greek op- 
 pressors, 302. 
 
 English policemen, the, 73. 
 
 English tourists in Norway, 198. 
 
 English tourists in Switzerland, 267. 
 
 English want of interest in Germany, 
 
 53- 
 
 Englishmen must needs be cosmopoli- 
 tan, 35. 
 
 Englishmen's only curiosity about 
 Russia, 107. 
 
 "Eothen " on the Sphinx, 328. 
 
 Esnaf in Servia, 360. 
 
 Eton, Wm., on causes of the decline of 
 Turkey, 311. 
 
 European civilisation productive of evil 
 in Turkey, 304. 
 
 Europeans in Turkey, 307. 
 
 Exclusiveness charged against Jews, 
 37 1- 
 
 Extent of Ottoman Empire, 305. 
 
 Factories in Germany, 84. 
 Fair play and Gypsies, 393. 
 Fairy tales and Gypsies, 388. 
 Fallermayer's theories respecting 
 
 Greeks, 289. 
 Famous Armenians, 4. 
 Fayoum, valley of, 324. 
 Feast days in Spain, 171. 
 February, revolution in Paris, 1848, 28. 
 Federal Assembly, 276. 
 Federal government, Freeman on, 268, 
 
 275, 277- 
 Federal Government of Switzerland, 
 
 275- 
 Federal Pact, 274. 
 Fellaheen, the, 334. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, 168. 
 Ferdinand, Emperor, 28. 
 Fertility of Servia, 359. 
 Feudal idea among freemen unknown 
 
 in Poland, 124. 
 Feyjoo, 171. 
 
 Finland lost to Sweden, 211. 
 Finland and Russia, 88. 
 Finns, the, and Germans, 90. 
 First appearance of the Turk in Europe, 
 
 304- 
 Fisheries, the great, in Norway, 196. 
 Flanders and Roman Church, 239. 
 Flemish language, 264. 
 Flemish race, its apogee, 254. 
 
402 
 
 Index. 
 
 Floating in Norway, 197. 
 
 Folkehoiskoler, 196. 
 
 Folketing, 230. 
 
 Folk-kings, 202. 
 
 Forest industry in Norway, 197. 
 
 Fortune-telling, 386. 
 
 France and Belgium, 255-260. 
 
 France and Denmark, 221. 
 
 France and Italy, 142, 150. 
 
 France and the spoliation of Germany, 
 
 60. 
 France, its foundation, 57. 
 France the apostle of ideas, 123. 
 Franchise in Norway, 190. 
 Franchise in Servia. 355. 
 Franchise in Sweden, 212. 
 Francis the Second, 28. 
 Franco - German War — conduct of 
 
 Germans, 83. 
 Frankfort, 82. 
 
 Franklin class in Sweden, 204. 
 Franklin's immunity from taxes, 207. 
 Fraternal spirit of Mahometanism, 
 
 314- 
 
 Frederick, Emperor, and anti-Semi- 
 tism, 373. 
 Frederick the Great, 60. 
 Free institutions in Poland, 1 18. 
 Freedom among Swedes, 204. 
 Freedom of press in Denmark, 222. 
 Freedom of trade in Poland, 126. 
 Freehold peasantry in Hungary, 49. 
 Freeman on an adopting community, 
 
 375- 
 Freeman on Federal Government, 268, 
 
 275, 2 77- 
 Freethinker in Spain, 169. 
 Freethought ruthlessly repressed, 23. 
 Freiburg has no Referendum, 285. 
 French as a Court language, 87. 
 French dissension, 115. 
 French ignorance of her neighbours, 
 
 53- 
 
 French Revolution and Jews, 367. 
 French Revolution and Switzerland, 
 
 274. 
 French Revolution parent of good and 
 
 evil, 367. 
 Future of Poland, 133. 
 Fyffe on condition of Germany, 115. 
 
 Galdos Perez, 172. 
 Galicia, 95, 132. 
 Galicia's natural resources, 
 Garibaldi, 144. 
 Genoese, the, 141. 
 Gentile and Jew, 366. 
 German amusements, 82. 
 German bands, 84. 
 
 133- 
 
 German colonization, 61. 
 
 German competition, 70. 
 
 German country houses, 84. 
 
 German Culture, by Sidney Whitman> 
 
 69. 
 German culture, Turgeniefif on, 75. 
 German dissension, 115.1" 
 German, early history, 57. 
 German emigration, 63. 
 German Emperors, popularity, 67. 
 German factories, 84. 
 German, great men, 62. 
 German gypsies, 383. 
 German influence in Denmark, 220. 
 German Jews, 372. 
 German officials, 64. 
 German princes, 70. 
 German public schools, 83. 
 German, relative happiness, "]\. 
 German self-respect, 83 . 
 German superior education, 54. 
 German Universities and the people, 
 
 79- 
 German unpopularity, 69. 
 Germanicus in Egypt, 329. 
 Germanization, order of the day in 
 
 Hungary, 47. 
 Germans and the Finns, 90. 
 Germans in Baltic Provinces, 90. 
 Germans in France during the War, 
 
 83- 
 Germans in Hungary, 37. 
 Germans in Russia, 89. 
 Germans in Schleswick, 223. 
 Germans peaceful — not aggressive, 60. 
 Germans ready to bear any taxation, 
 
 61. 
 Germany and Austria, 24. 
 Germany and Carlyle, 54- 
 Germany and Denmark, 218. 
 Germany and England, gain by study 
 
 of each, 55. 
 Germany and Napoleon the First, 61. 
 Germany and national unity, 60. 
 Germany, beer-houses, 76. 
 Germany, consolidation of, effected by 
 
 spirit of nationality, 36. 
 Germany, English literature in, 78; 
 Germany, English want of interest in, 
 
 53- 
 Germany, happiness of its people, 85. 
 Germany in time of Thirty Years' War, 
 
 59- 
 
 Germany, its spoliation and France, 
 60. 
 
 Germany — Politics, by Sidney Whit- 
 man, 53. 
 
 Germany protects her poor, 64. 
 
 Germany, Russian ignorance of, 54 
 
Index. 
 
 403 
 
 Germany, the Reformation in, 58 
 Germany, the school of philosophers, 
 
 123. 
 Germany, want of practical ability, 76. 
 Gessler, 270. 
 Gibbons on Armenia, 4. 
 Gielgud, Adam, on Poland, 113. 
 Gladstone, W. E., 74. 
 Gladstone on Belgium, 266. 
 Gladstone on Serbs, 345. 
 Glasus defeats Austrians, 272. 
 Goethe, 77. 
 Goethe on Jews, 368. 
 Gogol, Nicholas, 107. 
 Golitsin, Prince, and emancipation of 
 
 Serfs, 97. 
 Gordon, Sir Robert, at Constantinople, 
 
 312. 
 Goschen and Egypt, 338, 339. 
 Goths, 201. 
 Government by bribery in Armenia, 
 
 13- 
 
 Government in Belgium, 256. 
 Government in Austria, 29. 
 Government in Denmark, 229. 
 Government in Greece, 290. 
 Government in Iceland, 234. 
 Government in Montenegro, 354. 
 Government in Servia, 355. 
 Government in Spain, 176. 
 Government in Sweden, 211. 
 Government indifference in Turkey, 13. 
 *' Gracious majesty" dropped in 
 
 Norway, 190. 
 Graham, Mrs. Cunninghame, on Spain, 
 
 157. 
 Grandson, battle of, 273. 
 Gratitude of Jews, 372. 
 Great Britain and Austria of common 
 
 nationality, 21. 
 Great men's initiative, 62. 
 Greater Greece and rich Greeks, 293. 
 Greece, by J. Theodore Bent, 289. 
 Greece, disappointment respecting, 290. 
 "Greece has no future," 292. 
 Greek art and Egypt, 325. 
 Greek Catholics in Austria, 30. 
 Greek Church, 293. 
 Greek Church and Catholicism, 95. 
 Greek Church, Russia head of, 92. 
 Greek education, 291, 294. 
 Greek municipal liberty, 318. 
 Greek nationality and its religion, 293. 
 Greek nationality and monasteries, 297. 
 Greek oppressors and England, 302. 
 Greek population in Turkish Empire, 
 
 293- . 
 Greek Railways, 291. 
 Greeks during period of freedom, 291. 
 
