.^ ^ %..<>^ V"""v<. •.,%"••" v<^-.,.-%, - \# : %. ^^^. .^ ^. A^ ,<><2. .N' ;%.^ ; ■^J^,',# *<^ %^./ *<^ '.7-'s^# ^o'-'^N/ -o"'M\/ ^o^'W^'/ c %.'^^• ,-.>!-^ ■0^ 9^ ^O^ -^6^ :t^\% ^0^ r|PMi|: ^ s •\ it n ^^ * ** '■.% - ^ Q.^ ' >^!lili]ir ^ oS Q o,^' ^^ \^'/^^ O- .K .^^^^ 9^ "/ ». <^ c « ^ .^^-^^ &^ -^ v-> ^ ' » ft ■> ^' :'■" v<-"'.%:'"'^ v^*^.-.,:^''^- v<^^-.,%"-^ v< o'^*^, ;*;•/> 4': ^rf* ^1^1'° ^'^ \^^^ :^\. , V » , N' "^^0^ : *' '"'.^ cP ^' ""'/" %^^^. .- ,^^^ *^ \^ s^ ^0 < %<, ^ . ^ . Edgeworth on Bulls.. 28 Trimmer and Lancaster 30 Parnell and Ireland 33 Methodism 37 Lidian Missions 48 Catholics 62 Methodism 65 Hannah More 70 Professional Education 73 Female Education 79 ' Public Schools 86 Toleration 90 Charles Fox 95 \ Mad Quakers 103 / America 107 Game Laws 116 Botany Bay 122 I Chimneysweepers 131 ' America 137 Ireland 142 Spring Guns 150 Prisons 155 Prisons 162 Persecuting Bishops 172 Botany Bay 179 Game Laws 189 Pag»- Cruel Treatment of untried Prisoners. . . 195' America 202~ Bentham on Fallacies 209 Waterton 219 Man Traps and Spring Guns 227 Hamilton's Method of teaching Languages 233 Counsel for Prisoners 243 Catholics 253 Neckar's Last Views 263 Catteau, Tableau des Etats Danois 270 Thoughts on the Residence of the Clergy 279 Travels from Palestine 281 Letter on the Curates' Salary Bill 283 Proceedings of the Society for the Sup- pression of Vice -. 287 Characters of Fox 292 Observations on the Historical Work of the Right Honoui-able Charles James Fox 295 Disturbances at Madras 304 Bishop of Lincoln's Charge 311 Madame d'Epinay 315 Poor Laws 320 Public Characters of 1801, 1802 328 Anastasius 329 Scarlett's Poor Bill 334 Memoirs of Captain Rock 338 Granby 343 Island of Ceylon 349 Delphine 354 Mission to Ashantee. 356 Wittman's Travels 361. SPEECHES. Speech on the Catholic Claims 365- Speech at the Taunton Reform Meeting. . 369' 7 CONTENTS. Flf> Speefch at Taunton at a Meeting to cele- brate the Accession of King William IV. 372 Speech at Taunton in 1831 on the Reform Bill not being passed 373 Speech respecting the Reform Bill 374 The Ballot 379 First Letter to Archdeacon Singleton. . . . 388 Second Letter to Archdeacon Singleton. . 401 Third Letter to Archdeacon Singleton 408 .Letter on the Character of Sir James - Mackintosh 416 Letter to Lord John Russell 4l8 Sermon on the Duties of the Queen 421 The Lawyer that tempted Christ : a Ser- mon 424 The Judge that smites contrary to the Law: a Sermon 428 A letter to the Electors upon the Catholic Question 432 A Sermon on the Rules of Christian Cha- 445 ^^'O'^Y Peter Plymley's Letters 449 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. DR. PARR.* [Edinburgh Review, 1802.] Ww«ji,nBii has had the good fortune to see Dr. Parr's wig, must have observed, that while it trespasses a little on the orthodox magnitude of perukes in the anterior parts, it scorns even Episcopal limits behind, and swells out into boundless convexity of frizz, the [/.rya. ^clv/xa of barbers, and the terror of the literary world. After the manner of his wig, the Doctorf has constructed his sermon, giving us a discourse of no common length, and subjoining an im- measurable mass of notes, which appear to concern every learned thing, every learned man, and almost every unlearned man since the beginning of the world. For his text, Dr. Parr has chosen Gal. vi. 10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith. After a short preliminary comparison between the dangers of the selfish system, and the modern one of universal benevolence, he divides his sermon into two parts : in the first, examining how far, by the constitution of hu- man nature, and the circumstances of human life, the principles of particular and universal benevolence are compatible : in the last, com- menting on the nature of the charitable institu- tion for which he is preaching. The former part is levelled against the doc- trines of Mr. Godwin ; and, here, Dr. Parr ex- poses, very strongly and happily, the folly of making universal benevolence the immediate motive of our actions. As we consider this, though of no very difficult execution, to be by far the best part of the sermon, we shall very willingly make some extracts from it. "To me it appears, that the modern advo- cates for universal philanthropy have fallen into the error charged upon those who are fas- cinated by a violent and extraordinary fondness for what a celebrated author calls ' some moral * Spital Sermon, preached at Christ Church upon Eas- ter-Tuesday, April 15, 1800. To which are added. Notes by Samuel Park, LL.D. Printed for J. Mawman in the Poultry. 1801. t A great scholar, as rude and violent as most Greek scholars are, unless they happen to he Bishops. He has left nothing behind him worth leavinii : he was rather fitted for the law than the church, and would have be^n a more considerable man, if he had been more knocked about among his equals. He lived with country gen- 'tlemen and clercynien, who flattered and feared him. 2 species.' Some men, it has been remarked, are hurried into romantic adventures, by their excessive admiration of fortitude. Others are actuated by a headstrong zeal for disseminat- ing the true religion. Hence, while the only properties, for which fortitude or zeal can be esteemed, are scarcely discernible, from the enormous bulkiness to which they are swollen, the ends to which alone they can be directed usefully are overlooked or defeated ; the public good is impaired, rather than increased ; and the claims that other virtues equally obligatory have to our notice are totally disregarded. Thus, too, when any dazzling phantoms of universal philanthropy have seized our atten- tion, the objects that formerly engaged it shrink and fade. All considerations of kindred, friends, and countrymen, drop from the mind, during the struggles it makes to grasp the col- lective interests of the species ; and when the association that attached us to them has been dissolved, the notions we have formed of their comparative insignificance will prevent them from recovering, I do not say any hold what- soever, but that strong and lasting hold they once had upon our conviction and our feelings. Universal benevolence, should it, from any strange combination of circumstances, ever become passionate, will, like every other pas- sion, justify itself; and the importunity of its demands to obtain a hearing will be propor- tionate to the weakness of its cause. But what are the consequences 1 A perpetual wrestling for victory between the refinements of sophistry, and the remonstrances of indig- nant nature — the agitations of secret distrust in opinions which gain few or no proselytes, and feelings which excite little or no sympathy — the neglect of all the usual duties, by which social life is preserved or adorned ; and in the pursuit of other duties which are unusual, and indeed imaginary, a succession of airy projects, eager hopes, tumultuous efforts, and galling disappointments, such, in truth, as every wise man foresaw, and a good man would rarely commiserate." In a subsequent part of his sermon, Dr. Parr handles the same topic with equal success. 9 10 WORKS OF THE RE V. SYDNEY SMITH. "The stoics, it has been said, were more successful in weakening the lender affections, than in animating men to the stronger virtues of fortitude and self-command ; and possible it is, that the influence of our modern reform- ers may be greater, in furnishing their disciples with pleas for the neglect of their ordinary duties, than in stimulating their endeavours for the performance of those which are extra- ordinary, and perhaps ideal. If, indeed, the representations we have lately heard of uni- versal philanthropy served only to amuse the fancy of those who approve of them, and to communicate that pleasure which arises from contemplating the magnitude and grandeur of a favourite subject, we might be tempted to smile at them as groundless and harmless. But they tend to debase the dignity, and to weaken the efficacy of those particular affec- tions, for which we have daily and hourly occasion in the events of real life. They tempt us to substitute the ease of speculation, and the pride of dogmatism, for the toil of prac- tice. To a class of artificial and ostentatious sentiments, they give the most dangerous triumph over the genuine and salutary dictates of nature. They delude and inflame our minds with Pharisaical notions of superior wisdom and superior virtue ; and, what is the worst of all, they may be used as ' a cloke to us' for insensibility, where other men feel; and for negligence, where other men act with visible and useful, though limited, effect." In attempting to show the connection be- tween particular and universal benevolence, Dr. Parr does not appear to us to have taken a clear and satisfactory view of the subject. Na- ture impels us both to good and bad actions ; and, even in the former, gives us no measure by which we may prevent them from degenerat- ing into excess. Rapine and revenge are not less natural than parental and filial affection ; which latter class of feelings may themselves be a source of crimes, if they overpower (as they frequently do) the sense of justice. It is not, therefore, a sufficient justification of our actions, that they are natural. We must seek, from our reason, some principle which will enable us to determine what impulses of nature we are to obey, and what we are to resist : such is that of general utility, or, what is the same thing, of universal good ; a principle which sanctifies and limits the more particular aflJections. The duty of a son to a parent, or a parent to a son, is not an ultimate principle of morals, but depends on the principle of univer- sal good, and is only praiseworthy because it is found to promote it. At the same time, our spheres of action and intelligence are so con- fined, that it is better, in a great majority of instances, to suffer our conduct to be guided by those aff'ections which have been long sanc- tioned by the approbation of mankind, than to enter into a process of reasoning, and investi- gate the relation which every trifling event might bear to the general interests of the world. In his principle of universal benevolence, Mr. Godwin is unquestionably right. That it is the grand principle on which all morals rest — that it is the corrective for the excess of all parti- cular aff'ections, we believe to be undeniable : j and he is only erroneous in excluding the par- ticular affections, because, in so doing, he de- prives us of our most powerful means of pro- moting his own principle of universal good; for it is as much as to say, that all the crew ought to have the general welfare of the ship so much at heart that no sailor should ever pull any particular rope, or hand any individual sail. By universal benevolence, we mean, and understand Dr. Parr to mean, not a barren affection for the species, but a desire to pro- mote their real happiness; and of this princi- ple, he thus speaks : " I admit, and I approve of it, as an emotion of which general happiness is the cause, but not as a passion, of which, according to the usual order of human affairs, it could often be the object. I approve of it as a disposition to wish, and, as opportunity may occur, to desire and do good, rather than harm, to those with whom we are quite unconnected." It would appear, from this kind of lan- guage, that a desire of promoting the universal good were a pardonable weakness, rather than a fundamental principle of ethics ; that the particular affections were incapable of excess ; and that they never wanted the corrective of a more generous and exalted feeling. In a sub- sequent part of his sermon, Dr. Parr atones a little for this over-zealous depreciation of the principle of universal benevolence ; but he nowhere states the particular aflfections to derive their value and their limits from their subservience to a more extensive philanthro- py. He does not show us that they exist only as virtues, from their instrumentality in pro- moting the general good ; and that, to preserve their true character, they should be frequently referred to that principle as their proper crite- rion. In the latter part of his sermon, Dr. Parr combats the general objections of Mr. Turgot to all charitable institutions, with considerable vigour and success. To say that an institution is necessarily bad, because it will not always be administered with the same zeal, proves a little too much ; for it is an objection to po- litical and religious, as well as to charitable institutions ; and, from a lively apprehension of the fluctuating characters of those who govern, would leave the world without any government at all. It is better there should be an asylum for the mad, and a hospital for the wounded, if they were to squander away 50 per cent, of their income, than that we should be disgusted with sore limbs, and shocked by straw-crowned monarchs in the streets. All institutions of this kind must suffer the risk of being governed by more or less of probity and talents. The good which one active cha- racter eflfects, and the wise order which he establishes, may outlive him for a long period ; and we all hate each other's crimes, by which we gain nothing, so much, that in proportion as public opinion acquires ascendency in any particular country, every public institution becomes more and more guarantied from abuse. Upon the whole, this sermon is rather the production of what is called a sensible, than of a very acute man ; of a man certainly WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. n more remarkable for his learning than his ori- ginality. It refutes the very refutable positions of Mr. Godwin, without placing the doctrine of benevolence in a clear light ; and it almost leaves us to suppose, that the particular affec- tions are themselves ultimate principles of ac- tion, instead of convenient instruments of a more general principle. The style is such as to give a general im- pression of heaviness to the whole sermon. The Doctor is never simple and natural for a single instant. Every thing smells of the rhe- torician. He never appears to forget himself, or to be hurried by his subject into obvious language. Every expression seems to be the result of artifice and intention ; and as to the worthy dedicatees, the Lord Mayor and Alder- men, unless the sermon be done into English by a person of honour, they may perhaps be flatter- ed by the Doctor's politeness, but they can never be much edified by his meaning. Dr. Parr seems to think, that eloquence consists not in exuberance of beautiful images — not in simple and sublime conceptions — not in the feelings of the passions ; but in a studious ar- rangement of sonorous, exotic, and sesquipedal words: a very ancient error, which corrupts the style of young, and wearies the patience of sensible men. In some of his combinations of words the Doctor is singularly unhappy. We have the din of superficial cavillers, the prancings of giddy ostentation, flattering vanity, hissing scorn, dank clod, &c. &c. &c. The fol- lowing intrusion of a technical word into a pathetic description renders the whole passage almost ludicrous. " Within a few days, mute was the tongue that uttered these celestial sounds, and the hand which signed your indenture lay cold and mo- tionless in the dark and dreary chambers of death." In page 16, Dr. Parr, in speaking of the in- dentures of the hospital, a subject (as we should have thought) little calculated for rhetorical panegyric, says of them— " If the writer of whom I am speaking had perused, as I have, your indentures, and your rules, he would have found in them serious- ness without austerity, earnestness without ex- travagance, good sense without the trickeries of art, good language without the trappings of rhetoric, and the firmness of conscious worth, rather than the prancings of giddy ostenta- tion." The latter member of this eloge would not be wholly unintelligible, if applied to a spirited coach horse; but we have never yet witnessed the phenomenon of a pra7icing indenture. It is not our intention to follow Dr. Parr through the copious and varied learning of his notes ; in the perusal of which we have been as much delighted with the richness of his ac- quisitions, the vigour of his understanding, and the genuine goodness of his heart, as we have been amused with his ludicrous self-import- ance, and the miraculous simplicity of his cha- racter. We would rather recommend it to the Doctor to publish an annual list of worthies, as a kind of stimulus to literary men ; to be in- cluded in which, will unquestionably be con- sidered as great an honour, as for a commoner to be elevated to the peerage. A line of Greek, a line of Latin, or no line at all, subsequent to each name, will distinguish, with sufficient ac- curacy, the shades of merit, and the degree of immortality conferred. Why should Dr. Parr confine this eulogoma- nia to the literary characters of this island alone 1 In the university of Benares, in the lettered kingdom of Ava, among the Mandarins at Pekin, there must, doubtless, be many men who have the eloquence of* Baggoyoc, the feel- ing of Tmaupo;, and the judgment of ilKngof, of whom Dr. Parr might be happy to say, that they have profundity without obscurity — per- spicuity without prolixity — ornament without glare — ters^ess without barrenness — penetra- tion without subtlety — comprehensiveness with- out digression — and a great number of other things without a great number of other things. In spite of 32 pages of very close printing, in defence of the University of Oxford, is it, or is it not true, that very many of its Professors enjoy ample salaries, without reading any lec- tures at all 1 The character of particular col- leges will certainly vary with the character of their governors; but the University of Oxford so far differs from Dr. Parr in the commenda- tion he has bestowed upon its state of public education, that they have, since the publication of his book, we believe, and forty years after Mr. Gibbon's residence, completely abolished their very ludicrous and disgraceful exercises for degrees, and have substituted in their place a system of exertion, and a scale of academical honours, calculated (we are willing to hope) to produce the happiest effects. We were very sorry, in reading Dr. Parr's note on the Universities, to meet with the fol- lowing passage : — " 111 would it become me tamely and silently to acquiesce in the strictures of this formidable accuser upon a seminary to which I owe many obligations, though I left it, as must not be dis- sembled, before the usual time, and, in truth, had been almost compelled to leave it, not by the want of proper education, for I had arrived at the first place in the first form of Harrow School, when I was not quite fourteen — not by the want of useful tutors, for mine were emi- nently able, and to me had been uniformly kind — not by the want of ambition, for I had begun to look up ardently and anxiously to academical distinctions — not by the want of at- tachment to the place, for I regarded it then, as I continue to regard it now, with the fondest and most unfeigned affection — but by another want, which it were unnecessary to name, and for the supply of which, after some hesitation, I determined to provide by patient toil and re- solute self-denial, when I had not completed my twentieth year. I ceased, therefore, to re- side, with an aching heart : I looked back with mingled feelings of regret and humiliation to advantages of which I could no longer partake, and honours to which I could no longer aspire." To those who know the truly honourable * VlavTes liiv " A young man, of the name of S. C , grandson to a late eminent Dissenting minister, and brought up by him, came to reside at K g, about the year 1803. He attended at the Baptist place of worship, not only on the Lord's day, but frequently at the week-day lectures and prayer-meetings. He was sup- posed by some to be seriously inclined ; but his opinion of himself was, that he had never experienced that divine change, without which no man can be saved. " However that might be, there is reason to helieve he had been for some years under powerful convictions of his miserable condi- tion as a sinner. In June, 1806, these convic- tions were observed to increase, and that in a more than common degree. From that time he went into no company ; but, when he was not at work, kept in his chamber, where he was employed in singing plaintive hymns, and bewailing his lost and perishing state. " He had about him several religious peo- ple ; but could not be induced to open his mind to them, or to impart to any one the cause of his distress. Whether this contributed to in- crease it or not, it did increase, till his health was greatly affected by it, and he was scarce- ly able to work at his business. " While he was at meeting on Lord's day, September 14th, he was observed to labour under very great emotion of mind, especially when he heard the following words : ' Sinner, if you die without an interest in Christ, you will sink into the regions of eternal death.' " On the Saturday evening following, he in- timated to the mistress of the house where he lodged, that some awful judgment was about to come upon him ; and as he should not be able to be at meeting next day, requested that an attendant might be procured to stay with him. She replied, that she would herself stay at home, and wait upon him ; which she did. " On the Lord's day he was in great agony of mind. His mother was sent for, and some religious friends visited him ; but all was of no avail. That night was a night dreadful beyond conception. The horror which he en- dured brought on all the symptoms of raging madness. He desired the attendants not to come near him, lest they should be burnt. He said that 'the bed-curtains were in flames, — that he smelt the brimstone, — that devils were come to fetch him, — that there was no hope for him, for that he had sinned against light and conviction, and that he should certainly go to hell.' It was with difficulty he| could be kept in bed. " An apothecary being sent for, as soon as he entered the house, and heard his dreadful bowlings, he inquired if he had not been bitten by a mad dog. His appearance, likewise, seemed to justify such a suspicion, his coun- tenance resembling that of a wild beast more than of a man. " Though he had no feverish heat, yet his pulse beat above 150 in a minute. To abate the mania, a quantity of blood was taken from him, a blister was applied, his head was shaved, cold water was copiously poured over him, and fox-glove was administered. By these means his fury was abated ; but his mental agony continued, and all the symptoms of madness which his bodily strength, thus re- duced, would allow, till the following Thurs- day. On that day he seemed to have recovered his reason, and to be calm in his mind. In the evening he sent for the apothecary; and wished to speak with him by himself. The latter, on his coming, desired every one to leave the room, and thus addressed him: ' C , have you not something on your mindV 'Ay,' answered he, ' thai is it .'' He then acknowledged that, early in the month of June, he had gone to a fair in the neigh- bourhood, in company with a number of wicked young men : that they drank at a public-house together till he was in a measure intoxicated ; and that from thence they went into other com- pany, where he was criminally connected with a harlot. ' I have been a miserable creature,' continued he, ' ever since ; but during the last three days and three nights, I have been in a §tate of desperation.' He intimated to the apothecary, that he could not bear to tell this story to his minister : ' But,' said he, ' do you inform him that I shall not die in despair ; for light has broken in upon me ; I have been led to the great Sacrifice for sin, and I now hope in him for salvation.' " From this time his mental distress ceased, his countenance became placid, and his con- versation, instead of being taken up as before with fearful exclamations concerning devils and the wrath to come, was now confined to the dying love of Jesus ! The apothecary was of opinion, that if his strength had not been so much exhausted, he would now have been in a state of religious transport. His nervous system, however, had received such a shock, that his recovery was doubtful ; and it seemed certain, that if he did recover, he would sink into a state of idiocy. He survived this inter- view but a few days."— -Bt>. Mag. p. 412, 413. A religious observer stands at a turnpike gate on a Sunday, to witness the profane crowd passing by ; he sees a man driving very clum- sily in a gig ; the inexperience of the driver provokes the following pious observations. " ' What (said I to myself) if a single un- toward circumstance should happen ! Should the horse take fright, or the wheel on either side get entangled, or the gig upset, — in either case what can preserve themi And should a morning so fair and promising bring on evil WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 41 before night, — should death on his pale horse ■appear, — what follows 1 My mind shuddered at the images I had raised.' " — Ev. Mag. p. 558, 559. Miss Louisa Cooke's rapturous state. " From this period she lived chiefly in retire- ment, either in reading the sacred volume on her knees, or in pouring out her soul in prayer to God. While thus employed, she was not unfrequently indulged with visits from her gracious Lord ; and sometimes she felt herself to be surrounded, as it were, by his glorious presence. After her return to Bristol, her frame of mind became so heavenly, that she seemed often to be dissolved in the love of God her Saviour." — Ev. Mag. p. 576, 577. Objection to Almanacks. " Let those who have been partial to such vain productions, only read Isaiah xlvii. 13, . and Daniel ii. 27 ; and they will here see what they are to be accounted of, and in what com- pany they are to be found; and let them learn to despise their equivocal and artful insinua- tions, which are too frequently blended with profanity ; for is it not profanity in them to at- tempt to palm their frauds xtpon mankind by Scripture quotations, which they seldom fail to do, especially Judges v. 20, and Job xxxviii. 31 1 neither of which teaches nor warrants any such practice. Had Baruch or Deborah consulted the stars 1 No such thing." — Ev. Mag. p. 600. This energy of feeling will be found occa- sionally to meddle with, and disturb the ordi- nary occupations and amusements of life, and to raise up little qualms of conscience, which, instead of exciting respect, border, we fear, somewhat too closely upon the ludicrous. A Methodist Footman. " A gentleman's servant, who has left a good place because he was ordered to deny his mas- ter when actually at home, wishes something on this subject may be introduced into this work, that persons who are in the habit of denying themselves in the above manner may be convinced of its evil." — Ev. Mag. p. 72. Doubts if it is right to take aiiy ititerest for money. " Usury. — Sir, I beg the favour of you to in- sert the following case of conscience. I fre- quently find in Scripture, that Usury is parti- cularly condemned; and it is represented as the character of a good man, that ' he hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase,' Ezek. xviii. 8, &c. I wish, there- fore, to know how such passages are to be un- derstood ; and whether the taking of interest for money, as it is universally practised among us, can be reconciled with the word and will of God? q:'—Ev. Mag. p. 74. Dancing ill suited to a creature on trial for eternity " If dancing be a waste of time ; if the pre- cious hours devoted to it may be better em- ployed; if it be a species of trifling ill suited to a creature on trial for eternity, and hasten- ing towards it on the swift wings of time ; if it .'he incompatible with genuine renentance, true 6 faith in Christ, supreme love to God, and a state of genuine devotedness to him, — then is dancing a practice utterly opposed to the whole spirit and temper of Christianity, and subversive of the best interests of the rising generation." — Meth. Mag. p. 127, 128. The Methodists consider themselves as con- stituting a chosen and separate people, living in a land of atheists and voluptuaries. The expressions by which they designate their own sects, are the dear people — the elect — the people of God. The rest of mankind are carnal peo- ple, the people of this world, &c. «&c. The chil- dren of Israel were not more separated, through the favour of God, from the Egyptians, than the Methodists are, in their own estimation, from the rest of mankind. We had hitherto supposed that the disciples of the Established churches in England and Scotland had been Christians ; and that, after baptism, duly per- formed by the appointed minister, and partici- pation in the customary worship of these two churches, Christianity was the religion of which they were to be considered as mem- bers. We see, however, in these publications, men of twenty or thirty years of age first called to a knowledge of Christ tmder a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Venn, — or first admitted into the church of Christ under a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Romaine. The apparent admission turns out to have been a mere mockery; and the pseudo-christian to have had no religion at all, till the business was really and efiectually done under these sermons by Mr. Venn and Mr. Romaine. An aioful and general departure from the Christian Faith in the Church of England. "A second volume of Mr. Cooper's sermons is before us, stamped with the same broad seal of truth and excellence as the former. Amidst the awful and general departure from the faith, as once delivered to the saints, in the Church of England, and sealed by the blood of our Reformers, it is pleasing to observe that there is a remnant, according to the election of grace, who continue rising up to testify the gospel of the grace of God, and to call back their fellows to the consideration of the great and leading doctrines on which the Reformation was built, and the Church of England by law established. The author of these sermons, avoiding all matters of more doubtful disputation, avowedly attaches himself to the great fundamental truths ; and on the two substantial pillars, the Jachin and Boaz of the living temple, erects his superstructure. 1. Justification by faith, without works, free and full, by grace alone, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, stands at the commencement of the first volume ; and on its side rises in the beauty of holiness," &c. — Ev. Mag. p. 79. Mr. Robinson called to the knowledge of Christ under Mr. Venn's Sermon. " Mr. Robinson was called in early life to the knowledge of Christ, under a sermon at St. Dunstan's, by the late Rev. Mr. Venn, from Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26 ; the remembrance of which greatly refreshed his soul upon his death- bed."— Er. Mag p. 176. D 2 42 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Christianity intrndvced into the Parish of Launton, near Bicester, in the year 1807. "Avery general spirit of inquiry having ap- peared for some time in the village of Launton, near Bicester, some serious persons were ex- cited to communicate to them the word of life." Ev. Mag. p. 380. We learn in page 128, Meth. Mag., that twelve months had elapsed from the time of Mrs. Cocker's joining the people of God, before she obtained a clear sense of forgiveness. A religi(m.s Hoy sets off every week for Margate. "Religious Passengers accommodated. — To the Editor. — Sir, it afforded me considerable plea- sure to see upon the cover of your Magazine for the present month, an advertisement, an- nouncing the establishment of a packet, to sail weekly between London and Margate, during the season ; which appears to have been set on foot for the accommodation of religious cha- racters; and in which 'no profane conversa- tion is to be allowed.' " To those among the followers of a crucified Redeemer, who are in the habit of visiting the Isle of Thanet in the summer, and who, for the sea air, or from other circumstances, prefer travelling by water, such a conveyance must certainly be a desideratum, especially if they have experienced a mortification similar to that of the writer, in the course of the last summer, when shut up in a cabin with a mixed multi- tude, who spake almost all languages but that of Canaan. Totally unconnected with the con- cern, and personally a stranger to the worthy owner, I take the liberty of recommending this vessel to the notice of my fellow-Christians ; persuaded that they will think themselves bound to patronise and encourage an undertaking that has the honour of the dear Redeemer for its professed object. It ought ever to be remem- bered, that every talent we possess, whether large or small, is given us in trust to be laid out for God ; — and I have often thought that Christians act inconsistently with their high profession, when they omit, even in their most common and trivial expenditures, to give a decided preference to the friends of their Lord. I do not, however, anticipate any such ground of complaint in this instance ; but rather believe that the religious world in general will cheer- fully unite with me, while I most cordially wish success to the Princess of Wales Yacht, and pray that she may ever sail under the divine protection and blessing ;— that the humble fol- lowers of Him who spoke the storm into a calm, when crossing the lake of Gennesareth, may often feel their hearts glowing with sacred ardour, while in her cibins they enjoy sweet communion with their Lord and with each other; — and that strangers, who may be provi- dentially brought among them, may see so much of the beauty and excellency of the religion of Jesus exemplified in their conduct and conver- sation, that they may be constrained to say, ' We will go with you, for we perceive that God is with you. — Your God shall be our God, and his people shall henceforth be our chosen companions and associates.' I am, Mr. Editor, your obliged friend and sister in the gospel, E. T."—Ev. Mag. p. 268. A religion? neu-spaper is announced in the Ev. M. for September. — It is said of common newspa- pers, " That they are absorbed in temporal concerns, while the consideration of those which are eternal is postponed ; the business of this life has super- seded the claims of immortality; and the monarchs of the world have engrossed an at- tention which would have been more properly devoted to the Saviour of the universe." It is then stated, " that the columns of this paper {The Instructoi-, price 6rf.) will be supplied by pious reflections ; suitable comments to im- prove the dispensations of Providence will be introduced ; and the whole conducted with an eye to our spiritual, as well as temporal, wel- fare. The work will contain the latest news up to fcur o'clock on the day of publication, together with the most recent religious occur- rences. The prices of stock, and correct market-tables, will also be accurately detailed." Ev. Mag. September Advertisement. The Eclectic Review is also understood to be carried on upon Methodistical principles. Nothing can evince more strongly the influ- ence which Methodism now exercises upon common life, and the fast hold it has got of the people, than the advertisements which are cir- culated every month in these very singular publications. On the cover of a single num- l3er, for example, we have the following : — " Wanted, by Mr. Turner, shoemaker, a steady apprentice ; he will have the privilege of attending the ministry of the gospel ; — a premium expected, p. 3. — Wanted, a serious young woman, as servant of all work, 3. — Wanted, a man of serious character, who can shave, 3. — Wanted, a serious woman to assist in a shop, 3. — A young person in the millinery line wishes to be in a serious family, 4. — Wants a place, a young man who has brewed in a se- rious family, 4. — Ditto, a young woman of evangelical principles, 4. — Wanted, an active serious shopman, 5. — To be sold, an eligible residence, with sixty acres of land; gospel preached in three places within half a mile, 5. — A single gentleman may be accommodated with lodging in a small serious family, 5. — To let, a genteel first floor in an airy situation near the Tabernacle, 6. — Wanted, a governess, of evangelical principles and corresponding cha- racter, 10." The religious vessel we have before spoken of, is thus advertised : — " The Princess of Wales Yacht, J. Chapman, W. Bourn, master, by divine permission, will leave Ralph's Quay every Friday, 11," &c.&c. — July Ev. Mag. After the specimens we have given of these people, any thing which is said of their activity can very easily be credited. The army and navy appear to be particular objects of their attention. " British Navy. — It is with peculiar pleasure we insert the following extract of a letter from the pious chaplain of a man-of-war, to a gen- tleman at Gosport, intimating the power and grace of God manifested towards our brave seamen. " Off Cadiz, Nov. 26, 1806.— My dear friend — A fleet for England found us in the night, and is just going away. I have only to WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 48 tell you that the work of God seems to prosper. Many are under convictions ; — some, I trust, are converted. I preach every night, and am obliged to have a private meeting afterwards with those who wish to speak about their souls. But my own health is suffering much, nor shall I probably be able long to bear it. The ship is like a tabernacle; and really there is much external reformation. Capt. raises no objection. I have near a hundred hearers every night at six o'clock. How unworthy am I !_Pray for us.' "—Ev. Mag. 84. TTie Testimony of a profane Officer to the tcorth of Pious Sailors. "Mr. Editor — In the mouth of two or three witnesses a truth shall be established. I re- cently met with a pleasing confirmation of a narrative, stated sometime since in your Maga- zine. I was surprised by a visit from an old acquaintance of mine the other day, who is now an officer of rank in his Majesty's navy. In the course of conversation, I was shocked at the profane oaths that perpetually interrupted his sentences; and took an opportunity to express my regret that such language should be so common among so valuable a body of men. 'Sir,' said he, still interspersing many solemn imprecations, 'an officer cannot live at sea without swearing; — not one of my men would mind a word without an oath ; it is com- mon sea-language. If we were not to swear, the rascals would take us for lubbers, stare in our faces, and leave us to do our commands ourselves. I never knew but one exception; and that was extraordinary. I declare, believe me 'tis true (suspecting that I might not credit it), there was a set of fellows called Methodists, on board the Victory, Lord Nelson's ship (to be sure he was rather a religious man him- self!), and those men never wanted swearing at. The dogs were the best seamen on board. Every man knew his duty, and every man did his duty. They used to meet together and sing hymns; and nobody dared molest them. The commander would not have suffered it, had they attempted it. They were allowed a mess by themselves ; and never mixed with the other men. I have often heard them singing away myself; and 'tis true, I assure you, but not one of them was either killed or wounded at the battle of Trafalgar, though they did their duty as well as any men. No, not one of the psalm- singing gentry was even hurt ; and there the fellows are swimming away in the Bay of Bis- cay at this very time, singing like the d . They are now under a new commander; 'but still are allowed the same privileges, and mess by themselves. These were the only fellows that ever I knew do their duty without swear- ing ; and I will do them the justice to say they do it.' J. C."—Ev.Mag. p. 119, 120. These people are spread over the face of the whole earth in the shape of missionaries. — Upon the subject of missions we shall say very little or nothing at present, because we reserve it for another article in a subsequent Number. But we cannot help remarking the magnitude of the collections made in favour of the mis- sionaries at the Methodistical chapels, when compared with the collections for any common object of charity in the orthodox churches and chapels. " Religious Tract Society. — A most satisfac- tory report was presented by the committee ; from which it appeared that, since the com- mencement of the institution in the year 1799, upwards of four millions of religious tracts have been issued under the auspices of the society; and that considerably more than one- fourth of that number have been sold during the last year." — Ev. Mag. p. 284. These tracts are dropped in villages by the Methodists, and thus every chance for con- version afforded to the common people. There is a proposal in One of the numbers of the volumes before us, that travellers, for every pound they spend on the road, should fling one shilling's worth of these tracts out of the chaise window; — thus taxing his pleasures at 5 per cent, for the purposes of doing good. "Every Christian who expects the protec- tion and blessing of God ought to take with him as many shillings' worth, at least, of cheap tracts to throw on the road, and leave at inns, as he takes out pounds to expend on himself and family. This is really but a tri- fling sacrifice. It is a highly reasonable one ; and one which God will accept." — Ev. Mag. p. 405. It is part of their policy to have a great change of Ministers. " Same day, the Rev. W. Haward, from Hox- ton Academy, was ordained over the Indepen- dent church at Rendham, Suffolk. Mr. Pic- kles, of Walpole, began with prayer and read- ing; Mr. Price, of Woodbridge, delivered the in- troductory discourse, and asked the questions; Mr. Dennant, of Halesworth, offered the ordi- nation prayer ; Mr. Shufflebottom, of Bungay, gave the charge from Acts xx. 28 ; Mr. Vincent, of Deal, the general prayer; and Mr. Walford, of Yarmouth, preached to the people from 2 Phil. ii. \Q."—Ev. Mag. p. 429. Chapels opened. — "Hambledon, Bucks, Sept, 22. — Eighteen months ago this parish was des- titute of the gospel ; the people have now one of the Rev. G. Collison's students, the Rev. Mr. Eastmead, settled among them. Mr. Eng- lish, of Wooburn, and Mr. Frey, preached on the occasion ; and Mr. Jones, of London, Mr. Churchill, of Henley, Mr. Redford, of Windsor, and Mr. Barratt, now of Petersfield, prayed." — Ev. Mag. p. 533. Methodism in his Majesty's ship Tonnant — A Letter from the Sail-maker. " It is with great satisfaction that I can now inform you God has deigned, in a yet greater degree, to own the weak efforts of his servant to turn many from Satan to himself. Many are called here, as is plain to be seen by their pensive looks and deep sighs. And if they would be obedient to the heavenly call, in- stead of grieving the Spirit of grace, I dare say we should soon have near half the ship's company brought to God. I doubt not, how- ever, but, as I have cast my bread upon the waters, it will be found after many days. Our 13 are now increased to upwards of 30. Surely 44 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. the Lord delighteth not in the death of him that dieXh:'—Meth. Mag. p. 188. It appears, also, from p. 193, Meth. Mag., that the same principles prevail on board his Majesty's ship Sea-horse, 44 guns. And in one part of Evan. Mag. great hopes are enter- tained of the 25th regiment. We believe this is the number; but we quote this fact from memory. We must remember, in addition to these trifling specimens of their active disposition, that the Methodists have found a powerful party in the House of Commons, who, by the neutrality which they affect, and partly adhere to, are courted both by ministers and opposi- tion ; that they have gained complete posses- sion of the India-House ; and under the pre- tence, or perhaps with the serious intention of educating young people for India, will take care to introduce (as much as they dare with- out provoking attention) their own particular tenets. In fact, one thing must always be taken .for granted respecting these people, — that wherever they gain a footing, or whatever be the institutions to which they give birth, proselytism will be their main object; every thing else is a mere instrument — this is their principal aim. When every pi'oselyte is not only an addition to their temporal power, but ■when the act of conversion which gains a vote, saves (as they suppose) a soul from destruc- tion, — it is quite needless to state, that every faculty of their minds will be dedicated to this most important of all temporal and eternal concerns. Their attack upon the Church is not merely confined to publications ; it is generally under- stood that they have a very considerable fund for the purchase of livings, to which, of course, ministers of their own profession are always presented. Upon the foregoing facts, and upon the spi- rit evinced by these extracts, we shall make a few comments. 1. It is obvious that this description of Christians eiitertain very erroneous and dan- gerous notions of the present judgments of God. A belief that Providence interferes in all the little actions of our lives, refers all merit and demerit to bad and good fortune; and causes the successful man to be always con- sidered as a good man, and the unhappy man as the object of divine vengeance. It fur- nishes ignorant and designing men with a power which is sure to be abused : — the cry of a judgment, a judgment, it is always easy to make, but not easy to resist. It encourages the grossest superstitions; for if the Deity rewards and punishes on every slight occa- sion, it is quite impossible, but that such an helpless being as man will set himself at work to discover the will of Heaven in the appear- ances of outward nature, to apply all the phe- nomena of thunder, lightning, wind, and every striking appearance to the regulation of his conduct ; as the poor Methodist, when he rode into Piccadilly in a thunder storm, and ima- gined tliat all the uproar of the elements was a mere hint to him not to preach at Mr. Ro- maine's chapel. Hence a great deal of error, and a great deal of secret misery. This doc- trine of a theocracy must necessarily place an excessive power in the hands of the clergy: it applies so instantly and so tremendously to men's hopes and fears, that it must make the priest omnipotent over the people, as it always has done where it has been established. It has a great tendency to check human exer- tions, and to prevent the employment of those secondary means of effecting an object which Providence has placed in our power. The doctrine of the immediate and perpetual inter- ference of Divine providence is not true. If two men travel the same road, the one to rob, the other to relieve a fellow-creature who is starving; will any but the most fanatic con- tend that they do not both run the same chance of falling over a stone and breaking their legs'! and is it not matter of fact, that the robber often returns safe, and the just man sustains the injur}'? Have not the soundest divines, of both churches, always urged this unequal dis- tribution of good and evil, in the present state, as one of the strongest natural arguments for a future state of retribution 1 Have not they contended, and well, and admirably contend- ed, that the supposition of such a state is ab- solutely necessary to our notion of the justice of God, — absolutely necessary to restore order to that moral confusion which we all observe and deplore in the present world 1 The man who places religion upon a false basis is the greatest enemy to religion. If victory is al- ways to the just and good, — how is the fortune of impious conquerors to be accounted fori Why do they erect dynasties and found fami- lies which last for centuries 1 The reflecting mind whom you have instructed in this man- ner, and for present effect only, naturally comes upon you hereafter with difficulties of this sort ; he finds he has been deceived ; and you will soon discover that, in breeding up a fanatic, you have unwittingly laid the founda- tion of an atheist. The honest and the ortho- dox method is to prepare young people for the world as it actually exists ; to tell them that they will often find vice perfectly successful, virtue exposed to a long train of afilictions ; that they must bear this patiently, and look to another world for its rectification. 2. The second doctrine which it is neces- sary to notice among the Methodists, is the doctrine of inward impulse and emotions, which, it is quite plain, must lead, if univer- sally insisted upon, and preached among the common people, to every species of folly and enormity. When an human being believes that his internal feelings are the monitions of God, and that these monitions must govern his conduct ; and when a great stress is purposely laid upon these inward feehngs in all the dis- courses from the pulpit; it is impossible to say to what a pitch of extravagance mankind may not be carried, under the influence of such dangerous doctrines. 3. The Methodists hate pleasure and amuse- ments ; no theatre, no cards, no dancing, no Punchinello, no dancing dogs, no blind fid- dlers; — all the amusements of the rich and of the poor must disappear wherever these WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 45 gloomy people get a footing. It is not the abuse of pleasure which they attack, but the interspersion of pleasure, however much it is guarded by good sense and moderation ; — it is not only wicked to hear the licentious plays of Congreve, but wicked to hear Henry the Vth, or the School for Scandal : — it is not only dissipated to run about to all the parties in London and Edinburgh, — but dancing is not Jit for a being who is preparing himself fm- Eternity. Ennui, wretchedness, melancholy, groans and sighs, are the offerings which these unhappy men make to a Deity who has covered the earth with gay colours, and scented it with rich perfumes ; and shown us, by the plan and order of his works, that he has given to man something better than a bare existence, and scattered over his creation a thousand superfluous joys, which are totally unnecessary to the mere support of life. 4. The Methodists lay very little stress upon practical righteousness. They do not say to their people, do not be deceitful ; do not be idle ; get rid of your bad passions ; or at least (if they do say these things) they say them very seldom. Not that they preach faith with- out works ; for if they told the people that the}^ might rob and murder M^ith impunity, the civil magistrate must be compelled to interfere with such doctrine ': — but they say a great deal about faith, and very little about works. What are commonly called the mysterious parts of our religion, are brought into the foreground much more than the doctrines which lead to practice ; — and this among the lowest of the ■ community. The Methodists have hitherto been accused of dissenting from the Church of England. This, as far as it relates to mere subscription to articles, is not true ; but they differ in their choice of the articles upon which they dilate and expand, and to which they appear to give a preference, from the stress which they place upon them. There is nothing heretical in say- ing, that God sometimes intervenes with his special providence ; but these people differ from the Established Church, in the degree in which they insist upon this doctrine. In the hands of a man of sense and education, it is a safe doctrine; — in the management of the y Methodists, we have seen how ridiculous and degrading it becomes. In the same manner, a clergyman of the Church of England would not do his duty, if he did not insist upon the necessity of faith, as M^ell as of good works; but as he believes that it is much more easy to give credit to doctrines than to live well, he labours most in those points where human nature is the most liable to prove defective. Be- cause he does so, he is accused of giving up the articles of his faith, by men who have their partialities also in doctrine; but parties, not founded upon the same sound discretion, and knowledge of human nature. 5. The Methodists are always desirous of making men more religious than it is possible, from the constitution of human nature, to make them. If they could succeed as much as they wish to succeed, there would be at once an end of delving and spinning, and of every exertion of human industry. Men must eat, and drink, and work; and if you wish to fix upon them high and elevated notions, as the ordinary fur- niture of their minds, you do these two things : you drive men of warm temperaments mad, — and you introduce in the rest of the world, a low and shocking familiarity with words and images, which every real friend to religion would wish to keep sacred. The friends of the dear Redeemer, who are in the habit of visiting the Isle of Thanet — (as in the extract we have quoted) — Is it possible that this mixture of the most awful with the most familiar images, so common among Methodists now, and with the enthusiasts in the time of Cromwell, must not, in the end, divest religion of all the deep and solemn impressions which it is calculated to produce 1 In a man of common imagination (as we have before observed), the terror, and the feeling which it first excited, must neces- sarily be soon separated: but, where the fer- vour of impression is long preserved, piety ends in Bedlam. Accordingly, there is not a mad-house in England, where a considerable part of the patients have not been driven to insanity by the extravagance of these people. We cannot enter such places without seeing a number of honest artisans, covered with blankets, and calling themselves angels and apostles, who, if they had remained contented with the instruction of men of learning and education, would have been sound masters of their oAvn trade, sober Christians, and useful members of society. 