 Greeks in Armenia, 299. 
 
 Greeks in Asia Minor, 299. 
 
 Greeks of Constantinople, 293. 
 
 Greeks of Egypt, 332. 
 
 Greeks of to-day, 289. 
 
 Greeks, rich, and greater Greece, 293. 
 
 Greeks under Turkey, 315. 
 
 Groome, F. H., on the Gypsies, 379. 
 
 Grundlov of Norway, 185. 
 
 Gustav Wasa, 208. 
 
 Gustavus III., 211. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus II., 209. 
 
 Gypsies and British lawgivers, 383. 
 
 Gypsies and Gentiles, 381. 
 
 Gypsies and fairy tales, 388. 
 
 Gypsies and music, 381, 388. 
 
 Gypsies and the Crucifixion, 390. 
 
 Gypsies, by F. H. Groome, 379. 
 
 Gypsies, crime imputed to, 384. 
 
 Gypsies excellent company, 388. 
 
 Gypsies' fatherland, 379. 
 
 Gypsies in Asia Minor, 390. 
 
 Gypsies in French Basque country, 383. 
 
 Gypsies in Germany, 383. 
 
 Gypsies in Roumania, 383. 
 
 Gypsies in Scotland, 382. 
 
 Gypsies in Transylvania, 390. 
 
 Gypsies not cowards, 392. 
 
 Gypsies not soldiers or sailors, 391. 
 
 Gypsies protected, 383. 
 
 Gypsies, rich, 381. 
 
 Gypsy and a Snowdon sunrise, 394. 
 
 Gypsy death, a, 394. 
 
 Gypsy fiddlers, 389. 
 
 Gypsy free life, 394. 
 
 Gypsy gifts, 389. 
 
 Gypsy journeys, 388. 
 
 Gypsy kidnapping, 385. 
 
 Gypsy practical knowledge, 394. 
 
 Gypsy smiths, 390. 
 
 Gypsy woman and clergyman, 380. 
 
 HAANDF/ESTNING, 220. 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act in fourteenth 
 
 century, 124. 
 Hadrian Emperor and Jews, 372. 
 Haigs, the, or Armenians, 2. 
 Haman on the Jews, 364. 
 Hanging of Gypsies, 381. 
 Hanseatic league, 221. 
 Hansetowns, 58, 219. 
 Hapsburg in Switzerland, 270. 
 Harem's baneful influence, 306. 
 Hartington, Lord, on English in Egypt, 
 
 340. 
 " Harum Pasha," noted gypsy, 385. 
 Hatred of foreigners in Servia, 359. 
 Hats and caps, 210. 
 Heine on the Jews, 363. 
 
404 
 
 Index. 
 
 Heine on the Poles, 89. 
 
 Heinrich the greatest of the Baben- 
 
 bergers, 22. 
 Heligoland, 222. 
 
 Hellenic philological syllogos, 294. 
 Henry of Valois and Poland, 126. 
 Herberstein on the ancient inhabitants 
 
 of Russia, 88. 
 Herculaneum disinterred, 152. 
 Hermoupolis in Syra, 292. 
 Heroes of Dutch Independence, 249. 
 Hildesheim, 82. 
 Hindustani and Gypsies, 379. 
 Hodgkin , Howard, on Switzerland, 267. 
 Holidays in Servia, 359. 
 Holland and Queen Elizabeth, 243. 
 Holstein and Denmark, 222. 
 Holy of Holies, 363. 
 Holy Roman Empire, union with 
 
 Bohemia and Hungary, 40. 
 Home Rule granted to Croatia, 48. 
 Home Rule on Schleswick Holstein, 
 
 224. 
 Hospitality of Jews, 365. 
 House, to bivouac in, 166. 
 Houses of Parliament in Austria, 29. 
 Hungarian attention to politics, 50. 
 Hungarian civil war, 46. 
 Hungarian class privilege abolition, 45. 
 Hungarian discordant element united, 
 
 35-. 
 Hungarian education, 30, 50. 
 
 Hungarian language supplanted, 43. 
 
 Hungarian Liberalism, 51. 
 
 Hungarian maintenance of a national 
 
 policy, 34. 
 
 Hungarian ministers made responsible, 
 
 45- 
 Hungarian national spirit awakened, 
 
 43-. 
 Hungarian parliament again convoked, 
 
 47-. 
 
 Hungarian railways, 50. 
 
 Hungarian taxes, 5°- 
 
 Hungary an agricultural country, 49. 
 
 Hungary and Austria, 24, 42. 
 
 Hungary and Austria, misunderstand- 
 ings between Governments, 46. 
 
 Hungary and Bohemia, union of, 40. 
 
 Hungary and England, analogy be- 
 tween, 33, 39. 
 
 Hungary and Russia, 46. 
 
 Hungary as the England of the east, 33. 
 
 Hungary, beginning of constitutional 
 government, 39. 
 
 Hungary, by Professor Aiigustus 
 Pttlszky, 33. 
 
 Hungary, compulsory military service 
 in, 50. 
 
 Hungary, deprived of commerce, 
 
 becomes torpid, 43. 
 Hungary has only a peace policy, 51. 
 Hungary, Joseph II. refuses to be 
 
 crowned the king of, 43. 
 Hungary, Magyar dominant element 
 
 in, 37- 
 Hungary, Magyars enter, a thousand 
 
 years ago, 38. 
 Hungary, many religions in, 37. 
 Hungary, national interest keynote of 
 
 its life and thought, 35. 
 Hungary prostrate in 1849, 47. 
 Hungary, striking effect of spirit of 
 
 nationality, 36. 
 Hungary the bulwark of civilised Chris- 
 tendom, 33. 
 Hungary, the Reformation in, 41. 
 Hungary, Transylvania reincorporated, 
 
 45- 
 Hungary, Turkish conquest of, 40. 
 Hungary under rule of the elective 
 
 kings," 39. 
 Hungary, varied people in, 37. 
 Hungary's days of hopeless darkness, 41. 
 Hungary's freehold peasantry, 49. 
 Hungary's national music ascribed to 
 
 Gypsies, 388. 
 Hypatia, 334. 
 
 Ibrahim Pasha defeats the Turks, 
 
 337- 
 
 Ibsen Henrik, 199. 
 
 Iceland, 233. 
 
 Iceland (with Denmark), by Eirikr 
 Magnusson, 217. 
 
 Icelandic constitution, 234. 
 
 Ignorance of foreign countries, 53. 
 
 Immigrants of Jewish race, 375. 
 
 Indebtedness to Gypsies, 389. 
 
 India and Egypt, architectural resem- 
 blance, 326. 
 
 Industrial evolution in Spain, 176. 
 
 Inhabitants of Turkey, 306. 
 
 Inquisition in Holland, 242. 
 
 Inquisition in Spain, 169. 
 
 Inquisition in the Netherlands, 254. 
 
 Inquisition, the Holy, 145. 
 
 Institutions of Western countries 
 adopted by Magyars, 38. 
 
 Intensive voice, the, 369. 
 
 Ireland and Poland, 129. 
 
 Irish and battle of Athenry, 241. 
 
 Irishmen in prominent positions in 
 Austria, 27. 
 
 Irredentists, 154. 
 
 Ishmael Pasha, 324, 337. 
 
 Ishmael Pasha first Khedive, 338. 
 
 Islam testified to, 339. 
 
Index. 
 
 405 
 
 Israel and Egypt, 330 
 
 Israel exiled, 365. 
 
 Israel, Red Sea's passage, 330. 
 
 Italia Irredentists, 144. 
 
 Italian agriculture, 137, 148, 153- 
 
 Italian architecture, 136. 
 
 Italian armaments, 147. 
 
 Italian canals, 136. 
 
 Italian climate, 137. 
 
 Italian conscription, 152. 
 
 Italian decline, 141. 
 
 Italian dissension, 115. 
 
 Italian finance, 147. 
 
 Italian liberty, 135. 
 
 Italian libraries, 135. 
 
 Italian lotteries, 147. 
 
 Italian municipal institution, 136. 
 
 Italian national debt, 147. 
 
 Italian navigators, 135. 
 
 Italian parties, 154. 
 
 Italian politics, 154. 
 
 Italian railways, 151. 
 
 Italian republics, 140. 
 
 Italian roads, 136. 
 
 Italian soil classic, 135. 
 
 Italian successes, 1 50. 
 
 Italian taxation, 148. _ _ 
 
 Italian unification of, effected by spirit 
 of nationality, 36. 
 
 Italian unity and the Pope, 143. 
 
 Italian unity, difficulties of, 142. 
 
 Italian universities, 135. 
 
 Italians a versatile people, 152. 
 
 Italians, the, 141. 
 
 Italy and Africa, 149. 
 
 Italy and Austria, 142-144= 
 
 Italy and civilisation, 135. 
 
 Italy and domestic tyranny, 141. 
 
 Italy and France, 142-150. 
 
 Italy and her neighbours, 148. 
 
 Italy and the empire of the sea, 140. 
 
 Italy and the Italians, 146. 
 
 Italy the nursery of the arts, 123. 
 
 Italy and the workshops of the world, 
 140. 
 
 Italy, area, 136. 
 
 Italy, by J. Stephen Jeans, 135. 
 
 Italy chief battle-field of Europe, 139- 
 
 Italy, condition of people, 153. 
 
 Italy for the Italians, 143. 
 
 Italy of modern times, 152. 
 
 Italy, population, 136. 
 
 Italy nursery of arts and sciences, 151. 
 
 Ivan III., 95- 
 
 Ivan IV., 95. 
 
 Ivo the Black, 345- 
 
 James, Richard, and Russian Mini, 
 
 Janisaries, meaning of term, 304. 
 
 Jeans, J Stephen, on Italy, 135. 
 
 Jesuits in Austria, 23. 
 
 Jesuits in Switzerland, 285. 
 
 Jew and Gentile, 366. 
 
 Jewish camp, two parties in, 376. 
 
 Jewish holy of holies, 363. 
 
 Jewish immigrants, 375. 
 
 Jewish Naturalisation Bill, 1753, 3 6 7- 
 
 Jewish population of Palestine, 376. 
 
 Jewish ultimate independence, 376. 
 
 Jews and education in German, 373. 
 
 Jews and French Revolution, 367. 
 
 Jews and politics in England, 375. 
 
 Jews and the Emperor Hadrian, 372. 
 
 Jews and union of larger world, 366. 
 
 Jews, Archbishop Nicanor on the, 371. 
 
 Jews as Christians in Russia, 371.' 
 
 Jews charged with exclusiveness, 371. 
 
 Jews, hospitable, 365. 
 
 Jews, ignorance respecting, 363. 
 
 Jews in Babylon, 365. 
 
 Jews in England, 374. 
 
 Jews in Germany, 372. 
 
 Jews in German army, 373. 
 
 Jews in Holland , 244. 
 
 Jews in Poland, 126. 
 
 Jews in their Relation to other Races, by 
 
 Rev. S. Singer, 363. 
 Jews, law-abiding, 366. 
 Jews of Russia, 369. 
 Jews, short way with, 364. 
 Jews, the traders in Russia, 91. 
 Jews' thirst for knowledge, 370. 
 Jews "too clever," 373. 
 Jews, union among, 365. 
 John Bull in Spain, 161. 
 Johun, Karl, and wealthy peasant, 195. 
 Joseph, Emperor, and Liberal ideas, 
 
 28. 
 Joseph II. refuses to be crowned king 
 
 of Hungary, 43. 
 Joseph II. of Austria, 255. 
 Joseph the Hebrew in Egypt, 329. 
 Journeying of Gypsies, 388. 
 Joyeuse Entree, charter of, 252. 
 
 Kahal, the, 91. 
 
 Kalmar union, treaty of, 208. 
 
 Karl Johun, 184. 
 
 Kara George deserts his country, 348. 
 
 Kara George drives the Turk from 
 
 Servia, 347. 
 Kara George kills his father, 347. 
 Kara George murdered, 349. 
 Kara Georgevitch condemned, 351. 
 Keil, Treaty of, 184, 211. 
 King or Pope, 245. 
 Knout, the, 94. 
 
406 
 
 Index. 
 
 Koltsov, Alexis, 102. 
 
 Kommune Bertyrelsi, 191. 
 
 Komodromoi, 390. 
 
 "Kongeloo," or king's law, 221. 
 
 Koosovo, battle of, 343. 
 
 Koran, the, 308. 
 
 Kosciuszko, 121. * 
 
 Kosciuszko and Finis Polonia, 128. 
 
 Kossuth, Louis, 44. 
 
 Kresbrane, the, 96. 
 
 Krighanich and Panslavism, no. 
 
 Kropotkin, Prince, on Baltic Provinces, 
 
 90. 
 Kurds and Circassians in Armenia, 16. 
 Kurds in Armenia, 9. 
 Kurds, the, C. Wilkinson on, 10. 
 Kuttab schools, 308. 
 
 Labour in Servia, 358. 
 
 Ladies as professors in Italy, 151. 
 
 Lagthing, the, 187. 
 
 Laing, Samuel, on Norwegian peasants, 
 
 196. 
 Lamartine on Armenians, 4. 
 Lamonosov, 101. 
 Landenberg, 270. 
 
 Landesgemeinde of Uri and Stans, 278. 
 Land's Bunk in Iceland, 235. 
 Landsting, 212, 230. 
 Landtage in Austria, 29. 
 Last war of religion, 243. 
 Law-abiding Jews, 366. 
 Law and Italy, 135. 
 Lazarus, Emma, on Jews, 369. 
 Leasehold system incomprehensible, 
 
 194. 
 Lecky on partition of Poland, 116. 
 Leibeigenschaft, 119. 
 Leo VI. of Armenia, 3. 
 Leopold of Austria, 271. 
 Leopold I. of Belgium, 256, 259, 265. 
 Leopold I. of Belgium, 265. 
 Leroy-Beaulieu on Russia, 90. 
 Leroy-Beaulieu, 97-99. 
 Lewes, G. H., and Germany, 54- 
 Liberal ideas and Emperor Joseph, 28. 
 Liberalism in Hungary, 57. 
 " Liberty," 62. 
 Liberty and Poland, 1 16. 
 Libraries in Italy, 135. 
 Liege, Commune of, 252. 
 Liege, Prince-Bishops of, 255. 
 Lighthouses in Denmark, 229. 
 Lincoln, Abraham. 75. 
 Literature in Armenia, 5. 
 Literature in Norway, 198. 
 Literature in Poland, 129. 
 Literature in Russia, 99. 
 Literature in Spain, 172-176. 
 