6. It is impossible not to observe how di- rectly all the doctrine of the Methodists is cal- citlated to gain power among the poor and ignorant. To say, that the Deity governs this world by general niles, and that we must wait for another and a final scene of existence, be- fore vice meets with its merited punishment, and virtue with its merited reward; to preach this up daily, would not add a single votary to the Tabernacle, nor sell a Number of the Methodistical Magazine : — but to publish an account of a man who was cured of scrofula by a single sermon — of Providence destroying the innkeeper at Garstang for appointing a cock- fight near the Tabernacle ; — this promptness of judgment and immediate execution is so much like human justice, and so much better adapted to vulgar capacities, that the system is at once admitted as soon as any one can be found who is impudent or ignorant enough to teach it ; and being once admitted, it produces too strong an effect upon the passions to be easily relinquished. The case is the same with the doctrine of inward impulse, or, as they term it, experience. If you preach up to ploughmen and artisans, that every singular feeling which comes across them is a visita- tion of the Divine Spirit — can there be any difficulty, under the influence of this nonsense, in converting these simple creatures into ac- tive and mysterious fools, and making them your slaves for life ? It is not possible to raise up any dangerous enthusiasm, by telling men to be just, and good, and charitable ; but keep this part of Christianity out of sight — and talk long and enthusiastically before igno- rant people, of the mysteries of our religion, and you will not fail to attract a crowd of fol- 46 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. lowers :^verily the Tabernacle loveth not that ! which is simple, intelligible, and leadeth to good sound practice. Having endeavoured to point out the spirit which pervades these people, we shall say a few words upon the causes, the eflfects, and the cure of this calamity. — The fanaticism so prevalent in the present day, is one of those evils from which society is never wholly ex- empt ; but which bursts out at different periods, with peculiar violence, and sometimes over- whelms every thing in its course. The last eruption took place about a century and a half ago, and destroyed both Church and Throne with its tremendous force. Though irresistible, it was short; enthusiasm spent its force — the usual reaction took place ; and England was deluged with ribaldry and inde- cency, because it had been worried with fana- tical restrictions. By degrees, however, it was found out that orthodoxy and loyalty might be secured by other methods than licentious con- duct and immodest conversation. The public morals improved ; and there appeared as much good sense and moderation upon the subject of religion as ever can be expected from mankind in large masses. Still, hovv'- ever, the mischief which the Puritans had done was not forgotten ; a general suspicion prevailed of the dangers of religious enthusi- asm ; and the fanatical preacher wanted his accustomed power among a people recently recovered from a religious war, and guarded by songs, proverbs, popular stories, and the general tide of humour and ojiinion, against all excesses of that nature. About the middle of the last century, however, the character of the genuine fanatic was a good deal forgotten, and the memory of the civil wars worn away; the field was clear for extravagance in piety; and causes, which must always produce an immense influence upon the mind of man, were left to their own unimpeded operations. Religion is so noble and powerful a consider- ation — it is so buoyant and so insubmergi- ble — that it may be made, by fanatics, to carry with it any degree of error and of perilous absurdity. In this instance Messrs. Whitefield and Wesley happened to begin. They were men of considerable talents ; they observed the common decorums of life ; they did not run naked into the streets, or pretend to the pro- phetical character ; — and therefore they were not committed to Newgate. They preached with great energy to weak people ; who first stared — then listened — then believed — then felt the inward feeling of grace, and became as foolish as their teachers could possibly wish them to be ; — in short, folly ran its ancient course, — and human nature evinced itself to be what it always has been under similar cir- cumstances. The great and permanent cause, therefore, of the increase of Methodism, is the cause which has given birth to fanaticism in all ages, — the facility of mingling human errors with the fundamental truths of religion. The formerly impei'fect residence of the clergy may, perhaps, in some trifling degree, have aided this source of Methodism. But unless a man of education, and a gentleman, could stoop to such disingenuous arts as the Metho- dist preachers, unless he hears heavenly music all of a sudden, and enjoys sweet experiences, — it is quite impossible that he can contend against such artists as these. More active than they are at present the clergy might per- haps be : but .the calmness and moderation of an Establishment can never possibly be a match for sectarian activity. — If the common people are ennui'd with the fine acting of Mrs. Siddons, they go to Sadler's Wells. The sub- ject is too serious for ludicrous comparisons : — but the Tabernacle really is to the Church, what Sadler's Wells is to the Drama. There popularity is gained by vaulting and tumbling, — by low arts, which the regular clergy are not too idle to have recourse to, but too digni- fied : their institutions are chaste and severe, — they endeavour to do that which, tcpon the whole, arid for a great number of years, will be found to be the most admirable and the most useful: it is no part of their plan to descend to small artifices for the sake of present popu- larity and effect. The religion of the common people under the government of the Church may remain as it is for ever; — enthusiasm must be progressive, or it will expire. It is probable that the dreadful scenes which have lately been acted in the world, and the dangers to which we are exposed, have increased the numbers of the Methodists. To what degree will Methodism extend in this country] — This question is not easy to an- swer. That it has rapidly increased within these few years, we have no manner of doubt ; and we confess we cannot see what is likely to impede its progress. The party which it has formed in the legislature ; and the artful neutrality with which they give respectability to their small number, the talents of some of this party, and the unimpeached excellence of their characters, all make it probable that fanaticism will increase rather than diminish. The Methodists have made an alarming inroad into the Church, and they are attacking the army and navy. The principality of Wales, and the East India Company, they have already acquired. All mines and subterraneous places belong to them ; they creep into hospitals and small schools, and so work their way upwards. It is the custom of the religious neutrals to beg all the little livings, particularly in the north of England, from the minister for the time being ; and from these fixed points they make incursions upon the happiness and common sense of the vicinage. We most sincerely deprecate such an event; but it will excite in us no manner of surprise, if a period arrives when the churches of the sober and orthodox part of the English clergy are completely de- serted by the middling and lower classes of the community. We do not prophesy any such event ; but we contend that it is not im- possible, — hardly improbable. If such, in fu- ture, should be the situation of this country, it is impossible to say what political animosities may not be ingrafted upon this marked and dangerous division of mankind into the godl^/ and the ungodly. At all events, we are quite sure that happiness will be destroyed, reason degraded, sound religion banished from the world ; and that when fanaticism becomes too WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 47 foolish and too prurient to be endured, (as is at last sure to be the case,) it will be suc- ceeded by a long period of the grossest immo- rality, atheism, and debauchery. We are not sure that this evil admits of any cure, — or of any considerable palliation. We most sincerely hope that the government of this country will never be guilty of such in- discretion as to tamper with the Toleration Act, or to attempt to put down these follies by the intervention of the law. If experience has taught us any thing, it is the absurdity of con- trolling men's notions of eternity by acts of Parliament. Something may perhaps be done, in the way of ridicule, towards turning the popular opinion. It may be as well to ex- tend the privileges of the dissenters to the members of the Church of England; for, as the law now stands, any man who dissents from the established church may open a place of worship where he pleases. No orthodox cler- gyman can do so, without the consent of the parson of the parish, — who always refuses, because he does not choose to have his mono- poly disturbed ; and refuses in parishes where there are not accommodations for one half of the persons who wish to frequent the Church of England, and in instances where he knows that the chapels from which he excludes the established worship will be immediately oc- cupied by sectaries. It may be as well to en- courage in the early education of the clergy, as Mr. Ingram recommends, a better and more animated method of preaching; and it may be necessary, hereafter, if the evil gets to a great height, to relax the articles of the English Church, and to admit a greater variety of Christians within the pale. The greatest and best of all remedies is perhaps the education of the poor ; — we are astonished, that the Es- tablished Church of England is not awake to this mean of arresting the progress of Method- ism. Of course, none of these things will be done ; nor i^s it dear, if they were done, they would do much good. Whatever happens, we are for common sense and orthodoxy. Inso- lence, servile politics, and the spirit of perse-' cution, we condemn and attack, whenever we observe them ; — but to the learning, the mode- ration, and the rational piety of the Establish- ment, we most earnestly wish a decided vic- tory over the nonsense, the melancholy, and the madness of the Tabernacle.* God send that our wishes be not in vain. * There is one circumstance to which we have neglect- ed to advert in the proper place, — the dreadful pillage of the earnings of the poor which is made by the Methodists. A case is mentioned in ope of the Numbers of these two magazines for 1807, of a poor man with a family, earn- ing only twenty-eight shillings a week, who has made Ubo donations of ten guineas each to the missionary fund I 48 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. INDIAN MISSIONS.* (Edinburgh Review, 1808.) At two o'clock in the morning, July the 10th, 1806, the European barracks, at Vellore, con- taining then four complete companies of the 69th regiment, were surrounded by two battal- ions of Sepoys in the Company's service, who poured in an heavy fire of musketry, at every door and window, upon the soldiers: at the same time the European sentries, the soldiers at the main-guard, and the sick in the hospital, were put to death; the officers' houses were ransacked, and every body found in them mur- dered. Upon the arrival of the 19th Light Dragoons under Colonel Gillespie, the Sepoys were immediately attacked ; 600 cut down upon the spot; and 200 taken from their hiding places, and shot. There perished, of the four European companies, about 164, besides offi- cers ; and many British officers of the native troops were murdered by the insurgents. Subsequent to this explosion, there was a mutiny at Nundydroog ; and, in one day, 450 Mahomedan Sepoys were disarmed, and turned out of the fort, on ihe ground of an intended massacre. It appeared, also, from the infor- mation of the commanding officer at Tritchi- nopoly, that, at that period, a spirit of disaffec- tion had manifested itself at Bangalore, and other places; and seemed to gain ground in every direction. On the 3d of December, 1806, the government of Madras issued the follow- ing proclamation : — «A Proclamation. — The Right Hon. the Governor in Council, having observed that, in some late instances, an extraordinary degree of agitation has prevailed among several corps of the native army of this coast, it has been his Lordship's particular endeavour to ascertain the motives which may have led to conduct so different from that which formerly distinguished the native army. From this inquiry, it has appeared that many persons of evil intention have endeavoured, for malicious purposes, to impress upon the native troops a belief that it is the wish of the British govern- * Considerations ore the Policy of communicating the Knowledge of Christianity to the J^atioes in India. By a late Resident in Benffal. London. Hatchard, 1807. .471 Address to the Chairman of the East India Com- pany occasioned by Mr Tmining^a Letter to that Oenlle- man. By tlie Kev. John Owen. London. Hatchard. j9 Letter to the Chairman of the East India Company, on the Danger of interfering in the religious Opinions of the JVatives of India. By Thomas Twining. London. Ridgeway. Vindication of the Hindoos. By a Bengal Officer. London. Rodwell Letter to John Scott Waring. London. Hatchard. Cunningham'' s Christianity in India. London. Hatch- ard. Answer to Major Scott Waring. Extracted from the Christian Observer. Observations on the Present State of the East India Company. By Major Scott Waring. Ridgeway. Lon- don. ment to convert them by forcible means to Christianity ; and his Lordship in Council has observed with concern, that such malicious reports have been believed by many of the native troops. " The Right Hon. the Governor in Council, therefore, deems it proper, in this public man- ner, to repeat to the native troops his assur- ance, that the same respect which has been invariably shown by the British government for their religion and for their customs, will be always continued; and that no interruption will be given to any native, whether Hindoo or Mussulman, in the practice of his religious ceremonies. " His Lordship in Council desires that the native troops will not give belief to the idle rumours which are circulated by enemies of their happiness, who endeavour, with the basest designs, to weaken the confidence of the troops in the British government. His Lordship in Council desires that the native troops will re- member the constant attention and humanity which have been shown by the British govern- ment, in providing for their comfort, by aug- menting the pay of the native officers and Sepoys ; by allowing liberal pensions to those who have done their duty faithfully; by mak- ing ample provisions for the families of those who may have died in battle ; and by receiving their children into the service of the Honour- able Company, to be treated with the same care and bounty as their fathers had experienced. "The Right Hon. the Governor in Council trusts, that the native troops, remembering these circumstances, will be sensible of the happiness of their situation, which is greater than what the troops of any other part of the world enjoy; and that they will continue to observe the same good conduct for which they were distinguished in the days of Gen. Law- rence, of Sir Eyre Coote, and of other renowned heroes. " The native troops must at the same time be sensible, that if they should fail in the duties of their allegiance, and should show themselves disobedient to their officers, their conduct will not fail to receive merited punishment, as the British government is not less prepared to punish the guilty, than to protect and distin- guish those who are deserving of its favour. "It is directed that this paper be translated with care into the Tamul, Telinga, and Hin- doostany languages; and that copies of it be circulated to each native battalion, of which the European officers are enjoined and ordered to be careful in making it known to every na- tive officer and Sepoy under his command. " It is also directed, that copies of the paper be circulated to all the magistrates and collect- ors under this government, for the purpose of WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 49 being fully understood in all parts of the country. " Published by order of the Right Hon. the Governor in Council. «G. BucHAN, Chief Secretary to Government. "Dated in Fort St. George, 3d Dec. 1806." Scott Waring' s Preface, iii — v. So late as March 1807, three months after the date of this proclamation, so universal was the dread of a general revolt among the native troops, that the British officers attached to the native troops constantly slept with loaded pis- tols under their pillows. It appears that an attempt had been made by the military men at Madras, to change the shape of the Sepoy turban into something resembling the helmet of the light infantry of Europe, and to prevent the native troops from wearing, on their foreheads, the marks cha- racteristic of their various castes. The sons of the late Tippoo, with many noble Mussul- men deprived of office at that time, resided in the fortress of Vellore, and in all probability contributed very materially to excite, or to inflame those suspicions of design against their religion, which are mentioned in the pro- clamation of. the Madras government, and generally known to have been a principal cause of the insurrection at Vellore. It was this insurrection which first gave birth to the question upon missions to India; and before we deliver any opinion upon the subject itself, it will be necessary to state what had been done in former periods towards disseminating the truths of the gospel in India, and what new exertions had been made about the period at which this event took place. More than a century has elapsed since the first Protestant missionaries appeared in India. Two young divines, selected by the University of Halle, were sent out in this capacity by the king of Denmark, and arrived at the Danish settlement of Tranquebar in 1706. The mis- sion thus begun, has been ever since continued, and has been assisted by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge established in this country. The same Society has, for many years, employed German missionaries, of the Lutheran persuasion, for propagating the doctrines of Christianity among the natives of India. In 1799, their number was six; it is now reduced to five. The Scriptures translated into the Tamulic language, which is vernacular in the southern parts of the peninsula, have, for more than half a century, been printed at the Tranquebar press, for the use of Danish missionaries and their converts. A printing press, indeed, was established at that place by the two first Danish missionaries ; and, in 1714, the Gospel of St. Matthew, translated into the dialect of Malabar, was printed there. Not a line of the Scriptures, in any of the languages current on the coast, had issued from the Bengal press on September , 13, 1806. It does appear, however, about the period of the mutiny at Vellore, and a few years previous to it, that the number of the missionaries on the coast had been increased. In 1804, the Missionary Society, a recent institution, sent a new mission to the coast of Coromandel ; from 7 whose papers, we think it right to lay before our readers the following extracts.* " March 3lst, 1805 Waited on A. B. He says, Government seems to be very uxilling to for- ward our views. We may stay at Madras as long as we please ; and when we intend to go into the country, on our application to the governor by letter, he would issue orders for granting us passports, which would supersede the necessity of a public petition. — Lord's Day." — Trans, of Miss. Society, H. p. 365. In a letter from Brother Ringletaube to Bro- ther Cran, he thus expresses himself; — " The passports Government has promised you are so valuable, that I should not think a journey too troublesome to obtain one for my- self, if I could not get it through your inter- ference In hopes that your application will suffice to obtain one for me, I enclose you my Gravesend passport, that will give you the par- ticulars concerning my person." — Trans, of Miss. Society, II. p. 369. They obtain their passports from Govern- ment: and the plan and objects of their mis- sion are printed, free of expense, at the Gov- ernment press. « 1805, June 27, Dr. sent for one of us to consult with him on particular business. He accordingly went. The Doctor told him, that he had read the publications which the brethren lately brought from England, and was so much delighted with the report of the Directors, that he wished 200 or more copies of it were printed, together with an introduction, giving an account of the rise and progress of the Missionary Society, in order to be distri- buted in the different settlements in India. He offered to print them at the Government press free of expense. On his return, we consulted with our two brethren on the subject, and resolved to accept the Doctor's favour. We have begun to prepare it for the press." — Trans, of Miss. Society, II. p. 394. In page 89th of the 18th Number, Vol. III., the Missionaries write thus to the Society in London, about a fortnight before the massacre at Vellore. "Every encouragement is oflfered us by the established government of the country. Hi- therto they have granted us every request, whether solicited by ourselves or others. Their permission to come to this place ; their allow- ing us an acknowledgment for preaching in the fort, which sanctions us in our work; together with the grant which they have lately given us to hold a large spot of ground every way suited for missionary labours, are objects of the last importance, and remove every impediment which might be apprehended from this source. We trust not to an arm of flesh ; but when we reflect on these things, we cannot but behold the loving kindness of the Lord." * There are six societies in England for converting Heathens in the Christian religion. 1. Society for Mis- sions to Jifrica and tite East ; of whicii Messrs. Wiltier- force, Grant, Parry, and Thorntons, are the principal encouragers. 2. Methodist Society for Missions. 3. Anabaptist Society for Missions. 4. Missionary Soci- ety. 5. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 6. Moravian Missions. They all publish their proceed- ings. ^ 50 WORKS OF THE In a letter of the same date, we learn, from Brother Ringletaube. the following fact :— « The Dewan ot Travancore sent me word, that if I despatched one of our Christians to him, he would give me leave to build a church at Magilandy. Accordingly, I shall send in a short time. For this important service, our society is indebted alone to Colonel , without whose determined and fearless interposition, none of their missionaries would have been able to set afoot in that country." In page 381, "Vol. II., Dr. Kerr, one of the chaplains on the Madras establishment, bap- tizes a Mussulman who had applied to him for that purpose ; upon the first application, it appears that Dr. Kerr hesitated ; but upon the Mussulman threatening to rise against him on the day of judgment. Dr. Kerr complies. It appears that in the Tinevelly district, about a year before the massacre of Vellore, not only riots, but very serious persecutions of the converted natives had taken place, from the jealousy evinced by the Hindoos and Mus- sulmen at the progress of the gospel. " ' Rev. Sir, — I thought you sufficiently ac- quainted with the late vexations of the Chris- tians in those parts, arising from the blind zeal of the Heathens and Mahometans ; the latter viewing with a jealous eye the progress of the gospel, and trying to destroy, or at least to clog it, by all the crafty means in their power. I therefore did not choose to trouble you ; but as no stop has been put to these grievances, things go on from bad to worse, as you will see from what has happened at Hickadoe. The Catechist has providentially escaped from that outra- geous attempt, by the assistance of ten or twelve of our Christians, and has made good his flight to Palamcotta ; whilst the exasperated mob, coming from Padeckepalloe, hovered round the village, plundering the houses of the ■Christians, and ill-treating their families, by kicking, flogging, and other bad usage ; these monsters not even forbearing to attack, strip, rob, and miserably beat the Catechist Jesuadian, who, partly from illness and partly through fear, had shut himself up in his house. I have heard various accounts of this sad event; but yesterday the Catechist himself called on me, and told me the truth of it. From what he says, it is plain that the Manikar of Wayrom (a Black peace-officer ol that p\ace) has con- trived the whole affair, with a view to vex the Christians. I doubt not that these facts have been reported to the Rev. Mr. K. by the country- priest ; and if I mention them to you, it is with a view to show in what a forlorn state the poor Christians hereabout are, and how desirable a thing it would be, if the Rev. Mr. Ringle- taube were to come hither as soon as possible ; then tranquillity would be restored, and future molestations prevented. I request you to com- municate this letter to him with my compli- ments. I am, sir, &c. Manapaar, June 8, 1805.' " This letter left a deep impression on my mind, especially when I received a fuller ac- count of the troubles of the Christians. By the Black underlings of the Collectors, they are frequently driven from their homes, put in the stocks, and exposed for a fortnight together to REV. SYDNEY SMITH. \ the heat of the raging sun, and the chilling dews of the night, all because there is no European Missionary to bring their ocmplaints to the ear of Government, who, I am happy to add, have never been deficient in their duty of procuring redress, where the Christians have had to complain of real injuries. One of the most trying cases, mentioned in a postscript of the above letter, is that of Christians being flogged till they consent to hold the torches to the Heathen idols. The letter says ' the Cat- echist of Collesigrapatuam has informed me, that the above Manikar has forced a Christian, of the Villally caste, who attends at our church, to sweep the temple of the idol. A severe flog- ging was given on this occasion.' — From such facts, the postscript continues, ' You may guess at the deplorable situation of our fellow- believers, as long as every Manikar thinks he has a right to do them what violence he pleases.' " It must be observed, to the glory of the Sa- viour who is strong in weakness, that many of the Neophytes in that district have withstood all these fiery trials with firmness. Many also, it is to be lamented, have fallen off in the evil day, and at least so far yielded to the importu- nity of their persecutors, as again to daub their faces with paint and ashes, after the man- ner of the Heathen. How great this falling off has been I am not yet able to judge. But I am happy to add, that the Board of Revenue has issued the strictest orders against all un- provoked persecution." — Trans, of Miss. Society, 11.431, 433. The following quotations evince how far from indifferent the natives are to the progress of the Christian religion in the East. " 1805. Oct. 10. — A respectable Brahmin in the Company's employ called on us. We endea- voured to point out to him the important object of our coming to India, and mentioned some of the great and glorious truths of the gospel, which we wished to impart in the native lan- guage. He seemed much hurt, and told us the Gentoo religion was of a divine origin as well as the Christian ; — that heaven was like a palace which had many doors, at which peo- ple may enter ; — that variety is pleasing to God, &c. — and a number of other arguments which we hear every day. On taking leave, he said, ' the Company has got the country, (for the English are very clever,) and, perhaps, they may succeed in depriving the Brahmins of their power, and let you have it.' " " November \&th. Received a letter from the Rev. Dr. Taylor; we are happy to find he is safely arrived at Calcutta, and that our Baptist brethren are labouring with increasing success. The natives around us are astonished to hear this news. It is bad news to the Brahmins, who seem u*able to account for it ; they say the world is going to ruin." — Trans, of Miss. So- ciety, II. 422 & 426. " While living in the town, our house was watched by the natives from morning to night, to see if any person came to converse about religion. This prevented many from coming who have been very desirous of hearing of the good way." — Trans, of Miss. Society, No. 16, p. 87. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 51 "If Heathen, of great influence and connec- tions, or Brahmins, were inclined to join the Christian church, it would probably cause commotions and even rebellions, either to pre- vent them from it, or to endanger their life. In former years, we had some instances of this kind at Tranquebar ; where they were protect- ed by the assistance of government If such instances should happen now in our present times, we don't know what the consequence would be." — Trans, of Miss. Society, II. 185. This last extract is contained in a letter from Danish Missionaries at Tranquebar, to the Directors of the Missionary Society at London. It is hardly fair to contend, after these ex- tracts, that no symptoms of jealousy upon the subject of religion had been evinced on the coast, except in the case of the insurrection at Vellore ; or that no greater activity than com- mon had prevailed among the missionaries. We are very far, however, from attributing that insurrection exclusively, or even principally, to any apprehensions from the zeal of the mis- sionaries. The rumor of that zeal might pro- bably have more readily disposed the minds of the troops for the corrupt influence exercised upon them ; but we have no doubt that the massacre was principally owing to the adroit use made by the sons of Tippoo, and the high Mussulmen living in the fortress, of the abomi- nable military foppery of our people. After this short sketch of what has been laiely passing on the coast, we shall attempt to give a similar account of the missionary pro- ceedings in Bengal ; and it appears to us, it will be more satisfactory to do so as much as possible in the words of the missionaries them- selves. In our extracts from their publications, we shall endeavour to show the character and style of the men employed in these missions, the extent of their success, or rather of their failure, and the general impression made upon the people by their efforts for the dissemination of the gospel. It will be necessary to premise, that the mis- sions in Bengal, of which the public have heard so much of late years, are the mis- sions of Anabaptist dissenters, whose peculiar and distinguishing tenet it is, to baptize the members of their church by plunging them into the water when they are grown up, instead of sprinkling them with water when they are young. Among the subscribers to this society, we perceive the respectable name of the De- puty Chairman of the East India Company, who, in the common routine of office, will suc- ceed to the chair of that Company at the en- suing election. The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the East India Company, are also both of them trustees to another religious so- ciety for missions to .Africa and the East. The first number of the .Anabaptist Missions informs us that the origin of the societv will be found in the workings of Brother Carey^s mind, whose heart appears to have been set upon the con- version of the Heathen in 1786, before he came to re- side at Moulton. (No. I. p. 1.) These workings produced a sermon at Northampton, and the sermon a subscription to convert 420 millions of Pagans. Of the subscription we have the following account : " Information has come from Brother Carey that a gentleman from Northumberland had promised to send him 30i. for the Society, and to subscribe four guineas annually." " At this meeting at Northampton two other friends subscribed, and paid two guineas apiece, two more one guinea each, and another half a guinea, making six guineas and a half in all. And such members as were present of the first subscribers, paid their subscriptions into the hands of the treasurer; who proposed to put the sum now received into the hands of a banker, who will pay interest for the same.** —Bapt. Mis. Soc. No. I. p. 5. In their first proceedings they are a good deal guided by Brother Thomas, who has been in Bengal before, and who lays before the Society an history of his life and adventures, from which we make the following extract : — " On my arrival in Calcutta, I sought for re- ligious people, but found none. At last, how was I rejoiced to hear that a very religious man was coming to dine with me at a house in Calcutta ; a man who would not omit his closet hours, of a morning or evening, at sea or on land, for all the world. I concealed my impatience as well as I could, till the joyful moment came : and a moment it was, for I soon heard him take the Lord's name in vain, and it was like a cold dagger, with which I received repeated stabs in the course of half an hour's conversation; and he was ready to kick me when I spoke of some things commonly believed by other hypo- crites, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ; and with fury put an end to our conversation, by saying I was a mad enthusiast, to suppose that Jesus Christ had any thing to do in the creation of the world, who was born only seventeen hundred years ago. When I returned, he went home in the same ship, and I found hira a strict observer of devotional hours, but an enemy to all religion, and horribly loose, vain, and intemperate in his life and conversation. " After this I advertised for a Christian: and that I may not be misunderstood, I shall sub- join a copy of the advertisement, from the Indian Gazette of November 1, 1783, which now lies before me." — Bapt. Mis. Soc. No. I. p. 14, 15. Brother Thcnnas relates the Conversion of an Hindoo on the Malabar Coast to the Society. "A certain man, on the Malabar coast, had inquired of various devotees and priests, how he might make atonement for his sins; and at last he was directed to drive iron spikes, suf- ficiently blunted, through his sandals, and on these spikes he was to place his naked feet, and walk (if I mistake not) 250 coss, that is about 480 miles. If, through loss of blood, or weakness of body, he was obliged to halt, he might wait for healing and strength. He un- dertook the journey ; and while he halted under a large shady tree where the gospel was some- times preached, one of the missionaries came, and preached in his hearing from these words, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanselh from all sin. While he was preaching, the man rose up, threw off his torturing sandals, and cried out aloud, ' This is what I want !' " — Bapt, Mis. Soc. No. L p. 29. 52 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. On June 13, 1793, the missionaries set sail, carrying with them letters to three supposed converts of Brother Thomas, Parbotee, Ram Ram Boshoo, and Mohun Chund, Upon their arrival in India, they found, to their inexpres- sible mortification, that Ram Ram had relapsed into paganism: and we shall present our readers with a picture of the present and worldly misery to which an Hindoo is subject- ed, who becomes a convert to the Christian re- ligion. Every body knows that the population of Hindostan is divided into castes, or classes of persons ; and that when a man loses his caste, he is shunned by his wife, children, friends, and relations ; that it is considered as an abomination to lodge or eat with him ; and that he is a wanderer and an outcast upon the earth. Caste can be lost by a variety of means, and the Protestant missionaries have always made the loss of it a previous requisite to ad- mission into the Christian church. " On our arrival at Calcutta, we found poor Ram Boshoo waiting for us : but, to our great grief, he has been bowing down to idols again. When Mr. T. left India, he went from place to place ; but, forsaken by the Hindoos, and ne- glected by the Europeans, he was seized with a flux and fever. In this state, he says, 'I had nothing to support me or my family ; a relation offered to save me from perishing for want of necessaries, on condition of my bowing to the idol; I knew that the Roman Catholic Chris- tians worshipped idols ; I thought they might be commanded to honour images in some part of the Bible which I had not seen ; I hesitated, and complied; but I love Christianity still.'" —Bapt. Mis. Soc. Vol. I. p.' 64, 65. "Jan. 8, 1794. We thought to write to you long before this, but our hearts have been bur- thened with cares and sorrows. It was very afflicting to hear of Ram Boshoo's great perse- cution and fall. Deserted by Englishmen, and persecuted by his own countrymen, he was nigh unto death. The natives gathered in bodies, and threw dust in the air as he passed along the streets in Calcutta. At last one of his relations offered him an asylum on condi- tion of his bowins down to their idols." — Bapt. Mis. Soc. Vol. I. p.^78. Brother Carey's Piety at Sea. " Brother Carey, while very sea-sick, and leaning over the ship to relieve his stomach from that very oppressive complaint, said his mind was even then filled with consolation in contemplating the wonderful goodness of God." —Ibid. p. 76.' Extracts from Brother Carey's and Brother Tho- mas's Journals, at sea and by land. " 1793. June 16. Lord's Day. A little recovered from my sickness; met for prayer and exhorta- tion in my cabin ; had a dispute with a French deist." — ibid. p. 158. " 30. Lord's Day. A pleasant and pro- fitable day : our congregation composed of ten persons." — Ibid. p. 159. " July 7. Another pleasant and profitable Lord's day; our congregation increased with one. Had much sweet enjoyment with God." — Md. "1794. Jan. 26. Lord's Day. Found much pleasure in reading Edwards' Sermon on the Jut- tice of God in the damnation of Sinners." — lb. p. 1 66. " .^pril 6. Had some sweetness to-day, espe- cially in reading Edwards' Sermon." — Ibid. p. 171. " Jtme 8. This evening reached Bowlea, where we lay to for the Sabbath. Felt thankful that God had preserved us, and wondered at his regard for so mean a creature. I was un- able to wrestle with God in prayer for many of my dear friends in England." — Ibid. p. 179. " 16. This day I preached twice at Malda, where Mr. Thomas met me. Had much enjoyment ; and though our congregation did not exceed sixteen, yet the pleasure I felt ia having my tongue once more set at liberty, I can hardly describe. Was enabled to be faith- ful, and felt a sweet affection for immortal souls." — Ibid. p. 180. « 1796. Feb. 6. I am now in my study; and oh, it is a sweet place, because of the presence of God with the vilest of men. It is at the top of the house ; I have but one window in it." — Ibid. p. 295. " The work to which God has set his hand will infallibly prosper. Christ has begun to bombard this strong and ancient fortress, and will assuredly carry it." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. I. p. 328. " More missionaries I think absolutely neces- sary to the support of the interest. Should any natives join us, they would become outcast im- mediately, and must be consequently supported by us. The missionaries on the coast are to this day obliged to provide for those who join them, as I learn from a letter sent to brother Thomas by a son of one of the missionaries." —Ibid. p. 334. In the last extract our readers will perceive a new difficulty attendant upon the progress of Christianity in the East. The convert must not only be subjected to degradation, but his degradation is so complete, and his means of providing for himself so entirely destroyed, that he must be fed by his instructor. The slightest success in Hindostan would eat up the revenues of the East India Company. Three years after their arrival these zealous and most active missionaries give the follow- ing account of their success. " I bless God, our prospect is considerably brightened up, and our hopes are more en- larged than at any period since the commence- ment of the mission, owing to very pleasing appearances of the gospel having been made effectual to four poor labouring Mussulmen, who have been setting their faces towards Zion ever since ihe month of August last. I hope their baptism will not be much longer deferred; and that might encourage Mohun Chund, Par- bottee, and Cassi Naut (who last year appeared to set out in the ways of God), to declare for the Lord Jesus Christ, by an open profession of their faith in him. Seven of the natives, toe hope, are indeed converted." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. L p. 345, 346. Effects of Preaching to an Hindoo Congregation. '• I then told them, that if they could not teU me, I would tell them,- and that God, who had WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. S3 ^permitted the Hindoos to sink into a sea of darkness, had at length commiserated them; and sent me and my colleagues to preach life to them. I then told them of Christ, his death, his person, his love, his being the surety of sinners, his power to save, &c., and exhorted them earnestly and affectionately to come to him. Effects were various; one man came before I had well done, and wanted to sell stockings to me."—Bapt. Miss. Vol. I. p. 357. Extracts from Journals. "After worship, I received notice that the printing-press was just arrived at the Ghat from Calcutta. Retired, and thanked God for fur- nishing us with a press." — Ibid. p. 469. Success in the Sixth Year. " We lament that several who did run well are now hindered. We have faint hopes of a few, and pretty strong hopes of one or two; but if I say more, it must either be a dull recital of our journeying to one place or another to preach the gospel, or something else relating to ourselves, of which I ought to be the last to speak."— 16id p. 488. Extracts fhom Mr. Ward's Journai,, a new Anabaptist Missionary sent out in 1799. Mr. Ward admires the Captain. " Several of our friends who have been sick begin to look up. This evening we had a most precious hour at prayer. Captain Wickes read from the 12th verse of the 33d of Exodus, and then joined in prayer. Our hearts were all warmed. We shook hands with our dear captain, and, in design, clasped him to our bosoms."— /6irf. Vol. II. p. 2. Mr. Ward is frightened by a Privateer. " June 1 1. Held our conference this evening. A vessel is still pursuing us, which the Cap- tain believes to be a Frenchman. I feel some alarm : considerable alarm. Oh Lord, be thou our defender ! the vessel seems to gain upon us. (Quarter past eleven at night.) There is no doubt of the vessel being a French priva- teer : when we changed our tack, she changed hers. We have, since dark, changed into our old course, so that possibly we shall lose her. Brethren G. and B. have engaged in prayer: we have read Luther's psalm, and our minds are pretty well composed. Our guns are all loaded, and the captain seems very low. All hands are at the guns, and the matches are lighted. I go to the end of the ship. I can just see the vessel, though it is very foggy. A ball whizzes over my head, and makes me tremble. I go down, and go to prayer with our friends." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. II. p. 3, 4. Mr. Ward feels a regard for the Sailms. "July 12. I never felt so much for any men as for our sailors ; a tenderness which could weep over them. Oh, Jesus ! let thy blood cover some of them ! A sweet prayer meeting. Verily God is here." — Ibid. p. 7. Mr. Ward sees an American Vessel, and longs to preach to the Sailors. " Sept. 27. An American vessel is along-side, and the captain is speaking to their captain through his trumpet. How pleasant to talk to a friend ! I have been looking at them through the glass ; the sailors sit in a group, and are making iheir obser\'^ations upon us. I long to go and preach to them." — Ibid. p. 11 . Feelings of the Natives upon hearing their Religion attacked. « 1800. Feb. 25. Brother C. had some cob- versation with one of the Mussulmen, who asked, upon his denying the divine mission of Mahommed, what was to become of Mussul- men and Hindoos ! Brother C. expressed his fears that they would all be lost. The man seemed as if he would have torn him to pieces." — Ibid, p. 51. « Mar. 30. The people seem quite anxious to get the hymns which we give away. The Brahmins are rather uneasy. The Governor advised his Brahmins to send their children to learn English. They replied, that we seemed to take pains to make the natives Christians ; and they were afraid that, their children being of tender age, would make them a more easy conquest." — Ibid. p. 158. "j3pril2'7. Lord's Day. One Brahmin said, he had no occasion for a hymn, for ihey were all over the country. He could go into any house and read one." — Ibid. p. 61. " May 9. Brother Fountain was this even- ing at Buddabarry. At the close, the Brahmins having collected a number of boys, they set up a great shout, and followed the brethren out of the village with noise and shoutings." — Ibid. "May 16. Brother Carey and I were at Bud- dabarry this evening. No sooner had we be- gun, than a Brahmin went round to all the rest that were present, and endeavoured to pull them away." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. II. p. 62. « 30. This evening at Buddabarry, the man mentioned in my journal of March 14th insulted Brother Carey. He asked why we came ; and said, if we could employ the natives as carpenters, blacksmiths, &c. it would be very well ; but that they did not want our holi- ness. In exact conformity with this sentiment, our Brahmin told Brother Thomas when here, that he did not want the favour of God." — Ibid. p. 63. " June 22. Lord^s Day. A Brahmin has been several times to disturb the children, and to curse Jesus Christ ! Another Brahmin com- plained to Brother Carey that, by our school and printing, we were now teaching the gospel to their children from their infancy."— /6uf. p. 65. " June 29. Lord^s Day. This evening a Brahmin went round amongst the people who were collected to hear Brother Carey, to per- suade them not to accept of our papers. Thus ' darkness struggles with the light.' " — Ibid. p. 66. "It was deemed advisable to print 2000 copies of the New Testament, and also 500 additional copies of Matthew, for immediate distribution; to which are annexed some of the most remarkable prophecies in the Old Testament respecting Christ. These are now distributing, together with copies of several evangelical hymns, and a very earnest and 1:2 M WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. pertinent address to the natives, respecting the gospel. It was written by Ram Boshoo, and contains a hundred lines in Bengalee verse. We hear that these papers are read with much attention, and that apprehensions are rising in the minds of some of the Brahmins whereunto these things may grow." — Ibid. p. 69. " We have printed several small pieces in Bengalee, which have had a large circulation." —Ibid. p. 77. Mr. Fountain's gratitude to Hervey, " When I was about eighteen or nineteen years of age, Hervey's Meditations fell into my hands. Till then I had read nothing but my Bible and the prayer book. This ushered me as it were into a new world ! It expanded my mind, and excited a thirst after knowledge : and this was not all ; I derived spiritual as well as intellectual advantages from it. I shall bless God for this book while I live upon earth, and when I get to heaven, I will thank dear Hervey himself."— Bapt. Miss. Vol. II. p. 90. Hatred of the Natives to the Gospel. "Jan. 27. The inveterate hatred that the Brahmins every where show to the gospel, and the very name of Jesus, in which they are joined by many lewd fellows of the baser sort, requires no common degree of self-possession, caution, and prudence. The seeming failure of some we hoped well of is a source of con- siderable anxiety and grief." — Ibid. p. 110. "Aug. 31. Lord's Day. We have the honour of printing the first book that was ever printed in Bengalee ; and this is the first piece in which Brahmins have been opposed, perhaps for thoir- sands of years. All their books are filled with accounts to establish Brahminism, and raise Brahmins to the seat of God. Hence they are believed to be inferior gods. All the waters of salvation in the country are supposed to meet in the foot of a Brahmin. It is reckoned they have the keys of heaven and hell, and have power over sickness and health, life and death. pray that Brahminism may come down !" — Ibid. p. 111. " Oct. 3. Brother Marshman having directed the children in the Bengalee school to write out a piece written by Brother Fountain (a kind of catechism), the schoolmaster reported yesterday that all the boys would leave the school rather than write it ; that it was de- signed to make them lose caste, and make them Fcringas ; that is, persons who have descended from those who were formerly converted by the papists, and who are to this day held in the greatest contempt by the Hindoos. PVom this you may gather how much contempt a converted native would meet with." — Ibid. p. 113, 114. " Oct. 26. Lord's Day. Bharratt told Brother Carey to-day what the people talked among themselves — ' Formerly,' say they, ' here were no white people amongst us. Now the English have taken the country, and it is getting full of whites. Now also the white man's shaster is publishing. Is it not going to be fulfilled which is written in our shasters, that all shall be of one caste ,- and will not this caste be the gospel]' "— 26w/. p. 115. "Nov. 7. He also attempted repeatedly tO' introduce Christ and him crucified; but they would immediately manifest the utmost dislike of the very name of him. Nay, in their turn they commended Creeshnoo, and invited Bro- ther C. to believe in him."— /6irf. p. 118. " Dec. 23. This forenoon Gokool came to tell us that Kristno and his whole family were in confinement ! Astonishing news ! It seems the whole neighbourhood, as soon as it was noised abroad that these people had lost caste, was in an uproar. It is said that two thou- sand people were assembled pouring their anathemas on these new converts." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. II. p. 12.5. "Jan. 12. The Brahmins and the young people show every degree of contempt; and the name of Christ is become a by-word, like the name methodist in England formerly." — Ibid. p. 130. " Sept. 2.5. I then took occasion to tell them that the Brahmins only wanted their money, and cared nothing about their salvation. To this they readily assented." — Ibid. p. 134. " Noiu 23. Lord's Day. Went with Brother Carey to the new pagoda, at the upper end of the town. About ten Brahmins attended. They behaved in the most scofling and blasphemous manner, treating the name of Christ with the greatest scorn ; nor did they discontinue their ridicule while Brother Carey prayed with them. No name amongst men seems so offensive to them as that of our adorable Redeemer !" — Ibid. p. 138. " Dec. 24. The Governor had the goodness to call on us in the course of the day, and de- sired us to secure the girl, at least within our walls, for a few days, as he was persuaded the people round the country were so exasperated atKristno's embracing the gospel, that he could not answer for their safety. A number of the mob might come from twenty miles distant in the night, and murder them all, without the per- petrators being discovered. He believed, that had they obtained the girl, they would have murdered her before the morning, and thought they had been doing God service !" — Ibid. p. 143, 144. " Jan. 30. After speaking about ten minutes, a rude fellow began to be very abusive, and, with the help of a few boys, raised such a cla- mour that nothing could be heard. At length, seeing no hope of their becoming quiet, I re- tired to the other part of the town. They fol- lowed, hallooing, and crying, ' Hurree boll !' (an exclamation in honour of Veeshno). They at last began to pelt me with stones and dirt. One of the men, who knew the house to which Brother Carey was gone, advised me to accom- pany him thither, saying, that these people would not hear our words. Going with him, I met Brother C. We were not a little pleased that the devil had begun to bestir himself, in- ferring from hence that he suspected danger." —Ibid. p. 148, 149. Feelings of an Hindoo Boy upon the eve of Con- veraum. "Nov. 18. One of the boys of the school, called Benjamin, is under considerable con- cern • indeed there is a general stir amongst WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 55 are children, which affords us great encourage- ment. The following are some of the expres- sions used in prayer by poor Benjamin .• — "'Oh Lord, the day of judgment is coming: the sun, and moon, and stars will all fall down. Oh, what shall I do in the day of judgment ! Thou wilt break me to pieces, [literal.] The Lord Jesus Christ was so good as to die for us poor souls : Lord, keep us all this day ! Oh hell! gnashing, and beating, and beating ! One hour weeping, another gnashing ! We shall stay there for ever! I am going to hell I am going to hell ! O Lord, give me a new heart; give me a new heart ; and wash away all my sins ! Give me a new heart, that I may praise Him, that 1 may obey Him, that I may speak the truth, that I may never do evil things ! Oh, I have many times sinned against thee, many times broken thy commandments, oh, many times ; and what shall I do in the day of judg- ment !"'—J5ajjf. Miss. Vol. n. p. 162, 163. jjlarm of the Natives at the preaching of the Gos- pel. "From several parts of Calcutta he hears of people's attention being excited by reading the papers which we have scattered among them. Many begin to wonder that they never heard these things before, since the English have been so long in the country." — Ibid. p. 223. " Many of the. natives have expressed their astonishment at seeing the converted Hindoos sit and eat with Europeans. It is what they thought would never come to pass. The priests are much alarmed for their tottering fabric, and rack their inventions to prop it up. They do not like the institution of the college in Cal- cutta, and that their sacred shasters should be explored by the unhallowed eyes of Euro- peans." — Ibid. p. 233. " Indeed, by the distribution of many copies of the Scriptures, and of some thousands of small tracts, a spirit of inquiry has been ex- cited to a degree unknown at any former TperioA."— Ibid. p. 236. "As he and Kristno walked through the street, the natives cried out, ' What will this joiner do ? (meaning Kristno.) Will he de- stroy the caste of us all 1 Is this Brahmin going to be a Feringa V " — Ibid. p. 245. .Account of success in 1802. — Tenth year of the Mission. «W"herever we have gone we have uni- formly found, that so long as people did not un- derstand the report of our message, they appeared to listen; but the moment they understood something of it, they either became indifferent, or began to ridi- cule. This in general has been our reception." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. L p. 273. Hatred of the Natives. " Sept. 27. This forenoon three of the peo- ple arrived from Ponchetalokpool, who seemed very happy to see us. They inform us that the Brahmins had raised a great persecution against them ; and when they set out on their journey hither, the mob assembled to hiss them away. After Brother Marshman had left that part of the country, they hung hira in effigy, and some of the printed papers which he had distributed amongst them." — Ibid. p. 314. Difficulty which the Mission experiences from not being able to get Converts shaved. "Several persons there seemed willing to be baptized; but if they should, the village barber, forsooth, will not shave them ! When a na- tive loses his caste, or becomes unclean, his barber and his priest will not come near him; and as they are accustomed to shave the head nearly all over, and cannot well perform this business themselves, it becomes a serious in- convenience." — Ibid. p. 372. Hatred of the Natives. "Jlpr. 24. Lord's Day. Brother Chamberlain preached at home, and Ward at Calcutta; Bro- ther Carey was amongst the brethren, and preached at night. Kristno Prisaud, Ram Ro- teen and others, were at Buddabatty, where they ^ met with violent opposition. They were set upon as Feringas, as destroyers of the caste, as having eaten fowls, eggs, &c. As they at- tempted to return, the mob began to beat them, putting their hands on the back of their necks, and pushing them forward ; and one man, even a civil officer, grazed the point of a spear against the body of Kristno Prisaud. When they saw that they could not make our friends angry by such treatment, they said, You salla; you will not be angry, will you 7 They then in- sulted them again, threw cow-dung mixed in gonga water at them; talked of making them a necklace of old shoes ; beat Neeloo with Ram Roteen's shoe, &c.; and declared that if they ever came again, they would make an end of them."— 5ap^' JUm. Vol. IL p. 378. Apian for procuring an order from Government to shave the Converts. " After concluding with prayer, Bhorud Ghose, Sookur, and Torribot Bichess, took me into the field, and told me that their minds were quite decided; there was no necessity for exhorting them. There was only one thing that kept them from being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Losing caste in a large town like Serampore, was a very different thing from losing caste in their village. If they declared themselves Christians, the barber of their vil- lage would no longer shave them ; and, without shaving their heads and their beards, they could not live. If an order could be obtained from the magistrate of the district for the bar- ber to shave Christians as well as others, they would be immediately baptized." — Ibid. p. 397. We meet in these proceedings with the ac- count of two Hindoos who had set up as gods, Dulol and Ram Dass. The missionaries, con- ceiving this schism from the religion of the Hindoos to be a very favourable opening for them, wait upon the two deities. With Dulol, who seems to have been a very shrewd fellow, they are utterly unsuccessful ; and the follow- ing is an extract from the account of their con- ference with Ram Dass : — "After much altercation, I told him he might put the matter out of all doubt as to himself; he had only to come as a poor, repenting, sup- pliant sinner, and he would be saved, whatever became of others. To this he gave no other answer than a smile of contempt. I then ask- ed him in what way the sins of these his fol 56 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. lowers would be removed ; urging it as a mat- ter of the last importance, as he knew that they were all sinners, and must stand before the righteous bar of God 1 After much eva- sion, he replied that he had fire in his belly, which would destroy the sins of all his follow- ers."— £ap<. Miss. Vol. II. p. 401, ^Brahmin Converted. " Dec. 11. Lord's day. A Brahmin came from Nuddea. After talking with him about the gos- pel, which he said he was very willing to em- brace, we sent him to Kristno's. He ate with them without hesitation, but discovered such a thirst for Bengalee rum, as gave them a dis- gust." "Dec. 13. ThismomiDg the Brahmin decamped suddenly," — Bapt. Miss. Vol. II. p. 424. Extent of Printing. " Sept. 12. We are building an addition to our printing office, where we employ seventeen printers and five book-binders. The Brahmin from near Bootan gives some hope that he has received the truth in love." — Ibid. p. 483 " The news of Jesus Christ, and of the church at Serampore, seems to have gone much fur- " iher than I expected ; it appears to be known -to a few in most villages." — Ibid. p. 487. Hatred to the Gospel. " The caste (says Mr. W.) is the great mill- stone round the necks of these people. Roteen wants shaving ; but the barber here will not do it. He is run away lest he should be compel- led. He says he will not shave Yesoo Kreesl's people ! "—Ibid. p. 493. Success greater by importunity in prayer. " With respect to their success, there are seve- ral particulars attending it worthy of notice. One is, that it was preceded by a spirit of importu- nate prayer. The brethren had all along com- mitted their cause to God ; but in the autumn of 1800, they had a special weekly prayer- meeting for a blessing on the work of the mis- sion. At these assemblies, Mr. Thomas, who was then present on a visit, seems to have been more than usually strengthened to wrestle for a blessing ; and writing to a friend in America, he speaks of ' the holy unction appearing on all the missionaries, especially of late ; and of •times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, being solemn, frequent and lasting.' In connecting these things, we cannot but remem- ber that previous to the outpouring of the Spirit in the days of Pentecost, the disciples 'continued with one accord in prayer and sup- plication.' "—Bapt. Miss. Pref. Vol. III. p. vii. What this success is, we shall see by the fol- lowing extract: " The whole number baptized in Bengal since the year 1795, is forty-eight. Over many of these we rejoice with great joy ; for others we tremble ; and over some we are compelled to 'weep."