 Lituvinova, Barbara, mother of 
 
 Turgueniev, 107. 
 Local government in Norway, 191. 
 Local government in Servia, 357. 
 Lombards, 141. 
 Lombardy, 144. 
 London misery, 6"J. 
 London music halls, 25. 
 London newspapers on Austria, 19. 
 Lorraine, 57. 
 Lotteries in Italy, 147. 
 Lubbock, Sir John, and metal working, 
 
 389-. . 
 Lucerne joins confederates, 271. 
 Luther and Wycliff, 245. 
 Luther, Martin, 58. 
 Lutheran reform, 245. 
 Luxemburg Railway, 260. 
 
 Macaulay on the patron of poets, 101. 
 M'Coan,J. C, on Egypt, 323. 
 Macedonia, 298. 
 MacGregor's, " The Ottoman Empire," 
 
 319- 
 M'Pherson, James, noted Gypsy, 382. 
 Magnusson, Eirikr, on Denmark and 
 
 Iceland, 217. 
 Magnusson, Eirikr, on Sweden, 201. 
 Magyars enter Hungary a thousand 
 
 years ago, 38. 
 Magyars in Hungary, 37. 
 Magyars recognise no aristocracy of 
 
 race, 39. 
 Magyar, the dominant element in 
 
 Hungary, 37. 
 Mahometan, fraternal spirit, 314. 
 Maintenance of sole market, 247. 
 Mamelukes rule Egypt, 335. 
 Manchester school, the, 80. 
 Manetho, 327. 
 
 Mankind's debt to Poland, 128. 
 Man's country his dwelling-place, 369. 
 Manufactures in Austria, 30. 
 Manufactures in Denmark, 228. 
 Manufactures in Poland, 129. 
 Manufactures of Sweden, 214. 
 Maragatos, the, 178. 
 Marathon, its associations, 237. 
 Margaret, the Semiramis of the North, 
 
 219. 
 Mashers, sign of national deterioration, 
 
 193- 
 
 Massacre at Stockholm, 208-220. 
 Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, 253. 
 May, Sir T. Erskine, on absolute veto, 
 
 189. 
 Mayors and Kmets in Servia, 357. 
 Medical schools in Vienna, 31. 
 Mehemet AH, 336. 
 
Index. 
 
 407 
 
 Mehemet Tewfik, 338. 
 Melbourne's, Lord, advice, 249. 
 Members of diet in Sweden, 212. 
 Members of Parliament in Norway, 
 
 190. 
 Members of Parliament in Servia, 356. 
 Memphis, 327. 
 
 Metternich driven from power, 28. 
 Metternich, Prince, 25. 
 Michel, Prince of Servia, murdered, 
 
 357- 
 
 Michelet on Commune of Liege, 252. 
 
 Middle Ages in Italy, 140. 
 
 Middle class in Spain, 176. 
 
 Milan's divorce and abdication, 354. 
 
 Military service in Armenia, 13. 
 
 Military service in Russia for Jews, 370. 
 
 Militaryism in Germany, 65. 
 
 Milosch abdicates, 350. 
 
 Milosch an autocrat, 349. 
 
 Milosch dies, 351. 
 
 Milosch founds peasant proprietors, 
 
 349- 
 
 Milosch Obrenovitch, founder of Royal 
 
 House of Servia, 348. 
 Milosch proclaimed Prince of Servia, 
 
 349- 
 Milosch's clemency, 349. 
 Minchin, J. G. Cotton, on Servia and 
 
 Montenegro, 343. 
 Mining in Sweden, 214. 
 Ministerial responsibility introduced in 
 
 Hungary, 45. 
 Minorities, lesson from, 248. 
 Minority representation, 263. 
 Mir, its universality, 97. 
 Misery in London, 67. 
 Mithodius, the Apostle of the Slavs, 
 
 344- 
 Modern Greek language, 289. 
 Modern influence in Spain, 158. 
 Modern progress in Spain, 163. 
 Modern traveller in Spain, 158. 
 Mohacs, batile of, 34. 
 Mohammedan religion in Turkey, 308. 
 Molokani, the, 99. 
 
 Monasteries and Greek nationality, 297. 
 Mongol invasion of Russia, 94. 
 Mongol rule in Russia, 94. 
 Mongols in Russia, 91. 
 Montenegrin government, 354. 
 Montenegro a sanctuary for the Serbs, 
 
 345- 
 Montenegro, 1516 to 1851, 346. 
 Montenegro's soil consecrated, 345. 
 Monuments of art, 179. 
 Moor society in Denmark, 228. 
 Moorish habits in Spain, 166. 
 Morat, battle of, 273. 
 
 Morfill, W. R., on Russia, 87. 
 
 Morgarten, battle of, 271. 
 
 Moscow the germ of Russian empire, 
 
 94- 
 Moussa Bey, 10. 
 Moussa Bey's trial, 11. 
 Municipal liberty in Greece, 318. 
 Municipalities and Italy, 136. 
 Murder of Prince Michel, 351. 
 Murder unknown among gypsies, 386. 
 Music and the Viennese, 31. 
 Musicians and Vienna, 31. 
 Mysteries about jews, 363. 
 
 Nancy, battle of, 273. 
 
 Naples and Italy, 143. 
 
 Napoleon in Egypt, 336. 
 
 Napoleon the First and Germany, 61. 
 
 Napoleon III. and Luxemburg Railway, 
 
 260. 
 Napoleon III. ignorant of Germany, 
 
 54 ' .0 
 
 National Assembly in Norway in 1821, 
 
 186. 
 National characteristics accentuated by 
 
 Jews, 369. 
 National characteristics, maintenance 
 
 of, 193. 
 National Council in Switzerland, 275- 
 National interest the keynote of the 
 
 life and thought in Hungary, 35. 
 National policy, the maintenance of, in 
 
 England and Hungary, 34. 
 National spirit awakened in Hungary, 
 
 .43- . 
 
 Nationality, its definition, 240. 
 
 Nationality, spirit of, effects consolida- 
 tion of Germany and unification of 
 Italy, 36. 
 
 Nationality, spirit of, produces striking 
 effect in Hungary, 36. 
 
 Native education in Turkey, 308. 
 
 Naval heroes of Denmark, 221. 
 
 Naval warfare, rise of, 217. 
 
 Navarino, 31 1. 
 
 Navigation Acts, 248. 
 
 Nestir monk of Kiev, 92. 
 
 Nestor, the earliest Russian historian, 
 203. 
 
 New Ezekiel, 378. 
 
 Nicanor, Archbishop, on Jews, 371. 
 
 Nicholas de Flue, 273. 
 
 Nicholas, Emperor, and peasant pro- 
 prietors, 120. 
 
 Nikon, a Russian primate, 98. 
 
 Nile, the, 324. 
 
 Nilotic historical evidence, 326. 
 
 " No bishop, no king," 243. 
 
 Nobility abolished in Norway, 186. 
 
408 
 
 Index. 
 
 Nobles in Poland, 117. 
 
 Noefels, battle of, 272. 
 
 Norman, C. B., on Moussa Bey, 10. 
 
 Norse modern invasion of England, 200. 
 
 Norsemen, 181. 
 
 Norsemen and English, 181. 
 
 Norway abolishes nobility, 186. 
 
 Norway and Danish official's insolence, 
 184. 
 
 Norway and foreign affairs, 191. 
 
 Norway and Sweden, 205. 
 
 Norway and Sweden and Paris Exhi- 
 bition, 192. 
 
 Norway and Sweden, union of, 191. 
 
 Norway, by H. L. Brmkstad, 18 1. 
 
 Norway ceded to Sweden. 185, 211. 
 
 Norway demands full equality with 
 Sweden, 192. 
 
 Norway, king's position in, 190. 
 
 Norway pays its Members of Parlia- 
 ment, 190. 
 
 Norway, "supply in," 190. 
 
 Norway, suspensive veto in, 185. 
 
 Norway, three epochs in, 183. 
 
 Norway torn from Denmark, 222. 
 
 Norway, tourist in, 198. 
 
 Norway, union with Denmark, 183. 
 
 Norwegian education, 196. 
 
 Norwegian fisheries, 196. 
 
 Norwegian forest industry, 197. 
 
 Norwegian franchise, 190. 
 
 Norwegian impeachment of the min- 
 istry, 189. 
 
 Norwegian literature, 198. 
 
 Norwegian local government, 191. 
 
 Norwegian peasants, 194, 195. 
 
 Norwegians discover America, 183. 
 
 Nothomb, J. B., 257, 259, 261. 
 
 Novgorod, 92. 
 
 Novikoff, Madame de, 116, 117. 
 
 Nysad, treaty of, 210 
 
 Oases, the five, 324. 
 Oasis of Amnion, 324. 
 Obrenovitch, fall of house of, 350. 
 Odelsthmg, the, 187. 
 Officials in Germany, 64. 
 Olaf Skeetking, 204. 
 Oldenburg dynasty, 220. 
 Oldenburgers, death of thelastofthe,225. 
 Oppression of peasantry in Poland, 119. 
 Orange and Hanover, Houses of, 248. 
 Orange and Stuarts, House of, 247. 
 Orban Frere, 259. 
 Oriental characteristics, 310. 
 Oscar II., and the veto in Norway, 188. 
 Osiris, the great god's burial place, 325. 
 Othman, founder of Ottoman Empire, 
 3°4- 
 
 Otho, king of Greece, 290. 
 Ottoman conquest of Egypt, 335. 
 Ottoman Empire by MacGregor, 319. 
 Ottomon Empire, by H. Anthony 
 
 Salmone, 303. 
 Ottoman Empire founded, 304. 
 Ottoman Empire's dissolution, 311. 
 
 Pacta conventa of Poles with their 
 
 kings, 126. 
 Palestine for the Jews, 377. 
 Palestine still land of promise for Jews 
 
 376. 
 Palestine's associations, 237. 
 Palmerston, Lord, 69. 
 Panslavism, no. 
 Papacy and civilisation, 145. 
 Papacy, the, 144. 
 Papal authority and Spain, 168. 
 Paris Exhibition and Norway, 192. 
 Parish's diplomatic history of Greece, 
 
 Parliament in Galicia, 132. 
 Parliamentary government in Denmark, 
 
 231. 
 Parliamentary institutions in Austria, 29. 
 Parliamentary power restricted in 
 
 Austria, 29. 
 Pasha, origin of, 304. 
 Paternal government in Germany, 84. 
 Patriarchial state of Servia, 356. 
 Patriot and the cosmopolitan, 36. 
 Patriotism, 63. 
 Peace of Adrianople, 312. 
 Peace of Westphalia, 60. 
 Peace, the whole Hungarian nation in 
 
 favour of, 51. 
 Peasant made tenant in Poland, 120. 
 Peasant party in Norway, 188. 
 Peasantry in Norway, eminent men 
 
 from, 195. 
 Peasantry in Spain, 170. 
 Peasants and king in Norway, 195. 
 Peasants in Poland, 119. 
 Pelago, Menendezy, 174. 
 Penn, William, on government, 282. 
 People, varied, in Hungary, 37. 
 Pereda, 172. 
 Persia and Egypt, 331. 
 Peter the Great, 93, 95. 
 Peter the Great creates a navy and art 
 
 army, 95. 
 Peter the Great's will, in. 
 Peter I. of Montenegro, 352. 
 Philip II., saint or devil, 169. 
 Philip II. of Spain, 241, 254. 
 Philip, II. of Spain and Poland, 127. 
 Philce the sacred Island, 325. 
 Poland and freedom, 126. 
 
Index. 
 
 409 
 
 Poland and her detractors, 116. 
 Poland and Ireland, 129. 
 Poland and oppression of peasants, 119. 
 Poland and Philip II., 127. 
 Poland and Russia, 95. 
 Poland and Russian tyranny, 129. 
 Poland and the Jews, 126. 
 Poland, by Adam Gielgud, 113. 
 Poland dismemberment, 89. 
 Poland, ignorance respecting, 113. 
 Poland in 1807, 127. 
 Poland, internal dissension in, 114. 
 Poland, land of liberty, 116. 
 Poland non-aggressive, 123. 
 Poland, spoliation of, 113. 
 Poland still alive, 128. 
 Poland the land of liberty, 123. 
 Poland, treatment of, by Austria, 89. 
 Poland, treatment of, by Prussia, 89. 
 Poland, treatment of, by Russia, 89. 
 Poland, vanguard of European civilisa- 
 tion, 123. 
 Poland's chief articles of exchange, 129. 
 Poland's future, 133. 
 Poland's manufactures, 129. 
 Poland's present state, 128. 
 Poland's tribute to Europe, 123. 
 Poland's want of middle class, 91. 
 Polenta, 153. 
 
 Poles and literary culture, 123. 
 Poles and their kings, 126. 
 Poles as "the French of the North," 
 
 33- 
 Poles capable of self-government, 122. 
 Poles educated in England, 128. 
 Poles in Galicia, 132. 
 Poles in German Poland, 131. 
 Poles in Russia, 89. 
 Poles opposed to monopolies, 127. 
 Polish assimilation, 131. 
 Polish, first, Parliament, 124. 
 Polish free institutions, 118. 
 Polish language, teaching of, 130. 
 Polish nationality in Prussia, 122. 
 Polish nobles, 118. 
 Polish painters, 129. 
 Polish peasants, 119. 
 Polish peasants in Austria, 120. 
 Polish peasants in Parliament, 121. 
 Polish peasants in Prussia, 120. 
 Polish peasants in Russia, 120. 
 Polish political capacity, 132. 
 Polish rising, 1794, leaders of, 121. 
 Polish risings, 121. 
 Polish singers, 129. 
 
 Polish tax-collectors and England, 127. 
 Polish writers, 129. 
 Political backwardness of Austria, 23, 
 Political capacity of the Poles, 132. 
 
 Political economists and Spain, 171. 
 Political economy in Italy, 152. 
 Political life not the main interest of a 
 
 nation, 19. 
 Political parties in Belgium, 258. 
 Political parties in Servia, 360. 
 Politics, 56. 
 Politics absorb much public attention 
 
 in Hungary, 50. 
 Politics and Jews in England, 375. 
 Politics tabooed in Austria, 28. 
 Politski, Simeon, 101. 
 Poor non-existing in Servia, 361. 
 Poor protected in Germany, 64. 
 Pope misguided to Pope informed, 169. 
 Pope or king, 245. 
 Popham, Chief Justice, and Gypsies, 
 
 384. 
 Popular education adopted in England, 
 
 8 7-. 
 
 Population of Austria, 27. 
 