— Bapt. Miss. Vol. III. p. 21, 22. Hatred to the Gospel. " April 2. This morning, several of our chief printing servants presented a petition, desiring they might have some relief, as they were com- pelled, in our Bengalee worship, to hear so many blasphemies against their gods ! Brother Carey and I had a strong contention with them in the printing-office, and invited them to argue the point with Petumber, as his sermon had given them offence; but they declined it; though we told them that they were ten, and he was only, one; that they were Brahmins, and he was only a sooder !" — Ibid. p. 36. " The enmity against the gospel and its pro- fessors is universal. One of our baptized Hindoos wanted to rent a house : after going out two or three days, and wandering all the town over, he at last persuaded a woman to let him have a house Pbut though she was herself a Feringa, yet when she heard that he was a Brahmin who had become a Christian, she in- sulted him, and drove him away : so that we are indeed made the offscouring of all things." —Ibid. p. 38. " I was sitting among our native brethren, at the Bengalee school, hearing them read and explain a portion of the word in turn, when an aged, gray-headed Brahmin, well-dressed, came in ; and standing before me, said, with joined hands, and a supplicating tone of voice, 'Sa- hib ! I am come to ask an alms." Beginning to weep, he repeated these words hastily ; ' I am come to ask ... an alms.' He continued standing, with his hands in a supplicating posture, weep- ing. I desired him to say what alms; and told him, that by his looks, it did not seem as if he wanted any relief. At length, being pressed, he asked me to give him his son, pointing with his hand into the midst of our native brethren. I asked him which was his son ? He pointed to a young Brahmin, named Soroop ; and set- ting up a plaintive cry, said, that was his son. We tried to comfort him, and at last prevailed upon him to come and sit down upon the ve- randa. Here he began to weep again; and said that the young man's mother was dying with grief." — Bapt. Miss. Vol. III. p. 43. "This evening Buxoo, a brother, who is servant with us, and Soroop, went to a market in the neighbourhood, where they were disco- vered to be Yesoo Khreestare Loke (Jesus Christ's people). The whole market was in a hubbub: they clapped their hands, and threw dust at them. Buxoo was changing a rupee for cow- ries, when the disturbance began ; and in the scuffle, the man ran away with the rupee with- out giving the cowries." — Ibid. p. 55. "Nov. 24. This day Hawnye and Ram Khunt returned from their village. They re- late that our brother Fotick, who lives in the same village, was lately seized by the chief Ben- galee man there; dragged from^his house; his face, eyes and ears clogged with cow-dung — his hands tied — and in this state confined seve- ral hours. They also tore to pieces all the papers, and the copy of the Testament, which they found in Fotick's house. A relation of these persecutors being dead, they did not mo- lest Hawnye and Ram Khunt ; but the towns- folk would not hear about the gospel: they only insulted them for becoming Christians." —Ibid. p. 57. " Cutwa on the Ganges, Sept. 3, 1804. This place is about seventy miles from Serampore, by the Hoogley river. Here I procured a spot of ground, perhaps about two acres, pleasantly situated by two tanks, and a fine grove of man- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 67 go trees, at a small distance from the town. It was with difficulty I procured a spot. I was forced to leave one, after I had made a begin- ning, through the violent opposition of the people* Coming to this, opposition ceased; and therefore I called itREHOBOTH; for Jehovah hath made room for us. Here I have raised a spacious bungalo." — Ibid. p. 59. It would perhaps be more prudent to leave the question of sending missions to India to the effect of these extracts, which appear to us to be quite decisive, both as to the danger of insurrec- tion from the prosecution of the scheme, the ut- ter unfitness of the persons employed in it, and the complete hopelessness of the attempt while pursued under such circumstances as now ex- ist. But, as the Evangelical party who have got possession of our eastern empire have brought forward a great deal of argument upon the question, it may be necessary to make it some sort of reply. We admit it to be the general duty of Chris- tian people to disseminate their religion among the pagan nations who are subjected to their empire. It is true they have not the aid of miracles ; but it is their duty to attempt such conversion by the earnest and abundant em- ployment of the best human means in their power. We believe that we are in possession of a revealed religion ; that we are exclusively in possession of a revealed religion ; and that the possession of that religion can alone confer immortality, and best confer present happiness. This religion, too, teaches us the duty of general benevolence : and how, under such a system, the conversion of heathens can be a matter of indif- ference, we profess not to be able to understand. So much for the general rule : — now for the exceptions. No man (not an Anabaptist) will, we pre- sume, contend that it is our duty to preach the natives into an insurrection, or to lay before them, so fully and emphatically, the scheme of the gospel, as to make them rise up in the dead of the night and shoot their instructors through the head. If conversion be the greatest of all objects, the possession of the country to be converted is the only mean, in this instance, by which that conversion can be accomplished ; for we have no right to look for a miraculous conversion of the Hindoos ; and it would be little short of a miracle, if General Oudinot was to display the same spirit as the serious part of the Directors of the East India Company. Even for missionary purposes, therefore, the utmost discretion is necessary ; and if we wish to teach the natives a better religion, we must take care to do it in a manner which will not inspire them with a passion for political change, or we shall inevitably lose our disciples alto- gether. To us it appears quite clear, from the extracts before us, that neither Hindoo nor Ma- homedan is at all indifferent to the attacks made upon his religion ; the arrogance and the irritability of the Mahomedan are univer- sally acknowledged ; and we put it to our read- ers, whether the Brahmins seem in these ex- tracts to show the smallest disposition to behold the encroachments upon their religion with j)assivenes« and unconcern. A missionary who converted only a few of the refuse of so- 8 ciety, might live for ever in peace in India, and receive his salary from his fanatical masters for pompous predictions of universal conver- sion, transmitted by the ships of the season ; but, if he had any marked success among the natives, it could not fail to excite much more dangerous specimens of jealousy and discon- tent than those which we have extracted from the Anabaptist Journal. How is it in human nature that a Brahmin should be indifferent to encroachments upon his religion 1 His repu- tation, his dignity, and in great measure his wealth, depend upon the preservation of the present superstitions ; and why is it to be sup- posed that motives which are so powerful with all other human beings, are inoperative with him alone ? If the Brahmins, however, are disposed to excite a rebellion in support of their own influence, no man, who knows any thing of India, can doubt that they have it in their power to effect it. It is in vain to say, that these attempts to diffuse Christianity do not originate from the government in India. The omnipotence of government in the East is well known to the natives. If government does not prohibit, it tolerates ; if it tolerates the conversion of the natives, the suspicion may be easily formed that it encourages that conversion. If the Brahmins do not believe this themselves, they may easily persuade the common people that such is the fact ; nor are there wanting, besides the activity of these new missionaries, many other circumstances to corroborate such a ru- mor. Under the auspices of the College at Fort William, the Scriptures are in a course of translation into the languages of almost the whole continent of Oriental India, and we per- ceive, that in aid of this object the Bible So- ciety has voted a very magnificent subscription. The three principal chaplains of our Indian settlements are (as might be expected) of prin- ciples exactly corresponding with the enthusi- asm of their employers at home; and their zeal upon the subject of religion has shone and burnt with the most exemplary fury. These circumstances, if they do not really impose upon the minds of the leading natives, may give them a very powerful handle for misre- presenting the intentions of government to the lower orders. We see from the massacre of Vellore, what a powerful engine attachment to religion may be rendered in Hindostan. The rumors might all have been false ; but that event shows they were tremendously powerful when excited. The object, therefore, is not only not to do any thing violent and unjust upon subjects of re- ligion, but not to give any stronger colour to jealous and disaffected natives for misrepre senting your intentions. All these observations have tenfold force when applied to an empire which rests so en- tirely upon opinion. If physical force could be called in to stop the progress of error, we could afford to be misrepresented for a season ; but 30,000 white men living in the midst of 70 million sable subjects, must be always in the right, or at least never represented as grossly in the wrong. Attention to the preju- dices of the subject is wise in all governments, 58 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. but quite indispensable in a government con- stituted as our empire in India is constituted; where an uninterrupted series of dexterous conduct is not only necessary to our prosperity, but to our existence. These reasonings are entitled to a little more consideration, at a period when the French threaten our existence in India by open force, and by every species of intrigue with the native powers. In all governments, every thing lakes its tone from the head ; fanaticism has got into the government at home ; fanati- cism will lead to promotion abroad. The civil servant in India will not only not dare to exercise his own judgment, in checking the indiscretions of ignorant missionaries ; but he will strive to recommend himself to his holy masters in Leadenhall Street, by imitating Bro- ther Cran and Brother Ringletaube, and by every species of fanatical excess. Methodism at home is no unprofitable game to play. In the East it will soon be the infallible road to promotion. This is the great evil ; if the man- agement was in the hands of men who were as discreet and wise in their devotion as they are in matters of temporal welfare, the desire of putting an end to missions might be premature and indecorous. But the misfortune is, the men who wield the instrument, ought not, in common sense and propriety, to be trusted with it for a single instant. Upon this subject, they are quite insane and ungovernable ; they would deliberately, piously, and conscientiously ex- pose our whole Eastern empire to destruction, for the sake of converting half a dozen Brah- mins, who, after stufiing themselves with rum and rice, and borrowing money from the mis- sionaries, would run away and cover the gospel and its possessors with every species of im- pious ridicule and abuse. Upon the whole, it appears to us hardly pos- sible to push the business of proselytism in India to any length without incurring the utmost risk of losing our empire. The danger is more tremendous, because it may be so sud- den ; religious fears are very probable causes of disaffection in the troops ; if the troops are generally disaffected, our Indian empire may be lost to us as suddenly as a frigate or a fort ; and that empire is governed by men who, we are very much afraid, would feel proud to lose it in such a cause. "But I think it my duty to make a solemn appeal to all who still retain the fear of God, and who admit that religion and the course of conduct which it prescribes are not to be ban- ished from the affairs of nations — now when the political sky, so long overcast, has become more lowering and black than ever — whether this is a period for augmenting the weight of our national sins and provocations, by an ex- clusive Tovs.B.KTioTx of idolatry ; a crime which, unless the Bible be a forgery, has actually drawn forth the heaviest denunciations of ven- geance, and the most fearful inflictions of Divine displeasure." — Considerations, ^c. p. 98. Can it be credited that this is an extract from a pamphlet generally supposed to be written by a noble Lord at the Board of Control, from hose official interference the public might have expected a corrective to the pious temer-- ity of others 7 The other leaders of the party, indeed, make at present great professions of toleration, and express the strongest abhorence of using vio- lence to the natives. This does very well for a beginning; but we have little confidence in . such declarations. We believe their fingers itch to be at the stone and clay gods of the Hindoos ; and that, in common with the noble • Controller, they attribute a great part of our national calamities to these ugly images of deities on the one side of the world. We again repeat, that upon such subjects, the best and ablest men, if once tinged by fanaticism, are not to be trusted for a single inoment. 2(%, Another reason for giving up the task, of conversion, is the want of success. In India, religion extends its empire over the minutest actions of life. It is not merely a law for moral conduct, and for occasional worship; but it dictates to a man his trade, his dress, his food, and his whole behaviour. His religion also punishes a violation of its exactions, not by eternal and future punishments, but by pre- sent infamy. If an Hindoo is irreligious, or, in other words, if he loses his caste, he is deserted by father, mother, wife, child, and kin- dred, and becomes instantly a solitary wan-- derer upon the earth ; to touch him, to receive him, to eat with him, is a pollution producing a similar loss of caste ; and the state of such a degraded man is worse than death itself. To these evils an Hindoo must expose himself before he becomes a Christian ; and this diffi- culty must a missionary overcome, before he can expect the smallest success ; a difficulty which, it is quite clear, they themselves, after a short residence in India, consider to be insu- perable. As a proof of the tenacious manner, in which the Hindoos cling to their religious prejudices, we shall state two or three very short anecdotes, to which any person who has resided in India might easily produce many parallels. "In the year 1766, the late Lord Clive and Mr. Verelst employed the whole influence of Government to restore a Hindoo to his caste, who had forfeited it, not by any neglect of his own, but by having been compelled, by a most unpardonable act of violence, to swallow a drop of cow broth. The Brahmins, from the peculiar circumstances of the case, were very anxious to comply with the wishes of Govern- ment ; the principal men among them met once at Kishnagur, and once at Calcutta ; but after consultations, and an examination of their most ancient records, they declared to Lord Clive, that as there was no precedent to justify the act, they found it impossible to restore the unfortunate man to his caste, and he died soon after of a broken heart." — Scott Warin^s Pre- face, p. Ivi. It is the custom of the Hindoos to expose dying people upon the banks of the Ganges. There is something peculiarly holy in that river; and it soothes the agonies of death to look upon its waters in the last moments. A party of English were coming down in a boat, and perceived upon the bank a pious Hindoo, WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 5g in a state of the last imbecility — about to be drowned by the rising of the tide, after the most approved and orthodox manner of their religion. They had the curiosity to land; and as they perceived some more signs of life than were at first apparent, a young Englishman poured down his throat the greatest part of a bottle of lavender water, which he happened to have in his pocket. The effects of such a stimulus, applied to a stomach accustomed to nothing stronger than water, were instantane- ous and powerful. The Hindoo revived suffi- ciently to admit of his being conveyed to the boat, was carried to Calcutta, and perfectly re- covered. He had drunk, however, in the com- pany of Europeans ; — no matter whether vo- luntary or involuntary, — the offence was com- mitted: he lost caste, was turned away from his home, and avoided, of course, by every re- lation and friend. The poor man came before the police, making the bitterest complaints upon being restored to life ; and for three years the burden of supporting him fell upon the mis- taken Samaritan who had rescued him from death. During that period, scarcely a day elapsed in which the degraded resurgent did not appear before the European, and curse him with the bitterest curses — as the cause of all his misery and desolation. At the end of that period he fell ill, and of course was not again thwarted in his passion for dying. The writer of this article vouches for the truth of this anecdote ; and many persons who were at Calcutta at the time must have a distinct recol- lection of the fact, which excited a great deal of conversation and amusement, mingled with compassion. It is this institution of castes which has pre- served India in the same state in which it ex- isted in the days of Alexander ; and which would leave it ■vyithout the slightest change in habits and manners, if we were to abandon the country to-morrow. We are astonished to ob- serve the late resident in Bengal speaking of the fifteen millions of Mahomedans in India as converts from the Hindoos; an opinion, in support of which he does not offer the shadow of an argument, except by asking, whether the Mahomedans have the Tartar face 1 and if not, how they can be the descendants of the first conquerors of India 1 Probably not altogether. But does this writer imagine, that the Mahome- dan empire could exist in Hindostan for 700 years without the intrusion of Persians, Ara- isians, and every species of Mussulmen adven- turers from every part of the East, which had embraced the religion of Mahomed 1 And let them come from what quarter they would, could they ally themselves to Hindoo women without producing in their descendants an ap- proximation to the Hindoo features'? Dr. Robertson, who has investigated this subject with the greatest care, and looked into all the authorities, is expressly of an opposite opinion ; and considers the Mussulman inhabitants of Hindostan to be merely the descendants of Mahomedan adventurers, and not converts from the Hindoo faith. "The armies" (says Orme) "which made the first conquests for the heads of the respect- ive dynasties, or for other invaders, left behind them numbers of Mahomedans, who, seduced by a finer climate, and a richer country, forgot their own. " The Mahomedan princes of India naturally gave a preference to the service of men of their own religion, who, from whatever country they came, were of a more vigorous constitu- tion than the stoutest of the subjected nation. This preference has continually encouraged adventurers from Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, to seek their fortunes under a government from which they M'ere sure of receiving greater en- couragement than they could expect at home. From these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahome- dans." — Orme's Indostan, I. p. 24. Precisely similar to this is the opinion of Dr. Robertson, Note xl. — Indian Disquisition. As to the religion of the Ceylonese, from which the Bengal resident would infer the faci- lity of making converts of the Hindoos, it is to be observed, that the religion of Boudhou, in ancient times, extended from the north of Tar- tary to Ceylon, from the Indus to Siam, and (if Foe and Boudhou are the same persons) over China. That of the two religions of Boudhou and Brama, the one was the parent of the other, there can be very little doubt ; but the compa- rative antiquity of the two is so very disputed a point, that it is quite unfair to state the case of the Ceylonese as an instance of conversion from the Hindoo religion to any other : and even if the religion of Bramd is the most an- cient of the two, it is still to be proved, that the Ceylonese professed that religion before they changed it for their present faith. In point of fact, however, the boasted Christianity of the Ceylonese is proved by the testimony of the missionaries themselves, to be little better than nominal. The following extract from one of their own communications, dated Columbo^ 1805, will set this matter in its true light: — " The elders, deacons, and some of the mem- bers of the Dutch congregation, came to see us, and we paid them a visit in return, and made a little inquiry concerning the state of the church on this island, which is, in one word, miserable! One hundred thousand of those who are called Christians (because they are baptized) need not go back to heathenism, for they never have been any thing else but heathens, worshippers of Budda: they have been induced, for worldly reasons, to be baptized. O Lord have mercy on the poor inhabitants of this populous island!'^ —Trans. Miss. Soc. II. 265. What success the Syrian Christians had in making converts ; in what degree they have gained their numbers by victories over the native superstition, or lost their original num- bers by the idolatrous examples to which for so many centuries they have been exposed ; are points wrapt up in so much obscurity, that no kind of inference, as to the facility of convert- ing the natives, can be drawn from them. Their present number is supposed to be about 150,000. It would be of no use to quote the example of Japan and China, even if the progress of the faith in these empires had been much greater than it is. We do not say it is difficult to con- vert the Japanese, or the Chinese ; but the 60 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Hindoos. We are not saying it is difficult to convert human creatures; but difficult to con- vert human creatures with such institutions. To mention the example of other nations who have them not, is to pass over the material ob- jection, and to answer others which are merely imaginary, and have never been made. 3dly, The duty of conveusion is less plain, and less imperious, when conversion exposes the convert to great present misery. An Afri- can or an Otaheite proselyte might not perhaps be less honoured by his countrymen if he be- came a Christian ; an Hindoo is instantly sub- jected to the most perfect degradation. A change of faith might increase the immediate happiness of any other individual ; it annihi- lates for ever all the human comforts which an Hindoo enjoys. The eternal happiness which you proffer him, is therefore less attractive to him than to any other heathen, from the life of misery by which he purchases it. Nothing is more precarious than our empire in India. Suppose we were to be driven out of it to-morrow, and to leave behind us twenty thousand converted Hindoos, it is most proba- ble they would relapse into heathenism; but their original station in society could not be regained. The duty of making converts, therefore, among such a people, as it arises from the general duty of benevolence, is less strong than it would be in many other cases ; because, situated as we are, it is quite certain •we shall expose them to a great deal of misery, and not quite certain we shall do them any future good. 4:thly, Conversion is no duty at all, if it mere- ly destroys the old religion, without really and effectually teaching the new one. Brother Ringletaube may write home that he makes a Christian, when, in reality, he ought only to state that he has destroyed an Hindoo. FooMsh and imperfect as the religion of an Hindoo is, it is at least some restraint upon the intemper- ance of human passions. It is better a Brah- min should be respected, than that nobody should be respected. An Hindoo had better believe that a deity with an hundred legs and arms, will reward and punish him hereafter, than that he is not to be punished at all. Now, when you have destroyed the faith of an Hin- doo, are you quite sure that you will graft upon his mind fresh principles of action, and make him any more than a nominal Christian ? You have 30,000 Europeans in India, and 60 millions of other subjects. If proselytism were to go on as rapidly as the most visionary Anabaptist could dream or desire, in what man- ner are these people to be taught the genuine truths and practices of Christianity 1 Where are the clergy to come from 1 Who is to de- fray the expense of the establishment 1 and who can foresee the immense and perilous dif- ficulties of bending the laws, manners, and in- stitutions of a country to the dictates of a new religion 1 If it were easy to persuade the Hin- doos that their own religion was folly, it would be indefinitely difBlcult effectually to teach them any other. They would tumble their own idols into the river, and you would build them no churches : you would destroy all their present motives for doing right and avoiding wrong, without being able to fix upon their minds the more sublime motives by which you profess to be actuated. What a missionary will do here- after with the heart of a convert, is a matter of doubt and speculation. He is quite certain, however, that he must accustom the man to see himself considered infamous ; and good prin- ciples can hardly be exposed to a ruder shock. Whoever has seen much of Hindoo Christians must have perceived, that the man who bears that name is very commonly nothing more than a drunken reprobate, who conceives himself at liberty to eat and drink anything he pleases, and annexes hardly any other meaning to the name of Christianity. Such sort of converts may swell the list of names, and gratify the puerile pride of a missionary ; but what real, discreet Christian can wish to see such Chris- tianity prevail 1 But it will be urged, if the present converts should become worse Hindoos, and very indifferent Christians, still the next generation will do better ; and by degrees, and at the expiration of half a century, or a century, true Christianity may prevail. We may apply to such sort of Jacobin converters what Mr. Burke said of the Jacobin politicians in his time, — " To such men a whole generation of human beings are of no more consequence than a frog in an air-pump." For the distant pros- pect of doing what most probably after all, they will never be able to effect, there is no de- gree of present misery and horror to which they will not expose the subjects of their expe- riment. As the duty of making proselytes springs from the duty of benevolence, there is a priority of choice in conversion. The greatest zeal should plainly be directed to the most desperate misery and ignorance. Now, in comparison to many other nations who are equally ignorant of the truths of Christianity, the Hindoos are a civilized and a moral people. That they have remained in the same state for so many centu- ries, is at once a proof that the institutions which established that state could not be highly unfavourable to human happiness. After all that has been said of the vices of the Hindoos, we believe that an Hindoo is more mild and sober than most Europeans, and as honest and chaste. In astronomy the Hindoos have cer- tainly made very high advances ; — some, and not an unimportant progress in many sciences. As manufacturers, they are extremely in- genious — and as agriculturists, industrious. Christianity would improve them ; (whom would it not improve 1) but if Christianity can- not be extended to all, there are many other na- tions who want it more.* The Hindoos have some very savage cus- toms, which it would be desirable to abolish. Some swing on hooks, some run knives through their hands, and widows burn themselves to death : but these follies (even the last) are quite voluntary on the part of the sufferers. We dis- like all misery, voluntary or involuntary ; but the difference between the torments which a man chooses, and those which he endures from * We are here, of course, arguing the question only in a worldly point of view. This is one point of view in which it must be placed, though certainly the lowest and least important. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 61 the choice of others, is very great. It is a con- siderable wretchedness that men and women should be shut up in religious houses -, bm it is only an object of legislative interference, when such incarceration is compulsory. Monasteries and nunneries with us would be harmless in- stitutions ; because the moment a devotee found he had acted like a fool, he might avail himself of the discovery and run away ; and so may an Hindoo, if he repents of his resolution of run- ning hooks into his flesh. The duties of conversion appear to be of less importance, when it is impossible to procure proper persons to undertake them, and when such religious embassies, in consequence, de- volve upon the lowest of the people. Who wishes to see scrofula and atheism cured by a single sermon in Bengal 1 who wishes to see the religious hoy riding at anchor in the Hoogly river ] or shoals of jumpers exhibiting their nimble piety before the learned Brahmins of Benares 1 This madness is disgusting and dangerous enough at home : — Why are we to send out little detachments of maniacs to spread over the fine regions of the world the most un- just and contemptible opinion of the gospel 1 The wise and rational part of the Christian ministry find they have enough to do at home to combat with passions unfavourable to human happiness, and to make men act up to their professions. But if a tinker is a devout man, he infallibly sets oif for the East. Let any man read the Anabaptist missions : — can he do so without deeming such men pernicious and extravagant in their own country, — and with- out feeling that they are benefiting us much more by their absence, than the Hindoos by their advice 1 It is somewhat strange, in a duty which is stated by one party to be so clear and so indis- pensable, that no man of moderation and good sense can be found to perform it. And if no other instruments remain but visionary enthu- siasts, some doubt may be honestly raised whether it is not better to drop the scheme en- tirely. Shortly stated, then, our argument is this : — We see not the slightest pros-pect of success ; — we see much danger in making the attempt; — and we doubt if the conversion of the Hindoos would ever be more than nominal. If it is a duty of general benevolence to convert the Heathen, it is less a duty to convert the Hin- doos than any other people, because they are already highly civilized, and because you must infallibly subject them to infamy and present degradation. The instruments employed for these purposes are calculated to bring ridicule and disgrace upon the gospel ; and in the dis- cretion of those at home, whom we consider as their patrons, we have not the smallest reli- ance ; but, on the contrary, we are convinced they would behold the loss of our Indian em- pire, not with the humility of men convinced of erroneous views and projects, but with the pride, the exultation, and the alacrity of martyrs. Of the books which have handled this sub- ject on either side, we have little to say. Ma- jor Scott Waring's book is the best against the Missions ; but he wants arrangement and pru- dence. The late resident writes well ; but is miserably fanatical towards the conclusion. Mr. Cunningham has been diligent in looking into books upon the subject : and though an evangelical gentleman, is not uncharitable to those who differ from him in opinion. There is a passage in the publication of his reverend brother, Mr. Owen, which, had we been less accustomed than we have been of late to this kind of writing, would appear to be quite in- credible. " I have not pointed out the comparative in- difl!"erence, upon Mr. Twining's principles, be- tween one religion and another, to the welfare of a people ; nor the impossibility, on those principles, of India being Christianized by any human means, so long as it shall remain under the dominion of the Company ; nor the alterna- tive to which Providence is by consequence reduced, of either givitig up that country to everlasting su- perstition, or of ivorking some miracle in order to accomplish its co7iversionJ" — Owen^s Mdress, p. 28. This is really beyond any thing we ever re- member to have read. The hoy, the cock-fight, and the religious newspaper, are pure reason when compared to it. The idea of reducing Providence to an alternative ! ! and, by a motion at the India House, carried by ballot ! We would not insinuate, in the most distant man- ner, that Mr. Owen is not a gentleman of the most sincere piety ; but the misfortune is, all extra superfine persons accustom themselves to a familiar phraseology upon the most sacred subjects, which is quite shocking to the com- mon and inferior orders of Chiistians. Provi- dence reduced to an alternative ! ! ! ! ! Let it be remembered, this phrase comes from a member of a religious party, who are loud in their com- plaints of being confounded with enthusiasts and fanatics. We cannot conclude without the most pointed reprobation of the low mischief of the Christian Observer ; a publication which appears to have no other method of discussing a question fairly open to discussion, than that of accusing their antagonists of infidelity. No art can be more unmanly, or, if its consequences are foreseen, more wicked. If this publication had been the work of a single individual, we might have passed it over in silent disgust; but as it is looked upon as the organ of a great political religious party in this country, we think it right to notice the very unworthy manner in which they are attempting to extend their influence. For ourselves, if there were a fair prospect of carrying the gospel info regions where it was befq^-e unknown, — if such a project did not expose the best possessions of the country to extreme danger, and if it was in the hands of men who were discreet, as well as devout, we should consider it to be a scheme of true piety, benevolence, and wisdom : but the baseness and malignity of fanaticism shall never prevent us from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and its activity. For what vice can be more tre- mendous than that which, while it wears the outward appearance of religion, destroys the happiness of man, and dishonours the name of GodT «2 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. CATHOLICS.* [Edinbuegh Review, 1808.] The various publications which have issued ] from the press in favour of religious liberty, fiave now nearly silenced the arguments of their opponents ; and, teaching sense to some, and inspiring others with shame, have left those only on the field who can neither learn nor blush. But, though the argument U given up, and the justice of the Catholic cause admitted, it seems to be generally conceived, that their case, at present, is utterly hopeless ; and that, to advo- cate it any longer, will only irritate the op- pressed, without producing any change of opinion in those by whose influence and autho- rity that oppression is continued. To this opinion, unfortunately too prevalent, we have many reasons for not subscribing. We do not understand what is meant in this country by the notion, that a measure, of con- summate wisdom and imperious necessity, is to be deferred for any time, or to depend upon any contingency. Whenever it can be made clear to the understanding of the great mass of enlightened people, that any system of poli- tical conduct is necessary to the public welfare, every obstacle (as it ought) will be swept away before it; and as we conceive it to be by no means improbable, that the country may, ere long, be placed in a situation where its safety or ruin will depend upon its conduct towards the Catholics, we sincerely believe we are doing our duty ift throwing every possible light on this momentous question. Neither do we understand where this passive submission to ignorance and error is to end. Is it confined to religion 1 or does it extend to war and peace, as well as religion 1 Would it be tolerated, if any man were to say, " Abstain from all argu- ments in favour of peace ; the court have resolved upon eternal war ; and, as you cannot have peace, to what purpose urge the necessity of if?" We answer, — that courts must be pre- sumed to be open to the influence of reason ; or, if they were not, to the influence of pru- dence and discretion, when ihey perceive the public opinion to be loudly and clearly against them. To lie by in timid and indolent silence, — to suppose an inflexibility, in which no court ever CQuld, under pressing circumstances, per- severe — and to neglect a regular and vigorous appeal to public opinion, is to give up all chance of doing good, and to abandon the only instrument by which the few are ever prevented from ruining the many. It is folly to talk of any other ultimatum in government than perfect justice to the fair claims of the subject. The concessions to the Irish Catholics in 1792 were to be the ne plus ultra. Every engine was set on foot to induce * Hiftory of the Penal Laics against the Irish Catho- lics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union. By Henry Parnell Esq. M.P. the grand juries in Ireland to petition against further concessions; and, in six months after- wards, government were compelled to intro- duce, themselves, those further relaxations of the penal code, of which they had just before assured the Catholics they must abandon all hope. Such is the absurdity of supposing that a few interested and ignorant individuals can postpone, at their pleasure and caprice, the happiness of millions. As to the feeling of irritation with which such continued discussion may inspire the Irish Catholics, we are convinced that no opi- nion could be so prejudicial to the cordial union which we hope may always subsist be- tween the two countries, as that all the efibrts of the Irish were unavailing, — that argument was hopeless, — that their case was prejudged with a sullen inflexibility which circumstances could not influence, pity soften, or reason sub- due. We are by no means convinced, that the decorous silence recommended upon the Ca- tholic question would be rewarded by those future concessions, of which many persons appear to be so certain. We have a strange incredulit}'^ where persecution is to be abo- lished, and any class of men restored to their indisputable rights. When we see it done, we will believe it. Till it is done, we shall always consider it to be highly improbable — much too improbable — to justify the smallest relaxation in the Catholics themselves, or in those who are well-wishers to their cause. When the fanciful period at present assigned for the emancipation arrives, new scruples may arise — fresh forbearance be called for — and the ope- rations of common sense be deferred for an- other generation. Toleration never had a present tense, nor taxation a future one. The answer which Paul received from Felix, he owed to the subject on which he spoke. When justice and righteousness were his theme, Felix told him to go away, and he would hear him some other time. All men who have spoken to courts upon such disagreeable topics, have received the same answer. Felix, how- ever, trembled when he gave it; but his fear was ill-directed. He trembled at the subject — he ought to have trembled at the delay. Little or nothing is to be expected from the shame of deferring what it is so wicked and per- ilous to defer. Profligacy in taking office is so extreme, that we have no doubt public men may be found, who, for half a century', would postpone all remedies for a pestilence, if the preservation of their places depended upon the propagation of the virus. To us, such kind of conduct conveys no other action than that of sordid avaricious impudence : — it puts to sale the best interests of the country for some improvement in the wines and meats and carriages which a WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 63 itnan uses, — and encourages a new political morality which may always postpone any other great measure — and every other great measure as well as the emancipation of the Catholics. We terminate this apologetical preamble with expressing the most earnest hope that the Catholics will not, from any notion that their cause IS effectually carried, relax in any one constitutional effort necessary to their purpose. Their cause is the cause of common sense and justice ; — the safety of England and of the world may depend upon it. It rests upon the soundest principles ; leads to the most import- ant consequences ; and therefore cannot be too frequently brought before the notice of the public. The book before us is written by Mr. Henry Parnell, the brother of Mr. William Parnell, author of the Historical Apology, reviewed in one of our late numbers ; and it contains a very well written history of the penal laws en- acted against the Irish Catholics, from the peace of Limerick, in the reign of King William, to the late Union. Of these we shall present a very short, and, we hope even to loungers, a readable abstract. The war carried on in Ireland against King William cannot deserve the name of a re- bellion : it was a struggle for their lawful Prince, whom they had sworn to maintain; and whose zeal for the Catholic religion, what- ever effect it might have produced in England, could not by them be considered as a crime. This war was terminated by the surrender of Limerick, upon conditions by which the Catho- lics hoped, and very rationally hoped, to secure to themselves the free enjoyment of their re- ligion in future, and an exemption from all those civil penalties and incapacities which the reigning creed is so fond of heaping upon its subjugated rivals. By the various articles of this treaty, they are to enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion, as they did enjoy in the time of Charles II. : and the King promises upon the meeting of Parliament, " to endeavor to pro- cure for them such further security in that par- ticular, as may preserve them /ro?n aiiy disturb- ance on account of their said religion." They are to be restored to their estates, privileges, and immunities, as they enjoyed them in the time of Charless II. The gentlemen are to be allowed to carry arms ; and no other oath is to be tendered to the Catholics who submit to King William than the oath of allegiance. These and other articles. King William ratifies for himself, his heirs and successors, as far as in him lies ; and confirms the same, and every other clause and matter therein contained. These articles were signed by the English general on the 3d of October, 1691; and dif- fused comfort, confidence, and tranquillity among the Catholics. On the 22d of October, the English Parliament excluded Catholics from the Irish Houses of Lords and Commons, ty compelling them to take the oaths of su- premacy before admission. In 1695, the Catholics were deprived of all means of educating their children, at home or abroad, and of the privilege of being guardians '.to their own or to other persons' children. Then all the Catholics were disarmed, — and then all the priests banished. JIfter this (proba- bly by way of joke), an act was passed to con- firyn the treaty of Limerick, — the great and glorious King William totally forgetting the contract he had entered into of recommending the religious liberties of the Catholics to the attention of Parliament. On the 4th of March, 1704, it was enacted, that any son of a Catholic who would turn Protestant, should succeed to the family estate, which from that moment could no longer be sold, or charged with debt and legacy. On the same day. Popish fathers were debarred, by a penalty of 500/., from being guardians to their own children. If the child, however young, declared himself a Protestant, he was to be delivered immediately to the custody of some Protestant relation. No Protestant to marry a Papist. No Papist to purchase land, or take a lease of land for more than thirty-one years. If the profits of the lands so leased by the Catholics amounted to above a certain rate settled by the act, — farm to belong to the first Protestant who made the discovery. No Papist to be in a line of entail; but the estate to pass on to the next Protestant heir, as if the Papist were dead. If a Papist dies intestate, and no Pro- testant heir can be found, property to be equally divided among all the sons ; or, if he has none, among all the daughters. By the 16th clause of this bill, no Papist to hold any office civil or military. Not to dwell in Limerick or Gal way, except on certain conditions. Not to vote at elections. Not to hold advowsons. In 1709, Papists were prevented from hold- ing an annuity for life. If any son of a Papist chose to turn Protestant, and enrol the certifi- cate of his conversion in the Court of Chan- cery, that court is empowered to compel his father to state the value of his property upon oath, and to make out of that property a com- petent allowance to the son, at their own dis- cretion, not only for his present maintenance, but for his future portion after the death of his father. An increase of jointure to be enjoyed by Papist wives upon their conversion. Papists keeping schools to be prosecuted as convicts. Popish priests who are converted, to receive 30/. per annum. Rewards are given by the same act for the discovery of the Popish clergy ; — 50/. for dis- covering a Popish bishop ; 20/. for a common Popish clergyman ; 10/. for a Popish usher I Two justices of the peace can 'compel any Papist above eighteen years of age to disclose every particular which has come to his know- ledge respecting Popish priests, celebration of mass, or Papist schools. Imprisonment for a year if he refuses to answer. Nobody can hold property in trust for a Catholic. Juries, in all trials growing out of these statutes, to be Protestants. No Papist to take more than two apprentices, except in the linen trade. All the Catholic clergy to give in their names and places of abode at the quarter-sessions, and to keep no curates. Catholics not to serve on grand juries. In any trial upon statutes for strengthening the Protestant interest, a Papist juror may be peremptorily challenged. In the next reign, Popish horses were at- 64 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tached, and allowed to be seized for the militia. Papists cannot be either high or petty consta- bles. No Papists to vote at elections. Papists in towns to provide Protestant watchmen ; — and not to vote at vestries. In the reign of George 11., Papists were pro- hibited from being barristers. Barristers and solicitors marrying Papists, considered to be Papists, and subjected to all penalties as such. Persons robbed by privateers, during a war with a Popish prince, to be indemnified by grand jury presentments, and the money to be levied on the Catholics only. No Papist to marry a Protestant; — any priest celebrating such a marriage to be hanged. During all this time there was not the slight- est rebellion in Ireland. In 1715 and 1745, while Scotland and the north of England were up in arms, not a man stirred in Ireland ; yet the spirit of persecution against the Catholics continued till the 18th of his present Majesty, and then gradually gave way to the increase of knowledge, the huma- nity of our Sovereign, the abilities of Mr. Grattan, the weakness of England struggling in America, and the dread inspired by the French revolution. Such is the rapid outline of a code of laws which reflects indelible disgrace upon the Eng- lish character, and explains but too clearly the cause of that hatred in which the English name has been so long held in Ireland. It would require centuries to eflace such an im- pression ; and yet, when we find it fresh, and operating at the end of a few years, we explain the fact by every cause which can degrade the Irish, and by none which can remind us of our own scandalous policy. With the folly and the horror of such a code before our eyes, — with the conviction of recent and domestic history, that mankind are not to be lashed and chained out of their faith, — we are striving to tea^je and worry them into a better theology. Heavy oppression is r'imoved ; light insults and provocations are retained; the scourge does not fall upon their shoulders, but it sounds in their ears. And this is the conduct we are pursuing, when it is still a great doubt whether this country alone may not be opposed to the united efforts of the whole of Europe. It is really difficult to ascertain which is the most utterly destitute of common sense, — the capri- cious and arbitrary stop we have made in our concessions to the Catholics, or the precise period we have chosen for this grand effort of obstinate folly. In whatsoever manner the contest now in agitation on the Continent may terminate, its relation to the emancipation of the Catholics will be very striking. If the Spaniards succeed in establishing their own liberties, and in res- cuing Europe from the tyranny under which it at present labours, it will still be contended, within the walls of our own Parliament, that the Catholics cannot fulfil the duties of social life. Venal politicians will still argue that the time is not yet come. Sacred and lay syco- phants will still lavish upon the Catholic faith their well-paid abuse, and England still pas- sively submit to such a disgraceful spectacle of ingratitude and injustice. If, on the con- trary (as may probably be the case), the Spa- niards fall before the numbers and military skill of the French, then are we left alone in the world, without another ray of hope ; and compelled to employ against internal disaffec- tion that force which, exalted to its utmost en- ergy, would in all probability prove but barely equal to the external danger by which we should be surrounded. Whence comes it that these things are universally admitted to be true, but looked upon in servile silence by a country hitherto accustomed to make great efforts for its prosperity, safety and indepen- dence ■? WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 65 METHODISM; [Edinburgh Review, 1809.] Iw routing out a nest of consecrated cobblers, and in bringing to light such a perilous heap of trash as we were obliged to work through, in our articles upon the Methodists and Mis- sionaries, we are generally conceived to have rendered an useful service to the cause of ra- tional religion. Every one, however, at all acquainted with the true character of Method- ism, must have known the extent of the abuse and misrepresentation to which we exposed ourselves in such a service. All this obloquy, however, we were very willing to encounter, from our conviction of the necessity of expos- ing and correcting the growing evil of fanati- cism. In spite of all misrepresentation, we have ever been, and ever shall be, the sincere friends of sober and rational Christianity. We are quite ready, if any fair opportunity occur, to defend it, to the best of our ability, from the tiger-spring of infidelity ; and we are quite de- termined, if we can prevent such an evil, that it shall not be eaten up by the nasty and nu- merous vermin of Methodism. For this pur- pose, we shall proceed to make a few short remarks upon the sacred and silly gentleman before us, — not, certainly, because we feel any sort of anxiety as to the effect of his strictures on our own credit or reputation, but because his direct and articulate defence of the princi- ples and practices which we have condemned, affords us the fairest opportunity of exposing, still more clearly, both the extravagance and the danger of these popular sectaries. These very impudent people have one ruling canon, which pervades every thing they say and do. Whoever is xmfriendly to Methodism, is an infidel and an atheist. This reasonable and amiable maxim, repeated, in every form of dulness, and varied in every attitude of malig- nity, is the sum and substance of Mr. Styles's pamphlet. Whoever wishes to rescue religion from the hands of didactic artisans, — whoever prefers a respectable clergyman for his teacher to a delirious mechanic, — whoever wishes ■ to keep the intervals between churches and luna- tic asylums as wide as possible, — all such men, in the estimation of Mr. Styles, are nothing better than open or concealed enemies of Christianity. His catechism is very simple. In what hoy do you navigate"? By what shoe- maker or carpenter are you instructed 7 What miracles have you to relate 1 Do you think it sinful to reduce Providence to an alternative, &c. &c. &c. Now, if we were to content ourselves with using to Mr. Styles, while he is dealing about his imputations of infidelity, the un- courtly language which is sometimes applied to those who are little curious about truth * Strictures on two Critiques in the , Edinburgh Review, tfin the Subject of Methodism and Missions ; with Remarks Cn the Influence of Reviews, in general, on Morals and Happiness. By John Styles. 