 Population of Greece, 293. 
 Population of Italy, 136. 
 Population of Jews in Palestine, 376. 
 Population of Russia, 87. 
 Population of Sweden, 213. 
 Population of Switzerland, 267. 
 Present state of Poland, 128. 
 Press gagged in Armenia, 13. 
 Press law, the new, in Servia, 358. 
 Press, the, introduced into Russia, 95. 
 Progressists in Servia, 361. 
 Protective system in Sweden, 213. 
 Protestant Scando- Baltic empire, 209. 
 Protestantism in Belgium, 259. 
 Protestantism in Low Countries, 254. 
 Protestants in Poland, 126. 
 Provincial and commercial laws in 
 
 Belgium, 258. 
 Prussian government and Poland, 131. 
 Public Meetings in Poland, 124. 
 Public prosecutor in Turkey, 12. 
 Public spirit among Jews in England, 
 
 375- 
 
 Pulszky, Professor Augustus, on Hun- 
 gry, 33- 
 
 Pushkin, Alexander, 101. 
 
 Pyramids, the great, 327. 
 
 Quarterly Review on Poland, 117. 
 
 Races in Russia, 88, 92. 
 Radicals in Servia, 361. 
 Railways in Denmark, 229. 
 Railways in Greece, 291. 
 Railways in Hungary, 50. 
 Railways in Italy, 151. 
 Railways in Sweden, 214. 
 Ralston and Russian Skazki, 100. 
 
4io 
 
 Index. 
 
 Rameses II., 327. 
 
 Rape of Armenian girls, 8. 
 
 Raskol, the, in the Russian Church, 98. 
 
 Reaction in Austria in 1852, 28. 
 
 Referendum, 283. 
 
 Referendum in cantons, 284. 
 
 Reformation in Denmark, 220. 
 
 Reformation in Germany, 58. 
 
 Reformation in Hungary, 41. 
 
 Regency in Servia, 352. 
 
 Religion common to Goths and Swedes, 
 
 201. 
 Religion in Russia, by Leroy-Beaulieu, 
 
 98. 
 Religion, last war of, 243. 
 Religion of Egypt, 331. 
 Religion of the Austrians, 29. 
 Religions in Hungary, 37. 
 Religious equality in Switzerland, 285. 
 Religious freedom in Poland, 126. 
 Religious tolerance by Jews, 366. 
 Religious tolerance in Turkey, 315. 
 Religious unity in Spain, 169. 
 Representation of minorities, 263. 
 Representatives, House of, in Belgium, 
 
 257. 
 Republic of United Provinces, 254. 
 Restoration of Palestine to Jews, 377. 
 Revolution at Brussels, 1830, 256. 
 Rigsdag, the, 211, 230. 
 Rigsret, the, 189. 
 
 Risings in Poland, peasants at, 120. 
 Roads in Italy, 136. 
 Rogers, Prof . J. E. Thorold, on Dutch 
 
 Republic, 237. 
 Romani language and Gypsies, 380. 
 Rome and Egypt, 333. 
 Rome and Flanders, 239. 
 Rome and modern Italy, 140. 
 Rossetta Stone, 334. 
 Roth, Ling, agriculture and peasantry 
 
 in Eastern Russia, 98. 
 Roumaniaand the Russian armies, 314. 
 Roumanian Gypsies, 383. 
 Roumelia, Eastern, created, 314. 
 Roumenes in Hungary, 37. 
 Rudolf of Hapsburg, 270. 
 Ruler of a nation, the, 139. 
 Rus, the, 203. 
 Russia and Armenia, 6. 
 Russia and Austria, 30. 
 Russia and Denmark, 222. 
 Russia and Finland, 88. 
 Russia and Milosch, 349. 
 Russia and Montenegro and Servia, 
 
 314- 
 Russia and Poland, 95. 
 Russia and Sweden, 184. 
 Russia and the Mongols, 123. 
 
 Russia and Turkey, 305. 
 
 Russia, area and population, 87. 
 
 Russia as a sluggish mass, 95. 
 
 Russia, Asiatic, made European, 96. 
 
 Russia before Mongol invasion, 93. 
 
 Russia, by W. R. Morfill, 87. 
 
 Russia intervenes against Hungary, 46. 
 
 Russia introduced to the Danube, 311. 
 
 Russia invades Sweden, 210. 
 
 Russia, press introduced, 95. 
 
 Russia, races in, 92. 
 
 Russia supported by England, 318. 
 
 Russia, the Jews in, 90. 
 
 Russian armies and Roumania, 314. 
 
 Russian army and navy created, 95. 
 
 Russian chronicles, 100. 
 
 Russian difficulties in forming a parlia- 
 ment, 92. 
 
 Russian grammar, printed at Oxford,. 
 96. 
 
 Russian historian, Nestor, 203. 
 
 Russian ignorance of Germany, 54. 
 
 Russian Jews, 369. 
 
 Russian language, 87. 
 
 Russian literature, 99. 
 
 Russian occupation of Armenia, result 
 of, 16. 
 
 Russian peasants tolerant, 91. 
 
 Russian people, 125. 
 
 Russian Poland, 130. 
 
 Russian press, 1 10. 
 
 Russian reviews, no. 
 
 Russian State founded by Swedes, 203.. 
 
 Russian towns, 91. 
 
 Russian tyranny, 129. 
 
 Russians and Poles, feud between, 89. 
 
 Russians defeated by Polish peasants, 
 121. 
 
 Russians, trace of, in Herodotus, 92. 
 
 Russia's physical geography, 91. 
 
 Riitli, meeting of, 270. 
 
 Sacred Sheep, tradition of, 308. 
 
 Said Pasha, 337. 
 
 St. George's Day in Russia, 96. 
 
 Saladin, 335. 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, and Egypt, 340. 
 
 Salmone, H. Anthony — The Ottoman 
 
 Empire, 303. 
 Salvation army in Switzerland, 285. 
 Samaun, Yuri, 90. 
 Samos and ruined Chios, 301. 
 San Stefano Treaty and Armenia, 6. 
 Saracenic literature and art in Egypt, 
 
 335- 
 Sarbievius, 123. 
 " Saudades," 157. 
 Savoy dynasty, 155. 
 Scand countries, union of, 193. 
 
Index. 
 
 411 
 
 Scandinavia, union of, 219. 
 
 Scandinavian dialects, 215. 
 
 Scandinavian history, dawn of, 217. 
 
 Scandinavian Vikings, end of, 204.. 
 
 Scando-Baltic empire, 209. 
 
 Schaffhausen joins Confederation, 273. 
 
 Schidrotvilz, Dr. S., on Austria, 19. 
 
 Schiller on Viennese, 20. 
 
 Schiller's " William Tell," 271. 
 
 Schleswick Holstein, Denmark's los- 
 ing of, 223. 
 
 Schleswick Holstein, the loss of, a gain 
 to Denmark, 226. 
 
 Schools, public, in Germany, 83. 
 
 Schwytz, 267, 270. 
 
 Science in Italy, 151. 
 
 Scotch adventurers in Russia, 95. 
 
 Scotch and Battle of Bannockburn, 
 241. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, in Germany, 78. 
 
 Scott's, Sir Walter, influence on Russian 
 Literature, 107. 
 
 Selim first Khaliph, 305. 
 
 Semiramis of the North, 219. 
 
 Semitic Race, the, in Russia, 90. 
 
 Sempach, Battle of, 272, 279, 286. 
 
 Senate in Belgium, 257. 
 
 Separate states of Switzerland, 268. 
 
 Serb Czar, the last, 343. 
 
 Serb, the, 343. 
 
 Serbs converted to Christianity, 344. 
 
 Serbs retain their nationality through 
 their monasteries, 344. 
 
 Serbs, the early, 343. 
 
 Serfdom abolished in Belgium, 253. 
 
 Servia and Montenegro, t-y J. G. Cotton 
 Minchin, 343. 
 