8vo. London, 1809. y or falsehood, what Methodist would think the worse of him for such an attack 1 Who is there among them that would not glory to lie for the tabernacle 1 who that would not believe he was pleasing his Maker, by sacrificing truth, justice and common sense, to the inte- rests of his own little chapel, and his own de- ranged instructor ? Something more than con- tradiction or confutation, therefore, is necessary to discredit those charitable dogmatists, and to diminish their pernicious influence; — and the first accusation against us is, that we have endeavoured to add ridicule to reasoning. We are a good deal amused, indeed, with the extreme disrelish which Mr. John Styles ex- hibits to the humour and pleasantry with which he admits the Methodists to have been attacked; but Mr. John Styles should remember, that it is not the practice with destroyers of vermin to allow the little victims a veto upon the wea- pons used against them. If this were other- wise, we should have one set of vermin banish- ing small-tooth combs ; another protesting against mouse-traps ; a third prohibiting the finger and thumb ; a fourth exclaiming against the intolerable infamy of using soap and wa- ter. It is impossible, however, to listen to such pleas. They must all be caught, killed and cracked, in the manner, and by the instruments which are found most efficacious to their de- struction ; and the more they cry out, the greater plainly is the skill used against them. We are convinced a little laughter will do them more harm than all the arguments in the world. Such men as the author before us cannot understand when they are out-argued ; but he has given us a specimen, from his irri- tability, that he fully comprehends when he has become the object of universal contempt and derision. We agree with him, that ridi- cule is not exactly the weapon to be used in matters of religion ; but the use of it is ex- cusable, when there is no other which can make fools tremble. Besides, he should re- member the particular sort of ridicule we have used, which is nothing more than accurate quotation from the Methodists themselves. It is true, that this is the most severe and cutting ridicule to which we could have had recourse; but, whose fault is that? Nothing can be more disingenuous than the attacks Mr. Styles has made upon us for our use of Scripture language. Light and grace are certainly terms of Scripture. It is not to the words themselves that any ridicule can ever attach. It is from the preposterous ap- plication of those words, in the mouths of the most arrogant and ignorant of human beings ; — it is from their use in the most trivial, low and familiar scenes of life ; — it is from the illiterate and ungrammalical prelacy of Mr. John Styles, that any tinge of ridicule ever is f2 66 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. or ever can be imparted to the sacred language of Scripture. We admit also, with this gentleman, that it would certainly evince the most vulgar and contracted heart, to ridicule any religious opinions, methodistical or otherwise, because they were the opinions of the poor, and were conveyed in the language of the poor. But are we to respect the poor, when they wish to step out of their province, and become the teachers of the landl — when men, whose pro- per " talk is of bullocks, pretend to have wis- dom and understanding," is it not lawful to tell them they have none? An ironmonger is a very respectable man, so long as he is merely an ironmonger, — an admirable man if he is a religious ironmonger ; but a great blockhead if he sets up for a bishop or a dean, and lec- tures upon theology. It is not the poor we have attacked, — but the writing poor, the pub- lishing poor, — the limited arrogance which mistakes its own trumpery sect for the world: nor have we attacked them for want of talent, but for want of modesty, want of sense, and want of true rational religion, — for every fault which Mr. John Styles defends and exemplifies. It is scarcely possible to reduce the drunken declamations of Methodism to a point, to grasp the wriggling lubricity of these cunning ani- mals, and to fix them in one position. We have said, in our review of the Methodists, that it is extremely wrong to suppose that Provi- dence interferes with special and extraordinary judgments on every trifling occasion of life : that to represent an innkeeper killed for pre- venting a Methodist meeting, or loud claps of thunder rattling along the heavens, merely to hint to Mr. Scott that he was not to preach at a particular tabernacle in Oxford-road, appear- ed to us to be blasphemous and mischievous nonsense. With great events, which change the destiny of mankind, we might suppose such interference, the discovery of which, upon every trifling occasion, we considered to be pregnant with very mischievous conse- quences. To all which Mr. Styles replies, that, with Providence, nothing is great, or no- thing little, — nothing difficult, or nothing easy; that a worm and a whale are equal in the esti- mation of a Supreme Being. But did any hu- man being but a Methodist, and a third or fourth rate Methodist, ever make such a reply to such an argument 1 We are not talking of what is great or important to Providence, but to us. The creation of a worm or a whale, a Newton or a Styles, are tasks equally easy to Omnipotence. But are they, in their results, equally important to us 1 The lightning may as easily strike the head of the French empe- ror, as of an innocent cottager ; but we are surely neither impious nor obscure, when we say, that one would be an important interfer- ence of Providence, and the other compara- tively not so. But it is a loss of time to reply to such trash ; it presents no stimulus of diffi- culty to us, nor would it oSer any of novelty to our readers. To our attack upon the melancholy ten- dency of Methodism, Mr. Styles replies, " that a man must have studied in the schools of Hume, Voltaire, and Kotzebue, who can plead in be- half of the theatre ; that, at fashionable ball- rooms and assemblies, seduction is drawn out to a system ; that dancing excites the fever of the passions, and raises a delirium too often fatal to innocence and peace ; and that, for the poor, instead of the common rough amuse- ments to which they are now addicted, there remain the simple beauties of nature, the gay colours, and scented perfumes of the earth." These are the blessings which the common people have to expect from their Methodistical instructors. They are pilfered of all their money, — shut out from all their dances and country wakes, — and are then sent pennyless into the fields, to gaze on the clouds, and to smell dandelions ! Against the orthodox clergy of all descrip- tions, our sour devotee proclaims, as was to have been expected, the most implacable war, — declaring that, " in one century, they would have obliterated all the remaining practical reli- gimi in the church, had it not been for this new sect, everywhere spoken against." Undoubtedly, the distinction of mankind into godly and un- godly — if by godly is really meant those who apply religion to the extinction of bad pas- sions — would be highly desirable. But when, by that word, is only intended a sect more de- sirous of possessing the appellation than of deserving it, — when, under that term, are comr prehended thousands of canting hypocrites and raving enthusiasts — men despicable from their ignorance, and formidable from their madness, — the distinction may hereafter prove to be truly terrific ; and a dynasty of fools may again sweep away both church and state in one hideous ruin. There may be, at present, some very respectable men at the head of these maniacs, who would insanify them with some degree of prudence, and keep them only half mad, if they could. But this won't do ; Bedlam will break loose, and overpower its keepers. If the preacher sees visions, and has visitations, the clerk will come next, and then the congregation ; every man will be his own prophet, and dream dreams for himself: the competition in extravagance will be hot and lively, and the whole island a receptacle for incurables. There is, at this moment, a man in London who prays for what garments he wants, and finds them next morning in his room, tight and fitting. This man, as might be expected, gains between two and three thousand a year from the common people, by preaching. Anna, the prophetess, encamps in the woods of America, with thirteen or four- teen thousand followers, and has visits every night from the prophet Elijah. Joanna South- cote raises the dead, &c. &c. Mr. Styles will call us atheists, and disciples of the French school, for what we are about to say ; but it is our decided opinion, that there is some fraud in the prophetic visit ; and it is but too pro- bable, that the clothes are merely human, and the man measured for them in the common way. When such blasphemous deceptions are practised upon mankind, how can remon- strance be misplaced, or exposure mischiev- ous ? If the choice rested with us, we should say, — give us back our wolves again, — restore" our Danish invaders, — curse us with any evil WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 67 but the evil of a canting, deluded, and Metho- distical populace. Wherever Methodism ex- tends its baneful influence, the character of .the English people is constantl}'- changed by ,it. Boldness and rough honesty are broken down into meanness, prevarication, and fraud. While Mr. Styles is so severe upon the in- dolence of the Church, he should recollect that his Methodists are the ex-party; that it is not in human nature, that any persons who quietly possess power can be as active as those who are pursuing it. The fair way to state the merit of the two parties is, to esti- mate what the exertions of the lachrymal and suspirious clergy would be, if they stepped into the endowments of their competitors. The moment they ceased to be paid by the groan, — the instant that Easter offerings no longer depended upon jumping and convul- sions, — Mr. Styles may assure himself, that the character of his darling preachers would be totally changed ; their bodies would become quiet, and their minds reasonable. It is not true, as this bad writer is perpe- tually saying, that the world hates piety. That modest and unobtrusive piety which fills the heart with all human charities, and makes a man gentle to others, and severe to himself, is an object of universal love and veneration. But mankind hate the lust of power when it is veiled under the garb of piety ; — they hate canting and hypocrisy ; — they hate advertisers and quacks and piety ; — they do not choose to be insulted ; — they love to tear folly and im- prudence from that altar which sliould only be a sanctuary for the wretched and the good. Having concluded his defence of Method- ism, this fanatical writer opens upon us his Missionary battery, firing away with the most incessant fury, and calling names, all the time, as loud as lungs accustomed to the eloquence of the tub usually vociferate. In speaking of the cruelties which their religion entails upon the Hindoos, Mr. Styles is peculiarly severe upon us for not being more shocked at their piercing their limbs with kimefi. This is rather an unfair mode of alarming his readers with the idea of some unknown instrument. He repi'esents himself as having paid consi- derable attention to the manners and customs of the Hmdoos ; and, therefore, the peculiar stress he lays upon this instrument is na- turally calculated to produce, in the minds of the humane, a great degree of mysterious terror. A drawing of the hime was impe- riously called for; and the want of it is a subtle evasion, for which Mr. Styles is fairly accountable. As he has been silent on this -subject, it is for us to explain the plan and nature of this terrible and unknown piece of mechanism. A kime, then, is neither more nor less than a false print in the Edinburgh Review for a knife ; and from this blunder of the printer has Mr. Styles manufactured this Dasdalean instrument of torture, called a hime. ! We were at first nearly persuaded by his arguments against klmes ,- — we grew frightened ; — we stated to ourselves the hor- ror of not sending missionaries to a nation Avhich used Mmes ,- — we were struck with the nice and accurate information of the Taber- nacle upon this important subject: — but we looked in the errata, and found Mr. Styles to be always Mr. Styles, — always cut off from every hope of mercy, and remaining for ever himself. Mr. Styles is right in saying we have abo- lished many practices of the Hindoos since the establishment of our empire ; but then we have always consulted the Brahmins, whether or not such practices were conformable to their religion ; and it is upon the authority of their condemnation that we have proceeded to abolition. To the whole of Mr. Styles's observations upon the introduction of Christianity into India, we have one short answer: — it is not Christianity which is introduced there, but the debased mummery and nonsense of Metho- dists, which has little more to do with the Christian religion than it has to do with th» religion of China. We would as soon con- sent that Brodum and Sohinon should carry the medical art of Europe into India, as that Mr. Styles and his Anabaptists should give to the Eastern World their notions of our reli- gion. We send men of the highest character for the administration of justice and the re- gulation^f trade, — nay, we take great pains to impress upon the minds of the natives the highest ideas of our arts and manufactures, by laying before them the finest specimens of our skill and ingenuity, — why, then, are com- mon sense and decency to be forgotten in re- ligion alone 1 and so foolish a set of men allowed to engage themselves in this occupa- tion, that the natives almost instinctively duck and pelt theml But the missionaries, we are told, have mastered the languages of the East. They may also, for aught we know, in the same time, have learnt perspective, astrono- my, or any thing else. What is all this to us ! Our charge is, that they want sense, conduct, and sound religion ; and that, if they are not watched, tlie throat of every European in India will be cut : — the answer to which is, that their progress in languages is truly asto nishing ! If they expose us to eminent peril, what matters it if they have every virtue under .heaven 1 We are not writing disserta tions upon the intellect of Brother Carey, bu' stating his character so far as it concerns us and caring for it no further. But these pious gentlemen care nothing about the loss of the country. The plan, it seems, is this : — We are to educate India in Christianity, as a pa- rent does his child ; and, when it is perfect in its catechism, then to pack up, quit it entirely, and leave it to its own management. This is the evangelical project for separating a colony from the parent country. They see nothing of the bloodshed, and massacres, and devasta- tions, nor of the speeches in parliament, squan- dered millions, fruitless expeditions, jobs and pensions, with which the loss of our Indian possessions would necessarily be accompa- nied ; nor will they see that these consequences could arise from the attempt, and not from the completion, of their scheme of conversion. We should be swept from the peninsula by Pa- gan zealots; and should lose, among other things, all chance of ever really converting them. WORKS or THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. What is the use, too, of telling us what these men endure 1 Suffering is not a merit, but only useful suffering. Prove to us that they are fit men, doing a fit thing, and we are ready to praise the missionaries ; but it gives us no pleasure to hear that a man has walked a thousand miles with peas in his shoes, unless we know why, and wherefore, and to what good purpose he has done it. But these men, it is urged, foolish and ex- travagant as they a,re, may be very useful pre- cursors of the established clergy. This is much as if a regular physician should send a quack doctor before him, and say, do you go and look after this disease for a day or two, and ply the patient well with your nostrums, and then I will step in and complete the cure; a more notable expedient we have seldom heard of. Its patrons forget that these self- ordained ministers, with Mr. John Styles at their head, abominate the established clergy ten thousand times more than they do Pagans, who cut themselves with cruel kimes. The efforts of these precursors would be directed with infinitely more zeal to make the Hindoos disbelieve in bishops, than to make them be- lieve in ChrisX. The darling passion in the soxil of every missionary is, not to teach the great leading truths of the Christian faith, but to enforce the little paltry modification and distinction which he first taught from his own tub. And then what a vv'ay of teaching Chris- tianity is this ! There are five sects, if not six, now employed as missionaries, every one in- structing the Hindoos in their own particular method of interpreting the Scriptures ; and, when these have completely succeeded, the Church of England is to step in, and convert them all over again to its own doctrines. There is, indeed, a very fine varnish of proba- bility over this ingenious andplausible scheme. Mr. John Styles, however, would much rather see a hime in the flesh of an Hindoo than the hand of a bishop on his head. The missionaries complain of intolerance. A weasel might as well complain of intoler- ance when he is throttled for sucking eggs. Toleration for their own opinions, — toleration for their domestic worship, for their .private groans and convulsions, they possess in the fullest extent; but who ever heard of tolera- tion for intolerance! Who ever before heard men cry out that they were persecuted, be- cause they might not insult the religion, shock the feelings, irritate the passions of their fel- low-creatures, and throw a whole colony into bloodshed and confusion 1 We did not say that a man was not an object of pity who tormented himself from a sense of duty, but that he was not so great an object of pity as one equally tormented by the tyranny of an- other, and without any sense of duty to sup- port him. Let Mr. Styles first inflict forty lashes upon himself, then let him allow an Edinburgh Reviewer to give him forty more, — he will find no comparison between the two flagellations. These men talk of the loss of our posses- sions in India, as if it made the argument against them only more or less strong ; where- as, in our estimation, it makes the argument against them conclusive, and shuts tip the case. Two men possess a cow, and they quar- rel violently how they shall manage this cow. They will surely both of them (if they have a particle of common sense) agree, that there is an absolute necessity for preventing the cow from running away. It is not only the loss of India that is in question, — but how will it be lost 1 By the massacre of ten or twenty thousand English, by the blood of our sons and brothers, who have been toiling so many years to return to their native country. But what is all this to a ferocious. Methodist? What care brothers Barrel and Ringletub for us and our colonies 1 If it were possible to invent a method by which a few men sent from a distant country could hold such masses of people as the Hin- doos in subjection, that method would be the institution of castes. There is no institution which can so effectually curb the ambition of genius, reconcile the individual more com- pletely to his station, and reduce the varieties of human character to such a state of insipid and monotonous lameness; and yet the re- ligion which destroys castes is said to render our empire in India more certain ! It may be our duty to make the Hindoos Christians, — that is another argument : but, that we shall by so doing strengthen our empire, we utterly deny. What signifies identity of religion to a question of this kindl Diversity of bodily colour and of language would soon overpower this consideration. Make the Hindoos enter- prising, active, and reasonable as yourselves, — destroy the eternal track in which they have moved for ages — and, in a moment, they would sweep you oft' the face of the earth. Let us ask, too, if the Bible is universally diffused in Hindostan, what must be the astonishment of the natives to find that we are forbidden to rob, murder, and steal ; — we who, in fifty years, have extended our empire from a few acres about Madras over the whole peninsula, and sixty millions of people, and exemplified in oixr public conduct every crime of which hu- man nature is capable. What matchless im- pudence to follow up such practice with such precepts ! If we have common prudence, let us keep the gospel at home, and tell them that Machiavel is our prophet, and the god of the Manicheans our god. There is nothing which disgusts us more than the familiarity which these impious cox- combs affect with the ways and designs of Pro- vidence. Every man, now-a-days, is an Amos or a Malachi. One rushes out of his chambers, and tells us we are beaten by the French, be- cause we do not abolish the slave trade. An- other assures us, that we have no chance of victory till India is evangelized. The new Christians are now come to speak of the ways of their Creator with as much confidence els they would of the plans of an earthly ruler. We remember when the ways of God to man were gazed upon with trembling humility, — when they were called inscrutable, — when piety looked to another scene of existence for the true explanation of this ambiguous and distressing world. We were taught in our childhood that this was true religion; but it WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tarns out now to be nothing but atheism and infidelity. If any thing could surprise us from the pen of a Methodist, we should be truly sur- prised at the very irreligious and presump- tuous answer which Mr. Styles makes to some of our arguments. Our title to one of the an- ecdotes from the Methodist Magazine is as follows: — ''A sinner pimished — a Bee the in- strument;'' to which Mr. Styles replies, that we might as well ridicule the Scriptures, by re- lating their contents in the same ludicrous manner. An interference with respect to a tra- velling Jew,- blindness the consequence. Acts, the ninth chapter, and first nine verses. The account of Paul's conversion, ^c. <^c. and /ui. The picture which a young Englishman, addicted to the pursuit of knowledge, draws — his beau ideal of human nature — his top and consummation of man's powers — is a knowledge of the Greek language. His object is not to reason, to imagine, or to invent; but to conjugate, de- cline,, and derive. The situations of imagina- ry glory which he draws for himself, are the detection of an anapsest in the wrong place, or the restoration of a dative case which Cranzius had passed over, and the never-dying Ernesti failed to observe. If a young classic of this kind were to meet the greatest chemist or the greatest mechanician, or the most profound political economist of his time, in company with the greatest Greek scholar, would the slightest comparison between them ever come across his mind? — would he ever dream that such men as Adam Smith and Lavoisier were equal in dignity of understanding to, or of the same utility as, Bentley and Heyne ? We are inclined to think, that the feeling excited would be a good deal like that which was expressed by Dr. George about the praises of the great King of Prussia, who entertained considerable doubts whether the king, with all his victories, knew how to conjugate a Greek verb in jui. Another misfortune of classical learning, as taught in England, is, that scholars have come. 76 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. in process of time, and from the effects of asso- ciation, to love the instrument better than the end ; — not the luxury which the dilficulty en- closes, but the difficulty ; — not the filbert, but the shell; — not what may be read in Greek, but Greek itself. It is not so much the man who has mastered the wisdom of the ancients, that is valued, as he who displays his know- ledge of the vehicle in which that wisdom is conveyed. The glory is to show 1 am a scho- lar. The good sense and ingenuity I may gain by my acquaintance with ancient authors is matter of opinion ; but if I bestow an immen- sity of pains upon a point of accent or quan- tity, this is something positive ; I establish my pretensions to the name of scholar, and gain the credit of learning, while I sacrifice all its utility. Another evil in the present system of classi- cal education is the extraordinary perfection which is aimed at in teaching those languages; a needless perfection ; an accuracy which is sought for in nothing else. There are few boys who remain to the age of eighteen or nineteen at a public school, without making above ten thousand Latin verses ; — a greater number than is contained in the JF/neid- and after he has made this quantity of verses in a dead language, unless the poet should happen to be a very weak man indeed, he never makes another as long as he lives. It may be urged, and it is urged, that this is of use in teaching the delicacies of the language. No doubt it is of use for this purpose, if we put out of view the immense time and trouble sacrificed in gaining these little delicacies. It would be of use that we should go on till fifty years of age making Latin verses, if the price of a whole life were not too much to pay for it. We effect our object ; but we do it at the price of something greater than our object. And whence comes it, that the expenditure of life and labour is totally put out of the calculation, when Latin and Greek are to be attained 1 In every other occupation, the question is fairly stated between the attainment, and the time employed in the pursuit; — but, in classical learning, it seems to be sufficient if the least possible good is gained by the greatest possible exertion ; if the end is any thing, and the means every thing. It is of some importance to speak and write French ; and innumerable delicacies would be gained by writing ten thousand French verses : but it makes no part of our education to write French poetry. It is of some importance that there should be good botanists ; but no botanist can repeat, by heart, the names of all the plants in the known world ; nor is any astronomer acquainted with the appellation and magnitude of every star in *the map of the heavens. The only department of human knowledge in which there can be no excess, no arithmetic, no balance of profit and loss, is classical learning. The prodigious honour in which Latin verses are held at public schools, is surely the most absurd of all absurd distinctions. You rest all reputation upon doing that which is a natural gift, and which no labour can attain. If a lad won't learn the words of a language, his de- gradatioa ia the school is a very natural pun- ishment for his disobedience, or his indolence; but it would be as reasonable to expect that all boys should be witty, or beautiful, as that they should be poets. In either case, it would be to make an accidental, unattainable, and not a very important gift of nature, the only, or the principal, test of merit. This is the reason why boys, who make a very considerable figure at school, so very often make no figure in the world ; — and why other lads, who are passed over without notice, turn out to be va- luable, important men. The test established in the world is widely different from that esta- blished in a place which is presumed to be a preparation for the world ; and the head of a public school, who is a perfect miracle to his contemporaries, finds himself shrink into ab- solute insignificance, because he has nothing else to command respect or regard, but a talent for fugitive poetry in a dead language. The present state of classical education cul- tivates the imagination a great deal too much, and other habits of mind a great deal too little; and trains up many young men in a style of elegant imbecility, ytterly unworthy of the talents with which nature has endowed them. It may be said, there are profound investiga- tions, and subjects quite powerful enough for any understanding, to be met with in classical literature. So there are ; but no man likes to add the difficulties of a language to the diffi- culties of a subject; and to study metaphysics, morals, and politics in Greek, when the Greek alone is study enough without them. In all foreign languages, the most popular works are works of imagination. Even in the French language, which we know so well, for one serious work which has any currency in this country, we have twenty which are mere works of imagination. This is still more true in classical literature ; because what their poets and orators have left us, is of infinitely greater value than the remains of their philosophy ; for, as society advances, men think more ac- curately and deeply, and imagine more tamely; works of reasoning advance, and works of fancy decay. So that the matter of fact is, that a classical scholar of twenty-three or twenty- four years of age, is a man principally conver- sant with the works of imagination. His feel- ings are quick, his fancy lively, and his taste good. Talents for speculation and original inquiry he has none ; nor has he formed the invaluable habit of pushing things up to their first principles, or of collecting dry and un- amusing facts as the materials of reasoning. All the solid and masculine parts of his under- standing are left wholly without cultivation ; he hates the pain of thinking, and suspects every man whose boldness and originality call upon him to defend his opinions and prove his assertions. A very curious argument is sometimes em- ployed in justification of the learned minutiae to which all young men are doomed, whatever be their propensities in future life. What are you to do with a young man up to the age of se- venteen 1 Just as if there was such a want of difficulties to overcome, and of important tastes to inspire, that from the mere necessity of doing something, and the impossibility of WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 77 doing any thing else, you were driven to the expedient of metre and poetry; — as if a young man within that period might not acquire the modern languages, modern history, experimen- tal philosophy, geography, chronology, and a considerable share of mathematics ; — as if the memory of things was not more agreeable and more profitable than the memory of words. The great objection is, that we are not mak- ing the most of human life, when we consti- tute such an extensive, and such minute clas- sical erudition, an indispensable article in education. Up to a certain point we would educate every young man in Latin and Greek ; but to a point far short of that to which this species of education is now carried. After- wards, we would grant to classical erudition as high honours as to every other department of knowledge, but not higher. We would place it upon a footing with many other objects of study ; but allow it no superiority. Good scholars would be as certainly produced by these means as good chemists, astronomers, and mathematicians are now produced, with- out any direct provision whatsoever for their production. Why are we to trust to the diver- sity of human tastes, and the varieties of human ambition in every thing else, and distrust it in classics alone? The passion for language is just as strong as any other literary passion. There are very good Persian and Arabic scholars in this country. Large heaps of trash have been dug up from Sanscrit ruins. We have seen, in our own times, a clergyman of the University of Oxford complimenting their ' majesties in Coptic and Syrophcenician verses; and yet we doubt whether there will be a suffi- cient avidity in literary men to get at the beau- ties of the finest writers which the world has yet seen ; and though the Bagvat Gliecta has (as can be proved) met with human beings to translate, and other human beings to read it, we think that, in order to secure an attention . to Homer and Virgil, we must catch up every man — whether he is to be a clergyman or a duke, — begin with him at six years of age, and never quit him till he is twenty; making him conjugate and decline for life and death ; and so teaching him to estimate his progress in real wisdom as he can scan the verses of the Greek tragedians. The English clergy, in whose hands educa- tion entirely rests, bring up the first young men of the country as if they were all to keep grammar schools in little country towns ; and a nobleman, upon whose knowledge and libe- rality the honour and welfare of his country may depend, is diligently worried, for half his life, with the small pedantry of longs and shorts. There is a timid and absurd appre- hension, on the part of ecclesiastical tutors, of letting out the minds of youth upon difficult and important subjects. They fancy that men- tal exertion must end in religious scepticism; and, to preserve the principles of their pupils, they confine them to the safe and elegant im- becility of classical learning. A genuine Ox- ford tutor would shudder to hear his young men disputing upon moral and political truth, forming and pulling down theories, and indulg- ing in all the boldness of youthful discussion. He would augur nothing from it but impiety to God and treason to kings. And yet, who vili- fies both more than the holy poltroon who care- fully averts from them the searching eye of reason, and who knows no better method of teaching the highest duties, than by extirpating the finest qualities and habits of the mind ? If our religion is a fable, the sooner it is ex- ploded the better. If our government is bad, it should be amended. But we have no doubt of the truth of the one, or of the excellence of the other ; and are convinced that both will be placed on a firmer basis in proportion as the minds of men are more trained to the investi- gation of truth. At present, we act with the minds of our young men as the Dutch did with their exuberant spices. An infinite quantity of talent is annually destroyed in the universities of England by the miserable jealousy and lit- tleness of ecclesiastical instructors. It is in. vain to say we have produced great men under this system. We have produced great men under all systems. Every Englishman must pass half his life in learning Latin and Greek ; and classical learning is supposed to have pro- duced the talents which it has not been able to extinguish. It is scarcely passible to prevent great men from rising up under any system of education, however bad. Teach men demono- logy or astrology, and you will still have a cer- tain portion of original genius, in spite of these or any other branches of ignorance and folly. There is a delusive sort of splendour in a vast body of men pursuing one object, and thoroughly obtaining it ; and yet, though it is very splendid, it is far from being useful. Classical literature is the great object at Ox- ford. Many minds so employed have produced many works and much fame in that depart- ment; but if all liberal arts and sciences use- ful to human life had been taught there, — if some have dedicated themselves to chemistry, some to mathematics, some to experimental philosophy, — and if every attainment had been honoured in the mixed ratio of its difficulty and utility, — the system of such an University would have been much more valuable, but the splendour of its name something less. When an University has been doing useless things for a long time, it appears at first de- grading to them to be useful. A set of lectures upon political economy would be discouraged in Oxford,* probably despised, probably not permitted. To discuss the inclosure of com- mons, and to dwell upon imports and exports, — to come so near to common life, would seem to be undignified and contemptible. In the same manner, the Parr, or the Bentley of his day, would be scandalized in an University to be put on a level with the discoverer of a neu- tral salt ; and yet, what other measure is there of dignity in intellectual labour, but usefulness and diflSculty 1 And what ought the term Uni- versity to mean, but a place where every science is taught which is liberal, and at the same time useful to mankind! Nothing would so much tend to bring classical litera- ture wdthin proper bounds, as a steady and invariable appeal to these tests in our appre- * They have since been established. G 2 78 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. ciation of all human knowledge. The puffed up pedant would collapse into his proper size, and the maker of verses, and the rememberer of words, would soon assume that station which is the lot of those who go up unbidden to the upper places of the feast. We should be sorry if what we have said should appear too contemptuous towards clas- sical learning, which we most sincerely hope will always be held in great honour in this country, though we certainly do not wish to it that exclusive honour which it at pre- sent enjoys. A great classical scholar is an ornament, and an important acquisition to nis country ; but, in a place of education, we would give to all knowledge an equal chance for distinction ; and would trust to the varieties of human disposition that every science worth cultivation would be cultivated. Looking al- ways to real utility as our guide, we should see, with equal pleasure, a studious and inqui- sitive mind arranging the productions of na- ture, investigating the qualities of bodies, or mastering the difficulties of the learned lan- guages. We should not care whether he were chemist, naturalist, or scholar; because we know it to be as necessary that matter should be studied, and subdued to the use of man, as that taste should be gratified, and imagination inflamed. In those Avho were destined for the church, we would undoubtedly encourage classical learning more than in any other body of men; but if we had to do with a young man going out into public life, we would exhort him to contemn, or at least not to affect, the reputa- tion of a great scholar, but to educate himself for the offices of civil life. He should learn what the constitution of his country really was, — how it had grown into its present state, — the perils that had threatened it, — the malignity that had attacked it, — the courage that had fought for it, and the wisdom that had made it great. We would bring strongly before his mind the characters of those Englishmen who have been the steady friends of the public hap- piness ; and by their examples, would breathe into him a pure public taste which should keep him untaiated in all the vicissitudes of politi- cal fortune. We would teach him to burst through the well paid, and the pernicious cant of indiscriminate loyalty; and to know his sovereign only as he discharged those duties, and displayed, those qualities, for which the blood and the treasure of his people are con- fided to his hands. We should deem it of the utmost importance that his attention was di- rected to the true principles of legislation, — what effect laAvs can produce upon opinions, and opinions upon laws, — what subjects are fit for legislative interference, and when men may be left to the management of their own interests. The mischief occasioned by bad laws, and the perplexity which arises from numerous laws, — the causes of national wealth, — the relations of foreign trade, — the encou- ragement of manufactures and agriculture, — the fictitious wealth occasioned by paper cre- dit, — the laws of population, — the management of poverty and mendicity, — the use and abuse of monopoly, — the theory of taxation, — the consequences of the public debt. These are some of the subjects, and some of the branches of civil education to which we would turn the minds of future judges, future senators, and future noblemen. After the first period of life had been given up to the cultivation of the classics, and the reasoning powers were now beginning to evolve themselves, these are some of the propensities in study which we would endeavour to inspire. Great knowledge, at such a period of life, we could not convey ; but we might fix a decided taste for its acqui- sition, and a strong disposition to respect it in others. The formation of some great scholars we should certainly prevent, and hinder many from learning what, in a few years, they would necessarily forget ; but this loss would be well repaid,— if we could show the future rulers of the country that thought and labour which it requires to make a nation happy, — or if we could inspire them with that love of public virtue, which, after religion, we most solemnly believe to be the brightest ornament of the mind of man. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 79 FEMALE EDUCATION.* Edinburgh Review, 1810. Mr. Broadhurst is a very good sort of a man, who has not vi^ritten a very bad book upon a very important subject. His object (a very laudable one) is to recommend a better system of female education than at present prevails in this country — to turn the attention of women from the trifling pursuits to which they are now condemned — and to cultivate faculties which, under the actual system of management, might almost as well not exist. To the examination of his ideas upon these points, we shall very cheerfully give up a portion of our time and at- tention. A great deal has been said of the original difference of capacity between men and wo- men ; as if women were more quick, and men more judicious — as if women were more re- markable for delicacy of association, and men for stronger powers of attention. All this, we confess, appears to us very fanciful. That there is a difference in the understandings of the men and the women we every day meet with, every body, we suppose, must perceive ; but there is none surely which may not be accounted for by the difference of circumstances in which they have been placed, without referring to any conjectural difference of original conformation of mind. As long as boys and girls run about in the dirt, and trundle hoops together, they are both precisely alike. If you catch up one half of these creatures, and train them to a particu- lar set of actions and opinions, and the other half to a perfectly opposite set, of course their understandings will differ, as one or the other sort of occupations has called this or that ta- lent into action. There is surely no occasion to go into any deeper or more abstruse reason- ing, in order to explain so very simple a phe- nomenon. Taking it, then, for granted, that nature has been as bountiful of understanding to one sex as the other, it is incumbent on us to consider what are the principal objections commonly made against the communication of a greater share of knowledge to women than commonly falls to their lot at present : for though it may be doubted whether women should learn all that men learn, the immense disparity which now exists between their knowledge we should hardly think could admit of any rational de- fence. It is not easy to imagine that there can be any just cause why a woman of forty should be more ignorant than a boy of twelve years of age. If there be any good at all in female ig- norance, this (to use a very colloquial phrase) is surely too much of a good thing. Something in this question must depend, no doubt, upon the leisure which either sex en- joys for the cultivation of their understand- ings: — and we cannot help thinking, that wo- men have fully as much, if not more, idle time upon their hands than men. Women are ex- cluded from all the serious business of the ♦ Advice to Young Ladies on the Improvement of the 'Mind. By Thomas Broadhurst. 8vo. London, 1808. world ; men are lawyers, physicians, clergy- men, apotliecaries, and justices of the peace — sources of exertion which consume agrealdeal more time than producing and suckling child- ren ; so that, if the thing is a thing that ought to be done — if the attainments of literature are objects really worthy the attention of females, they cannot plead the want of leisure as an ex- cuse for indolence and neglect. The lawyer who passes his day in exasperating the bicker- ings of Roe and Doe, is certainly as much en- gaged as his lady who has the whole of the morning before her to correct the children and pay the bills. The apothecary, who rushes from an act of phlebotomy in the western parts of the town to insinuate a bolus in the east, is surely as completely absorbed as that fortunate female who is darning the garment, or prepar- ing the repast of her . be aimed at is, that such emancipation should be gradual, and not pre- mature. Upon this very invidious point of the discussion, we rather wish to avoid offering any opinion. The manners of great schools vary considerably from time to time ; and what may have been true many years ago, is very possi- bly not true at the present period. In this in- stance, every parent must be governed by bis own observations and means of information. If the license which prevails at public schools is only a fair increase of hberty, proportionate to advancing age, and calculated to prevent the bad effects of a sudden transition from tute- lary thraldom to perfect self-government, it is certainly a good rather than an evil. If, on the contrary, there exists in these places of educa- tion a system of premature debauchery, and if they only prevent men from being corrupted by the world, by corrupting them before their entry info the world, they can then only be looked upon as evils of the greatest magni- tude, however they may be sanctioned by opi- nion, or rendered femiliar to us by habit. The vital and essential part of a school is the master ; but, at a pubhc school, no boy, or, at WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. the best, only a very few, can see enough of him to derive any considerable benefit i'»om his character, manners, and information. It is certainly of eminent use, particularly to a young man of rank, that he should have lived among boys; but it is only so when they are all mo- derately watched by some superior understand- ing. The morality of boys is generally very im- perfect; their notions of honour extremely mis- taken ; and their objects of ambition frequently very absurd. The probability then is, that the kind of discipline they exercise over each other will produce (when left to itself) a great deal of mischief; and yet this is the discipline to which every child at a public school is not only ne- cessarily exposed, but principally confined. Our objection (we again repeat) is not to the interference of boys in the formation of the character of boys ; their character, we are per- suaded, will be very imperfectly formed without their assistance ; but our objection is to that almost exclusive agency which they exercise in public schools. After having said so much in opposition to the general prejudice in favour of public schools, we may be expected to state what species of school we think preferable to them; for if pub- lic schools, with all their disadvantages, are the best that can actually be found, or easily attained, the objections to them are certainly made to very little purpose. We have no hesitation, however, in saying, that that education seems to us to be the best which mingles a domestic with a school life ; and which gives to a youth the advantage which is to be derived from the learning of a master, and the emulation which results from the society of other boys, together with the affectionate vigilance which he must experience in the house of his parents. But where this species of education, from peculiarity of circum- stances or situation, is not attainable, we are disposed to think a society of twenty or thirty boys, under the guidance of a learned man, and, above all, of a man of good sense, to be a seiTiinary the best adapted for the education of youth. The numbers are sufficient to excite a considerable degree of emulation, to give to a boy some insight into the diversities of the human character, and to subject him to the ob- servation and control of his superiors. It by no means follows, that a judicious man should al- ways interfere with his authority and advice be- cause he has always the means ; he may con- nive at many things which he cannot approve, and suffer some little failures to proceed to a certain extent, which, if indulged in wider limits, would be attended with irretrievable mischief: he will be aware, that his object is to fit his pupil for the world ; that constant con- trol is a very bad preparation for complete emancipation from all control; that it is not bad policy to expose a young man, under the eye of superior wisdom, to some of those dan- gers which will assail him hereafter in greater number, and in greater strength — when he has only his own resources to depend upon. A private education, conducted upon these prin- ciples, is not calculated to gratify quickly the vanity of a parent who is blest with a child of strong character and pre-eminent abilities : to be the first scholar of an obscure master, at an obscure place, is no very splendid distinction ; nor does it afford that opportunity, of which so many parents are desirous, of forming great connexions for their children : but if the ob- ject be, to induce the young to love knowledge and virtue, we are inclined to suspect, that, for the average of human talents and characters, these are the situations in which such tastes will be the most effectually formed. 12 90 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. TOLERATION.* [Edinburgh Review, 1811.] If a prudent man sees a child playing with a porcelain cup of great value, he takes the ves- sel out of his hand, pats him on the head, tells him his mamma will be sorry if it is broken, and gently cheats him into the use of some less precious substitute. Why will Lord Sidmouth meddle with the Toleration Act, when there are so many other subjects in which his abilities might be so eminently useful — when enclosure bills are drawn up with such scandalous negli- gence — turnpike roads so shamefully neglected — and public conveyances illegitimately loaded in the face of day, and in defiance of Ihe wisest legislative provisions! We confess our trepi- dation at seeing the Toleration Act in the hands of Lord Sidmouth ; and should be very glad if it were fairly back in the statute book, and the sedulity of this well-meaning nobleman diverted into another channel. The alarm and suspicion of the Dissenters upon these measures are wise and rational. They are right to consider the Toleration Act as their palladium ; and they may be certain that in this country there is always a strong party ready, not only to prevent the further ex- tension of tolerant principles, but to abridge (if they dared) their present operation within the narrowest limits. Whoever makes this at- tempt, will be sure to make it under professions of the most earnest regard for mildness and toleration, and with the strongest declarations of respect for King William, the Revolution, and the principles which seated the House of Brunswick on the throne of these realms ; — and then will follow the clauses for whipping Dissenters, imprisoning preachers, and sub- jecting them to rigid qualifications, &c. &c. &c. The infringement on the militia acts is a mere pretence. The real object is to diminish the number of Dissenters from the Church of England, by abridging the liberties and privi- leges they now possess. This is the project which we shall examine, for we sincerely be- lieve it to be the project in agitation. The mode in which it is proposed to attack the Dis- senters is, first, by exacting greater qualifica- tions in their teachers : next, by preventing the interchange or itinerancy of preachers, and fixing them to one spot. It can never, we presume, be intended to subject dissenting ministers to any kind of the- ological examination. A teacher examined in doctrinal opinions, by another teacher who dif- fers from him, is so very absurd a project, that we entirely acquit Lord Sidmouth of any in- tention of this sort. We rather presume his lordship to mean, that a man who professes to teach his fellow creatures, should at least have * Bints on Toleration, in Five Essays, $-c. suggested for the consideration of Lord Viscount Sidmouth, and the Dis- eenters. By Philagatharches. London. 1810. made some progress in human learning;— that he should not be wholly without educa- tion ; — that he should be able at least to read and write. If the test is of this very ordinary nature, it can scarcely exclude many teachers of religion ; and it was hardly worth while, for the very insignificant diminution of numbers which this must occasion to the dissenting clergy, to have raised all the alarm which this attack upon the Toleration Act has occasioned. But, without any reference to the magnitude of the efiects, is the principle i-ight ? or, What is the meaning of religious toleration 1 That a man should hold, without pain or penalty, any religious opinions, — and choose for his instruction, in the business of salvation, any guide whom he pleases ; — care being taken that the teacher and the doctrine injure neither the policy nor the morals of the country. We . maintain that perfect religious toleration ap- plies as much to the teacher as the thing taught; and that it is quite as intolerant to make a man hear Thomas, who wants to hear John, as it would be to make a man profess Arminian, who wished to profess Calviaistical principles. What right has any government to dictate to any man who shall guide him to heaven, any more than it has to persecute the religious tenets by which he hopes to arrive there 1 You believe that the heretic professes doctrines utterly incompatible with the true spirit of the gospel ; — first you burnt him for this, — then you whipt him, then you fined him, — then you put him in prison. All this did no good ; — and, for these hundred years last past, you have let him alone. The heresy is now firmly protected by law ; — and you know it must be preached : — What matters it then, who preaches it 1 If the evil must be commu- nicated, the organ and instrument through which it is communicated cannot be of much consequence. It is true, this kind of persecu- tion against persons, has not been quite so much tried as the other against doctrines ; but the folly and inexpediency of it rest precisely upon the same grounds. Would it not be a singular thing if the friends of the Church of England were to make the most strenuous efforts to render their enemies eloquent and learned? — and to found places of education for Dissenters 1 But, if their learn- ing would not be a good, why is their ignorance an evin — unless it be necessarily supposed, , that all increase of learning must- bring men i over to the Church of England; in which sup- T position, the Scottish and Catholic universities, and the college at Hackney, would hardly ac- quiesce. Ignorance surely matures and quick- ens the progress, by insuring the dissolution of absurdity. Rational and learned Dissenters remain : — religious mobs, under some ignorant WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 91 fanatic of the day, become foolish overmuch, — dissolve, and return to the Church. The Uni- tarian, who reads and writes gets some sort of discipline, and returns no more. What connection is there (as Lord Sid- mouth's plan assumes) between the zeal and piety required for religious instruction and the common attainments of literature 1 But, if knowledge and education are required for re- ligious instruction, why be content with the common elements of learning 1 why not require higher attainments in dissenting candidates for orders; and examine them in the languages in which the books of their religion are con- veyed 1 A dissenting minister of vulgar aspect and homely appearance, declares that he entered into that holy office because he felt a call ; — and a clergyman of the Establishment smiles at him for the declaration. But it should be remembered, that no minister of the Establish- ment is admitted into orders, before he has been expressly interrogated by the bishop whether he feels himself called to that sacred office. The doctrine of calling, or inward feeling, is quite orthodox in the English Church ; — and, in arguing this subject in Parliament, it will hardly be contended, that the Episcopalian only is the judge when that call is genuine, and when it is only imaginary. The attempt at making the dissenting clergy stationary, and persecuting their circulation, appears to us quite as unjust and inexpedient as the other measure of qualifications. It ap- pears a gross inconsistency to say — "I admit that what you are doing is legal, — but you must not do it thoroughly and effectually. I allow you to propagate your heresy, — but I object to all means of propagating it which appear to be useful and effective." If there are any other grounds upon which the circulation of the dis- senting clergy is objected to, let these grounds be stated and examined ; but to object to their circulation merel}^ because it is the best method of effecting the object which you allow them to effect, does appear to be rather unnatural and inconsistent. It is persumed, in this argument, that the only reason urged for the prevention of itiner- ant preachers is the increase of heresy ; for, if heresy is not increased by it, it must be im- material to the feelings of Lord Sidraouth, and of the imperial Parliament, whether Mr. Shuf- flebotlom preaches at Bungay, and Mr. Ringle- tub at Ipswich ; or whether an artful vicissitude is adopted, a'nd the order of insane predication reversed. But, supposing all this new interference to be just, what good will it do] You find a dis- senting preacher, whom 3'-ou have prohibited, still continuing to preach, — or preaching at Ealing when he ought to preach at Acton ; — his number is taken, and the next morning he is summoned. Is it believed that this descrip- tion of persons can be put down by fine and imprisonment 1 His fine is paid for him ; and he returns from imprisonment ten times as much sought after and as popular as he was before. This is a receipt for making a stupid preacher popular, and a popular preacher more popular, but can have no possible tendency to prevent the mischief against which it is level- ed. It is precisely the old history of perse- cution against opinions turned into a perse- cution against persons. The prisons will be filled, — the enemies of the Church made ene- mies of the state also, — and the Methodists rendered ten times more actively mad than they are at present. This is the direct and obvious tendency of Lord Sidmouth's plan. Nothing dies so hard and rallies so often as intolerance. The fires are put out, and no liv- ing nostril has scented the nidor of a human creature roasted for faith ; — then, after this, the prison doors were got open, and the chains knocked off; and now Lord Sidmouth only begs that men who disagree with him in re- ligious opinions may be deprived of all civil offices and not be allowed to hear the preachers they like best. Chains and whips he would not hear of; but these mild gratifications of his bill every orthodox mind is surely entitled to. The hardship would indeed be great if a churchman were deprived of the amusement of putting a dissenting parson in prison. We are convinced Lord Sidmouth is a very amia- ble and well-intentioned man : his error is not the error of his heart, but of his time, above which few men ever rise. It is the error of some four or five hundred thousand English gentlemen of decent education and worthy characters, who conscientiously believe that they are punishing, and continuing incapaci- ties, for the good of the state ; while they are, in fact (though without knowing it), only grati- fying that insolence, hatred, and revenge, which all human beings are unfortunately so ready to feel against those who will not conform to their own sentiments. But, instead of making the dissenting church- es less popular, why not make the English church more popular, and raise the English clergy to the privileges of the Dissenters 1 In any parish of England, any layman, or clergy- man, by paying sixpence, can open a place of worship, — provided it be not the worship of the Church of England. If he wishes to attack the doctrines of the bishop or the incumbent, he is not compelled to ask the consent of any person; but if, by any evil chance, he should be per- suaded of the truth of those doctrines, and build a chapel or mount a pulpit to support them, he is instantly put in the spiritual court; for the regular incumbent, who has a legal monopoly of this doctrine, does not choose to suffer any interloper; and without his consent, it is ille- gal to preach the doctrines of the church within his precincts.* Now this appears to us a great * It.^might be supposed that the general interests of the Church would outweigh the particular interests of the rector; and that any clergyman would be glad to see places of worship opened within his parish for the doctrines of the Established Church. The fact, how- ever, is directly the reverse. It is scarcely possible to obtain permission from the established clergyman of the parish to open a chapel there ; and, when it is granted, it is granted upon very hard and interested conditions. The parishes of St, George— of St. James— of Mary-le- bone— and of St. Anne's, in London— may, in the parish churches, chapels of ease, and mercenary chapels, con- tain, perhaps, one-hundredth part of their Episcopalian inhabitants. Let the rectors, lay and clerical, meet together, and give notice that any clergyman of the Church of England, approved by the bishop, may preach there ; and we will venture to say, that places of wor- 92 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. and manifest absurdity, and a disadvantage against the Established Church which very few establishments could bear. The persons who preach and who build chapels, or for whom chapels are built, among the Dissenters, are active clever persons, with considerable talents for that kind of employment. These talents have, with them, their free and unbounded scope ; while in the English Church they are wholly extinguished and destroyed. Till this evil is corrected, the Church contends with fear- ful odds against its opponents. On the one side, any man who can command the attention of a congregation — to whom nature has given the animal and intellectual qualifications of a preacher — such a man is the member of every corporation ; — all impediments are removed ; — there is not a single position in Great Britain which he may not take, provided he is hostile to the Established Church. In the other case, if the English Church were to breed up a Mas- sillon or a Bourdaloue, he finds every place occupied, and every where a regular and re- spectable clergyman ready to put him in the spiritual court, if he attracts, within his pre- cincts, any attention to the doctrines and wor- ship of the Established Church. The necessity of having the bishop's consent would prevent any improper person from preaching. That consent should be withheld, not capriciously, but for good and lawful cause to be assigned. The profits of an incumbent proceed from fixed or voluntary contributions. The fixed could not be afl^ected ; and the voluntary ought to vary according to the exertions of the in- cumbent and the good will of the parishioners ; but, if this is wrong, pecuniary compensation might be made (at the discretion of the ordina- ry) from the supernumerary to the regular cler- gyman.