 Servia and Russia, 349. 
 
 Servia, no poor, 361. 
 
 Servian education, 360. 
 
 Servian government, 355. 
 
 Servian hatred of foreigners, 359. 
 
 Servian labour, 358. 
 
 Servian local government, 357. 
 
 Servian Mayors and Kmets, 357. 
 
 Servian Members of Parliament, 356. 
 
 Servian national debt, 359. 
 
 Servian new press law, 358. 
 
 Servian political parties, 360. 
 
 Servian regents, 360. 
 
 Servian trade guilds, 360. 
 
 Servia's autonomy proclaimed, 349. 
 
 Sevasly, M., on Armenia, 1. 
 
 Sevastopol built, 96. 
 
 Seven Years' War, 247. 
 
 Shakespeare in Germany, 78. 
 
 Shevchenko, Taras, 104. 
 
 Short way with Jews, 364. 
 
 Sigurdsson, Jon, 234. 
 
 Sincerity of Mohammedans, 308. 
 Singer, Rev. S., on The Jews in their 
 
 Relation to other Races, 363. 
 Skupshtina, the, 355. 
 Slav an agriculturist, 91. 
 Slavery in Turkey, 8. 
 Slavs, 88, 92. 
 Slavs, Eastern, 111. 
 Slavs, Western, 111. 
 Smek, author of code of law, 208. 
 Smith, Adam, and Gypsies, 384. 
 Smith, Adam, on Navigation Act, 248. 
 Smith, Bosworth, on the Arabs, 309. 
 Smith's craft and Gypsies, 390. 
 Sobieski, 123. 
 
 Sobieski addressed by a deputy, 125. 
 Social war, the, 68. 
 Soil of Italy classic, 135. 
 Soldier in Spain, 176. 
 Soldier plague in Spain, 177. 
 Sole market, maintenance of, 247. 
 " Solyman the Magnificent," 22. 
 Sonderbund, the, 275. 
 Spain and her colonies, 179. 
 Spain and modern improvements, 168. 
 Spain and Papal authority, 168. 
 Spain and modern influences, 158. 
 Spain and modern progress, 163. 
 Spain and the modern traveller, 158. 
 Spain as Paradise, 157. 
 Spain as she is, 162. 
 Spain, by Mrs. Cztnninghame Graham, 
 
 157. 
 
 Spain in the fifteenth century, 175. 
 
 Spain of French opera, 162. 
 
 Spain, what she might have been, 179. 
 
 Spaniards and time of Philip II., 168. 
 
 Spaniards at home, 165. 
 
 Spaniards of the provinces, 165. 
 
 Spanish aesthetic influence, 170. 
 
 Spanish antique agriculture, 167. 
 
 Spanish beggar, 160. 
 
 Spanish country inns, 164. 
 
 Spanish cuisine, 166. 
 
 Spanish democracy, 170. 
 
 Spanish emigration, 177. 
 
 Spanish freethinker, 169. 
 
 Spanish Government, 176. 
 
 Spanish industrial evolution, 176. 
 
 Spanish infantry, 242. 
 
 Spanish Inquisition, 169. 
 
 Spanish middle class, 176. 
 
 Spanish modern literature, 172. 
 
 Spanish monasteries suppressed, 178. 
 
 Spanish nation, its entirety, 168. 
 
 Spanish peasantry, 170. 
 
 Spanish poets and dramatists, 176. 
 
 Spanish prison, 160. 
 
 Spanish quaint towns, 167. 
 
412 
 
 Index. 
 
 Spanish religious unity, 169. 
 
 Spanish town described, 160. 
 
 Spanish traveller, 163. 
 
 Spanish travelling, 163. 
 
 Spanish want of receptivity, 168. 
 
 Spanish watchmen, 161. 
 
 Spanish women, 166. 
 
 Sphinx, the, 328. 
 
 Stans Convention, 273. 
 
 Starobriadtsi, the, 98. 
 
 Stead's god-like Englishman, 179. 
 
 Stephen Dushan, Emperor of the Serbs, 
 
 344- 
 
 Stephen, King, apostle-saint of Hun- 
 gary, 38. 
 
 Stephen's Kirche, the noblest church in 
 Europe, 22. 
 
 Stileman, Mr., on Greece under Tur- 
 kish rule, 316. 
 
 Stockholm, massacre at, 1520, 208, 220. 
 
 Stoffel, Baron, 54. 
 
 Storthing, the, 187. 
 
 Stuart, Lord Dudley, and Poland, 113. 
 
 Stundish, the, 99. 
 
 Subject races, nature of, 88. 
 
 Suez Canal, 337, 338. 
 
 Suffolk, Duchess of, in Poland, 127. 
 
 Sulaiman, 305. 
 
 Sultan and liberty of trade, 318. 
 
 Sunday afternoon in Vienna, 26. 
 
 Sunday in Germany, 82. 
 
 Sunday schools, drawing taught in, 229. 
 
 Supply in Norway, 190. 
 
 Suppression of monasteries in Spain, 
 178. 
 
 Svendsen, 196. 
 
 Sverdrup, John, 189. 
 
 Sweating in Servia, 359. 
 
 Sweden acquires Norway, 211. 
 
 Sweden and Norway, 205. 
 
 Sweden and Norway, union of, 191. 
 
 Sweden and Russia, 184. 
 
 Sweden, by Eirikr Magnusson, 201. 
 
 Sweden invaded by Russia, 210. 
 
 Sweden loses Finland, 211. 
 
 Sweden, Norway ceded to, 185. 
 
 Sweden slowly Christianised, 202. 
 
 Sweden's apogee, 210. 
 
 Sweden's exports and imports, 214. 
 
 Sweden's first inhabitants, 201. 
 
 Sweden's internal disunion, 207. 
 
 Swedes, 201. 
 
 Swedes found Russian state, 203. 
 
 Swedish constitution, 211. 
 
 Swedish diet, 212. 
 
 Swedish educator, 214. 
 
 Swedish franchise, 212. 
 
 Swedish free trade, 214. 
 
 Swedish freedom, 204. 
 
 Swedish manufactures, 214. 
 
 Swedish mines, 214. 
 
 Swedish monarchy, 21 1. 
 
 Swedish population, 213. 
 
 Swedish railways, 214. 
 
 Swedish salient characteristics, 215. 
 
 Swedish universities, 215. 
 
 Swiss area, 267. 
 
 Swiss at Grandson, 273. 
 
 Swiss cantons, 268. 
 
 Swiss cantons, diversity of government 
 
 in, 277. 
 Swiss civil war, 272. 
 Swiss communes, 285. 
 Swiss constitution, 268. 
 Swiss constitutions, summary of, 276. 
 Swiss Council of States, 276. 
 Swiss differences in religion, race, etc., 
 
 281. 
 Swiss education, 286. 
 Swiss emigration, 286. 
 Swiss Federal Council, 282. 
 Swiss Federal Pact, 274. 
 Swiss history retrospect, 270. 
 Swiss National Council, 275. 
 Swiss nationality, 241. 
 Swiss population, 267. 
 Swiss Referendum, 283. 
 Swiss separate states, 268. 
 Swiss take Aargau, 272. 
 Swiss tourist, 267. 
 Switzerland and Austrian land-steward, 
 
 271. 
 Switzerland and French Revolution, 
 
 274. 
 Switzerland, by Howard Hodgkin, 267. 
 Switzerland in thirteenth century, 270. 
 Switzerland, religious equality in, 285. 
 Switzerland's beginning, 270. 
 Switzerland's early history, 267. 
 Szechenyi, Count, urges reforms in 
 
 Hungary, 44. 
 