* Such a plan, it is true, would make the Church of England more popular in its nature ; and it ought to be made more popular, or it will not endure for another half century. There are two methods ; the Church must be made more popular or the Dissenters less so. To effect the latter object by force and restriction is unjust and impossible. The only remedy seems to be, to grant to the Church the same privileges which are enjoyed by the Dissenters, and to excite, in one party, that competition of talent which is of such palpable advantage to the other, A remedy suggested by some well-wishers to the Church, is the appointment of men to bene- ship capable of containing 20,000;persons would be built within ten yenrs. But, in these cases, the interest of the rector and'of the Establishment is not the same. A chapel belonging to the Swedenborgians, or Methodists of the New Jerusalem, was offered, two or three years since, in London, to a clergyman of the Establishment. The proprietor was tired of his irrational tenants, and wished for better doctrine. The rector (since a digni- tary), with every possible compliment to the fitness of the person in question, positively refusedithe applica- tion ; and the church remains in the hands of Metho- dists. No particular blame is intended, by this anec- dote, against the individual rector. He acted as many have done before and since; but the incumbent clergy- man ought to possess no such power. It is his interest, but not the interest of the Establishment. * All this has been since placed on a better footing. fices who have talents for advancing the inter- 'ests of religion ; but, till each particular patron can be persuaded to care more for the general good of the Church than for the particular good of the person whom he patronizes, little expec- tation of improvement can be derived from this quarter. The competition between the Established clergy, to which this method would give birth, would throw the incumbent in the back-ground only when he was unfit to stand forward, — im- moral, negligent, or stupid. His income would still remain ; and, if his influence were super- seded by a man of better qualities and attain- ments, the general good of the Establishment would be consulted by the change. The bene- ficed clergyman would always come to the contest with great advantages ; and his defici- encies must be very great indeed, if he lost the esteem of his parishioners. But the contest would rarely or never take place, where the friends of the Establishment were not numer- ous enough for all. At present, the selfish incumbent, who cannot accommodate the fif- tieth part of his parishioners, is determined that no one else shall do it for him. It is in such situations that the benefit to the Establishment would be greatest, and the injury to the ap- pointed minister none at all. We beg of men of sense to reflect, that the question is not whether they wish the English Church to stand as it now is, but whether the English Church can stand as it now is ; and whether the moderate activity here recom- mended is not the minimum of exertion neces- sary for its preservation. At the same time, we hope nobody will rate our sagacity so very low as to imagine we have much hope that any measure of the kind will ever be adopted. Ml establishments die of dignity. They are too proud to think themselves ill, and to take a little physic. To show that we have not misstated the ob- stinacy or the conscience of sectaries, and the spirit with which they will meet the regulations of Lord Sidmouth, we will lay before our readers the sentiments of Philagatharches — a stern subacid Dissenter. "I shall not here enter into a comprehensive discussion of the nature of a call to the minis- terial office; but deduce my proposition from a sentiment admitted equally by conformists and nonconformists. It is essential to the nature of a call to preach ' that a man be moved by the Holy Ghost to enter upon the work of the min- istry : ' and, if the Spirit of God operate power- fully upon his heart to contrain him to appear as a public teacher of religion, who shall com- mand him to desist"! We have seen that the sanction of the magistrate can give no autho- rity to preach the gospel ; and if he were to forbid our exertions, we must persist in the work ; we dare not relinquish a task that God has required us to perform ; we cannot keep our consciences in peace, if our lips are closed in silence, while the Holy Ghost is moving our hearts to proclaim the tidings of salvation : — 'Yea, woe is unto me,' saith St. Paul, 'if I preach not the gospel.' Thus, when the Jewish priests had taken Peter and John into custody, I and after examining them concerning their doc- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 93 •trine, * commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus,' these apos- tolical champions of the cross undauntedly replied, 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye : for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.' Thus, also, in our day, when the Holy Ghost excites a man to preach the gospel to his fellow sinners, his message is sanctioned by an authority which is 'far above all principality and power;' and, -consequently, neither needs the approbation of subordinate rulers, nor admits of revocation by :their countermanding edicts. " 3dly. He who receives a license should not expect to derive from it a testimony of qualifi- •cation to preach. " It would be grossly absurd to seek a testi- mony of this description from any single indi- vidual, even though he were an experienced •veteran in the service of Christ; for aH are fallib\e ; and, under some unfavourable prepos- session, even the wisest or the best of men might give an erroneous decision upon the •case. But this observation will gain additional force when we suppose the power of judging transferred to the person of the magistrate — We cannot presume that a civil ruler under- stands as much of theology as a minister of the gospel. His necessary duties prevent him from critically investigating questions upon •divinity ; and confine his attention to that par- ticular department which society has deputed him to occupy ; and hence to expect at his hands a testimony of qualification to preach would be almost as ludicrous as to require an obscure country curate to fill the office of Lord Chancellor. " But again— admitting that a magistrate •who is nominated by the sovereign to issue forth licenses to dissenting ministers, is com- petent to the task of judging of their natural and acqviired abilities, it must still remain a doubtful question whether they are moved to preach by the influences of the Holy Ghost ; for it is the prerogative of God alone to ' search the heart and try ihe reins' of the children of men. Consequently, after every effort of the ruling powers to assume to themselves the right of judging whether a man be or be not •qualified to preach, the most essential property of the call must remain to be determined by the conscience of the individual. "It is further worthy of observation that the talents of a preacher may be acceptable to many persons, if not to him who issues the license. The taste of a person thus high in office may be too refined to derive gratification from any but the most learned, intelligent, and accomplished preachers. Yet, as the gospel is sent to the poor as well as to the rich, per- haps hundreds of preachers may be highly acceptable, much esteemed, and eminently useful in their respective circles, who would be despised as men of mean attainments by one whose mind is well stored with literature, and cultivated by science. From these re- marks, I infer, that a man's own judgment must be the criterion, in determining what tine of conduct to pursue before he begins to preach ; and the opinion of the people to whom he ministers must determine whether it be desirable that he should continue to fill their pulpit."— (168— 173.) The sentiments of Philagatharches are ex- pressed still more strongly in a subsequent passage. " Here a question may arise — what line of conduct conscientious ministers ought to pur- sue, if laws were to be enacted, forbidding either all dissenting ministers to preach, or only lay preachers ; or forbidding to prea.ch in an unlicensed place ; and, at the same time, refusing to license persons and places, except under such security as the property of the parties would not meet, or under limi- tations to which their consciences could not accede. What has been advanced ought to outweigh every consideration of temporal interest; and if the evil genius of persecu- tion were to appear again, I pray God that we might all be faithful to Him who hath called us to preach the gospel. Under such circum- stances, let us continue to preach : if fined, let us pa)' the penalty, and persevere in preach- ing; and, when unable to pay the fine, or deeming it impolitic so to do, let us submit to go quietly to prison, but with the resolution still to preach upon the first opportunity, and, if possible, to collect a church even within the precincts of the gaol. He who, by these zealous exertions, becomes the honoured in- strument of converting one sinner unto God, will find that single seal to his ministerial la- bours an ample compensation for all his suf- ferings. In this manner the venerable apostle of the Gentiles both avowed and proved his sincere attachment to the cause in which he had embarked : — ' The Holy Ghost witnesseth, in every city, that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.' "In the early ages of Christianity martyr- dom was considered an eminent honour ; and many of the primitive Christians thrust them- selves upon the notice of their heathen per- secutors, that they might be brought to suffer in the cause of that Redeemer whom they ardently loved. In the present day Christians in general incline to estimate such rash ardour as a species of enthusiasm, and feel no dispo- sition to court the horrors of persecution ; yet, if such dark and tremendous days were to return in this age of the world, ministers should retain their stations; they should be true to their charge ; they should continue their ministrations, each man in his sphere, shining with all the lustre of genuine godli- ness, to dispel the gloom in which the nation would then be enveloped. If this line of con- duct were to be adopted, and acted upon with decision, the cause of piety, of nonconformity, and of itinerant preaching, must eventually triumph. All the gaols in the country would speedily be filled : those houses of correction which were erected for the chastisement of the vicious in the community, would be replen- ished with thousands of the most pious, active, and useful men in the kingdom, whose cha- 94 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. racters are held in general esteem. But the ultimate result of such despotic proceedings is heyond the ken of human prescience :— pro- bably, appeals to the public and the legislature would teem from the press, and, under such circumstances, might diffuse a revolutionary spirit throughout the country."— (239— 243.) We quote these opinions at length, not be- cause they are the opinions of Philagatharches, but because we are confident that they are the opinions of ten thousand hot-headed fanatics, and that they would firmly and conscientiously be acted upon. Philagatharches is an instance (not uncom- mon, we are sorry to say, even among the most rational of the Protestant Dissenters) of a love of toleration combined with a love of persecu- tion. He is a Dissenter, and earnestly demands religious liberty for that body of men ; but as for the Catholics, he would not only continue their present disabilities, but load them with every new one that could be conceived. He expressly says that an Atheist or a Deist ma7 be allowed to propagate their doctrines, but not a Catholic ; and then proceeds with all the customary trash against that sect which nine schoolboys out of ten now know how to refute. So it is with Philagatharches ; — so it is with weak men in every sect. It has ever been our object, and (in spite of misrepresentation and abuse) ever shall be our object, to put down this spirit — to protect the true interests, and to diffuse the true spirit, of toleration. To a well- supported national Establishment, effectually discharging its duties, we are very sincere friends. If any man, after he has paid his contribution to this great security for the exist- ence of religion in any shape, chooses to adopt a religion of his own, that man should be per- mitted to do so without let, molestation, or dis- qualification for any of the offices of life. We apologize to men of sen&e for sentiments so trite ; and patiently endure the anger which they will excite among those with whom they will pass for original. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 95 CHAELES FOX.* [Edinburgh Review, 1811.] Thovsh Mr. Fox's history was, of course, as much open to animadversion and rebuke as any other book, the task, we think, woukl have become any other person better than Mr. Rose. The whole of Mr. Fox's life was spent in opposing the profligacy and exposing the ignorance of his own court. In the first half of his political career, while Lord North was losing America, and in the latter half, while Mr. Pitt was ruining Europe, the creatures of the government were eternally exposed to the attacks of this discerning, dauntless, and most powerful speaker. Folly and corruption never had a more terrible enemy in the English House of Commons — one whom it was so im- possible to bribe, so hopeless to elude, and so difficult to answer. Now it so happened that, during the whole of this period, the historical critic of Mr. Fox was employed in subordinate offices of government; — that the detail of taxes passed through his hands ; — that he amassed a large fortune by those occupations ; — and that, both in the measures which he support- ed, and in the friends from whose patronage he received his emoluments, he was complete- ly and perpetually opposed to Mr. Fox. Again, it must be remembered, that very great people have very long memories for the injuries which they receive, or which they think they receive. No speculation was so good, therefore, as to vilify the memory of Mr. Fox, — nothing so delicious as to lower him in the public estimation, — no service so likely to be well rewarded — so eminently grate- ful to those of whose favour Mr. Rose had so often tasted the sweets, and of the value of whose patronage he must, from long experi- ence, have been so thoroughly aware. We are almost inclined to think that we might at one time have worked ourselves up to suspect Mr. Rose of being actuated by some of these motives : — not because we have any reason to think worse of that gentleman than of most of his political associates, but merely because it seemed to us so very probable that he should have been so influenced. Our sus- picions, however, were entirely removed by the frequency and violence of his own pro- testations. He vows so solemnly that he has no bad metive in writing his critique, that we find it impossible to withhold our belief in his purity. But Mr. Rose does not trust to his protestations alone. He is not satisfied with assurances that he did not write this book from any bad motive, but he informs us that his motive was excellent, — and is even obliging enough to tell us what that motive was. The Earl of Marchmont, it seems, was Mr. Rose's friend. To Mr. Rose he left his manuscripts ; and among these manuscripts was a narrative * A Vindication of Mr. Fox's History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second. By Samuel Heywood, Serjeant-at-Law. London. Johnson & Co. 1811. written by Sir Patrick Hume, an ancestor of the Earl of Marchmont, and one of the leaders in Argyle's rebellion. Of Sir Patrick Hume Mr. Rose conceives (a little erroneously to be sure, but he assures us he does conceive) Mr. Fox to have spoken disrespectfully ; and the case comes out, therefore, as clearly as possi- ble, as follows. Sir Patrick was the progenitor, and Mr. Rose was the friend and sole executor, of the Earl of Marchmont; and therefore, says Mr. Rose, I consider it as a sacred duty to vindi- cate the character of Sir Patrick, and, for that purpose, to publish a long and elaborate cri- tique upon all the doctrines and statements contained in Mr. Fox's history ! This appears to us about as satisfactory an explanation of Mr. Rose's authorship as the exclamation of the traveller was of the name of Stony Stratford. Before Mr. Rose gave way to this intense value for Sir Patrick, and resolved to write a book, he should have inquired what accurate men there were about in society ; and if he had once received the slightest notice of the existence of Mr. Samuel Heywood, serjeant- at-law, we are convinced he would have trans- fused into his own will and testament the feel- ings he derived from that of Lord Marchmont, and devolved upon another executor the sacred and dangerous duty of vindicating Sir Patrick Hume. The life of Mr. Rose has been principally employed in the painful, yet perhaps neces- sary, duty of increasing the burdens of his fellow-creatures. It has been a life of detail, onerous to the subject — onerous and lucrative to himself. It would be unfair to expect from one thus occupied any great depth of thought, or any remarkable graces of composition ; but we have a fair right to look for habits of pa- tient research and scrupulous accuracy. We might naturally expect industry in collecting facts, and fidelity in quoting them ; and hope, in the absence of commanding genius, to re- ceive a compensation from the more humble and ordinary qualities of the mind. How far this is the case, our subsequent remarks will enable the reader to judge. We shall not ex- tend them to any great length, as we have before treated on the same subject in our re- view of Mr. Rose's work. Our great object at present is to abridge the observations of Serjeant Heywood. For Serjeant Heywood, though a most respectable, honest, and en- lightened man, really does require an abridger. He has not the talent of saying what he has to say quickly ; nor is he aware that brevity is in writing what charity is to all other vir- tues. Righteousness is worth nothing without the one, nor authorship without the other. But whoever will forgive this little defect will find in all his productions great learning, immacu- late honesty, and the most scrupulous accu- 96 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. racy. Whatever detections of Mr. Rose's in- j accuracies are made in this Review are to be entirely given to him ; and we confess our- selves quite astonished at their number and extent. " Among the modes of destroying persons (says Mr. Fox, p. 14,) in such a situation (i. e. monarchs deposed), there can be little doubt but that adopted by Cromwell and his adherents is the least dishonourable. Edward II., Richard II., Henry VI., Edward V., had none of them long survived their deposal; but this was the first instance, in our history at least, when of such an act it could be truly said it was not done in a corner." What Mr. Rose can find in this sentiment to quarrel with, we are utterly at a loss to con- ceive. If a human being is to be put to death unjustly, is it no mitigation of such a lot that the death should be public ? Is any thing better calculated to prevent secret torture and cruelty 1 And would Mr. Rose, in mercy to Charles, have preferred that red-hot iron should have been secretly thrust into his en- trails 1 — or that he should have disappeared as Pichegru and Toussaint have disappeared in our times "? The periods of the Edwards and Henrys were, it is true, barbarous periods : but this is the very argument Mr. Fox uses. All these murders, he contends, were immoral and bad ; but that where the manner was the least objectionable, was the murder of Charles the First, — because it was public. And can any human being doubt, in the first place, that these crimes would be marked by less in- tense cruelty if they were public; and, second- ly, that they would become less frequent, where the perpetrators incurred responsibility, than if they were committed by an uncertain hand in secrecy and concealment ? There never was, in short, not only a more innocent, but a more obvious sentiment; and to object to it in the manner which Mr. Rose has done, is surely to love Sir Patrick Hume too much, — if there can be any excess in so very com- mendable a passion in the breast of a sole executor. Mr. Fox proceeds to observe, that " he who has discussed this subject with foreigners, must have observed, that the act of the execu- tion of Charles, even in the minds of those who condemn it, excites more admiration than disgust." If the sentiment is bad, let those who feel it answer for it. Mr. Fox only as- serts the fact, and explains, without justifying it. The only question (as concerns Mr. Fox) is, whether such is, or is not, the feeling of foreigners ; and whether that feeling (if it ex- ists) is rightly explained! We have no doubt either of the fact or of the explanation. The conduct of Cromwell and his associates was not to be excused in the main act ; but, in the manner, it was magnanimous. And among the servile nations of the Continent, it must naturally excite a feeling of joy and won- der, that the power of the people had for once been felt, and so memorable a lesson read to thos^ whom they must naturally con- sider as the great oppressors of mankind. The most unjustifiable point of Mr. Rose's accusation, however, is still to come. "If such high praise," says that gentleman, "was, in the judgment of Mr. Fox, due to Cromwell for the publicity of the proceedings against the king, how would he have found lemguage suf- ficiently commendatory to expi-ess his admi- ration of the magnanimity of those who brought Lewis the Sixteenth to an open trial 1" Mr. Rose accuses Mr. Fox, then, of approving the execution of Lewis the Sixteenth : but, on the 20th of December, 1792, Mr. Fox said, in the House of Commons, i»i the presence of Mr. Rose, "The proceedings with respect to the royal family of France are so far from being mag- nanimity, justice, or mercy, that they are di- rectly the reverse ; they are injustice, cruelty, and pusillanimity." And afterwards declared his wish for an address to his majesty, to which he would add an expression "of our abhorrence of the proceedings against the royal family of France, in which, I have no doubt, we shall be supported by the whole country. If there can be any means suggested that will be better adapted to produce the unanimous concurrence of this House, and of all the country, with respect to the measure now under consideration in Paris, I should be obliged to any person for his better suggestion upon the subject." Then, after stating that such address, especially if the Lords joined in it, must have a decisive influence in France, he added, "I have said thus much in order to contradict one of the most cruel misrepresentations of what I had before said in our late debates ; and that my language may not be interpreted from the manner in which other gentlemen have chosen to answer it. I have spoken the genuine sentiments of my heart, and I anxiously wish the House to come to some re- solution upon the subject." And on the follow- ing day, when a copy of instruction sent to Earl Gower, signifying that he should leave Paris, was laid before the House of Commons, Mr. Fox said, "he had heard it said, that the proceedings against the King of France are unnecessary. He would go a great deal far- ther, and say, he believed them to be highly unjust ; and not only repugnant to all the com- mon feelings of mankind, but also contrary to all the fundamental principles of law." — (p. 20, 21.) On Monday the 28th January, he said, — " With regard to that part of the communi- cation from his majesty, which related to the late detestable scene exhibited in a neigh- bouring country, he could not suppose there were two opinions in that House ; he knew they were all ready to declare their ab- horrence of that abominable proceeding." — (p. 21.) Two days afterwards, in the debate on the message, Mr. Fox pronounced the condemna- tion and execution of the king to be — " an act as disgraceful as any that history recorded : and whatever opinions he might at any time have expressed in private conversa- tion, he had expressed none certainly in that House on the justice of bringing kings to trial: revenge being unjustifiable, and punishment useless, where it could not operate either Iff WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 97 way of prevention or example ; he did not view with less detestation the injustice and inhumanity that had been committed towards that unhappy monarch. Not only were the rules of criminal justice — rules that more than any other ought to be strictly observed — viola- ted with respect to him : not only was he tried and condemned without existing law, to which he was personally amenable, and even con- trary to laws that did actually exist, but the degrading circumstances of his imprisonment, the unnecessary and insulting asperity with which he had been treated, the total want of re- publican Tnagnanimity in the whole transaction, (for even in that House it could be no offence to say, that there might be such a thing as magnanimity in a republic,) added every ag- gravation to the inhumanity and injustice." That Mr. Fox had held this language in the House of Commons, Mr. Rose knew perfectly well, when he accused that gentleman of ap- proving the murder of the King of France. Whatever be the faults imputed to Mr. Fox, duplicity and h)rpocrisy were never among the number; and no human being ever doubted but that Mr. Fox, in, this instance, spoke his real sentiments : but the love of Sir Patrick Hume is an overwhelming passion ; and no man who gives way to it, can ever say into what excesses he may be hurried. Non simul cuiquam conceditur, amare et sapere. The next point upon which Sergeant Hey- wood attacks Mr. Rose, is that of General Monk. Mr. Fox says of Monk, "that he ac- quiesced in the insult so meanly put upon the illustrious corpse of Blake, under whose au- spices and command he had performed the most creditable services of his life." This stoiy, Mr. Rose says, rests upon the authority of Neale, in his History of the Puritans. This is the first of many blunders made by Mr. Rose upon this particular topic : for Anthony Wood, in his Fasti Oxonienses, enumerating Blake among the bachelors, says, "His body was taken up, and, with others, buried in a pit in St. Margaret's church-yard adjoining, near to the back door of one of the prebendaries of Westminster, in which place it now remaineth, enjoying no other monument but what it reared by its valour, which time itself can hardly efface." But the difficulty is to find how the denial of Mr. Rose affects Mr. Fox's assertion. Mr. Rose admits that Blake's body was dug up by an order of the king ; and does not deny that it was done with the acquiescence of Monk. But if this be the case, Mr. Fox's po- sition that Blake was insulted, and that Monk acquiesced in the insult, is clearly made out. Nor has Mr. Rose the shadow of an authority for saying that the corpse of Blake was rein- terred ivith great decorxtm. Kennet is silent upon the subject. We have already given Serjeant Heywood's quotation from Anthony Wood; and this statement, for the present, rests entirely upon the assertion of Mr. Rose ; and upon that basis will remain to all eternity. Mr. Rose, who, we must say, on all occa- sions through the M'hole of this book, makes the greatest parade of his accuracy, states that the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Blake, 13 were taken up at the same time ; whereas the fact is, that those of Cromwell and Ireton were taken up on the 26th of January, and that of Blake on the 10th of September, nearly nine months afterwards. It ma)'^ appear frivolous to notice such errors as these ; but they lead to very strong suspicions in a critic of history and of historians. They show that those ha- bits of punctuality, on the faith of which he demands implicit confidence from his readers, really do not exist ; they prove that such a writer will be exact only when he thinks the occasion of importance, and as he himself is the only judge of that importance, it is neces- sary to examine his proofs in every instance, and impossible to trust him anywhere. Mr. Rose remarks that, in the weekly paper entitled Mercurius Rusticus, No. 4, where an account is given of the disinterment of Crom- well and Ireton, not a syllable is said respect- ing the corpse of Blake. This is very true ; but the reason (which does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Rose) is, that Blake's corpse was not touched till six months afterwards. This is really a little too much. That Mr. Rose shot;ld quit his usual pursuits, erect him- self into an historical critic, perch upon the body of the dead lion, impugn the accuracy of one of the greatest, as well as most accurate men of his time, — and himself be guilty of such gross and unpardonable negligence, looks so very much like an insensibility to shame, that we should be loth to characterize his con- duct by the severe epithets which it appears to merit, and which, we are quite certain, Sir Patrick, the defendee, would have been the first to bestow upon it. The next passage in Mr. Fox's work ob- jected to is that which charges Monk, at the trial of Argyle, " with having produced letters of friendship and confidence to take away the life of a nobleman, the zeal and cordiality of whose co-operation with him, proved by such documents, was the chief ground of his exe- cution." This accusation, says Mr. Rose, rests upon the sole authority of Bishop Bur- net ; and yet no sooner has he said this, than he tells us, Mr. Laing considers the bishop's authority to be confirmed by Cunningham and Baillie, both contemporary writers. Into Cun- ningham or Baillie Mr. Rose never looks to see whether or not they do really confirm the authority of the bishop ; and so gross is his negligence, that the very misprint from Mr. Laing's work is copied, and page 431 of Baillie is cited instead of 451. If Mr. Rose had really taken the trouble of referring to these books, all doubt of the meanness and guilt of Monk must have been instantly removed. "Monk was moved," says Baillie, "to send down four or Jive of Argyle' s letters to himself and others, promising his full compliance with them, that the king should not reprieve him." — Baillie's Letters, p. 451. "He endeavoured to make his defence," says Cunningham ; " but chiefly by the discoveries of Monk was condemned of high treason, and lost his head." — Cunning- ham's History, i. p. 13. Would it have been more than common de- cency required, if Mr. Rose, who had been ap- prised of the existence of these authorities, had I 98 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. had recourse to them, before he impugned the accuracy of Mr. Fox 1 Or is it possible to read, without some portion of contempt, this slovenly and indolent corrector of supposed inaccura- cies in a man, not only so much greater than himself in his general nature, but a man who, as it turns out, excels Mr. Rose in his own little arts of looking, searching, and comparing ; and is as much his superior in the retail qualities which small people arrogate to themselves, as he was in every commanding faculty to the rest of his fellow creatures 1 Mr. Rose searches Thurloe's State Papers ; but Serjeant Heywood searches them after Mr. Rose : and, by a series of the plainest references, proves the probability there is that Argyle did receive letters which might mate- rially have affected his life. To Monk's duplicity of conduct may be principally attributed the destruction of his friends, who were prevented, by their confi- dence in him, from taking measures to secure themselves. He selected those among them whom he thought fit for trial — sal as a commis- sioner upon their trial — and interfered not to save the lives even of those with whom he had lived in habits of the greatest kindness. "I cannot," says a witness of the most un- queslion ble authority, " I cannot forget one pas- sage that I saiu. Monk and his wife, before they were moved to the Tower, while they were yet prisoners at Lambeth House, came one evening to the garden, and caused them to be brought down, only to stare at them ; which was such a barbarism, for that man who had betrayed so many poor men to death and misery, that never hurt him, but had honoured him, and trusted their lives and interests with him, to glut his bloody eyes with beholding them in their bond- age, as no story can parallel the inhumanity of." — (p. 83.) Hutchinson's Memoirs, 378. This, however, is the man whom Mr. Fox, at the distance of a century and a half, may not mark with infamy, without incurring, from the candour of Mr. Rose, the imputation of repub- lican principles ; — as if attachment to monarchy could have justified, in Monk, the coldness, cruelty, and treachery of his character, — as if the historian became the advocate, or the enemy of any form of government, by praising the good, or blaming the bad men which it might produce. Serjeant Heywood sums up the whole article as follows : " Having examined and commented upon the evidence produced by Mr. Rose, than which ' it is hardly possible,' he says, ' to conceive that stronger could be formed in any case to estab- lish a negative,' we now safely assert that Mr. Fox had fully informed himself upon the sub- ject before he wrote, and was amply justified in the condemnation of Monk, and the conse- quent severe censures upon him. It has been already demonstrated that the character of Monk had been truly given, when of him he said, ' the army had fallen into the hands of one, than whom a baser could not be found in its lowest ranks.' The transactions between him and Argyle for a certain period of time were such as must naturally, if not necessarily, have led them into an epistolary correspond- ence; and it was in exact conformity with Monk's character and conduct to the regicides, that he should betray the letters written to him, in order to destroy a man whom he had, in the latter part of his command in Scotland, both feared and hated. If the fact of the production of these letters had stood merely on the testi- mony of Bishop Burnet, we have seen that nothing has been produced by Mr. Rose and Dr. Campbell to impeach it; on the contrary, an inquiry into the authorities and documents they have cited, strongly confirm it. But, as before observed, it is a surprising instance of Mr. Rose's indolence, that he should state the question to depend now, as it did in Dr. Camp- bell's time, on the bishop's authority solely. But that authority is, in itself, no light one. Burnet was almost eighteen years of age at the time of Argyle's trial ; he was never an unob- serving spectator of public events ; he was probably at Edinburgh, and, for some years afterwards, remained in Scotland, with ample means of information respecting events which had taken place so recently. Baillie seems also to have been upon the spot, and expressly confirms the testimony of Burnet. To these must be added Cunningham, who, writing as a person perfectly acquainted with the circum- stances of the transaction, says it was owing to the interference of Monk, who had been his great friend in Oliver's time, that he was sent back to Scotland, and brought to trial ; and that he was condemned chiefly by his discoveries. We may now ask where is the improbability of this story, when related of such a man 1 and what ground there is for not giving credit to a fact attested by three witnesses of veracity, each writing at a distance, and separate from each other? In this instance Bishop Burnet is so confirmed, that no reasonable being, who will attend to the subject, can doubt of the fact he relates being true ; and we shall hereafter prove that the general imputation against his accu- racy, made by Mr. Rose, is totally without foundation. If facts so proved are not to be credited, historians may lay aside their pens, and every man must content himself with the scanty pittance of knowledge he may be able to collect for himself in the very limited sphere of his own immediate observation." — (p. 86—88.) This, we think, is conclusive enough : bat we are happy to be enabled, out of our own store, to set this part of the question finally to rest, by an authority which Mr. Rose himself will probably admit to be decisive. Sir George Mackenzie, the great tory lawyer of Scotland in that day, and Lord Advocate to Charles IL through the greater part of his reign, was the leading counsel for Argyle on the trial alluded to. In 1678, this learned person, who was then Lord Advocate to Charles, published an elabo- rate treatise on the criminal law of Scotland ; in which, when treating of probation, or evi- dence, he observes, that missive letters, not written, but only signed by the party, should not be received in evidence ; and immediately adds, " And yet the Marquis of Argyle was con- vict of treason upon letters written by him TO General Monk ; these letters being only subscribed by him, and not holograph, and the subscription being proved per comparationem WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 9d literarum; which were very hard in other cases," &c. — Mackenzie's Criminals, first edit. p. 524, Part II. tit. 25, § 3. Now this, we conceive, is neither more nor less than a solemn profes- sional report of the case, — and leaves just as little room for doubt as to the fact, as if the original record of the trial had been recovered. Mr. Rose next objects to Mr. Fox's assertion, that " the king kept from his cabal ministry the real state of his connection with France — and from some of them the secret of what he was pleased to call his religion ;" and Mr. Fox doubts whether to attribute this conduct to the habitual treachery of Charles, or to an ap- prehension that his ministers might demand for themselves some share of the French money; which he was unwilling to give them. In answer to this conjecture, Mr. Rose quotes Barillon's Letters to Lewis XIV., to show that Charles's ministers were fully apprised of his money transactions with France. The letters so quoted were, however, written seveti years after the cabal ministry were in power — for Barillon did not come to England as ambassador till 1677 — and these letters were not written till after that period. Poor Sir Patrick — It was for thee and thy defence this book was written ! ! ! ! Mr. Fox has said, that from some of the ministers of the cabal the secret of Charles's religion was concealed. It was known to Ar- lington, admitted by Mr. Rose to be a concealed Catholic ; it was known to Clifford, an avowed Catholic : Mr. Rose admits it not to have been known to Buckingham, though he explains the reserve, with respect to him, in a different way. He has not, however, attempted to prove that Lauderdale or Ashley were consulted; — on the contrary, in Colbert's letter of the 25th August, 1670, cited by Mr. Rose, it is stated that Charles had proposed the traite simule, which should be a repetition of the former one in all things, except the article relative to the king's declaring himself a Catholic, and that the Protestant mi- nisters, Bi*ckingham, Ashlqpjjfcoper, and Lau- derdale, should be brought tone parties to it: — Can there be a stronger proof (asks Serjeant Heywood), that they were ignorant of the same treaty made the year before, and remaining then in force 1 Historical research is cer- tainly not the peculiar talent of Mr. Rose ; and as for the official accuracy of which he is so apt to boast, we would have Mr. Rose to remem- ber, that the term official accuracy has of late days become one of very ambiguous import. Mr. Rose, we can see, would imply by it the highest possible accuracy — as we see office pens advertised in the window of a shop, by way of excellence. The public reports of those, how- ever, who have been appointed to look into the manner in which public offices are conducted, by no means justify this usage of the term ; — and we are not without apprehensions, that Dutch politeness, Carthaginian faith, Boeotian genius, and official accuracy, may be terms equally current in the world ; and that Mr. Rose may, without intending it, have contributed to make this valualjle addition to the mass of our ironical phraseology. Speaking of the early part of James's reign, Mr. Fox says, it is by no means certain that he had yet thoughts of obtaining for his religion any thing more than a complete toleration ; and if Mr. Rose had understood the meaning of the French word etablissement, one of his many in- correct corrections of Mr. Fox might have been spared. A system of religion is said to be es- tablished when it is enacted and endowed by Parliament; but a toleration (as Serjeant Hey- wood observes) is established, when it is recog- nised and protected by the supreme power. And in the letters of Barillon, to which Mr. Rose refers for the justification of his attack upon Mr. Fox, it is quite manifest that it is in this latter sense that the word etablissement is used; and that the object in view was, not the substi- tution of the Catholic religion for the Estab- lished Church, but merely its toleration. In the first letter cited by Mr. Rose, James says, that " he knew well he should never be in safety unless liberty of conscience for them should be fully established in England." The letter of the 24th of April is quoted by Mr. Rose, as if the French king had written, the establishment of the Catholic religion ; whereas the real words are, the establishment of the free exercise of the Catholic religion. The world are so inveterately resolved to believe, that a man who has no brilliant talents must be accurate, that Mr. Rose, in re- ferring to authorities, has a great and decided advantage. He is, however, in point of fact, as lax and incorrect as a poet ; and it is absolutely necessary, in spite of every parade of line, and page, and number, to follow him in the most minute particular. The Serjeant, like a blood- hound of the old breed, is always upon his track ; and always looks if there are any such passages in the page quoted, and if the passages are accurately quoted or accurately translated. Nor will he by any means be content with official accioracy, nor submit to be treated, in his- torical questions, as if he were hearing finan- cial statements in the House of Commons. Barillon writes, in another letter to Lewis XIV. — "What your majesty has most besides at heart, that is to say, for the establishment of a free exercise of the Catholic religion." On the 9th of May, Lewis writes to Barillon, that he is persuaded Charles will enaploy all his authority to establish the free exercise of the Catholic religion: he mentions also, in the same letter, the Parliament consenting to the free exercise of our religion. On the loth of June, he writes to Barillon — " There now re- mains only to obtain the repeal of the penal laws in favour of the Catholics, and the free exercise of our religion in all his states." Immediately after Monmouth's execution, when his views of success must have been as lofty as they ever could have been, Lewis writes — " It will be easy to the King of England, and as useful for the security of "his reign as for the repose of his conscience, to re-establish the exercise of the Catholic religion." In a letter of Ba- rillon, July 16th, Sunderland is made to say, that the king would always be exposed to the indiscreet zeal of those who would inflame the people against the Catholic religion, so long as it should not he more fully established. The French expression is tant qu'elk ne sera pas plus pleincment etablie ,■ and this Mr. Rose has had the modesty to translate, fill it shall be com- 100 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. pletely estahliahed, ami to mark the passage with italics, as of the greatest importance to his argument. These false quotations and translations being detected, and those passages of early writers, from which Mr. Fox had made up his opinion, brought to light, it is not possible to doubt, but that the object of James, before Monmouth's defeat, was not the destruction of the Protestant, but the toleration of the Catho- lic religion; and after the execution of Mon- mouth, Mr. Fox admits, that he became more bold and sanguine upon the subject of religion. We do not consider those observations of Serjeant Heywood to be the most fortunate in his book, where he attempts to show the re- publican tendency of Mr. Rose's principles. Of any disposition to principles of this nature, we most heartily acquit that right honourable gentleman. He has too much knowledge of mankind to believe their happiness can be pro- moted in the stormy and tempestuous regions of republicanism ; and, besides this, that sys- tem of slender pay, and deficient perquisites, to which the subordinate agents of govern- ment are confined in republics, is much too painful to be thought of for a single instant. We are afraid of becoming tedious by the enumeration of blunders into which Mr. Rose has fallen, and which Serjeant Heywood has detected. But the burthen of this sole execu- tor's song is accuracy — his own otficial accu- racy — and the little dependence which is to be placed on the accuracy of Mr. Fox. We will venture to assert, that, in the whole of his work, he has not detected Mr. Fox in one sin- gle error. Whether Serjeant Heywood has been more fortunate with respect to Mr. Rose, might be determined, perhaps with sufficient certainty, by our previous extracts from his remarks. But for some indulgent readers, these may not seem enough : and we must pro- ceed in the task, till we have settled Mr. Rose's pretensions to accuracy on a still firmer foun- dation. And if we be thought minutely se- vere, let it be remembered that Mr. Rose is himself an accuser; and if there is justice upon earth, every man has a right to pull sto- len goods out of the pocket of him who cries, "Stop thief r In the story which Mr. Rose states of the seat in Parliament sold for five pounds (Jour- nal of the Commons, vol. v.), he is wrong, both in the sum and the volume. The sum is four pounds; and it is told, not in the fifth volume, but the first. Mr. Rose states, that a perpetual excise was granted to the crown, in lieu of the profits of the court of wards ; and adds, that the question in favour of the crown was car- ried by a majority of two. The real fact is, that the half only of an excise upon certain articles was granted to government in lieu of these profits ; and this grant was carried with- ' out a division. An attempt was made to grant the other half, and this was negatived by a ma- jority of two. The Journals are open ; — Mr. Rose reads them ; — he is officially accurate. What can the meaning be of these most ex- traordinary mistakes 1 Mr. Rose says that, in 1679, the writ de hse- retico comhurendo had been a dead letter for more than a century. It would have been ex- tremely agreeable to Mr. Bartholomew Legate, if this had been the case ; for, in 1612, he was burnt at Smithfield for being an Arian. Mr. Wightman would probably have participated in the satisfaction of Mr. Legate ; as he was burnt also, the same year, at Lichfield, for the same oflence. With the same correctness, this scourge of historians makes the Duke of Lauderdale, who died in 1682, a confidential adviser of James II. after his accession in 1689. In page 13, he quotes, as written by Mr. Fox, that which was written by Lord Holland. This, however, is a familiar practice with him. Ten pages afterward, in Mr. Fox's Histoiy, he makes the same mistake. "Mr. Fox added" — whereas it was Lord Holland that added. The same mistake again, in p. 147 of his own book; and after this, he makes Mr. Fox the person who selected the appendix of Barillon's pa- pers; whereas it is particularly stated in the preface to the History, that this appendix was selected by Laing. Mr. Rose affirms, that compassing to levy war against the king was made high treason by the statute of 25 Edward the Third; and, in support of this affirmation, he cites Coke and Blackstone. His stern antagonist, a pro- fessional man, is convinced he has read nei- ther. The former says, "« compassing to levy war is no treason," (Inst. 3, p. 9 ;) and Black- stone, "a bare conspiracy to levy war does not amount to this species of treason." (Com. iv. p. 82.) This really does not look as if the Serjeant had made out his assertion. Of the bill introduced in 1685, for the pre- servation of the person of James II., Mr. Rose observes — " Mr. Fox has not told us for which of our modern statutes this bill was used as a model ; and it will be diflicult for any one to show such an instance." It might have been thought, that no prudent man would have made such a challenge, without a tolerable certainty of the ground upon which it was made. Ser- jeant Heywood answers the challenge by cit- ing the 36 Geo. III. c. 7, which is a mere copy of the act of James. In the fifth section of Mr. Rose's work is contained his grand attack upon Mr. Fox for his abuse of Sir Patrick Hume ; and his obser- vations upon this point admit of a fourfold an- swer. 1st, Mr. Fox does not use the words quoted by Mr. Rose ; 2dly, He makes no men- tion whatever of Sir Patrick Hume in the pas- sage cited by Mr. Rose; 3dly, Sir Patrick Hume is attacked by nobody in that history; 4thly, If he had been so attacked he would have deserved it. The passage from Mr. Fox is this: — " In recounting the failure of his expedition, it is impossible for him not to touch upon what he deemed the misconduct of his friends ; and this is the subject upon which, of all others, his temper must have been most irritable. A certain description of friends (the words de- scribing them are omitted) were all of them, without exception, his greatest enemies, both to betray and destroy him : and and (the names again omitted) were the greatest cause of his rout, and his being taken, though not designedly, he acknowledges, but by igno- rance, cowardice, and faction. This sentence WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 101 had scarce escaped him, when, notwithstand- ing the qualifying words with which his can- dour has acquitted the last mentioned persons of intentional treachery, it appeared too harsh to his gentle nature ; and, declaring himself dis- pleased with the hard epithets he had used, he desires that they may be put out of any ac- count that is to be given of these transactions." — Heywood, p. 365, 366. Argyle names neither the description of friends who were his greatest enemies, nor the two individuals who were the principal cause of the failure of his scheme. Mr. Fox leaves the blanks as he finds them. But two notes are added by the editor, which Mr. Rose might have observed are marked with an E. In the latter of them we are told, that Mr. Fox ob- serves, in a private letter, " Cochrane and Hume certainly filled up the two principal blanks." But is this communication of a private letter any part of Mr. Fox's history? And would it not have been equally fair in Mr. Rose to have commented upon any private conversation of Mr. Fox, and then to have called it his history] Or, if Mr. Fox had filled up the blanks in the body of his history, does it follow that he adopts Argyle's censure because he shows against whom it is levelled 1 Mr. Rose has described the charge against Sir Patrick Hume to be, of faction, cowardice, and treachery. Mr. Rose has more than once altered the terms of a pro- position before he has proceeded to answer it ; and, in this instance, the charge of treachery against Sir Patrick Hume is not made either in Argyle's letter, Mr. Fox's text, or the editor's note, or any where but in the imagination o-f Mr. Rose. The sum of it all is, that Mr. Rose first supposes the relation of Argyle's opinion to be the expression of the relator's opinion, that Mr. Fox adopts Argyle's insinuations be- cause he explains them ; — then he looks upon a quotation from a private letter, made by the editor, to be the same as if included in a work intended for publication by the author ; — then he remembers that he is the sole executor of Sir Patrick's grandson, whose blank is so filled up ; — and goes on blundering and blub- bering, — grateful and inaccurate, — teeming with false quotations and friendly recollections to the conclusion of his book. Multa gemens ignominiam. Mr. Rose came into possession of the Earl of Marchmont's papers, containing, among other things, the narrative of Sir Patrick Hume. He is very severe upon Mr. Fox for not having been more diligent in searching for original papers ; and observes, that if any application had been made to him (Mr. Rose), this narra- tive should have been at Mr. Fox's service. We should be glad to know, if Mr. Rose saw a person tumbled into a ditch, whether he would wait for a regular application till he pulled him outi Or, if he happened to espy the lost piece of silver for which the good woman was diligently sweeping the house, would he wait for formal interrogation before he imparted his discovery, and suffer the lady to sweep on till the question had been put to him in the most solemn forms of politeness 1 The established practice, we admit, is to apply, and to apply vigorously and incessantly, for sinecure places and pensions — or they cannot be had. This is true enough. But did any human being ever think of carrying this practice into literature, and compelling another to make interest for papers essential to the good conduct of his undertaking '? We are perfectly astonished at Mr. Rose's conduct in this particular ; and should have thought that the ordinary exercise of his good nature would have led him to a very dilFerent way of acting. " On the whole, and upon the most attentive con- sideration of every thing which lias been written lopon the subject, there does not appear to have been any intention of applying torture in the caseof the Earl of Argyle." (iiose, p. 182.) If thisei;ery oii the Game Laws. RestFenner, Black & Co. London, 1818. pond were divided by certain marks into four parts, and allotted to that number of proprietors, the fish contained in that pond would be, in the same sense,/era; Natura. Nobody could tellia which particular division each carp had been, born and bred. The owners would arrange their respective rights and pretensions in the best way they could; but the clearest of all pos- sible propositions would be, that the four pro- prietors, among them, made a complete title to all the fish ; and that nobody but them had the smallest title to the smallest share. This we say in answer to those who contend that there is no foundation for any system of game laws; that animals born wild are the property of the public ; and that their appropriation is nothing but tyranny and usurpation. In addition to these arguments, it is perhaps scarcely necessary to add, that nothing which is worth having, which is accessible, and sup- plied only in limited quantities, could exist at all, if it was not considered as the property of some individual. If every body might take game wherever they found it, there would soon be an end of every species of game. The ad- vantage would not be extended to fresh classes, but be annihilated for all classes. Besides all this, the privilege of killing game could not be granted without the privilege of trespassing on landed property; — an intolerable evil, which would entirely destroy the comfort and privacy of a country life. But though a system of game laws is of great use in promoting country amusements, and may, in itself, be placed on a footing of justice, its effects, we are sorry to say, are by no means favourable to the morals of the poor. It is impossible to make an uneducated man understand in what manner a bird hatched no- body knows where, — to-day living in my field, to-morrow in yours, — should be as sti'ictly pro- perty as the goose whose whole history can be traced, in the most authentic and satisfactory manner, from the egg to the spit. The argu- ments upon which this depends are so contrary to the notions of the poor, — so repugnant to their passions, — and, perhaps, so much above their comprehension, that they are totally una- vailing. The same man who would respect an orchard, a garden or an hen-roost, scarcely thinks he is committing any fault at all in in- vading the game-covers of his richer neigh- bour ; and as soon as he becomes wearied of honest industry, his first resource is in plunder- ing the rich magazine of hares, pheasants and partridges — the top and bottom dishes, which on every side of his village are running and flying before his eyes. As these things cannot be done Avith safety in the day, they must be done in the night; — and in this manner a lawless marauder is often formed, who proceeds from WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 117 one infringement of law and property to an- its power of growing partridges 1 That he may other, till he becomes a thoroughly bad and corrupted member of society. These few preliminary observations lead na- turally to the two principal considerations which are to be kept in view, in reforming the game laws ; — to preserve, as far as is consistent with justice, the amusements of the rich and to di- minish, as much as possible, the temptations of the poor. And these ends, it seems to us, will be best answered, 1. By abolishfng qualifications. 2. By giving to every man a property in the game upon his land. 3. By allowing game to be bought by any body, and sold by its lawful possessors.* Nothing can be more grossly absurd than the present state of the game laws, as far as they concern the qualification for shooting. In Eng- land, no man can possibly have a legal right to kill game, who has not 100/. a year in land rent. With us in Scotland, the rule is not quite so inflexible, though in principle not very different. But we shall speak to the case which concerns by far the greatest number : and certainly it is scarcely possible to imagine a more absurd and capricious limitation. For what possible reason is a man, who has only 90/. per annum in land, not to kill the game which his own land nou- rishes ? If the legislature really conceives, as we have heard surmised by certain learned squires, that a person of sucli a degree of for- tune should be confined to profitable pursuits, and debarred from that pernicious idleness into which he would be betrayed by field sports, it would then be expedient to make a qualification for bowls or skittles — to prevent small land- owners from going to races or following a pack of hounds — and to prohibit to men of a certain income, every other species of amusement as well as this. The only instance, however, in which this paternal care is exercised, is that in which the amusement of the smaller landowner is supposed to interfere with those of his richer neighbour. He may do what he pleases, and elect any other species of ruinous idleness but that in which the upper classes of society are his rivals. ; Nay, the law is so excessively ridiculous in the case of small landed proprietors, that on a property of less than 100/. per annum, no human being has the right of shooting. It is not con- fined but annihilated. The lord of the manor may be warned off by the proprietor; and the proprietor may be informed against by any body who sees him sporting. . The case is still stronger in the instance of large farms. In Northumberland, and on the borders of Scot- land, there are large capitalists who farm to the amount of two or three thousand per annum, who have the permission of their distant non- resident landlords to do what they please with the game, and yet who dare not fire off a gun upon their own land. Can any thing be more utterly absurd and preposterous, than that the landlord and the wealthy tenant together cannot make up a title to the hare which is fattened upon the choicest produce of their land 1 That the landlord, who can let to farm the fertility of the land for growing wheat, cannot let to farm reap by deputy, but cannot on that manor shoot by deputyl Is it possible that any respectable magistrate could fine a farmer for killing a hare upon his own grounds with his landlord's con- sent, without feeling that he was violating every feeling of common sense and justice ? Since the enactment of the game laws, there has sprung up an entirely new species of pro- perty, which of course is completely overlooked by their provisions. An Englishman may pos- sess a million of money in funds or merchan- dize — may be the. Baring or the flbpe of Europe — provide to government the sudden means of equipping fleets and armies, and yet be without the power of smiting a single partridge, though invited by the owner of the game to participate in his amusement. It is idle to say that the difliculty may be got over by purchasing land : the question is, upon what principle of justice can the existence of the difficulty be defended 1 If the right of keeping men-servants was con- fined to persons who had more than 100/. a year in the funds, the difficulty might be got over by every man who would change his landed pro- perty to that extent. But what could justify so capricious a partiality to one species of pro- perty 1 There might be some apology for such laws at the time they were made ; but there can be none for their not being now accommodated to the changes which time has introduced. If you choose to exclude poverty from this species of amusement, and to open it to wealth, why is it not opened to every species of wealth 1 What amusement can there be morally lawful to an holder of turnip land, and criminal in a posses- sor of exchequer bills 1 What delights ought to be tolerated to long annuities, from which wheat and beans should be excluded? What matters whether it is scrip or short-horned cattle? If the locus quo is conceded — if the trespass is waived — and if the qualification for any amuse- ment is wealth, let it be any probable wealth — Dives agris, dives positis infcpnore nummis. * All this has since been established. It will be very easy for any country gentleman who wishes to monopolize to himself the plea- sures of shooting, to let to his tenant every other right attached to the land, except the right of killing game; and it will be equally easy, in the formation of a new game act, to give to the landlord a summary process against his tenant, if such tenant fraudulently exercises the privi- leges he has agreed to surrender. The case which seems most to alarm coun- try gentlemen, is that of a person possessing a few acres in the heart of a manor, who might, by planting food of which they are fond, allure the game into his own little domain, and thus reap an harvest prepared at the expense of the neighbour who surrounded him. But, under the present game laws, if the smaller posses- sion belongs to a qualified person, the danger of intrusion is equally great as it would be un- der the proposed alteration ; and the danger from the poacher would be the same in both cases. But if it is of such great consequence to keep clear from all interference, may not such apiece of land be rented or bought 1 Or, may not the food which tempts the game be sown in the same abundance in the surrounding as in the enclosed 118 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. land After all, it is only common justice, that he whose property is surrounded on every side by a preserver of game, whose corn and turnips are demolished by animals preserved for the amusement of his neighbour, should himself be entitled to that share of game which plunders upon his land. The complaint which the landed grandee makes is this. "Here is a man who has only a twenty-fourth part of the land, and he expects a twenty-fourth part of the game. He is so captious and litigious, that he will not be contented to supply his share of the food without requiring his share of what the food pro- duces. I want a neighbour who has talents only for suffering, not one who evinces such a fatal disposition for enjoying." Upon such princi- ples as these, many of the game laws have been constructed, and are preserved. The interfer- ence of a very small property with a very large one ; the critical position of one or t,wo fields, is a very serious source of vexation on many other occasions besides those of game. He who possesses a field in the middle of ray pre- mises, may build so as to obstruct my view ; and may present to me the hinder parts of a barn, instead of one of the finest landscapes in nature. Nay, he may turn his fields into tea- gardens, and destroy my privacy by the intro- duction of every species of vulgar company. The legislature, in all these instances, has pro- vided no remedy for the inconveniences which a small property, by such intermixture, may in- flict upon a large one, but has secured the same rights to unequal proportions. It is very diffi- cult to conceive why these equitable principles are to be violated in the case of game alone. Our securities against that rabble of sports- men which the abolition of qualifications might be supposed to produce, are, the consent of the owner of the soil as an indispensable prelimi- nary, guarded by heavy penalties — and the price of a certificate, rendered, perhaps, greater than it is at present. It is impossible to conceive why the owner of the soil, if the right of game is secured to him, has not a right to sell, or grant the right of killing it to whom he pleases — just as much as he has the power of appointing whom he pleases to kill his ducks, pigeons and chickens. The danger of making the poor idle IS a mere pretence. It is monopoly calling in the aid of hypocrisy, and tyranny veiling itself in the garb of philosophical humanity. A poor man goes to wakes, fairs and horse-races, with- out pain and penalty; a little shopkeeper, when his work is over, may go to a buUbait, or to the cock-pit ; but the idea of his pursuing an hare, even with the consent of the landowner, fills the Bucolic senator with the most lively apprehen- sions of relaxed industry and ruinous dissipation. The truth is, if a poor man does not offend against morals or religion, and supports himself and his family without assistance, the law has nothing to do with his amusements. The real barriers against increase of sportsmen (if the proposed alteration were admitted), are, as we have before said, the prohibition of the landowner ; the tax to the state for a certificate ; the necessity of labouring for support. — Whoever violates none of these rights, and neglects none of these duties in his sporting, sports without crime ; — and to punish him would be gross and scandalous ty- ranny The next alteration which we would propose is that game should be made property ; that is, that every man should have a right to the game found upon his land — and that the violation of it should be punished as poaching now is, by pecuniary penalties, and summary conviction before magistrates. This change in the game laws would be an additional defence of game: for the landed proprietor has now no other remedy against the qualified intruder upon his game, than an action at law for a trespass on the land ; and if the trespasser has received no notice, this can hardly be called any remedy at all. It is now no uncommon practice for per- sons who have the exterior, and perhaps the fortunes of gentlemen, as they are travelling from place to place, to shoot over manors where they have no property, and from which, as strangers, they cannot have been warned. In such case (which, we repeat again, is by no means one of rare occurrence), it would, under the reformed system, be no more difficult for the lord of the soil to protect his game, than it would be to protect his geese and ducks. But though game should be considered as property it should still be considered as the lowest species of pro- perty — because it is in its nature more vague and mutable than any other species of property, and because depredations upon it are carried on at a distance from the dwelling, and without personal alarm to the proprietors. It would be very easy to increase the penalties, in proportion to the number of oflTences committed by the same individual. The punishments which country gentlemen expect by making game property, are the pun- ishments affixed to offences of a much higher order: but country gentlemen must not be al- lowed to legislate exclusively on this, more than on any other subject. The very mention of hares and partridges in the country, too often puts an end to common humanity and common sense. Game must be protected; but protected without violating those principles of justice, and that adaptation of punishment to crime, which (incredible as it may appear), are of in- finitely greater importance than the amusements of country gentlemen. W^e come now to the sale of game. — The foundation on which the propriety of allowing this partly rests, is the impossibility of prevent- ing it. There exists, and has sprung up since the game laws, an enormous mass of wealth, which has nothing to do with land. Do the country gentlemen imagine that it is in the power of human laws to deprive the three per cents of pheasants 1 That there is upon earth, ail", or sea, a siifgle flavour (cost what crime it may to procure it), that mercantile opulence will not procure 1 Increase the difficulty, and you enlist vanity on the side of luxury; and make that be sought for as a display of wealth, which was before valued only for the gratifica- tion of appetite. The law may multiply penal- ties by reams. Squires may fret and justices commit, and gamekeepers and poachers con- tinue their nocturnal wars. There must be game on Lord Mayor's day, do what you will. You may multiply the crimes by which it is pro- cured ; but nothing can arrest its inevitable pro- gress, from the wood of the esquire to the spit WORKS OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH. 119 of the citizen. The late law for preventing the | sale of game produced some little temporary difficulty in London at the beginning of the sea- son. The poulterers were alarmed, and came to some resolutions. But the alarm soon began to subside and the difficulties to vanish. In another season, the law will be entirely nugatory and forgotten. The experiment was tried of increased severity, and a law passed to punish poachers with transportation who were caught poaching in the night time with arms. What has the consequence been 1 — Not a cessation of poaching, but a succession of village guerillas; — an internecive war between the gamekeepers and marauders of game: — the whole country flung into brawls and convulsions, for the unjust and exorbitant pleasures of country genilemen. The poacher hardly believes he is doing any wrong in taking partridges and pheasants. He would admit the justice of being transported for stealing sheep ; and his courage in such a transaction would be impaired by a conscious- ness he was doing wrong: but he has no such feeling in taking game; and the preposterous punishment of transportation makes him despe- rate, and not timid. Single poachers are gathered into large companies, for their mutual protec- tion; and go out, not only with the intention of taking game, but of defending what ihey take with their lives. Such feelings soon produce a rivalry of personal courage, and a thirst of re- venge between the villagers and the agents of power. We extract the following passages on this subject from the Three Letters on the Game Laws. "The first and most palpable effect has natu- rally been, an exaltation of all the savage and desperate features in the poacher's character. The war between him and the gamekeeper has necessarily become a ' bellum internecivum.'' A marauder may hesitate perhaps at killing his fellow man, when the alternative is only six months' imprisonment in the county jail ; but when the alternative is to overcome the keeper, or to be torn from his family and connections, and sent to hard labour at the antipodes, we cannot be much surprised that murders and midnight combats have considerably increased this season; or that information, such as the following, has freqxiently enriched the columns of the country newspapers." '"Poaching. — Richard Barnett was on Tues- day convicted before T. Clutterbuck, Esq., of keeping and using engines or wires for the de- struction of game in the parish of Dunkerton, and fined 51. He was taken into custody by C. Coates, keeper to Sir Charles Bamfylde, Bart., who found upon him seventeen wire-snares. The new act that has just passed against these illegal practices, seems only to have irritated the offenders, and made them more daring and desperate. The following is a copy of an anony- mous circular letter, which has been received by several magistrates, and other eminent cha- racters in this neighbourhood. " ' Take notice. — We have lately heard and seen that there is an act passed, and whatever poacher is caught destroying the game, is to be transported for seven years. — This is English Kbertyf " 'Now, we do swear to each other, that the Vox. I.— 8 first of our company that this law is inflicted on, that there shall not one gentleman's seat in our country escape the rage of fire. We are nine in number, and we will burn every gentle- man's house of note. The first that impeaches shall be shot. We have sworn not to impeach. You may think it a threat, but they will find it reality. The game-laws were too severe be- fore. The Lord of all men sent these animals for the peasants as well as for the prince. God will not let his people be oppressed. He will assist us in our undertaking, and we will exe- cute it with caution.'" — Bath Paper. "'Death of a Poacher. — On the evening of Saturday se'ennight, about eight or nine o'clock, a body of poachers, seven in number, assembled by mutual agreement on the estate of the Hon. John Dutton at Sherborne, Glouce- stershire, for the purpose of taking hares and other game. With the assistance of two dogs, and some nets and snares which they brought with them, they had succeeded in catching nine hares, and were carrying them away, when they were discovered by the gamekeeper and seven others who were engaged with him in patroling the different covers, in order to pro- tect the game from nightly depredators. Imme- diately on perceiving the poachers, the keeper summoned them in a civil and peaceable man- ner to give up their names, the dogs, imple- ments, &c. they had with them, and the game they had taken ; at the same time assuring them, that his party had firearms (which were produced for the purpose of convincing and alarming them), and representing to them the folly of resistance, as, in the event of an affray, they must inevitably be overpowered by supe- rior numbers, even without firearms, which they were determined not to resort to unless compelled in self-defence. Notwithstanding this remonstrance of the keeper, the men unanimous- ly refused to give up on any terms, declaring, that if they were followed, they would give them " a brush," and would repel force by force. The poachers then directly took off their great coats, threw them down with the game, &c. behind them, and approached the keepers in an atti- tude of attack. A smart contest instantly en- sued, both parties using only the sticks or blud- geons they carried: and such was the confusion during the battle, that some of the keepers were occasionally struck by their own comrades in mistake for their opponents. After they had fought in this manper about eight or ten minutes, one of the poachers named Robert Simmons, received a violent blow upon his left temple, which felled him to the ground, where he lay, crying out murder, and asking for mer- cy. The keepers very humanely desired that all violence might cease on both sides: upon which three of the poachers took to flight and escaped, and the remaining three, together with Simmons, were secured by the keepers. Sim- mons, by the assistance of the other men, walked to the keeper's house, where he was placed in a chair: but he soon after died. His death was no doubt caused by the pressure of blood upon the brain, occasioned by the rupture of a vessel from the blow he had received. The three poachers who had been taken were committed to Northleach prison. The inquest upon the C120 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. body of Simmons was taken on Monday, before W. Trigge, Gent., Coroner; and the above ac- count is extracted from the evidence given upon that occasion. The poachers were all armed with bludgeons, except the deceased, who had provided himself with the thick part of a flail, made of firm knotted crabtree, and pointed at the extremity, in order to thrust with, if occa- sion required. The deceased was an athletic muscular man, very active, and about twenty- eight years of age. He resided at Bowie, in Oxfordshire, and has left a wife but no child. The three prisoners were heard in evidence; and all concurred in stating that the keepers were in no way blameable, and attributed their disaster to their own indiscretion and impru- .■dence. Several of the keepers' party were so much beat as to be now confined to their beds. The two parties are said to be total strangers •to each other, consequently no malice prepense could have existed between them ; and as it appeared to the jury, after a most minute and -deliberate investigation, that the confusion dur- the aflfray was so great, that the deceased was as likely to be struck by one of his own party as by the keepers', they returned a ver- dict of— Manslaughter against some person or persons unknown.' " Wretched as the first of these productions is, I think it can scarcely be denied, that both its spirit and its probable consequences are wholly to be ascribed to the exasperation natu- rally consequent upon the severe enactment just alluded to. And the last case is at least a strong proof that severity of enactment is quite inade- quate to correct the evil."— (P. 356-359.) Poaching will exist in some degree, let the laws be what they may; but the most certain method of checking the poacher seems to be by underselling him. If game can be lawfully sold, the quantity sent to market will be increased, the price lowered, and, with that, the profits and temptations of the poacher. Not only would the prices of the poacher be lowered, but we much doubt if he would find any sale at all. Licenses to sell game might be confined to real poulterers, and real occupiers of a certain portion of land. It might be rendered penal to purchase it from any but licensed persons ; and in this way the facility of the lawful, and the danger of the un- lawful trade, would either annihilate the poach- er's trade, or reduce his prices so much, that it would be hardly worth his while to carry it on. What poulterer in London, or in any of the large towns, would deal with poachers, and expose himself to indictment for receiving stolen goods, when he might supply his customers at fair prices by dealing with the lawful proprietor of game? Opinion is of more power than law. Such conduct would soon become infamous; and every respectable tradesman would be shamed out of it. The consumer himself would rather buy his game of a poulterer at an increase of price, than pick it up clandestinely, and at a great risk, though a somewhat smaller price, from porters and boothkeepers. Give them a chance of getting it fairly, and they will not get it unfairly. At present, no one has the slightest shame at violating a law which every body feels to be absurd and unjust. Poultry-houses are sometimes robbed; — but stolen poultry is rarely oflfered to sale ; — at least, nobody pretends that the shops of poulterers and the tables of moneyed gentlemen are supplied by these means. Out of one hundred geese that are consumed at Michaelmas, ninety-nine come into the jaws of the consumer by honest means; — and yet, if it had pleased the country gentle- men to have goose laws as well as game laws; — if goose-keepers had been appointed, and the sale and purchase of this savoury bird prohi- bited, the same enjoyments would have been procured by the crimes and convictions of the poor; and the periodical gluttony of Michaelmas have been rendered as guilty and criminal, as it is indigestible and unwholesome. Upon this subject we shall quote a passage from the very sensible and spirited letters before us. "In favourable situations, game would be reared and preserved for the express purpose of regularly supplying the market in fair and open competition ; which would so reduce its price, that I see no reason why a partridge should be dearer than a rabbit, or a hare and pheasant than a duck or goose. This is about the proportion of price which the animals bear to each other in France, where game can be legally sold, and is regularly brought to market; and where, by the way, game is as plentiful as in any cultivated country in Europe. The price so reduced would never be enough to compensate the risk and pe- nalties of the unlawful poacher, who must there- fore be driven out of the market. Doubtless, the great poulterers of London and the commercial towns, who are the principal instigators of poach- ing, would cease to have any temptation to con- tinue so, as they could fairly and lawfully pro- cure game for their customers at a cheaper rate from the regular breeders. They would, as they now do for rabbits and wild-fowl, contract with persons to rear and preserve them for the regu- lar supply of their shops, which would be a much more commodious and satisfactory, and less hazardous way for them, than the irregular and dishonest and corrupting methods now pursued. It is not saying very much in favour of human nature to assert, that men in respectable stations of society had rather procure the same ends by honest than dishonest means. Thus would all the temptations to ofiTend against the game laws, arising from the change of society, together with the long chain of moral and political mischiefs, at once disappear. " But then, in order to secure a sufficient breed of game for the supply of the market, in fair and open competition, it will be necessary to author- ize a certain number of persons, likely to breed game for sale, to take and dispose of it when reared at their expense. For this purpose, I would suggest the propriety of permitting by law- occupiers of land to take and kill game, for sale or otherwise, on their own occupations only, un- less, Cif tenants,) they are specifically prohibited by agreement with their landlord ; reserving the game and the power of taking it to himself, (as is now frequently done in leases.) This per- mission should not, of course, operate during the current leases, unless by agreement. With this precaution, nothing could be fairer than such an enactment ; for it is certainly at the ex- pense of the occupier that the game is raised and- maintained : and unless he receive an equivalent WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 121 for it, either by abatement of rent upon agree- ment, or by permission to take and dispose of it, he is certainly an injured man. Whereas it is perfectly just that the owner of the land should have the option either to increase his rent by leaving the disposal of his game to his tenant, or vice versa. Game would be held to be (as in fact it is) an outgoing from the land, like tithe and other burdens, and therefore to be consi- dered in a bargain ; and land would cither be let game-free, or a special reservation of it made by agreement. "Moreover, since the breed of game must always depend upon the occupier of the land, who may, and frequently does, destroy every head of it, or prevent its coming to maturity, unless it is considered in his rent; the license for which I am nowcontending, by affording an ■inducement to preserve the breed in particular spots, would evidently have a considerable ef- fect in increasing the stock of game in other parts, and in the country at large. There would be introduced a general system of protection • depending upon individual interest, instead of a general system of destruction. I have, therefore, very little doubt that the provision here recom- mended would, upon the whole, add facilities to the amusements of the sportsman, rather than subtract from them. A sportsman without land might also hire from the occupier of a large tract of land the privilege of shooting over it, which would answer to the latter as well as sending his game to the market. In short, he ■might in various ways get a fair return, to which he is well entitled for the expense and trouble incurred in rearing and preserving that particu- lar species of stock upon his land." — (P. 337 — 339.) There are sometimes 400 or ."lOO head of game killed in great manors on a single day. We think it highly probable the greater part of this harvest (if the game laws were altered) would go to the poulterer, to purchase poultry or fish . for the ensuing London season. Nobody is so poor and so distressed as men of very large for- tunes, who are fond of making an unwise dis- play to the world ; and if they had recourse to these means of supplying game, it is impossible to suppose that the occupation of the poacher could be continued. — The smuggler can com- pete with the spirit merchant on account of the great duty imposed by the revenue ; but where there is no duty to be saved, the mere thief — the man who brings the article to market with a halter around his neck — the man of whom it is disreputable and penal to buy — who hazards life, liberty and property, to procure the articles which he sells ; such an adventurer can never be long the rival of him who honestly and fairly produces the articles in which he deals. — Fines, imprisonments, concealment, loss of character, are great deductions from the profits of any trade to which they attach, and great discou- ragement to its pursuit. It is not the custom at present for gentlemen to sell their game ; but the custom would soon begin, and public opinion soon change. It is not unusual for men of fortune to contract with their gardeners to supply their own table and to send the residue to market, or to sell their veni- son ; and the same thing might be done with the 16 manor. If game could be bought, it would not be sent in presents: — barn-door fowls are never so sent, precisely for this reason. The price of game would, under the system of laws of which we are speaking, be further lowered by the introduction of foreign game, the sale of which, at present prohibited, would tend very much to the preservation of English game by underselling the poacher. It would not be just, if it were possible, to confine any of the valuable productions of nature to the use of one class of men, and to prevent them from becoming the subject of barter, when the pro- prietor wished so to exchange them. It would be just as reasonable that the consumption of salmon should be confined to the proprietors of that sort of fishery — that the use of charr should be limited to the inhabitants of the lakes — that maritime Englishmen should alone eat oysters and lobsters as that every other class of the community than landowners should be prohibit- ed from the acquisition of game. It will be necessary, whenever the game laws are revised, that some of the worst punishments now inflicted for an infringement of these laws should be repealed. To transport a man for seven years, on account of partridges, and to harass a poor wretched peasant in the Crown Office, are very preposterous punishments for such offences; humanity revolts against them — they are grossly tyrannical — and it is disgrace- ful that they should be suffered to remain on our statute books. But the most singular of all abuses, is the new class of punishments which the squirarchy have themselves enacted ag'ainst depredations on game. The law says, that an unqualified man who kills a pheasant, shall pay five pounds ; but the squire says he shall be shot; —and accordingly he places a spring-gun in the path of the poacher, and does all he can to take away his life. The more humane and mitigated squire mangles him with traps; and the supra- fine country gentleman only detains him in ma- chines, which prevent his escape, but do not lacerate their captive. Of the gross illegality of such proceedings, there can be no reasonable doubt. Their immorality and cruelty are equally clear. If they are not put down by some decla- ratory law, it will be absolutely necessary that the judges, in their invaluable circuits of Oyer and Terminer, should leave two or three of his majesty's squires to a fate too vulgar and indeli- cate to be alluded to in this journal. Men have certainly a clear right to defend their property; but then it must be by such means as the law allows: — their houses by pis- tols, their fields by actions for trespass, their game by information. There is an end of law, if every man is to measure out his punishment for his own wrong. Nor are we able to distin- guish between the guilt of two persons, — the one of whom deliberately shoots a man whom he sees in his fields — the other of whom purposely places such instruments as he knows will shoot trespassers upon his fields. Better that it should be lawful to kill a trespasser face to face than to place engines which will kill him. The tres- passer may be a child — a wom^n — a son or friend. The spring-gun cannot accommodate^ itself to circumstances, — the squire or the game-* keeper may. 122 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. These, then, are our opinions respecting the alterations in the game laws, which, as ihey now stand, are perhaps the only system which could possibly render the possession of game so very insecure as it now is. We would give to every man an absolute property in the game upon his land, with full powe/ to kill — to permit others to kill — and to sell; — we would punish any viola- tion of that property by summary conviction, and pecuniary penalties — rising in value according to the number of offences. This would of course abolish all qualifications; and we sincerely be- lieve it would lessen the profits of selling game il- legally, so as very materially tolessen the number of poachers. It would make game as an article of food, accessible to all classes, without infring- ing the laws. It would limit the amusement of country gentlemen within the boundaries of jus- tice — and would enable the magistrate cheerful- ly and conscientiously to execute laws, of the moderation and justiceof which he must be tho- roughly convinced. To this conclusion, too, we have no doubt, we shall come at the last. After many years of scutigeral folly-r-loaded prisons* — nightly battles — poachers tempted — and fami- lies ruined, these principles will finally prevail, and make law once more coincident with rea- son and justice. * In the course of the last year, no fewer than twtivt hundred persons were committed for ofTences against the game ; besides those wlio ran away from their families for the fear of commitment This ig no slight quaiuity of misery BOTANY BAY.* [Ebikbcrsh Retiew, 1819.] This land of convicts and kangaroos is be- ginning to rise into a very fine and flourishing settlement : — And great indeed must be the natu- ral resources, and splendid the endowments of that land that has been able to survive the sys- tem of neglectf and oppression experienced from the mother country, and the series of igno- rant and absurd governors that have been se- lected for the administration of its affairs. But mankind live and flourish not only in spite of storms and tempests, but (which could not have ^een anticipated previous to experience) in spite of colonial secretaries expressly paid to watch over their interests. The supineness and profligacy of public officers cannot always overcome the amazing energy with which hu- man beings pursue their happiness, nor the sa- gacity with which they determine on the means by which that end is to be promoted. Be it our care, however, to record for the future inhabit- ants of Australasia, the political sufferings of their larcenous forefathers ; and let them appre- ciate, as they ought, that energy which founded a mighty empire in spite of the afilicting blun- *1. A Statistical, Historical and Folilical Description cf the Colony of New South Wales, and t'te dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land; vjith a particular Enumeration of Hie Advantages which these colonies offer for Emigration. and their Superiority in many respects over those possessed by the United States of America. By W. C. Wentworth, Esq., a Native of tlie Colony. Whittaker. London. 1819. 2. Letter to Viscount Sidmouth, Secretary of State for tiie Home Department, on the Transportation Laws, the State of the Hulks, and of the Colonies in New So^ith Wales. By tlie Hon. Henry Grey Bennet, M. P. Ridgway. London, 1819. 3. O'Hara's History of New South Wales. Hatchard. London, 1818. t One and no small excuse for the misconduct of colo- nial secretaries is, the enormous quantity of business liy which they are distracted. There should be two or three colonial secretaries instead of one : the office is dreadfully * overweighed. The government of the colonies is com- monly a series of blunders. ders and marvellous cacosconomy of their go- vernment. Botany Bay is situated in a fine climate, rather Asiatic than European, — with a great variety of temperature, — but favourable on the whole to health and life. It, conjointly with Van Die- men's Land, produces coal in great abundance, fossil salt, slate, lime, plumbago, potter's clay; iron ; white, yellow and brilliant topazes; alum and copper. These are all the important fossil productions which have been hitherto disco- vered; but the epidermis of the country has hardly as yet been scratched; and it is most probable that the immense mountains which divide the eastern and western settlements, Ba- thurst and Sydney, must abound with every spe- cies of mineral wealth. The harbours are ad- mirable; and the whole world, perhaps, cannot produce two such as those of Port Jackson and Derwent. The former of these is land-locked for fourteen miles in length, and of the most irregular form ; its soundings are more than sufficient for the largest ships; and all the na- vies of the world might ride in safety within it. In the harbour of Derwent there is a road-stead forty-eight milee in length, completely land- locked; — varying in breadth from eight to two miles, — in depth from thirty to four fathoms, — and affording the best anchorage the whole way. The mean heat, during the three summer months, December, January, and February, is about 80° at noon. The heat which such a de- gree of the thermometer would seem to indicate, is considerably tempered by the sea-breeze, which blows with considerable force from nine in the morning till seven in the evening. The three autumn months are March, April and May, in which the thermometer varies from 55° at night to 7.5° at noon. The three winter months are June, July, and August. During this inter* 4 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 123 val, the mornings and evenings are very chilly, and the nights excessively cold; hoar-frosts are frequent; ice, half an inch thick, is found twenty miles from the coast; the mean temperature, at daylight, is from 40° to 45,° and at noon, from ^5° to 60°. In the three months of spring, the thermometer varies from 60° to 70°. The cli- mate to the westward of the mountains is colder. Heavy falls of snow take place during the win- ter; the frosts are more severe, and the winters of longer duration. All the seasons are much more distinctly marked, and resemble much more those of this country. Such is the climate of Botany Bay; and, in this remote part of the earth. Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions for the rest of the world), seems determined to have a "bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. Accordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside ; and a monstrous animal, as tali as a grenadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping along at the rate of five hops to a mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck — puzzling Dr. Shaw, and rendering the latter half of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine whether it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot, with the legs of a sea-gull; a skate with the head of a shark; and a bird of such monstrous dimensions, that a side bone of it will dine three real carniverous Englishmen; — together with many other pro- ductions that agitate Sir Joseph, and fill him with mingled emotions of distress and delight. The colony has made the following pro- gress : — Stock in 1788. Stock in 1S17. Horned Cattle - 5 Do. - 44,753 Horses ... 7 Do. - 3,072 Sheep ... 29 Do. - 170,920 Hogs ... 74 Do. - 17,842 Land in cultivation acres. Do. - 47,564 Inhabitants - - 1000 Do. - 20,379 The colony has a bank, with a capital of 20,000/. ; a newspaper ; and a capital (the town of Sydney) containing about 7000 persons. There is also a Van Diemen's Land Gazette. The perusal of these newspapers, which are regu- larly transmitted to England, and may be pur- chased in London, has afforded us considerable amusement. Nothing can paint in a more lively manner the state of the settlement, its disadvan- tages and prosperities, and the opinions and manners which prevail there. " On Friday, Mr. James Squires, settler and brewer, wailed on his excellency at Govern- ment House, with two vines of. hops taken from his own grounds, &c. — As a pubhc recom- pense for the unremitted attention shown by the grower in bringing this valuable plant to such a high degree of perfection, his excellency has directed a cow to be given to Mr. Squires from the government herd." — O'Hara, p. 255. " To Parents and Guardians. " A person who flatters herself her character will bear the strictest scrutiny, being desirous of receiving into her charge a proposed number of children of her own sex, as boarders, respect- fully acquaints parents and guardians that she is about to situate herself either in Sydney or Paramatta, of which notice will be shortly given. She doubts not, at the same time, that her as. siduity in the inculcation of moral principles in the youthful mind, joined to an unremitting at- tention and polite diction, will insure to her the much-desired confidence of those who may think proper to favour her with such a charge. — Inquiries on the above subject will be answered by G. Howe, at Sydney, who will make known the name of the advertiser." — (p. 270.) " Lost, " (supposed to be on the governor's wharf,) two small keys, a tortoise shell comb, and a packet of papers. Whoever may have found them, will, on delivering them to the printer, receive a reward of half a gallon of spirits." — (p. 272.) " To the Public. " As we have no certainty of an immediate supply of paper, we cannot promise a publica- tion next week." — (p. 290.) " Fashionable Intelligence, Sept. 7th. " On Tuesday his excellency the late gover- nor, and Mrs. King, arrived in town from Para- matta ; and yesterday Mrs. King returned thither, accompanied by Mrs. Putland." — (Ibid.) " To be sold by private Contract, by Mr. Sevan, ' "An elegant four-wheeled chariot, with platfj mounted harness for four horses complete; r'" handsome lady's side-saddle and bridle, y^^y be viewed, on application to Mr. Bev/^* (p. 347.) / " From the Derwent Star. ' " Lieutenant Lord, of the Royal M-^"'"^^' ^.^^o, after the death of Lieutenani-Gov/'^oj' Collins, succeeded to the command of tb settlement at Hobart Town, arrived at Port^^ckson in the Hunter, and favours us with -^e perusal ol the ninth number published of /« Dtnoent Star and Van Diemm's Land Inte/gencer ; from which we copy the following e/racts.' —(p. 353.) « A/Card. " The subscribers/o the Sydney Race Course are informed that me Stewards have made ar- ran<'enients for two balls during the race week, viz., on Tuesday and Thursday.— Tickets, at 7s. 6d. each, to be had at Mr. E. Wills's, George Stjeet.— An ordinary for the subscribers and their friends each day of the races, at Mr. Wills's. Dinner on table at five o'clock."— (p. 356.) " Ttie Ladies' Cup. " The ladies' cup, which was of very superior workmansh'p, won by Chase, was presented to Captain Richie by Mrs. M'Quarie; who, ac- companied by his excellency, honoured each day's race with her presence, and who, with her usual affability, was pleased to preface the donation with the following short address.— 'In the name of the Ladies of New South Wales, I have the pleasure to present you with this cup. Give me leave to congratulate you on being the . successful candidate for it; and to hope that it 124 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. is a prelude to future success and lasting pros- perity.'"— (P- 357.) "Butchers. "Now killing, at Matthew Pimpton's, Cum- berland street, Rocks, beef, mutton, pork, and lamb. By retail, Is. 4^?. per lib. Mutton by the carcass, Is. per lib. sterling, or 14c?. currency; warranted to weigh from 10 lib. to 12 lib. per quarter. Lamb per diito. — Captains of ships supplied at the wholesale price, and with punc- tuality. — N.B. Beef, pork, mutton, and lamb, at E. Lamb's, Hunter street, at the above prices." -(p. 376.) ^^Salt Pork and Flair from Otaheite. "On sale, at the warehouse of Mrs. S. Willis, 96 George street, a large quantity of the above articles, well cured, being the Mercury's last importation from Otaheite. The terms per cask are \0d. per lib. sterling, or Is. currency. — N.B. For the accommodation of families, it will be sold in quantities not less than 112 lib." — (p. 377.) "Painting. — A Card. " Mr. J. W. Lewin begs leave to inform his friends and the public in general, that he intends opening an academy for painting on the days of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from the hours of 10 to 12 in the forenoon. — Terms 5s. a les- son: Entrance 20s. — N.B, The evening academy for drawing continued as usual." — (p. 384.) '^Sale of Rams. " Ten rams of the Merino breed, lately sold ^^ auction from the flocks of John M'Arthur, ^^^ produced upwards of 200 guineas." — (p. "MK Joneses Vacation Ball, December I2th. " Mrs.TQjjgg^ ^j(}j great respect, informs the parents a^ guardians of the young ladies en- trusted to h^ tuition, that the vacation ball is fixed for Tut^^y o^q 22d instant, at the semi- nary, No. 45 Catiereagh street, Sydney. Tickets 7s. 6d. each."-(j. ggg!) "Sporting Intelligence. "A fine hunt took p^ce the 8th instant at the Nepean, of which the v^Uowing is the account given by a gentleman prfeent. ' Having cast off by the government hut on the Nepean, and drawn the cover in that n^ighbourhocd for a native Dog unsuccessfully, we tried the forest ground for a Kangaroo, which we soon found. It went off in excellent style along the sands by the river side, and crossed to the Cow-pasture Plains, running a circle of about two miles; then recrossed, taking a direction for Mr. Camp- bell's stock-yard, and from thence at the back of Badge Allen Hill, to the head of Boorrooba- ham Creek, where he was headed; from thence he took the main range of hills between the Badge Allen and Badge Allenabinjee, in a straight direction for Mr. Throsbey's farm, •where the hounds ran into him; and he was' killed, after a good run of about two hours.' The weight of the animal was upwards of 120 lib."— (p. 380.) Of the town of Sydney, Mr. Wentworth ob- serves, that there are in it many public build- ingB, as well as houses of individuals, that would not disgrace the best parts of London ; but this description we must take the liberty to consider as more patriotic than true. We rather suspect it was penned before Mr. Wentwonh was in London; for he is (be it said to his honour) a native of Botany Bay. The value of lands (in the same spirit he adds) is half as great in Sydney as in the best situations in London ; and is daily increasing: The proof of this which Mr. Wentworth gives is, that "it is not a com- modious house which can be rented for 100/. per annum unfurnished." The town of Sydney contains two good public schools, for the educa- tion of 224 children of both sexes. There are establishments, also, for the diffusion of educa- tion in every populous district throughout the colony; the masters of these schools are allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphans' fund. Mr. Wentworth states that one-eighth part of the whole revenue of the colony is appropriated to the purposes of education ; this eighth he com- putes at 2500/. Independent of these institutions, there is an Auxiliary Bible Society, a Sunday School, and several good private schools. This is all as it should be : the education of the poor, important everywhere, is indispensable at Bota- l\y Bay. Nothing but the earliest attention to the habits of children can restrain the erratic finger from the contiguous scrip, or prevent the hereditary tendency to larcenous abstraction. The American arrangements respecting the education of the lower orders is excellent. Their unsold lands are surveyed, and divided into districts. In the centre of every district, an ample and well-selected lot is provided for the support of future schools. We wish this had been imitated in New Holland ; for we are of opinion that the elevated nobleman, Lord Sidmouth, should imitate what is good and wise, even if the Americans are his teachers. Mr. Wentworth talks of 15,000 acres set apart for the support of the Female Orphan Schools; which certainly does sound a little extravagant: but then 50 or 100 acres of this reserve are given as a portion to each female orphan ; so that all this pious tract of ground will be soon married away. This dotation of women, in a place where they are scarce, is amiable and foolish enough. There is a school also for the education and civilization of the natives, we hope not to the exclusion of the children of con- victs, who have clearly a prior claim upon pub- lic charity. Great exertions have been made in public roads and bridges. The present governor has wisely established toll-gates in all the principal roads. No tax can be more equitable, and no money more beneficially employed. The herds of wild cattle have either perished through the long droughts, or been destroyed by the remote settlers. They have nearly disappeared; and their extension is a good rather than an evil. A very good horse for cart or plough may now be bought for 51. to 10/.; working oxen for the same price ; fine young breeding ewes from 1/. to 3/., according to the quality of the fleece. So lately as 1808, a cow and calf were sold by public auction for 105/.; and the price of middling cattle was from 80/. to 100/. A breeding mare was, at the same period, worth from 150 to 200 guineas; and ewes from 10/. to 20/. The inhabit- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 125 ants of New South Wales have now 2000 years before them of cheap beef and mutton. The price of land is of course regulated by its situa- tion and quality. Four years past, an hundred and fifty acres of very indifferent ground, about three quarters of a mile from Sydney, were sold, by virtue of an execution, in lots of 12 acres each, and averaged 14/. per acre. This is the highest price given for land not situated in a town. The general average of unimproved land is .5/. per acre. In years when the crops have not suffered from flood or drought, wheat sells for 9s. per bushel; maize for 3s. 6rf.; barley for 5s.; oats for 4s. 6d.; potatoes for 6s. per cwt. By the last accounts received from the colony, mutton and beef were 6d. per lib.; veal 8d.