 Tatar element in the Russian, 94. 
 Tax on Christians in Armenia, 14. 
 Telos and semi-barbarous Greeks, 297. 
 Theodorovitch, Peter, 358. 
 Thirty Years' War, 23, 58. 
 Thorgny and King of Sweden, 205. 
 " Thousand miles up the Nile," 329. 
 Thrace, education in, 298. 
 Tigranes, reign of, 2. 
 Tithes collection in Armenia, 14. 
 Tolerance of Russian peasant, 91. 
 Tolstoi, Count Leo, 109. 
 Trade between England and Poland, 
 
 127. 
 Trade guilds in Servia, 360. 
 Trade liberty and the Sultan, 318. 
 
Index. 
 
 413 
 
 Trade of ancient Egypt, 333. 
 
 Trade of Belgium, 253. 
 
 Trade of Denmark, 229. 
 
 Trade of Servia, 358. 
 
 Trade of Sweden, 214. 
 
 Tradition of the sacred sheep, 308. 
 
 Transylvania reincorporated into Hun- 
 gary, 45- 
 
 Transylvania, union of eastern counties 
 of Hungary, 41. 
 
 Travelling in Spain, 163. 
 
 Treaty of Bucharest, 311. 
 
 Treaty of Kalmar, 208. 
 
 Treaty of Keil, 184-211. 
 
 Treaty of Nystad, 210. 
 
 Trepoff, General, 125. 
 
 Trial of Moussa Bey, II. 
 
 Tricoupis, Mr., 290, 291. 
 
 Trieste and Southern Tyrol and Italy, 
 144. 
 
 Turco-Tatar races in Russia, 88. 
 
 Turgenieff on German culture, 75. 
 
 Turgueniev, Ivan, 106, 107. 
 
 Turgueniev's, Madame, doctor, 108. 
 
 Turk an alien population, 307. 
 
 Turkey a naval power, 305. 
 
 Turkey and Armenia, 6. 
 
 Turkey and British merchants, 320. 
 
 Turkey and Catherine, 311. 
 
 Turkey and England, 301, 309. 
 
 Turkey and European civilisation, 304. 
 
 Turkey and Greece, 315. 
 
 Turkey and Russia, 305. 
 
 Turkey and the Black Sea, 313. 
 
 Turkey, apogee, 305. 
 
 Turkey, Europeans in, 307. 
 
 Turkey, Greeks in, 293. 
 
 Turkey, Hungary resists the attacks of, 
 33. 
 
 Turkey's apathy for trade, 306. 
 
 Turkey's backward state, 303. 
 
 Turkey's candid friend, 311. 
 
 Turkey's decline, and cause of, 305. 
 
 Turkey's idle words, 7. 
 
 Turkey's lack of national spirit, 303. 
 
 Turkey's lack of unity, 303. 
 
 Turkey's loss of arts, etc. , 306. 
 
 Turkey's modern progress, 303. 
 
 Turkey's public prosecutor, 12. 
 
 Turkey's religious tolerance, 315- 
 
 Turkey's schools, 307. 
 
 Turkey's two populations, 306. 
 
 Turkish blight, 336. 
 
 Turkish conquest of Hungary, 40. 
 
 Turkish government and Chios, 301. 
 
 Turkish soldiers, 315. 
 
 Turkish trade with England, 319. 
 
 Turkish vitality, 314. 
 
 Turks industrious, 303. 
 
 Turner's modern novelist of Russia, 1 10. 
 
 Tuscany's inhabitants, 
 
 Tyranny of Russia, 129. 
 
 Udal laws of Norway, 194. 
 
 Ukraine, burial place of Shevchenko, 
 
 106. 
 Ultimate independence of Jews, 376. 
 Unification and regeneration of Italy, 
 
 141. 
 Unification of Italy, heroes of, 146. 
 Uniformity, 243. 
 Union among Jews, 365. 
 United provinces, republic of, 254. 
 Unity of God, 366. 
 Unity of mankind in Bible, 366. 
 Universities in Italy, 135. 
 Universities of Sweden, 215. 
 University of Cracow, 123. 
 University of Vienna, 23-31. 
 Upsala's temple, 201. 
 Uri and Unterwalden, 267, 270. 
 Uri, Landesgemeinde of, 278. 
 Usurer in Armenia, 15. 
 
 Valdemar the Victorious, 218. 
 
 Valera, 174. 
 
 Van, its depopulation, 12. 
 
 Van, rocks of, I. 
 
 Vandalism, a barrier against, 21. 
 
 Veit Stoss, 123. 
 
 Veliko the Heyduc, 346. 
 
 Verbbczy, Tripartite Institutes of, 40. 
 
 Veto, absolute, in Norway, 188. 
 
 Veto in Denmark, 230. 
 
 Veto in Sweden, 211. 
 
 Veto, suspensive, of king of Sweden, 
 
 185. 
 Vienna and Austria the bulwark of 
 
 Christian Europe, 21. 
 Vienna and "immorality," 25. 
 Vienna and its surrounding country, 26. 
 Vienna in 1848, 25. 
 Vienna, its medical schools, 31. 
 Vienna on Sunday afternoons, 26. 
 Vienna, pleasure-loving, 25. 
 Vienna the "lotus-eating town," 20. 
 Vienna "the pleasure-loving," 22. 
 Vienna, University of, 23, 31. 
 Viennese music-loving people, 31. 
 Vikings, end of, 204. 
 Viking policy, 202. 
 Vikings, the, 181. 
 
 Villainage unknown in Castille, 170. 
 Vitality of the Turk, 314. 
 Vladimir of Kiev, 93. 
 Voronegh, birthplace of Koltsov, 102. 
 
23 1SUU 
 
 414 
 
 Index. 
 
 Waldemar "Day again," 219. 
 
 Waldemar the Great, 218. 
 
 Wallace, Sir Mackenzie, 109. 
 
 Wallace, Sir Mackenzie, on Russia, 97. 
 
 Waller on Turkey, 311. 
 
 Wat Tyler, 238. 
 
 Watchmen in Spain, 161. 
 
 Watering-places in Austria, 31. 
 
 IVathelet, Alfred, on Belgium, 251. 
 
 Westphalia, Peace of, 60. 
 
 White, Sir W., on Moussa Bey's trial, 
 12. 
 
 Whitman, Sidney, on German Culture, 
 69. 
 
 Whitman, Sidney, on Germany Poli- 
 tics, 53. 
 
 WJiy does not the Sick Man die ? by C. 
 D. Collet t, 311. 
 
 Wiesma, Treaty of, 225. 
 
 Will of Peter the Great, III. 
 
 William, Emperor, on Poland, 116. 
 
 William Tell, 271. 
 
 William, the late Emperor of Germany, 
 56. 
 
 William the Silent, 244. 
 Winkelried, Arnold Von, 272. 
 Women in Spain, 166. 
 Women secluded in Russia, 94, 
 Women vote at the Russian Mir, 97. 
 Wordsworth on liberty's two voices, 91. 
 Working men and risings in Poland, 
 
 121. 
 Working man in Belgium, 264. 
 Working man in England, 238. 
 Wycliff, 239. 
 Wycliff and Luther, 245. 
 Wycliff and telescope, 248. 
 
 Yaroslav, first legislator of Russia, 93. 
 Yebb, Professor, on Athens, 291. 
 Ynglingar, 202. 
 Young, Dr., on Rossetta Stone, 334. 
 
 Zadruga, the, 355. 
 
 Zamoyski, Count, 119. 
 
 Zhitov, Madame, on Turgueniev, 107. 
 
 Ziska, John, 238. 
 
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