\ pork 9d. Wheat 8s. 8d. per bushel; oats 4s., and barley 5s. per ditto. Fowls 4s. 6d. per couple ; ducks 6s. per ditto ; geese 5s. each ; turkeys 7s. 6d. each ; eggs 2s Gd. per dozen ; butter 2s. 6d. per lib. There are manWacturers of coarse woollen cloths, hats, earthenware, pipes, salt, candles, soap. There are extensive breweries and tanneries; and all sorts of mechanics and artificers necessary for an infant colony. Car- penters, stone masons, bricklayers, wheel and plough Wrights, and all the most useful descrip- tion of artificei^, can earn from 8s. to 10s. per day. Great attention has been paid to the im- provement of wool; and it is becoming a very considerable article of export to this country. The most interesting circumstance in the accounts lately received from Botany Bay, is the discovery of the magnificent river on the western side of the Blue Mountains. The pub- lic are aware that a fine road has been made from Sydney to Bathurst, and a new town founded at the foot of a western side of these mountains, a distance of 140 miles. The coun- try in the neighbourhood of Bathurst has been described as beautiful, fertile, open, and emi- nently fit for all the purposes of a settlement. The object was to find a river; and such an one has been found, the description of which it is impossible to read without the most lively in- terest. The intelligence is contained in a dis- patch from Mr. Oxley, surveyor-general of the settlement, to the governor, dated 30lh August, 1817. "' On the 19th, we were gratified by falling in with a river running through a most beautiful country, and which I would have been well con- tented to have believed the river we were in search of. Accident led us down this stream about a mile, when we were surprised by its junction with a river coming from the south, of such width and magnitude, as to dispel all doubts as to this last being the river we had so long anxiously looked for. Short as our resour- ces were, we could not resist the temptation this beautiful country offered us to remain two days on the junction of the river, for the purpose of examining the vicinity to as great an extent as possible. "'Our examination increased the satisfac- lion we had previously felt. As far as the eye could reach in every direction, a rich and pic- turesque country extended, abounding in lime- stone, slate, good timber and every other requi- site that could render an uncul/iva/ed country desirable. The soil cannot be excelled; whilst a noble river of the first magnitude affords the means of conveying its productions from one part to the other. Where I quitted it, its course was northerly ; and we Avere then north of the parallel of Poft Stevens, being in latitude 32** 45' south, and 148° 58' east longitude. " ' It appeared to me that the Macquarrie had taken a north-north-west course from Bathurst, and that it must have received immense acces- sions of water in its course from that place. Weviewed it at a period best calculated to form anacc urate judgment of its importance, when itwas neither swelled by floods beyond its na- turial and usual height, nor contracted within limits by summer droughts. Of its magnitude when it should have received the streams we had crossed, independent of any it may receive from the east, which, from the boldness and height of the country, I presume must be at least as many, some idea may be formed, when at this point it exceeded in breadth and apparent depth, the Hawkesbury at Windsor. Many of the branches were of grander and more ex- tended proportion than the admired one on the Nepean river from the Warragambia to Emu plains. " ' Resolving to keep as near the river as pos- sible during the remainder of our course to Bathurst, and endeavour to ascertain, at least on the west side, what waters fell into it, on the 22d we proceeded up the river; and between the point quitted and Bathurst, crossed the sources of numberless streams, all running into the Macquarrie. Two of them were nearly as large as that river itself at Bathurst. The country whence all these streams derive their source was mountainous and irregular, and appeared equally so on the east side of the Macquarrie. This description of country extended to the im- mediate vicinity of Bathurst; but to the west of those lofty ranges the country was broken into low, grassy hills and fine valleys, watered by rivulets rising on the west side of the moun- tains, which, on their eastern side, pour their waters directly into the Macquarrie. "'These westerly streams appeared to me to join that which I had at first sight taken for the Macquarrie ; and when united, fall into it at the point at which it was first discovered on the 19th inst. " ' We reached this place last evening, with- out a single accident having occurred during the whole progress of the expedition, M'hich from this point has encircled, with the parallels of 34° 0' south and 32° south, and between the meridians of 149° 4.3' and 143° 40' east, a space of nearly one thousand miles.' " — Wentworth, pp. 72—75. The nearest distance from the point at which Mr. Oxley left off, to any part of the western coast, is very little short of 2000 miles. The Hawkesbury, at Windsor, (to which he com- pares his new river in magnitude,) is 250 yards in breadth, and of sufficient depth to float a 74 gun ship. At this point it has 2000 miles in a straight line to reach the ocean; and if it winds as rivers commonly do wind, it has a space to flow over of between .5000 and 6000 miles. The course and direction of the river have since be- come the object of two expeditions, one by land under Mr. Oxley, the other by sea under Lieu- i2 126 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tenant King, to the results of which we look for- ward with great interest. Enough of the country on the western side of the Blue Mountains has been discovered, to show that the settlement has been made on the wrong side. The space between the Mountains and the Eastern Sea is not above 40 miles in breadth, and the five or six miles nearest the coast are of very barren land. The country, on the other side, is bound- less, fertile, well watered, and of very greai beauty. The importance of such a river as the Macquarrie is incalculable. We cannot help remarking here, the courtly appellations in which Geography delights; — the river Hawkes- hury; the town of Windsor ow its banks; Bathurst Plains; Nepean River. Shall we never hear of the Gulf of Tierney ; Brougham Point; or the Straits of Mackintosh on the river Grey? The mistakes which have been made in set- tling this fine colony are of considerable im- portance, and such as must very seriously retard its progress to power and opulence. The first we shall mention is the settlement on the Hawkesbury. Every work of nature has its characteristic defects. Marshes should be sus- pected of engendering disease — a volcanic country of eruptions — rivers of overflowing. A very liitle portion of this kind of reflection would have induced the disposers of land in New South Wales to have become a little better acquainted with the Hawkesbury before they granted land on its banks, and gave that direc- tion to the tide of setUement and cultivation. It turns out that the Hawkesbury is the embou- chure through which all the rain that falls on the eastern side of the Blue Mountain makes its way to the sea; and accordingly, without any warning, or any fall of rain on the settled part of the river, the stream has often risen from 70 to 90 feet above its common level. "These inundations often rise seventy or eighty feet above low water mark; and the in- stance of what is still emphatically termed 'the great flood,' attained an elevation of ninety-three feet. The chaos of confusion and distress that presents itself on these occasions cannot be easily conceived by any one who has not been a witness of its horrors. An immense expanse of water, of which the eye cannot in many di- rections discover the limits, everywhere inter- spersed with growing timber, and crowded with poultry, pigs, horses, cattle, stacks and houses, having frequently men, women and children, clinging to them for protection and shrieking out in an agony of despair for assistance: — such are the principal objects by which these scenes of death and devastation are charac- terized. "These inundations are not periodical, but they most generally happen in the month of March. Within the last two years there have been no fewer than four of them, one of which was nearly as high as the great flood. In the six years preceding, there had not been one. Since the establishment of the colony, they have happened, upon an average, about once in three years "The principal cause of them is the conti- guity of this river to the Blue Mountains. The Grose and Warragambia rivers, from which two sources it derives its principal suppl}', issue | direct from these mountains; and the Nepean river, the other principal branch of it, runs along the base of them for fifty or sixty hiiles; and re- ceives, in its progress, from the innumerable mountain torrents connected with it, the whole of the rain which these mountains collect in that great extent. That this is the principal cause of these calamitous inundations has been fully proved; for shortly after the plantation of this colony, the Hawkesbury overflowed its banks (which are in general about thirty feet in height,) in the midst of harvest, when not a single drop of rain had fallen on the Port Jack- son side of the mountains. Another great cause of the inundations which take place in this and the other rivers in the colony, is the small fall that is in them and the consequent slowness of their currents. The current in the Hawkesbury, even when the tide is in full ebb, does not exceed two miles an hour. The water, therefore, which during the rains rushes in torrents from the mountains, cannot escape with suflicient rapidi- ty; and from its immense accumulation soon overtops the banks of the river and covers the whole of the low country." — Wentworih, pp. 24-26. It appears to have been a great oversight not to have built the town of Sydney «pon a regular plan. Ground was granted, in the first instance, without the least attention to this circumstance; and a chaos of pigstyes and houses was pro- duced, which subsequent governors have found it extremely difficult to reduce to a state of order and regularity. Regularity is of consequence in planning a metropolis; but fine buildings are absurd in the infant state of any country. The various go- vernors have unfortunately displayed rather too strong a taste for architecture — forgetting that the real Palladio for Botany Ba.y, in its present circumstances, is he who keeps out the sun, wind and rain with the smallest quantity of bricks and mortar. The appointment of Governor Bligh appears to have been a very serious misfortune to the colony — at such an immense distance from the mother-countr}', with such an uncertainty of communication, and with a population so pecu- liarly circumstanced. In these extraordinary circumstances, the usual jobbing of the treasury should really be laid aside, and some little at- tention paid to the selection of a proper person. It is common, we know, to send a person who is somebody's cousin ; but, when a new empire is to be founded, the treasury should send out, into some other part of the town, for a man of sense and character. Another very great absurdity which has been committed at Botany Bay, is the diminution of their strength and resources by the foundation of so many subordinate settlements. No sooner had the settlers unpacked their boxes at Port Jackson, than a fresh colony was settled in Norfolk Island under Lieutenant King, which was afterwards abandoned, after considerable labour and expense, from the want of a harbour: besides four or five settlements on the main. land, two or three thousand persons, under a lieutenant-governor, and regular officers, are settled in Van Diemen's Lanel. The difficulties of a new colony are such, that the exertions of WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 127 all the arms and legs are wanted merely to cover their bodies and fill their bellies : the passage from one settlement to another, neces- sary for common intercourse, is a great waste of strength; ten thousand men, within a given compass, will do much more for the improve- ment of a country than the same number spread over three times the space — will make more miles of roads, clear more acres of wood, and build more bridges. The judge, the windmill, and the school, are more accessible; and one judge, one windmill, and one school, may do instead of two; — there is less waste of labour. We do not, of course, object to the natural ex- pansion of a colony over uncultivated lands — the more rapidly that takes place the greater is the prosperity of the settlement; but we repro- bate the practice of breaking the first population of a colony, by the interposition of government, into small detached portions, placed at great intervals. It is a bad economy of their re- sources ; and as such, is very properly objected to by the committee of the House of Commons. This colony appears to have sufl^ered a good deal from the tyranny as well as the ignorance of its governors. On the 7ih of December, 1816, Governor Macquarrie issued the following or- der: — "His excellency is also pleased further to declare, order and direct, that in consideration of the premises, the under-mentioned sums, amounts and charges, and no more, wiih re- gard to and upon the various denominations of work, labour and services, described and set forth, shall be allowed, claimed or demandable within this territory and its dependencies in respect thereof." — Weniworth, pp. 105, 106. And then follows a schedule of every species of labour, to each of which a maximum is af- fixed. We have only to observe, that a good stout inundation of the Hawkesbury would be far less pernicious to the industry of the colony than such gross ignorance and absurdity as this order evinces. Young surgeons are examined in Surgeon's Hall on the methods of cutting off legs and arms before they are alloued to prac- tise surgery. An examination on the principles of Adam Smith, and a license from Mr. Ricardo, seem to be almost a necessary preliminary for the appointment of governors. We must give 'another specimen of Governor Macquarrie's acquaintance with the principles of political economy. " General Orders- "His excellency has observed, with much concern, that, at the present time of scarcity, most of the garden ground attached to the allot- ments, whereon different descriptions of per- sons have been allowed to build huts, are totally neglected, and no vegetable growing thereon : — as such neglect in the occupiers, points them out as unfit to profit by such indulgence, those who do not put the garden ground attached to the allotments they occupy in cultivation, on or before the 10th day of July next, will be dis- possessed (except in cases wherein ground is held by lease), and more industrious persons put in possession of them; as the present ne- cessities of the settlement require every exer- tion being used to supply the wants of families, by the ground attached to their dwellings being made as productive as possible. — By command of his excellency. G. Blaxwell, Sec. Govern- ment House, Sydney, June 2\st, 1806." — CHara, p. 275. This compulsion to enjoy, this despotic bene- volence, is something quite new in the science of government. The sale of spirits was, first of all, mono- polized by the government, and then let out to individuals for the purpose of building an hospital. Upon this subject Mr. Bennet ob- serves, — "Heretofore all ardent spirits brought to the colony were purchased by the government, and served out at fixed prices to the officers, civil and military, according to their ranks; hence arose a discreditable and gainful trade on tl'ie part of these officers, their wives and mis- tresses. The price of spirits at times was so high, that one and two guineas have been given for a single bottle. The thirst after ardent spirits became a mania among the settlers: all the writers on the state of the colony, and all who have resided there, and have given testi- mony concerning it, describe this rage and passion for drunkenness as prevailing in all classes, and as being the principal foundation of all the crimes committed there. This ex- travagant propensity to drunkenness was taken advantage of by the governor, to aid him in the building of the hospital. Mr. Wentworth, (he surgeon, Messrs. Riley and Blaxwell, ob- tained permission to enter a certain quantity of spirits; — they were to pay a duty of five or seven shillings a gallon on the quantity they in- troduced, which duty was to be set apart for the erection of the hospital. To prevent any other spirits from being landed, a monopoly was given to these contractors. As soon as the agreement was signed, these gentlemen sent off to Rio Janeiro, the Mauritius and the East Indies, for a large quantity of rum and arrack, which they could purchase at 'about the rate of 2.5. or 2.S. 6c?. per gallon, and disembarked it at Sydney. From there being but few houses that were before permitted to sell this poison, ihey abounded in every street; and such was the enormous consumption of spirits, that money was soon raised to build the hospital, which was finished in 1814. Mr. Marsden informs us, that in the small town of Paramatta, thir- teen houses were licensed to deal in spirits, though he should think five at the utmost would be amply suificient for the accommodation of the public." — Bennet, pp. 77-79. The whole coast of Botany Bay and Van Diemen's Land abounds with whales; and, ac- cordingly, the duty levied upon train oil pro- cured by the subjects in New South Wales, or imported there, is twenty times greater than that paid by the inhabitants of this country; the duty on spermaceti oil, imported, is sixty times greater. The duty levied on train oil, spermaceti and head matter, procured by the inhabitants of Newfoundland, is only three times the amount of that which is levied on the same substance procured by British sub- jects residing in the United Kingdom. The duty levied on oil procured by British subjects residing in the Bahama or Bermuda islancls, or 128 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. on the plantations of North America, is only eight times the amount on train oil, and twelve times the amount on spermaceti, of that which is levied on the same substances taken by British subjects within the United Kingdom. The duty, therefore, which is payable on train oil in vessels belonging to this colony is nearly seven times greater than that which is payable on the same description of oil taken in vessels belonging to the island of Newfoundland, and considerably more than double of that which is payable on the same commodity taken in ves- sels belonging to the Bahama or Bermuda islands, or to the plantations in North Ame- rica; while the duty which is levied on. sperm- aceti oil, procured in vessels belonging to this colony, is five times the amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging to the above- mentioned places, and twenty times the amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging to Newfoundland. The injustice of this seems to us to be quite enormous. The statements are taken from Mr. Wentworth's book. The inhabitants of New South Wales have no trial by jury; the governor has not even a council to restrain him. There is imposed in this country a very heavy duty on timber and coals exported; but for which, says Mr. Went- worth, some hundred tons of these valuable productions would have been sent annually to the Cape of Good Hope and India, since the vessels w^hich have been in the habit of trading between those countries and the colony have always returned in ballast. The owners and consignees would gladly have shipped cargoes of timber and coals, if they could have derived the most minute profit from the freight of them. The Australasians grow corn; and it is neces- sarily their staple. The Cape is their rival in the corn trade. The food of the inhabitants of the East Indies is rice; the voyage to Europe is too distant for so bulky an article as corn. The supply to the government stores furnished the cultivators of New South Wales with a market in the first instance, which is now become too insignificant for the great excess of the supply above the consumption. Population goes on with immense rapidity; but while so much new and fertile land is before them, the supply con- tinues in the same proportion greater than the demand. The most obvious method of affording a market for this redundant corn is by encourag- ing distilleries within the colony ; a measure re- peatedly pressed upon the government at home, but hitherto as constantly refused. It is a mea- sure of still greater importance to the colony, because its agriculture is subjected to the effects both of severe drought and exiensive inunda- tions, and the corn raised for the distillers would be a magazine in times of famine. A recom- mendation to this effect was long since made by a committee of the House of Commons; but, as it was merely a measure for the increase of human comforts, was stuffed into the improve- ment baskets and forgotten. There has been in all governments a great deal of absurd canting about the consumption of spirits. We believe the best plan is to let people drink what they like, and wear what they like; to make no sumptuary laws either for the belly or the back. In the first place laws against rum and rum water are made by men who can change a wet coat for a dry one whenever they choose, and who do not often work up to their knees in mud and water; and, in the next place, if this stimu- lus did all the mischief it is thought to do by the wise men of claret, its cheapness and plenty would rather lessen than increase the avidity , with which it is at present sought for. , The governors of Botany Bay have taken the liberty of imposing what taxes they deemed proper, without any other authority than their own ; and it seemed very frivolous and vexa- tious not to allow this small effusion of despot- ism in so remote a corner of the globe ; but it was noticed by the opposition in the House of Commons, and reluctantly confessed and given up by the administration. This great portion of the earth begins civil life with noble princi- ples of freedom : — may God grant to its inha- bitants that wisdom and courage which are necessary for the preservation of so great a good! Mr. Wentworth enumerates, among the evils to which the colony is subjected, that clause in the last settlement of the East India Company's charter, which prevents vessels of less than 300 tons burden from navigating the Indian seas ; a restriction from which the Cape of Good Hope has been lately liberated, and which ought, in the same manner, to be removed from New South Wales, where there cannot be for many years to come sufiicient capital to build vessels of so large a burden. "The disability," says Mr. Wentworth, "might be remo'-ed by a simple order in council. When- ever his majesty's government shall have freed the colonists from this useless and cruel pro- hibition, the following branches of commerce would then be opened to them. First, they would be enabled to transport, in their own ves- sels, their coals, timbers, spars, flour, meat, &c. to the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of France, Calcutta, and many other places in the Indian seas ; in all of which, markets more or less extensive exist for those various other produc- tions which the colony might furnish. Secondly, they would be enabled to carry directly to Can- ton the sandal wood, beche la mer, dried seal skins, and, in fact, all the numerous productions which the surrounding seas and islands afford for the China market, and return freighted with cargoes of tea, silks, nankeens, &c.; all of which commodities are in great demand in the colony, and are at present altogether furnished by East India or American merchants, to the great detri- ment and dissatisfaction of the colonial. And, lastly, they would be enabled, in a short time, from the great increase of capital which these important privileges would of themselves occa- sion, as well as attract from other countries, to open the fur-trade with the northwest coast of America, and dispose of the cargoes procured in China, — a trade which has hitherto been ex- clusively carried on by the Americans and Russians, although the colonists possess a local superiority for the prosecution of this valuable branch of commerce, which would insure them at least a successful competition with the sub- jects of those two nations."-— Wentworth, pp. 317, 318. The means which Mr. Wentworth proposes WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 129 for improving the condition of Botany Bay, are — trial by jury — colonial assemblies, with whom the right of taxation should rest — the establish- ment of distilleries, and the exclusion of foreign spirits — alteration of duties, so as to place New South Wales upon the same footing as other colonies — removal of the restriction to navigate the Indian seas in vessels of a small burden — improvements in the courts of justice — en- couragement for the growth of hemp, flax, to- bacco and wine; and, if a colonial assembly cannot be granted, that there should be no taxation without the authority of Parliament. In general, we agree with Mr. Wentworth in his statement of evils, and in the remedies he has proposed for them. Many of the restric- tions upon the commerce of New South Wales are so absurd that they require only to be stated in Parliament to be corrected. The fertility of the colony so far exceeds its increase of popu- lation, and the difficulty of finding a market for corn is so great — or rather the impossibility so clear — that the measure of encouraging domes- tic distilleries ought to be had recourse to. The colony, with a soil fit for every thing, must, as Mr. Wentworth proposes, grow other things besi(ies corn, and excite that market in the in- terior which it does not enjoy from without. The want of demand, indeed, for the excess of corn, will soon effect this without the interven- tion of government. Government, we believe, have already given up the right of taxation without the sanction of Parliament ; and there is an end, probably, by this time, to that griev- ance. A council and a colonial secretary they have also expressed their willingness to con- cede. Of trial by jury and a colonial assembly, we confess that we have great doubts. At some future time they must come, and ought to come. The only question is, is the colony fit for such institutions at presentl Are there a sufficient number of respectable persons to serve that office in the various settlements 1 If the English law is to be followed exactly, to compose a jury of twelve persons, a panel of forty-eight must be summoned. Could forty-eight intelligent convicted men, be found in every settlement of New South Wales'? or must they not be fetched from great distances, at an enormous expense and inconvenience ? Is such an institution cal- culated for so very young a colony? A good government is an excellent thing; but it is not the first in the order of human wants. The first want is to subsist; the next to subsist in freedom and comfort; first to live at all, then to live well. A parliament is still a greater de- mand upon the wisdom and intelligence and opulence of a colony than trial by jury. Among the twenty thousand inhabitants of New South Wales, are there ten persons out of the employ of government whose wisdom and prudence could reasonably be expected to advance the interests of the colony without embroiling it with the mother-country 1 Who has leisure, in such a state of affairs, to attend such a parlia- ment? Where wisdom and conduct are so rare, every man of character, we will venture to say, has, like strolling players in a barn, six or seven important parts to perform. Mr. M'Arthur, who, from his character and understanding, would probably be among the first persons elected to 17 the colonial legislature, besides being a very spirited agriculturist, is, we have no doubt, justice of the peace, curator and rector of a thousand plans, charities and associations, to which his presence is essentially necessary. If he could be cut into as many pieces as a tree is into planks, all his subdivisions would be eminently useful. When a member of Parlia- ment, and what is called a really respectable country gentleman, sets ofiTto attend his duty ia our Parliament, such diminution of intelligence as is produced by his absence, is, God knows, easily supplied; but in a colony of 20,000 per- sons, it is impossible this should be the case. Some time hence, the institution of a colonial assembly will be a very wise and proper mea- sure, and so clearly called for, that the most profligate members of administration will nei- ther be able to ridicule nor refuse it. At pre- sent we are afraid that a Botany Bay parliament would give rise to jokes ; and jokes at present have a great agency in human affairs. Mr. Bennet concerns himself with the settle- ment of New Holland, as it is a school for criminals; and, upon this subject, has written a very humane, enlightened and vigorous pam- phlet. The objections made to this settlement by Mr. Bennet are, in the first place, its enor- mous expense. The colony of New South Wales, from 1788 to 1815 inclusive, has cost this country the enormous sum of 3,465,983/. In the evidence before the transportation com- mittee, the annual expense of each convict, from 1791 to 1797, is calculated at 33/. 9s. 5|rf. per annum, and the profits of his labour are stated to be 20/. The price paid for the trans- port of convicts has been, on an average, 37/. exclusive of food and clothing. It appears, however, says Mr. Bennet, by an account laid before Parliament, that in the year 1814, 109,- 746/. were paid for the transport, foud and cloth- ing of 1016 convicts, which will make the cost amount to about lOS/. per man. In 1812, the expenses of the colony were 176,000/.; fn 1813, 235,000/.; in 1814,231,362/.; but in 1815 they had fallen to 150,000/. The cruelty and neglect in the transportation of convicts have been very great — and in this way a punishment inflicted which it never was in the contemplation of law to enact. During the first eight years, according to Mr. Bennet's statements, one-tenth of the convicts died on the passage; on the arrival of three of the ships, 200 sick were landed, 281 persons having died on board. These instances, however, of crimi- nal inattention to the health of the convicts no longer take place; and it is mentioned rather as an history of what is past than a censure upon any existing evil. In addition to the expense of Botany Bay, Mr. Bennet contends that it wants the very essence of punishment, terror; that the common people do not dread it; that instead of prevent- ing crimes, it rather excites the people to their commission, by the hopes it aflt)rds of bettering their condition in a new country. "All those who have had an opportunity of witnessing the effect of this system of trans- portation agree in opinion, that it is no longer an object of dread — it has, in fact, generally ceased to be a punishment; true it is, to a fa- 130 WORKS OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH. thcr of a family, to the mother who leaves her children, this perpetual separation from those whom they love and whom they support, is a cruel blow, and when I consider the merciless character of the law which inflicts it, a severe penalty : but by far the greater number of per- sons who suffer this punishment, regard it in quite a different light. Mr. Cotton, the ordinary of Newgate, informed the police committee last year, ' that the generality of those who are transported consider it as a party of pleasure — as going out to see the world; they evince no penitence, no contrition, but seem to rejoice in the thing, — many of them to court it. I have heard them, when the sentence of transporta- tion has been passed by the recorder, return thanks for it, and seem overjoyed at their sen- tence : the very last party that went off, when they were put into the caravan, shouted and huzzaed, and were very joyous : several of them called out to the keepers who were there in the yard, the first fine Sunday we will have a glo- rious kangaroo hunt at the Bay, — seeming to anticipate a great deal of pleasure.' He was asked if those persons were married or single, and his answer was, 'by far the greater number of them were unmarried. Some of them are anxious that their wives and children should follow them; others care nothing about either wives or children, and are glad to get rid of them.'" — Bennet, pp. 60, 61 It is a scandalous injustice in this colony, that persons transported for seven years, have no power of returning when that period is ex- pired. A strong active man may sometimes work his passage home ; but what is an old man or an aged female to do 1 Suppose a convict were to be confined in prison for seven years, and then told he might get out if he could climb over the walls, or break open the locks, what in general would be his chance of liberation 1 But no lock nor doors can be so secure a means of detention as the distance of Botany Bay. This is a downright trick and fraud in the adminis- tration of criminal justice. A poor wretch who is banished from his country for seven years, should be furnished with the means of return- ing to his country when these seven years are expired. — If it is intended he should never re- turn, his sentence should have been banishment for life. The most serious charge against the colony, as a p4ace for transportation, and an experiment in criminal justice, is the extreme profligacy of manners which prevails there, and the total want of reformation among the convicts. Upon this subject, except in the regular letters offi- cially varnished and filled wiih fraudulent beati- tudes for the public eye, there is, and there can be, but one opinion. New South Wales is a sink of wickedness, in which the great majority of convicts of both sexes become infinitely more depraved than at the period of their arri- val. How, as Mr. Bennet very justly observes, can it be otherwise 1 The I'elon, transported to the American plantations, became an insulated rogue among honest men. He lived for years in the family of some industrious planter, ■without seeing a picklock, or indulging in plea- sant dialogues on the delicious burglaries of his youth. He imperceptibly glided into honest habits, and lost not only the tact for pockets, but the wish to investigate their contents. But ia Botany Bay, the felon, as soon as he gets out of the ship, meets with his ancient trull, with the footpad of his heart, the convict of his affec- tions, — the man whose hand he has often met in the same gentleman's pocket — the being whom he would choose from the whole world to take to the road, or to disentangle the locks of Bramah. It is impossible that vice should not become more intense in such society, Upon the horrid state of morals now preva- lent in Botany Bay, we would counsel our read- ers to cast their eyes upon the account given by Mr. Marsden, in a letter, dated July, 1815, to Governor Macquarrie. It is given at length in the appendix to Mr. Bennet's book. A more horrid picture of the state of any settlement was never penned. It carries with it an air of truth and sincerity, and is free from all enthu- siastic cant. " I now appeal to your excellency," (he says, at the conclusion of his letter,) " whether, under such circumstances any man of common feel- ing, possessed of the least spark of humanity or religion, who stood in the same otficial rela- lation that I do to these people, as their spiritual pastor and magistrate, could enjoy one happy moment from the beginning to the end of the week! "I humbly conceive that it is incompatible with the character and wish of the British na- tion, that her own exiles should be exposed to such privations and dangerous temptations, when she is daily feeding the hungry and cloth- ing the naked, and receiving into her friendly, and I may add pious bosom, the stranger, whe- ther savage or civilized, of every nation under heaven. There are, in the whole, under the two principal superintendents, Messrs. Rouse and Cakes, one hundred and eight men, and one hun- dred and fifty women, and several children; and nearly the whole of them have to find lodg- ings for themselves when they have performed their government tasks. " I trust that your excellency will be fully persuaded, that it is totally impossible for the magistrate to support his necessary authority, and to establish a regular police, under such a weight of accumulated and accumulating evils. I am as sensible as any one can be, that the dif- ficulty of removing these evils will be very great; at the same time, their number and influence may be greatly lessened, if the abandoned male and female convicts are lodged in barracks, and placed under the eye of the police, and the num- , ber of licensed houses is reduced. Till some- I thing of this kind is done, all attempts of the * magistrate, and the public administration of re- ligion, will be attended with litde benefit to the general good. I have the honour to be, your excellency's most obedient, humble servant, Samuel Mabsden." — 5e«??e/, p. 134. Thus much fur Botany Bay. As a mere colo- ny, it is too distant and too expensive; and, in future, will of course involve us in many of those just and necessary wars, which deprive Englishmen so rapidly of their comforts, and make England scarcely worth living in. If con- sidered as a place of reform for criminals, its distance, expense, and the society to which it WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 131 dooms the objects of the experiment, are insu- perable objections to it. It is in vain to say, that the honest people in New South Wales will soon bear a greater proportion to the rogues, and the contamination of bad society will be less fatal. This only proves that it may be a good place for reform hereafter, not that it is a good one now. One of the principal reasons for peopling Botany Bay at all, was, that it would be an admirable receptacle, and a school of reform, for our convicts. It turns out, that for the first half century, it will make them worse than they were before, and that, after that period, they may probably begin to improve. A marsh, to be sure, may be drained and culti- vated; but no man who has his choice, would select it in the mean time for his dwelling-place. The three books are all books of merit. Mr. O'Hara's is a bookseller's compilation, done in a useful and pleasing manner. Mr. Wentworth is full of information on the present state of Botany Bay. The humanity, the exertions and the genuine benevolence of Mr. Bennet, are too well known to need our commendation All persons who have a few guineas in their pocket, are now running away from Mr. Nicho- las Vansittart to settle in every quarter of the globe. Upon the subject of emigration to Bota- ny Bay, Mr. Wentworih observes, 1st, that any respectable person emigrating to that colony, receives as much land gratis as would cost him 400/. in the United Stales; 2dly, he is allowed as many servants as he may require, at one- third of the wages paid for labour in America; 3dly, himself and family are victualled at the expense of government for six months. He cal- culates that a man, wife and two children, with an allowance of five tons for themselves and baggage, could emigrate to Botany Bay for 100/. including every expense, provided a whole ship could be freighted ; and that a single man could be taken out thither for 30/. These points are worthy of serious attention to those who are shedding their country. CHIMNEY SWEEPERS.* [Edinburgh Review, 1819.] Aw excellent and well-arranged dinner is a most pleasing occurrence, and a great triumph of civilized life. It is not only the descending morsel and the enveloping sauce — but the rank, wealth, wit and beauty which surround the meats— the learned management of light and heat — the silent and rapid services of the attend- ants — the smiling and sedulous host, proffering gusts and relishes —ihe exotic bottles — the em- bossed plate — the pleasant remarks — the hand- some dresses — the cunning artifices in fruit and farina! The hour of dinner, in short, includes every thing of sensual and intellectual gratifica- tion which a great nation glories in producing. In the midst of all this, who knows that the kitchen chimney caught fire half an hour before dinner! — and that a poor little wretch, of six or seven years old, was sent up in the midst of the flames to put it out 7 We could not, previous to reading this evidence, have formed a concep- tion of the miseries of these poor wretches, or that there should exist, in a civilized country, a class of human beings destined to such extreme and varied distress. We will give a short epi- tome of what is developed in the evidence before the two Houses of Parliament Boys are made chimney sweepers at the early age of five or six. Little boys far small flues, is a common phrase in the cards left at the door by itinerant chimney sweepers. Flues made to ovens and coppers are often less than nine inches square; and it *Accounl if Ihe Proceedings of the SociUyfor superseding ike Necessity of Climbing Bous. Baldwin, &c. London, 1S16. may be easily conceived how slender the frame of that human body must be, which can force itself through such an aperture. " What is the age of the youngest boys who have been employed in this trade, to your know- ledge! About five years of age: I know one now between five or six years old; it is the man's own son in the Strand : now there is an- other at Somer's Town, 1 think, said he was between four and five, or about five; Jack Hall, a little lad, takes him about. — Did you ever know any female children employed? Yes, I know one now. About two years ago there was a woman told me she had climbed scores of times, and ihere is one at Paddington now whose father taught her to climb: but I have often heard talk of them when I was an appren- tice, in different places. — What is the smallest sized flue you have ever met with in the course of your experience? About eight inches by nine; these they are always obliged to climb in this posture (describing it), keeping the arms up straight; if they slip their arms down, they get jammed in; unless they get their arms close over their head they cannot climb." — Lord's Minutes, No. 1. p. 8. The following is a specimen of the manner in which they are taught this art of climbing chimneys. " Do you remember being taught to climb chimneys'? Yes. — What did you feel upon the first auempt to climb a chimney 1 The first chimney! went up, they told me lliere was some plum-pudding and money up at the top of it, and that is the way they enticed me up; and when I 13S WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. got up, I would not let the other boy get from under me to get at it; I thought he would get it; I could not get up, and shoved the pot and half the chimney down into the yard. — Did you expe- rience any inconvenience to your knees, or your elbows 1 Yes, the skin was off my knees and elbows too, in climbing up the new chimneys they forced me up. — How did they force you up 1 When I got up, I cried out about my sore knees. — Were you beat or compelled to go up by any violent means 1 Yes, when I went to a narrow chimney, if I could not do it, I durst not go home ; when I used to come down, my master would well beat me with the brush; and not only my master, but when he used to go with the journeymen, if we could not do it, they used to hit us three or four times with the brush." — Lords' Minutes, No. 1. p. 5. In practising the art of climbing they are often crippled. "You talked of the pargetting to chimneys; are many chimneys pargetted? There used to be more than are now; we used to have to go and sit all a-twist to parge them, according to the floors, to keep the smoke from coming out ; then I could not straighten my legs; and that is the reason that many are cripples, — from parging and stopping the holes." — Lords' Minutes, No. 1. p. 17. They are often stuck fast in a chimney, and, after remaining there many hours, are cut out. "Have you known, in the course of your practice, boys stick in chimneys at all? Yes, frequently. — Did you ever know an instance of. a boy being suffocated to death? No; I do not recollect anyone at present, but I have assisted in taking boys out when they have been nearly exhausted. — Did you ever know an instance of its being necessary to break open a chimney to take the boy out? O yes. — Fre(juentli/? Monthly I might sufi; it is done with a cloak, if possible, that it should not be discovered ; a master in general wishes it not to be known, and therefore speaks to the people belonging to the house not to mention it, for it was merely the boy's neglect; they often say it was the boy's neglect. — Why do they say that ? The boy's climbing shirt is often very bad; the boy coming down, if the chimney be very narrow, and numbers of them are only nine inches, gets his shirt rumpled underneath him, and he has no power after he is fixed in that way {with his hand up.) Does a boy frequently stick in the chimney ? Yes, I have known more instances of that the last twelvemonth than be- fore.— Do you ever have to break open in the inside of a room? Yes, I have helped to break through into a kitchen chimney in a dining room." — Lords' Minutes, p. 34. To the same effect is the evidence of John Daniels, (Minutes, p. 100.) and of James Lud- ford, {Lords' Minutes, p. 147.) "You have swept the Penitentiary? I have. — Did you ever know a boy stick in any of the chimneys there? Yes, I have. — Was it one of your boys ? It was. — Was there one or two that stuck! Two of them.— How long did they stick there? Two hours. — How were they got out? They were cut out. — Was there any danger while they were in that situation? It was the core from the pargetting of the chimney, and the rubbish that the labourers had thrown down. that stopped them, and when they got it aside them, they could not pass. — They both stuck together? Yes." — Lords' Minutes, p. 147. One more instance we shall give from the evidence before the Commons. "Have you. heard of any accidents that have recently happened to climbing boys in the small flues? Yes; I have often met with accidents myself when I was a boy; there was lately one in Mary-le-bone, where the boy bst his life in a flue, a boy of the name of Tinsey (his father was of the same trade); that boy I think was about eleven or twelve years old. — Was there a coroner's inquest sat on the body of that boy you mentioned? Yes, there was ; he was aa apprentice of a man of the name of Gay. — How many accidents do you recollect which were attended with loss of life to the climbing boys ? I have heard talk of many more than I know of; I never knew of more than three since I have been at the trade, but I have heard talk of many more. — Of twenty or thirty? I cannot say; I have been near losing my own life several times." — Copimons' Report, p. 53. We come now to burning little chimney sweepers. A large party are invited to dinner — a great display is to be made ; — and about an hour before dinner, there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire ! It is impossible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish — the cook is frantic — all eyes are turned upon the sable consolation of the master chimney sweeper — and up into the midst of the burning chimney is sent one of the miserable little in- fants of the brush ! There is a positive pro- hibition of this practice, and an enactment of penalties in one of the acts of Parliament which respects chimney sweepers. But what matter acts of Parliament, when the pleasures of gen- teel people are concerned ? Or what is a toasted child, compared to the agonies of the mistress of the house with a deranged dinner? "Did you ever know a boy get burnt up a chimney? Yes. — Is that usual '' Yes, I have been burnt myself, and have got the scars on my legs; a year ago I was up a chimney in Liquor Pond Street; I have been up more than forty chimneys ivhere I have been burnt. — Did your master or the journeymen ever direct you to go up a chimney that was on fire ? Yes, it is a general case. — Do they compel you to go up a chimney that is on fire? Oh yes, it was the general practice for two of us to slop at home on Sunday to be ready in case of a chimney being a-fire. — You say it is general to compel the boys to go up chimneys on fire? Yes, boys get very ill-treated if they do not go up." — Lords' Minutes, p. 34. " Were you ever forced up a chimney on fire ? Yes, I was forced up one once, and, be- cause I could not do it, I was taken home and well hided with a brush by the journeyman. — Have you frequently been burnt in ascending chimneys on fire? Three times. — Are such hardships as you have described common in the trade with other boys ? Yes, they are." — Ibid., p. 100. " What is the price for sending a boy up a chimney badly on fire? The price allowed is five shillings, but most of them charge half a WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 133 guinea. — Is any part of that given to the boy 1 No, but very often the boy gets half a crown, and then the journeyman has half, and his mis- tress takes the other part to take care of against Sunday. — Have 3'ou never seen water thrown down from the top of a chimney when it is on fire 1 Yes.— Is not that generally done 1 Yes ; I have seen that done twenty times, and the boy in the chimney; at the time when the boy has hallooed out, 'It is so hot I cannot go any fur- ther;' and then the expression is, with an oath, 'Stop, and I will heave a pail of water down.' " —Ibid., p. 39. Chimney sweepers are subject to a peculiar sort of cancer, which often brings them to a premature death. "He appeared perfectly willing to try the machines everywhere? I must say the man appeared perfectly willing; he had a fear (hat he and his family would be ruined by them; but I must say of him that he is very different from other sweeps I have seen ; he attends very much to his own business; he was as black as any boy he had got, and unfortunately in the course of conversation he told me he had got a cancer; he was a fine healthy strong looking man; he told me he dreaded having an operation performed, but his father died of the same complaint, and his father was sweeper to King George the Second." — Lords' Minutes, p. 84. "What is the nature of the particular dis- eases ? The diseases that we particularly no- ticed, to which they were subject, were of a cancerous description. In what part? The scrotum in particular, &c.— Did you ever hear of cases of that description that were fatal 1 No, J do not think them as being altogether fatal, unless they will not submit to the operation ; they have such a dread of the operation that they will not submit to it, and if they do not let it be perfectly removed they willbe liable to the return of it. To what cause do you attribute that disease] I think it begins from a want of care: the scrotum being in so many folds or crevices, the soot lodges in them and creates an itching, and I conceive, that by scratching it and tearing it, the soot gets in and creates the irrita- bility ; which disease we know by the name of the chimney sweeper's cancer, and is always lectured upon separately as a distinct disease. —Then the committee understands that the phy- sicians who are entrusted with the care and management of those hospitals think that dis- ease of such common occurrence, that it is necessary to make it a part of surgical educa- tion 1 Most assuredly ; I remember Mr. Cline and Mr. Cooper were particular on that subject. — Without an operation there is no curel I <5onceive not; I conceive without the operation it is death; for cancers are of that nature that unless you extirpate them entirely they will never be cwxtA."— Commons' Rep. pp. 60, 61. In addition to the life they lead as chimney sweepers, is superadded the occupation of night- men. " {By a Lord.) Is it generally the custom that many masters are likewise nightmen ? Yes: I forgot that circumstance, which is very griev- ous ; I have been tied round the middle and let down several privies, for the purpose of fetching watches and such things ; it is generally made the practice to take the smallest boy, to let him through the hole without taking up the seat, and to paddle about there until he finds it; they do not take a big boy, because it disturbs the seat." — Lords' Minutes, p. 38. The bed of these poor little wretches is often the soot they have swept in the day. "How are the boys generally lodged ; where do they sleep at night? Some masters maybe better than others, but I know I have slept on the soot that was gathered in the day myself. — Where do boys generally sleep? Never on a bed; I never slept on a bed myself while I was apprentice —Do they sleep in cellars? Yes, very often : I have slept in the cellar myself on the sacks I took out. — What had you to cover you? The same.— Had you any pillow? No further than my breeches and jacket under my head. How were you clothed ? When I was apprentice we had a pair of leather breeches and a small flannel jacket. Any shoes and stockings ? Oh dear, no ; no stockings.— Had you any other clothes for Sunday ? Sometimes we had an old bit of a jacket, that we might wash out ourselves, and a shirt." — Lords' Minutes, p. 40. Girls are occasionally employed as chimney sweepers. "Another circumstance, which has not been mentioned to the committee, is, that there are several little girls employed; there are two of the name of Morgan at Windsor, daughters of the chimney sweeper, who is employed to sweep the chimneys of the castle; another instance at Uxbridge, and at Brighton, and at Whitechapel (which was some years ago), and at Hadley near Barnet, and Witham in Essex, and else- where." — Commons' Report, p. 71. Another peculiar danger to which chimney sweepers are exposed, is the rottenness of the pots at the top of chimneys; — for they must as- cend to the very summit, and show their brushes above them, or there is no proof that the work is properly completed. These chimney-pots from their exposed situation, are very subject to de- cay; and when the poor little wretch has worked his way up to the top, pot and boy give way together, and are both shivered to atoms. There are many instances of this in the evidence be- fore both Houses. When they outgrow the ^q-^- er of going up a chimney, they are fit for nothing else. The miseries they have suflTered lead to nothing. They are not only enormous, but un- profitable: having suffered, in what is called the happiest part of life, every misery which an human being can suffer, they are then cast out to rob and steal, and given up to the law. Not the least of their miseries, while their trial endures, is their exposure to cold. It will easily be believed that much money is not ex- pended on the clothes of a poor boy stolen from his parents, or sold by them for a few shillings, and constantly occupied in dirty work. Yet the nature of their occupations renders chimney sweepers peculiarly susceptible of cold. And as chimneys must be swept very early, at four or five o'clock of a winter morning, the poor boys are shivering at the door, and attempting by repeated ringings to rouse the profligate foot- man ; but the more they ring the more Jhe fdot- man does not come. M 134 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. "Do they go out in the winter time without stockings? Oh yes.— Always"? I never saw one go out tyj^A stockings ; I have known masters make their boys pul! off their leggins, and cut off the feet, to keep their feet warm when they have chilblains. — Are chimney sweepers' boys peculiarly subject to chilblains] Yes; I believe it is owing to the weather: they often go out at two or three in the morning, and their shoes are generally very bad. Do they go out at that hour at Christmas 1 Yes; a man will have twenty jobs at four, and twenty more at five or six. — Are chimneys generally swept much about Christmas time? Yes; they are in general; it is left to the Christmas week. — Do you suppose it is frequent that, in the Christmas week, boys are out from three o'clock in the morning to nine or ten? Yes, further than that; I have known that a boy has been only in and out again directly all day till five o'clock in the evening. — Do you consider the journeymen and masters treat those boys generally with greater cruelty than other apprentices in other trades are treated? They do, most horrid and shock- ing." — Lords^ Minutes, p. 33. The following is the reluctant evidence of a master. "At what hour in the morning did your boys go out upon their employment? According to orders. — At any time? To be sure; suppose a nobleman wished to have his chimney done before four or five o'clock in the morning, it was done, or how were the servants to get their things done ? — Supposing you had an order to attend at four o'clock in the morning in the month of December, you sent your boy ? I was generally with him, or had a careful follower with him. Do you think those early hours beneficial for him? I do; and I have heard that ' early to bed and early to rise, is the way to be healthy, wealthy and wise.' — Did they always get in as soon as they knocked? No; it would be pleasant to the profession if they could. — How long did they wait ? Till the ser- vants please to rise. — How long might that be? According how heavy they were to sleep. — How long was that? It is impossible to say; ten minutes at one house, and twenty at ano- ther. — Perhaps half an hour? We cannot see in the dark how the minutes go. — Do you think it healthy to let them stand there twenty minutes at four o'clock in the morning in the winter time? He has a cloth to wrap himself in like a mantle, and keep himself warm." — Lords' Minutes, pp. 138, 139. We must not forget sore eyes. Soot lodges on their eyelids, produces irritability, which requires friction ; and the friction of dirty hands of course increases the disease. The greater proportion of chimney sweepers are in conse- quence blear-eyed. The boys are very small, but they are compelled to carry heavy loads of soot. "Are you at all lame yourself? No: but lam 'knapped-kneed' with carrying heavy loads when I was an apprentice. That was the oc- casion of it? It was. In general, are persons employed in your trade either stunted or knock- kneed by carrying heavy loads during their childhood? It is owing to their masters a great deal ; and when they climb a great deal it makes them weak." — Commons' Report, p. 58, In climbing a chimney, the great hoJd is by the knees and elbows. A young child of 6 or 7 years old, working with knees and elbows against hard bricks soon rubs off the skin from these bony projections, and is forced to climb high chimneys with raw and bloody knees and elbows. "Are the boys' knees and elbows rendered sore when they first begin to learn to climb? Yes, they are, and pieces out of them. — Is that almost generally the case? It is; there is not one out of twenty who is not; and they are sure to take the scars to their grave : I have some now. — Are they usually compelled to continue climbing while those sores are open? Yes,- the way they use to make them hard is that way. — Might not this severity be obviated by the use of pads in learning to climb ? Yes ; but they con- sider in the business, learning a boy, that he is never thoroughly learned until the boy's knees are hard after being sore ; then they consider it necessary to put a pad on, from seeing the boys have bad knees ; the children generally walk stiff-kneed. — Is it usual among the chimney sweepers to teach their boys to learn by means of pads? No; they learn them with nearly naked knees.— Is it done in one instance in twenty? No, nor one in fifty." — Lords' Minutes, p. 32. According to the humanity of the master, the soot remains upon the bodies of the children, unwashed off, for any time from a week to a year. "Are the boys generally washed regularly? No, unless they wash themselves. — Did not your master take care you were washed ? No. — Not once in three months ? No, not once a year. — Did not he find you soap? No; lean take my oath on the Bible that he never found me one piece of soap during the time I was apprentice." — Lords' Minutes, p. 41. The life of these poor little wretches is so miserable, that they often lie sulking in the flues unwilling to come out. " Did you ever see severity used to boys that were not obstinate and perverse ? Yes. — Very often? Yes, very often. The boys are rather obstinate; some of them are; some of them will get half-way up the chimney, and will not go any further, and then the journeyman will swear at them to come down, or go on ; but the boys are too frightened to come down ; they halloo out, we cannot get up, and they are afraid to come down; sometimes they will send for ano- ther boy, and drag them down; sometimes get up to the top of the chimney, and throw down water, and drive them down; then, when they get them down, they will begin to drag, or beat, or kick them about the house; then, when they get home, the master will beat them all round the kitchen afterwards, and give them no break- fast, perhaps." — Lords' Minutes, pp. 9, 10. When a chimney bo)"^ has done sufl[icient work for the master he must work for the man; and he thus becomes for several hours after his morning's work a perquisite to the journeyman. " It is frequently the perquisite of the journey- man, when the first labour of the day on account of the master is finished, to 'call the streets,' ia search of employment on their own account, with the apprentices, whose labour is thus un- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 135 reasonably extended, and whose limbs are weak- ened and distorted by the weights which they have to carry, and by the distance which they have to walk. John Lawless says, ' I have known a boy to Ciimb from twenty to thirty chimneys for his master in the morning; he has then been sent out instantly with the jour- neyman, who has kept him out till three or four o'clock, till he has accumulated from six to eight bushels of soot.'" — Lords' Report, p. 24. The sight of a little chimney sweeper often excites pity: and they have small presents made to them at the houses where they sweep. These benevolent alms are disposed of in the following manner: — " Do the boys receive little presents of money from people often in your trade ? Yes, it is in general the custom. — Are they allowed to keep that for their own use 1 Not the whole of it, — the journeymen take what they think proper. The journeymen are entitled to half by the master's orders; and whatever a boy may get, if two boys and one journeyman are sent to a large house to sweep a number of chimneys, and after they have done, there should be a shilling or eighteen pence given to the boys, the journeyman has his full half, and the two boys in general have the other. Is it usual or customary for the journeymen to play at chuck farthing or other games with the boys 1 Frequently. — Do they win the money from the boys ? Frequently: the children give their money to the journeymen to screen for them. — What do you mean by screening? Such a thing as sifting the soot. — The child is tired, and he says, ' Jem, I will give you two-pence if you will sift my share of the soot ;' there is sometimes twenty or thirty bushels to sift. Do you think the boys retain one quar- ter of that given them for their own use 1 No." 7— Lords' Minutes, p. 35. To this most horrible list of calamities is to be added the dreadful deaths by which chimney sweepers are often destroyed. Of these we once thought of giving two examples; one from London, the other from our own town of Edin- burgh: but we confine ourselves to the latter. "James Thomson, chimney-sweeper. — One day, in the beginning of June, witness and panel (that is, the master, the party accused) had been sweeping vents together. About futcr o'clock in the afternoon, the panel proposed to go to Albany street, where the panel's brother was cleaning a vent, with the assistance of Frazer, whom he had borrowed from the panel for the occasion. When witness and panel got to the house in Albany street, they found Frazer, who had gone up the vent between eleven and twelve o'clock, not yet come down. On entering the house they found a mason making a hole in the wall. Panel said, what was he doing 1 I sup- pose he has taken a lazy fit. The panel called to the boy, 'What are you doing? what's keep- ing you V The boy answered that he could not come. The panel worked a long while, some- times persuading him, sometimes threatening and swearing at the boy to get him down. Panel then said, ' I will go to a hardware shop and get a barrel of gunpowder, and blow you and the vent to the devil, if you do not come down.' — Panel then began to slap at the wall — witness then went up a ladder, and spoke, to the boy through a small hole in the wall previously made by the mason — but the boy did not answer Panel's brother told witness to come down, as the boy's master knew best how to manage him. Witness then threw off" his jacket, and put a handkerchief about his head, and said to the panel, let me go up the chimney to see what's keeping him. The panel made no answer, but pushed witness away from the chimney, and continued bullying the boy. At this time the panel was standing on the grate, so that witness could not go up the chimney; witness then said to panel's brother, there is no use for me here, meaning that panel would not permit him to use his services. He prevented the mason making the hole larger, saying. Stop, and I'll bring him down in five minutes' time. Witness then put on his jacket, and continued an hour in the room, duritis; all which time the panel continued bullying the boy. Panel then desired witness to- go to Reid's house to get the loan of his boy Alison. Witness went to Reid's house, and asked Reid to come and speak to panel's bro- ther. Reid asked if panel was there? Witness answered he was; Reid said he would send his boy to the panel, but not to the panel's brother. Witness and Reid went to Albany street; and when they got into the room, panel took his head out of the chimney and asked Reid if he would lend him his boy; Reid agreed; witness then returned to Reid's house for his boy, and Reid called after him, 'Fetch down a set of ropes with you.' By this time witness had been ten minutes in the room, during which time panel was swearing, and asking what's keeping you, you scoundrel? When witness returned with the boy and ropes, Reid took hold of the rope, and having loosed it, gave Alison one end, and directed him to go up the chimney, saying, do not go farther than his feet, and when you get there fasten it to his foot. Panel said nothing all this time. Alison went up, and having fast- ened the rope, Reid desired him to come down; Reid took the rope and pulled, but did not bring down the boy; the rope broke! Alison was sent up again with the other end of the rope, which was fastened to the boy's foot. When Reid was pulling the rope, panel said, ' You have not the strength of a cat ;' he took the rope into his own hands, pulling as strong as he could. Having pulled about a quarter of an hour, panel and Reid fastened the rope round a crow bar, which they applied to the wall as a lever, and both pulled with all their strength for about a quarter of an hour longer, when it broke. — Duiing this time witness heard the boy cry, and say, ' My God Almighty !' Panel said, ' If I had you here, I would God Almighty you.' Witness thought the cries were in agony. The master of the house brought a new piece of rope, and the panel's brother spliced an eye on it. Reid expressed a wish to have it fastened on both thighs, to have greater purchase. Alison was sent up for this purpose, but came down, and said he could not get it fastened. Panel then began to slap at the wall. After striking a long while at the wall, he got out a large stone; he then put in his head and called to Frazer, ' Do you hear, you sir?' but got no answer: he then put in his hands, and threw down deceased's breeches. He then came down from the ladder. 136 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. At this time the panel was in a state of perspi- ration : he sat down on a stool, and the master of the house gave him a dram. Witness did not hear panel make any remarks as to the situation of the boy Frazer. Witness thinks that, from panel's appearance, he knew that the boy was dead." — Commons' Report, T^'p. 136 — 138. We have been thus particular in stating the case of the chimney sweepers, and in founding it upon the basis of facts, that we may make an answer to those profligate persons who are al- ways ready to fling an air of ridicule upon the labours of humanity, because they are desirous that what they have not virtue to do themselves, should appear to be foolish and romantic when done by others. A still higher degree of depra- vity than this, is to want every sort of compas- sion for human misery, when it is accompanied by filth, poverty and ignorance, — to regulate humanity by the income tax, and to deem the bodily wretchedness and the dirty tears of the poor, a fit subject for pleasantry and contempt. We should have been loath to believe that such deep-seated and disgusting immorality existed in these days ; but the notice of it is forced upon us. Nor must we pass over a set of marvel- lously weak gentlemen who discover democracy and revolution in every effort to improve the condition of the lower orders, and to take oflT a little of the load of misery from those points where it presses the hardest. Such are the men into whose heart Mrs. Fry has struck the deepest terror, — who abhor Mr. Bentham and his penitentiary; Mr. Bennet and his hulks; Sir James Mackintosh and his bloodless assizes ; Mr. Tuke and his sweeping machines, — and every human being who is great and good enough to sacrifice his quiet to his love for his fellow-creatures. Certainly we admit that hu- manity is sometimes the veil of ambition or of faction; but we have no doubt that there are a great many excellent persons to whom it is misery to see misery, and pleasure to lessen it; and who, by calling the public attention to the worst cases, and by giving birth to judicious legislative enactments for their improvement, have made, and are making, the world some- what happier than they found it. Upon these principles we join hands with the friends of the chimney sweepers, and most heartily wish for the diminution of their numbers, and the limi- tation of their trade. We are thoroughly convinced, there are many respectable master chimney sweepers; though we suspect their numbers have been increased by the alarm which their former tyranny excited, and by the severe laws made for their coercion : but even with good masters the trade is mise- rable, — with bad ones it is not to be endured; and the evidence already quoted shows us how many of that character are to be met with in the occupation of sweeping chimneys. After all, we must own that it was quite right to throw out the bill for prohibiting the sweep- ing of chimneys by boys — because humanity is a modern invention ; and there are many chim- neys in old houses which cannot possibly be swept in any other manner. But the construc- tion of chimneys should be attended to in some new building act; and the treatment of boys be watched over with the most severe jealousy of the law. Above all, those who have chimneys accessible to machinery, should encourage the use of machines,* and not think it beneath their dignity to take a little trouble, in order to do a great deal of good. We should have been very glad to have seconded the views of the Climbing Society, and to have pleaded for the complete abolition of climbing boys, if we could consci- entiously have done so. But such a measure, we are convinced from the evidence, could not be carried into execution without great injury to property, and great increased risk of fire. The lords have investigated the matter with the greatest patience, humanity and good sense; and they do not venture, in their report, to re- commend to the House the abolition of climbing boys. * The price of a machine is fiAeen shillingi. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 137 AMERICA.* [Ediitbitbgh Revikw, 1820.] This is a book of character and authority ; but it is a very large book ; and therefore we think we shall do an acceptable service to our readers, by presenting them with a short epi- tome of its contents, observing the same order which has been chosen by the author. The whole, we conceive, will form a pretty complete picture of America, and teach us how to appre- ciate that country, either as a powerful enemy or a profitable friend. The first subject with which Mr. Seybert begins, is the population of the United States. Population. — As representatives and direct taxes are apportioned among the different states in proportion to their numbers, it is provided for in the American constitution, that there shall be an actual enumeration of the people every ten years. It is the duty of the marshals in each state to number the inhabitants of their respective districts : and a correct copy of the lists, containing the names of the persons re- turned, must be set up in a public place within each district, before they are transmitted to the secretary of state : — they are then laid before Congress by the president. Under this act three census, or enumerations of the people, have been already laid before Congress — for the years 1790, 1800 and 1810. In the year 1790, the population of America was 3,921,326 per- sons, of whom 697,697 were slaves. In 1800, the numbers were 5,319,762, of which 896,849 were slaves. In 1810, the numbers were 7,239,- 903, of whom 1,191,364 were slaves; so that at a rate at which free population has proceeded between 1790 and 1810, it doubles itself, in the United States, in a very little more than 22 years. The slave population, according to its rate of proceeding in the same time, would be doubled in about 26 years. The increase of the slave population in this statement is owing to the importation of negroes between 1800 and 1808, especially in 1806 and 1807, from the ex- pected prohibition against importation. The number of slaves was also increased by the ac- quisitions of territory in Louisiana, where they constituted nearly half the population. From 1801 to 1811, the inhabitants of Great Britain acquired an augmentation of 14 per cent.; the Americans, within the same period, were aug- mented 36 per cent. Emigration seems to be of very little import- ance to the United States. In the year 1817, by far the most considerable year of emigration, there arrived in ten of the principal ports of America, from the old world, 22,000 persons as passengers. The number of emigrants, from 1790 to 18)0, is not supposed to have exceeded 6000 * Statistical Annals qftlie United States of America. By Adam Seybert, 4to- Philadelphia, 1818. 18 per annum. None of the separate states have been retrograde during these three enumerations, though some have been nearly stationary. The most remarkable increase is that of New York, which has risen from 340,120 in the year 1790, to 959,049 in the year 1810. The emigration from the eastern to the western states is calcu- lated at 60,000 persons per annum. In all the American enumerations, the males uniformly predominate in the proportion of about 100 to 92. We are better off" in Great Britain and Ire- land, — where the women were to the men, by the census of 1811, as 110 to 100. The density of population in the United States is less than 4 persons to a square mile; that of Holland, in 1803, was 275 to the square mile; that of England and Wales, 169. So that the fifteen provinces which formed the union in 1810, would contain, if they were as thickly peopled as Holland, 135 million souls. The next head is that of Trade and Commerce. — In 1790, the exports of the United States were above 19 millions of dollars; in 1791, above 20 millions; in 1792, 26 millions; in 1793, 33 mil- lions of dollars. Prior to 1795, there was no discrimination, in the American treasury ac- counts, between the exportation of domestic, and the re-exportation of foreign articles. In 1795, the aggregate value of the merchandize exported was 67 millions of dollars, of which the foreign produce re-exported was 26 millions. In 1800, the total value of exports was 94 mil- lions; in 1805, 101 millions; and in 1808, when they arrived at their maximum, 108 million dollars. In the year 1809, from the effects of the French and English orders in council, the exports fell to 52 millions of dollars ; in 1810 to 66 millions ; in 1811, to 61 millions; In the first year of the war with England, to 38 mil- lions ; in the second to 27; in the year 1814, when peace was made, to 6 millions. So that the exports of the republic, in six years, had tumbled down from 108 to 6 millions of dollars: after the peace, in the years 1815-16-17, the exports rose to 52, 81,87 million dollars. In 1817, the exportation of cotton was 85 million pounds. In 1815, the sugar made on the banks of the Mississippi was 10 million pounds. In 1792, when the wheat trade was at the maximum, a million and a half of bushels were exported. The proportions of the exports to Great Britain, Spain, France, Holland and Portugal, on an average of ten years ending 1812, are as 27, 16, 13, 12 and 7; the actual value of exports to the dominions of Great Britain, in the three years ending 1804, were consecutively, in millions of dollars, 16, 17, 13. Imports.— In 1791, the imports of the United States were 19 millions; on an average of three consecutive years, ending 1804 inclusive, they H 2 138 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. were 68 millions; in 1806-7, they were 138 millions; and in 1815, 133 millions of dollars. The annual value of ihe imports, on an average of three years ending 1804, was 75,000,000, of which the dominions of Great Britain furnished nearly one half. On an average of three years ending in 1804, America imported from Great Britain to the amount of about 36 millions, and returned goods to the amount of about 23 mil- lions. Certainly these are countries that have some better employment for their time and energy than cutting each other's throats, and may meet for more profitable purposes. — The American imports from the dominions of Great Britain, before the great American war, amount- ed to about 3 millions sterling; soon after the war, to the same. From 1805 to 1811, both in- clusive, the average annual exportation of Great Britain to all parts of the world, in real value, was about 43 millions sterling, of which one- fifth, or nearly 9 millions, was sent to America. Tonnage and Navigation. — Before the revolu- tionary war, the American tonnage, whether owned by British or American subjects, was about 127,000 tons; immediately after that war, 108,000. In 1789, it had amounted to 437,733 tons, of which 279,000 was American property. In 1790, the total was 605,825, of which 354,000 was American. In 1816, the tonnage, all Ame- rican, was 1,300,000. On an average of three years, from 1810 to 1812, both inclusive, the registered tonnage of the British empire was 2,459,000 ; or little more than double the Ame- rican. Lands. — All public lands are surveyed before they are offered for sale, and divided into town- ships of six miles square, which are subdivided into thirty-six sections of one mile square, con- taining each 640 acres. The following lands are excepted from the sales. One thirty-sixth part of the lands, or a section of 640 acres in each township, is uniformly reserved for the support of schools ; seven entire townships, con- taining each 23,000 acres, have been reserved in perpetuity for the support of learning: all salt springs and lead mines are also reserved. The Mississippi, the Ohio, and all the navigable rivers and waters leading into either, or into the river St. Lawrence, remain common highways, and forever free to all the citizens of the United States, without payment of any tax. All the other public lands, not thus excepted, are offered for public sale in quarter sections of 160 acres, at a price not less than two dollars per acre, and as much more as they will fetch by public auction. It was formerly the duty of the secre tary of the treasury to superintend the sales of lands. In 1812, an office, denominated the General Land-Office, was instituted. The public lands sold prior to the opening of the land-offices, amounted to one million and a half of acres. The aggregate of the sales since the opening of the land-offices, N. W. of the river Ohio, to the end of September, 1817, amounted to 8,469,644 acres; and the purchase-money to 18,000,000 dollars. The lands sold since the opening of the land-offices in the Mississippi territory, amount to 1,600,000 acres. The stock of un- sold land on hand is calculated at 400,000,000 acres. In the year 1817 there were sold above two millions of acres. Post-Office. — In 1789, the number of post- offices in the United Stales was 75; the amount of postage 38,000 dollars ; the miles of post-road 1800. In 1817, the number of post-offices was 3,459; the amount of postage 961,000 dollars; and the extent of post-roads 51,600 miles. Revenue. — The revenues of the United States are derived from the customs; from duties on distilled spirits, carriages, snuff, refined sugar, auctions, stamped paper, goods, wares and mer- chandise manufactured within the United States, household furniture, gold and silver watches and postage of letters; from money arising from the sale of public lands and from fees on letters- patent. The following are the duties paid at the custom-house for some of the principal arti- cles of importation: — 7| per cent, on dyeing drugs, jewellery and watch-work; 15 per cent, on hempen cloth and on all articles manu- factured from iron, tin, brass and lead — on but- tons, buckles, china, earthenware and glass, except window glass; 25 per cent, on cotton and woollen goods and cotton twist; 30 per cent, on carriages, leather and leather manu- factures, &c. The average annual produce of the customs, between 1801 and 1810, both inclusive, was about twelve millions of dollars. In the year 1814, the customs amounted only to four mil- lions; and, in the year 1815, the first year after the war, rose to thirty-seven millions. From 1789 to 1814, the customs have constituted 65 per cent, of the American revenues; loans 26 per cent.; and all other branches 8 to 9 per cent. They collect their customs at about 4 per cent.; — the English expense of collection is 6/. 2s. 6lic priest; and when this is effected, a tenth of the potatoes in the garden is to be set out for the support of a persuasion, the introduction of which into Ireland they consider as the great cause of their political inferiority, and all their manifold wretchedness. In England, a labourer can procure constant employment — or he can, at the worst, obtain relief from his parish. Whether tithe operates as a tax upon him, is known only to the political economist: if he does pay it. he does not know that he pays it; and the burthen of supporting the clergy is at least kept out of his view. But, in Ireland, the onlj' method in which a poor man lives, is by taking a small portion of land, in which he can grow potatoes: seven or eight months out of twelve, in many parts of Ireland, there is no constant employment of the poor: and the po- tato farm is all that shelters them from absolute famine. If the pope were to come in person, and seize upon every tenth potato, the poor peasant would scarcely endure it. With what patience then, can he see it tossed into the cart of the heretic rector who has a church without a con- gregation, and a revenue without duties? We do not say whether these things are right or wrong — whether they want a remedy at all — or what remedy they want; but we paint them in those colours in which they appear to the eye of poverty and ignorance, without saying whe- ther those colours are false or true. Nor is thn 144 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. case at all comparable to that of Dissenters pay- ing tithe in England ; which case is precisely the reverse of what happens in Ireland, for it is the contribution of a very small minority to the religion of a very large majority ; and the num- bers on either side make all the difference in the argument. To exasperate the poor Catholic still more, the rich grazier of the parish — or the squire in his parish — pay no tithe at all for their grass land. Agistment tithe is abolished in Ireland; and the burthen of supporting two churches seems to devolve upon the poorer Catholics, struggling with plough and spade in small scraps of dearly-rented land. Tithes seem to be collected in a more harsh manner than they are collected in England. The minute sub- divisions of land in Ireland — the little connection which the Protestant clergyman commonly has with the Catholic population of his parish, have made the introduction of tithe proctors very general — sometimes as the agent of the clergy- man — sometimes as the lessee or middleman between the clergyman and the cultivator of the land ; but, in either case, practised, dexter- ous estimators of tithe. The English clergymen in general, are far from exacting the whole of what is due to them, but sacrifice a little to the love of popularity or to the dread of odium. A system of tithe-proctors established all over England (as it is in Ireland,) would produce general disgust and alienation from the Esta- blished Church. " During the administration of Lord Halifax," says Mr. Hardy, in quoting the opinion of Lord Charlemont upon tithes paid by Catholics, " Ire- land was dangerously disturbed in its south- ern and northern regions. In the south princi- pally, in the counties of Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork and Tipperary, the White Boys now made their first appearance ; those White Boys, who have ever since occasionally disturbed the pub- lic tranquillity, without any rational method having been as yet pursued to eradicate this disgraceful evil. When we consider that the very sarrie district has been for the long space of seven-and-twenty years liable to frequent returns of the same disorder into which it has continually relapsed, in spite of all the violent remedies from time to time administered by our political quacks, we cannot doubt but that some real, peculiar and topical cause must exist; and yet, neither the removal nor even the investiga- tion of this cause has ever once been seriously attempted. Laws of the most sanguinary and unconstitutional nature have been enacted; the country has been disgraced and exasperated by frequent and bloody executions ; and the gibbet, that perpetual resource of weak and cruel legislators, has groaned under the multi- tude of starving criminals: yet, while the cause is suffered to exist, the effects will ever follow. The amputation of limbs will never eradicate a prurient humour, which must be sought in its source, and there remedied." "I wish," continues Mr. Wakefield, "for the sake of humanity, and for the honour of the Irish character, that the gentlemen of that coun- try would take this matter into their serious consideration. Let them only for a moment place themselves in the situation of the half- famished cotter, surrounded by a wretched fami- ly, clamorous for food ; and judge what his feel- ings must be, when he sees the tenth part of the produce of his potato garden exposed at harvest time to public cant; or, if he have given a pro- missory note for the payment of a certain sum of money, to compensate for such tithe when it becomes due, to hear the heart-rending cries of his offspring clinging round him, and lamenting for the milk of which they are deprived, by the cows being driven to the pound, to be sold to dis- charge the debt. Such accounts are not the creation of fancy ; the facts do exist, and are but too common in Ireland. Were one of them transferred to canvas by the hand of genius, and exhibited to English humanity, that heart must be callous, indeed, that could refuse its sympathy. I have seen the cow, the favourite cow, driven away, accompanied by the sighs, the tears and the imprecations of a whole fami- ly, who were paddling after, through wet and dirt, to take their last affectionate farewell of this their only friend and benefactor, at the pound gate. I have heard with emotions which I can scarcely describe, deep curses repeated from village to village as the cavalcade pro- ceeded. I have witnessed the group pass the domain walls of the opulent grazier, whose numerous herds were cropping the most luxu- riant pastures, while he was secure from any demand for the tithe of- their food, looking on with the most unfeeling indifference." — Wake- field, p. 486. In Munster, where tithe of potatoes is exact- ed, risings against the system have constantly occurred during the last forty years. In Ulster, where no such tithe is required, these insurrec- tions are unknown. The double church which Ireland supports, and that painful visible con- tribution towards it which the poor Irishman is compelled to make from his miserable pittance, is one great cause of those never-ending in- surrections, burnings, murders and robberies, which have laid waste that ill-fated country for so many years. The unfortunate consequence of the civil disabilities, and the church payments under which the Catholics labour, is a rooted antipathy to this country. They hate the Eng- lish government from historical recollection, actual sufferings and disappointed hope ; and till they are better treated, they will continue to hate it. At this moment, in a period of the most profound peace, there are twenty-five thousand of the best disciplined and best ap- pointed troops in the world in Ireland, with bayonets fixed, presented arms, and in the atti- tude of present war; nor is there a man too much — nor would Ireland be tenable without them. When it was necessary last year (or thought necessary) to put down the children of reform, we were forced to make a new levy of troops in this country — not a man could be spared from Ireland. The moment they had embarked, Peep-of-day Boys, Heart-of-Oak Boys, Twelve-o'clock Boys,Heart-of-Flint Boys, and all the bloody boyhood of the Bog of Allen, would have proceeded to the ancient work of riot, rapine and disaffection. Ireland, in short, till her wrongs are redressed, and a more liberal policy is adopted towards her, will always be a cause of anxiety and suspicion to this country; and, in some moment of our weakness and de- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH, 14. pTes$ion, will forcibly extort what she would now receive with gratitude and exultation. Ireland is situated close to another island of greater size, speaking the same language, very superior in civilization, and the seat of govern- ment. The consequence of this is the emigra- tion of the richest and most powerful part of the community — a vast drain of wealth — and the absence of all that wholesome influence which the representatives of ancient families residing upon their«states, produce upon their tenantry and dependents. Can any man imagine that the scenes which have been acted in Ireland within these last twenty years, would have taken place, if such vast proprietors as the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Hertford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Fitzwilliam, and many other men of equal wealth, had been in the constant habit of residing upon their Irish, as they are upon their English estates 1 Is it of no consequence to the order and the civilization of a large district, whether the great mansion is inhabited by an insignificant, perhaps a mis- chievous, attorney, in the shape of agent, or whether the first and greatest men of the United Kingdoms, after the business of Parliament is over, come with their friends and families, to exercise hospitality, to spend large revenues, to diffuse information and to improve manners ] This evil is a very serious one to Ireland ; and, as far as we see, incurable. For if the present large estates were, by the dilapidation of fami- lies, to be broken to pieces and sold, others equally great would, in the free circulation of property, speedily accumulate; and the moment any possessor arrived at a certain pitch of for- tune, he would probably choose to reside in the better country, — near the Parliament or the court. This absence of great proprietors in Ireland necessarily brings with it, or if not necessarily, has actually brought with it, the employment of middlemen, which forms one other standing and regular Irish grievance. We are well aware of all that can be said in defence of middle- men; that they stand between the little farmer and the great proprietor, as the shop-keeper does between the manufacturer and consumer; and, in fact, by their intervention, save time, and therefore expense. This may be true enough in the abstract; but the particularnatureof land must be attended to. The object of the man who makes cloth is to sell his cloth at the present market, for as high a price as he can obtain. If that price is too high, it soon falls; but no injury is done to his machinery by the superior price he has enjoyed for a season — he is just as able to produce cloth with it, as if the profits he en- joyed had always been equally moderate ; he has no fear, therefore, of the middlemen, or of any species of moral machinery which may help to obtain for him the greatest present prices. The same would be the feeling of any one who let out a steam-engine, or any other machine, for the purposes of manufacture ; he would natu- rally take the highest price he could get : for he might either let his machine for a price propor- tionate to the work it did, or the repairs, estima- ble with the greatest precision, might be thrown upon the tenant; in short, he could hardly ask any rent too high for his machine which a re- 19 sponsible person would give ; dilapidation would be so visible, and so calculable in such in- stances, that any secondary lease, or subletting, would be rather an increase of security than a source of alarm. Any evil from such a practice would be improbable, measurable and reme- diable. In land, on the contrary, the object is not to get the highest prices absolutely, but to get the highest prices which will not injure the machine. One tenant may offer and pay double the rent of another, and in a few years leave the land in a state which will effectually bar all fu- ture offers of tenancy. It is of no use to fill a lease full of clauses and covenants ; a tenant who pays more than he ought to pay, or who pays even to the last farthing which he ought to pay, will rob the land, and injure the machine, in spite of all the attorneys in England. He will rob it even if he means to remain upon it — driven on by present distress, and anxious to put off the day of defalcation and arrear. The damage is often difficult of detection — not easily calculated, not easily to be proved; such for which juries (themselves, perhaps, farmers) would not willingly give sufficient compensa-> tion. And if this is true in England, it is much more strikingly true in Ireland, where it is ex- tremely difficult to obtain verdicts for breaches of covenant in leases. The only method then of guarding the machine from real injury is, by giving to the actual oc- cupier such advantage in his contract, that he is unwilling to give it up — that he has a real interest in retaining it, and is not driven by the distresses of the present moment to destroy the future productiveness of the soil. Any rent which the landlord accepts more than this, or any system by which more rent than this is ob- tained, is to borrow money upon the most usu- rious and profligate interest — to increase the revenue of the present day by the absolute ruin of the property. Such is the effect produced by a middleman : he gives high prices that he may obtain higher from the occupier; more is paid by the actual occupier than is consistent with the safety and preservation of the machine; the land is run out, and in the end, that maximum of rent we have described is not obtained: and not only is the property injured by such a system, but in Ireland the most shocking consequences ensue from it. There is little manufacture in Ireland; the price of labour is low, the demand for labour irregular. If a poor man is driven, by distress of rent, from his potato garden, he has no other resource — all is lost: he will do the impossible (as the French say) to retain it: and subscribe any bond, and promise any rent. The middleman has no character to lose ; and he knew, when he took up the occupation, that it was one with which pity had nothing lo do. On he drives ; and backward the poor peasant re- cedes, losing something at every step, till he comes to the very brink of despair; and then he recoils and murders his oppressor, and is a White boy or a Right boy : — the soldier shoots him, and the judge hangs him. In the debate which took place in the Irish House of Commons, upon the bill for preventing^ tumultuous risings and assemblies, on the 31st of January, 1787, the attorney-general submitted to the House the following narrative of facts. N 146 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. "The commencement," said he, "was in one or two parishes in the »ounty of Kerry; and they proceeded thus. The people assembled in a Catholic chapel, and there took an oath to obey the laws of Captain Right, and to starve the clergy. They then proceeded to the next pa- rishes, on the following Sunday, and there swore the people in the same manner; with this addi- tion, that they (the people last sworn) should, on the ensuing Sunday, proceed to the chapels of their next neighbouring parishes, and swear the inhabitants of those parishes in like manner. Proceeding in this manner they very soon went through the province of Munster. The first object was the reformation of tithes. They swore not to give more than a certain price per acre; not to assist, or allow them to be assisted, in drawing the tithe, and to permit 7io prodor. They next took upon them to prevent the collec- tion of parish cesses; next to nominate parish clerks, and in some cases curates: to say what church shoulder should not be repaired; and in one case to threaten that they would burn a new church, if the old one were not given for a mass-house. At last, they proceeded to regulate the price of lands; to raise the price of labour; and to oppose the collection of the hearth money, and other taxes. Bodies of 5000 of them have been seen to march through the country un- armed, and if met by any magistrate, Ihey never offered the sinallesi rudeness or offence,- on the contrary, they had allowed persons charged with crimes to be taken from amongst them by the magistrate alone, unaided by any force." "The attorney-general said he was well ac- quainted wiih the province of Munsier, and that it was impossible for human wretchedness to exceed that of the peasantry of that province. The unhappy tenantry were ground to powder by relentless landlords; that, far from being able to give the clergy their just dues, they had net food nor raiment lor themselves — the land- lord grasped the whole; and sorry was he to add, that, not satisfied with the present extortion, some landlords had been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel rack-rents they already paid. The poor people of Munster lived in a more ab- ject state of poverty than human nature could be supposed equal to bear." — Grattan's Speeches, vol. i. 292. We are not, of course, in such a discussion, to be governed by names. A middleman might be tied up by the strongest legal restriction, as to the price he was to exact from the under- tenants, and then he would be no more perni- cious to the estate than a steward. A steward might be protected in exactions as severe as the most rapacious middleman ; and then, of course, it would be the same thing under another name. The practice to which we object is, (he too • common method in Ireland of extorting the last farthing which the tenant is willing to give for land, rather than quit it: and the machinery by which such practice is carried into efl^ect, is that of the middleman. It is not only that it ruins the land; it ruins ihe people also. They are made so poor — brought so near the ground — that they can sink no lower; and burst out at last into all the acts of desperation and revenge for which Ireland is so notorious. Men who have money in their pockets, and find that they are improving in their circumstances, don't do these things. Opulence, or the hope of opulence or comfort, is the parent of decency, order and submission to the laws. A landlord in Ireland understands the luxury of carriages and horses; but has no relish for the greater luxury of sur- rounding himself with a moral and grateful tenantry. The absent proprietor looks only to revenue, and cares nothing for the disorder and degradation of a country which he never means to visit. There are very honourable exceptions to this charge : but there are too many living in- stances that it is just. The rapacity of the Irish landlord induces him to allow of the extreme division of his lands. When the daughter mar- ries, a little portion of the little farm is broken off— another corner for Patrick, and another for Dermot — till the land is broken into sections, upon one of which an English cow could not stand. Twenty mansions of misery are thus reared instead of one. A louder cry of oppres- sion is lifted up to Heaven; and fresh enemies to the English name and power are multiplied on the earth. The Irish gentlemen, too, ex- tremely desirous of political influence, multiply freeholds and split votes; and this propensity tends of course to increase the miserable re- dundance of living beings, under which Ireland is groaning. Among the manifold wretchedness to which the poor Irish tenant is liable, we must not pass over the practice of driving for rent. A lets land to B, who lets it to C, who lets it again to D. D pays C his rent, and C pays B. But if B fails to pay A, the cattle of B, C, D are all driven to the pound, and after the interval of a few days, sold by auction. A general driving of this kind very frequently leads to a bloody insurrection. It may be ranked among the classical grievances of Ire- land. Potatoes enter for a great deal into the pre- sent condition of Ireland. They are much cheaper than wheat; and it is so easy to rear a family upon them, that there is no check to population from the difficulty of procuring food. The population, therefore, goes on with a ra- pidity approaching almost to that of new coun- tries, and in a much greater ratio than the improving agriculture and manufactures of the country can find employment for it. All degrees of all nations begin with living in pig-styes. The king or the priest first gets out of them; then the noble, then the pauper, in proportion , as each class becomes more and more opulent. ■ Better tastes arise from belter circumstances; * and the luxury of one period is the wretched- ness and poverty of another. English peasants, in the time of Henry the Seventh, were lodged as badly as Irish peasants now are; but the population was limited by the difficulty of pro- curing a corn subsistence. The improvements of this kingdom were more rapid; the price of labour rose; and, with it, the luxury and com- i fort of the peasant, who is now decently lodged | and clothed, and who would thmk himself in the last stage of wretchedness, if he had nothing but an iron pot in a turf house, and plenty of potatoes in it. The use of the potato was intro- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 14T duced into Ireland when the wretched accommo- dation of her own peasantry bore some propor- tion to the state of those accommodations ail over Europe. But they have increased their population so fast, and, in conjunction with the oppressive government of Ireland retarding im- provement, have kept the price of labour so low, that the Irish poor have never been able to emerge from their mud cabins, or to acquire any taste for cleanliness and decency of appear- ance. Mr. Curwen has the following descrip- tion of Irish cottages. "These mansions of miserable existence, for so they may truly be described, conformably to our general estimation of those indispensable comforts requisite to constitute the happiness of rational beings, are most commonly composed of two rooms on the ground floor, a most ap- propriate term, for they are literary on the earth ; the surface of which is not unfrequently reduced a foot or more, to save the expense of so much outward walling. The one is a refec- tory, the other the dormitory. The furniture of the former, if the owner ranks in the upper part of the scale of scantiness, will consist of a kitchen dresser, well provided and highly deco- rated with crockery — not less apparently the pride of the husband than the result of female vanity in the wife : which, with a table, a chest, a few stools and an iron pot, complete the cato- logue of conveniences generally found as be- longing to the cabin; while a spinning-wheel, furnished by the Linen Board, and a loom, or- nament vacant spaces, that otherwise would remain unfurnished. In fitting up the latter, which cannot, on any occasion, or by any dis- play, add a feather to the weight or importance expected to be excited by the appearance of the former, the inventory is limited to one, and sometimes two beds, serving for the repose of the whole family ! However downy these may be to limbs impatient for rest, their coverings appeared to be very slight; and the whole of the apartment created reflections of a very pain- ful nature. Under such privations, with a wet mud floor, and a roof in tatters, how idle the search for comforts!" — Curwen, I. 112, 113. To this extract we shall add one more on the same subject. "The gigantic figure, bare-headed before me, had a beard that would not have disgraced an ancient Israelite — he was without shoes or stockings — and almost a sans-culotte — with a coat or rather a jacket, that appeared as if the first blast of wind would tear it to tatters. Though his garb was thus tattered he had a manly commanding countenance. I asked per- mission to see the inside of his cabin, to which I received his most courteous assent. On stooping to enter at the door I was stopped and found that permission from another was neces- sary before I could be admitted. A pig, which was fastened to a stake driven into the floor, with length of rope sufficient to permit him the enjoyment of sun and air, demanded some cour- tesy, which I showed him. and was suffered to enter. The wife was engaged in boiling thread; and by her side, near the fire, a lovely infant was sleeping, without any covering, on a bare board. Whether the fire gave additional glow to the countenance of the babe, or that Nature impressed on its unconscious cheek ablush that the lot of man should be exposed to such pri- vations, I will not decide; but if the cause be referable to the latter, it was in perfect unison with my own feelings. Two or three other children crowded round the mother: on their rosy countenances health seemed established in spite of filth and ragged garments. The dress of the poor woman was barely sufficient to sa- tisfy decency. Her countenance bore the im- pression of a set melancholy, tinctured with an appearance of ill health. The hovel, which did not exceed twelve or fifteen feet in length and ten in breadth, was half obscured by smoke — chimney or window I saw none; the door served the various purposes of an inlet to light, and the outlet to smoke. The furniture consist- ed of two stools, an iron pot and a spinning- wheel — while a sack stuffed with straw, and a single blanket laid on planks, served as a bed for the repose of the whole family. Need I attempt to describe my sensations'! The state- ment alone cannot fail of conveying, to a mind like yours, an adequate idea of them — I could not long remain a witness to this acme of hu- man misery. As I left the deplorable habita- tion, the mistress followed me to repeat her thanks for the trifle I had bestowed. This gave me an opportunity of observing her person more particularly. She was a tall figure, her countenance composed of interesting features, and with every appearance of having once been handsome. "Unwilling to quit the village without first satisfying myself whether what I had seen was a solitary instance, or a sample of its general state; or whether the extremity of poverty I had just beheld had arisen from peculiar improvi- dence and want of management in one wretch- ed family; I went into an adjoining habitation, where I found a poor old woman of eighty, whose miserable existence was painfully con- tinued by the maintenance of her granddaugh- ter. Their condition, if possible, was more de- plorable." — Curwen, I. 181. 183. This wretchedness, of which all strangers who visit Ireland are so sensible, proceeds certainly, in great measure, from their accidental use of a food so cheap, that it encourages population to an extraordinary degree, lowers the price of labour, and leaves the multitudes which it calls into existence almost destitute of every thing but food. Many more live in consequence of the introduction of potatoes ; but all live in greater wretchedness. In the progress of population, the potato must, of course, become at last as dif- ficult to be procured as any other food ; and then let the political economist calculate what the immensity and wretchedness of a people must be where the farther progress of population is checked by the difficulty of procuring potatoes. The consequence of the long mismanagement and oppression of Ireland, and of the singular circumstances in which it is placed, is, that it is a semi-barbarous country: — more shame to those who have thus ill treated a fine country, and a fine people ; but it is part of the present case of Ireland. The barbarism of Ireland is evinced by the frequency and ferocity of duels, — the he- reditary clannish feuds of the common people, — and the fights to which they give birth, — the 148 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. atrocious cruelties practised in the insurrections of the common people — and their proneness to insurrection. The lower Irish live in a state of greater wretchedness than any other people in Europe, inhabiting so fine a soil and climate. It is difficult, often impossible, to execute the processes of law. In cases where gentlemen are concerned, it is often not even attempted. The conduct of under-sheriffs is often very cor- rupt.* We are afraid the magistracy of Ireland is very inferior to that of this country; the spirit of jobbing and bribery is very widely diffused, and upon occasions when the utmost purity pre- vails in the sister kingdom. Military force is necessary all over the countiy, and often for the most common and just operations of govern- ment. The behaviour of the higher to the lower orders is much less gentle and decent than in England. Blows from superiors to inferiors are more frequent, and the punishment for such aggression more doubtful. The -wovA. gentleman seems, in Ireland, to put an end to most pro- cesses of law. Arrest a gentleman! !!!— take out a warrant against a gentleman — are modes of operation not very common in the adminis- tration of Irish justice. If a man strikes the meanest peasant in England, he is either knock- ed down in his turn, or immediately taken before a magistrate. It is impossible to live in Ireland without perceiving the various points in which it is inferior in civilization. Want of unity in feeling and interest among the people, — irrita- bility, violence and revenge, — want of comfort and cleanliness in the lower orders, — habitual disobedience to the law, — want of confidence in magistrates, — corruption, venality, the per- petual necessity of recurring to military force, — all carry back the observer to that remote and early condition of mankind, which an English- man can learn only in the pages of the antiquary or the historian. We do not draw this picture for censure but for truth. We admire the Irish, — feel the most sincere pity for the state of Ire- land, and think the conduct of the English to that country to have been a system of atrocious cruelty and contemptible meanness. With such a climate, such a soil and such a people, the in- feriority of Ireland to the rest of Europe is di- rectly chargeable to the long wickedness of the English government. A direct consequence of the present uncivi- lized state of Ireland, is that very little English capital travels there. The man who deals in steam-engines and warps and woofs, is naturally alarmed by Peep-of-Day Boys, and nocturnal Carders ; his object is to buy and sell as quicklly and quietly as he can; and he will naturally bear high taxes and rivalry in England, or emi- grate to any part of the Continent, or to America, rather than plunge into the tumult of Irish poli- tics and passions. There is nothing which Ire- land wants more than large manufacturing towns to take off its superfluous population. But in- ternal peace must come first, and then the arts of peace will follow. The foreign manufac- turer will hardly think of embarking his capital where he cannot be sure that his existence is safe. Anothercheck to the manufacturing great- ness of Ireland, is the scarcity — not of coal — * The difficulty often is to catch the sheriff. but of good coal, cheaply raised ; an article ia which (in spite of papers in the Iri§h Transac- tions) they are lamentably inferior to the Eng- lish. Another consequence from some of the causes we have stated, is the extreme idleness of the Irish labourer. There is nothing of the value of which the Irish seem to have so little notion as that of time. They scratch, pick, dau- dle, stare, gape, and do any thing but strive and wrestle with the task before them. The most ludicrous of all human objects is an Irishman ploughing. — A gigantic figure — a seven foot machine for turning potatoes into human na- ture, wrapt up in an immense great coat, and urging on two starved ponies, with dreadful im- precations, and uplifted shillala. The Irish crow discerns a coming perquisite, and is not inatten- tive to the proceedings of the steeds. The fur- row which is to be the depository of the future crop, is not unlike, either in depth or regularity, to those domestic furrows which the nails of the meek and much-injured wife plough, in some family quarrel, upon the cheeks of the deserv- edly punished husband. The weeds seem to fall contentedly, knowing that they have ful- filled their destiny, and left behind them, for the resurrection of the ensuing spring, an abundant and healthy progeny. The whole is a scene of idleness, laziness and poverty, of which it is impossible, in this active and enterprising coun- try, to form the most distant conception; but strongly indicative of habits, whether second- ary or original, which will long present a pow- erful impediment to the improvement of Ireland. The Irish character contributes something to retard the improvements of that country. The Irishman has many good qualities : he is brave, witty, generous, eloquent, hospitable and open? hearted ; but he is vain, ostentatious, extrava- gant, and fond of display — light in counsel' — deficient in perseverance — without skill in pri- vate or public economy — an enjoyer, not an acquirer — one who despises the slow and patient virtues — who wants the superstructure without the foundation — the result without the previous operation — the oak without the acorn and the three hundred years of expectation. The Irish are irascible, prone to debt and to fight, and very impatient of the restraints of law. Such a people are not likely to keep their eyes steadily upon the main chance, like the Scotch or the Dutch. England strove very hard, at one period, to compel the Scotch to pay a double church; — but Sawney took his pen and ink; and finding what a sum it amounted to, became furious, and drew his sword. God for- bid the Irishman should do the same ! the re- medy, now, would be worse than the disease; but if the oppressions of England had been more steadily resisted a century ago, Ireland would not have been the scene of poverty, misery and distress which it now is. The Catholic religion, among other causes, contributes to the backwardness and barbarism of Ireland. Its debasing superstition, childish ceremonies, and the profound submission to the priesthood which it teaches, all tend to darken men's minds, to impede the progress of know- ledge and inquiry, and to prevent Ireland from becoming as free, as powerful, and as rich as WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 149 the sister kingdom. Though sincere friends to Catholic emancipation, we are no advocates for the Catholic religion. We should be very glad to see a general conversion to Protestantism among the Irish; but we do not think that vio- lence, privations and incapacities ar» the pro- per methods of making proselytes. Such, then, is Ireland, at this period, — a land more barbarous than the rest of Europe, because it has been worse treated and more cruelly op- pressed. Many of the incapacities and priva- tions to which the Catholics were exposed, have been removed bylaw; but, in such instances, they are still incapacitated and deprived by cus- tom. Many cruel and oppressive laws are still enforced against them. A ninth part of the population engrosses all the honours of the country; the other nine pay a tenth of the pro- duct of the earth for the support of a religion in which they do not believe. There is little capi- tal in the country. The great and rich men are called by business, or allured by pleasure, into England ; their estates are given up to fac- tors, and the utmost farthing of rent extorted from the poor, who, if they give up the land, cannot get employment in manufactures, or regular employment in husbandry. The com- mon people use a sort of food so very cheap, that they can rear families, who cannot procure employment, and who have little more of the comforts of life than food. The Irish are light- minded — want of employment has made them idle — they are irritable and brave — have a keen remembrance of the past wrongs they have suffered, and the present wrongs they are suf- fering from England. The consequence of all this is, eternal riot and insurrection, a whole army of soldiers in time of profound peace, and general rebellion whenever England is busy with other enemies, or off her guard! And thus it will be while the same causes continue to operate, for ages to come, — and worse and worse as the rapidly increasing population of the Catholics becomes more and more nume- rous. The remedies are, time and justice ; and that justice consists in repealing all laws which make any distinction between the two religions; in placing over the government of Ireland, not the stupid, amiable, and insignificant noblemen who have too often been sent there, but men who feel deeply the wrongs of Ireland, and who have an ardent wish to heal them; who will take care that Catholics, when eligible, shall be elected ;* who will share the patronage of Ire- land proportionally among the two parties, and give to just and liberal laws the same vigour of execution which has hitherto been reserved only for decrees of tyranny, and the enactments of oppression. The injustice and hardship of sup- porting two churches must be put out of sight, if it cannot or ought not to be cured. The po- litical economist, the moralist and the satirist, must combine to teach moderation and superin- tendence to the great Irish proprietors. Public talk and clamour may do something for the poor Irish, as it did for the slaves in the West Indies. Ireland will become more quiet under such • Great merit is due to the Whigs for the patronage be- stowed on Catholics. treatment, and then more rich, more comfortable, and more civilized; and the horrid spectacle of folly and tyranny which it at present exhibits, may in time be removed from the eyes of Europe. There are two eminent Irishmen now in the House of Commons, Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning, who will subscribe to the justness of every syllable we have said upon this subject; and who have it in their power, by making it the condition of their remaining in office, to liberate their native country and raise it to its just rank among the nations of the earth. Yet the court buys them over, year after year, by the pomp and perquisites of office, and year after year they come into the House of Com- mons, feeling deeply and describing powerfully, the injuries of five millions of their countrymen, — and continue members of a government that inflicts those evils, under the pitiful delusion that it is not a cabinet question, — as if the scratchings and quarrellings of kings and queens could alone cement politicians together in indissoluble unity, while the fate and fortune of one-third of the empire might be compliment- ed away from one minister to another, without the smallest breach in their cabinet alliance. Politicians, at least honest politicians, should be very flexible and accommodating in little things, very rigid and inflexible in great things. And is this not a great thing? Who has painted it in finer and more commanding eloquence than Mr. Canning? Who has taken a more sensible and statesmanlike view of our miserable and cruel policy than Lord Castlereagh? You would think, to hear them, that the same planet could not contain them and the oppressors of their country, — perhaps not the same solar system. Yet for money, claret and patronage, they lend their countenance, assistance and friendship, to the ministers who are the stern and inflexible enemies to the emancipation of Ireland ! Thank God that all is not profligacy and cor- ruption in the history of that devoted people — and that the name of Irishman does not always carry with it the idea of the oppressor or the oppressed — the plunderer or the plundered — the tyrant or the slave. Great men hallow a whole people and lift up all who live in their time. What Irishman does not feel proud that he has lived in the days of Gkattan? who has not turned to him for comfort, from the false friends and open enemies of Ireland? who did not re- , member him in the days of its burnings and v/astings and murders ? No government ever dismayed him — the world could not bribe him — he thought only of Ireland — lived for no other object — dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence. He was so born and so gifted, that poetry, forensic skill, elegant literature and all the highest at- tainments of human genius, were within his reach ; but he thought the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free ; and in that straight line he went on i for fifty years, without one side-look, without one yield- ing thought, without one motive in his heart which he might not have laid open to the view of God and man. He .is gone ! — but there is not a single day of his honest life of which every gc *d k2 160 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. IrishmaD would not be more proud, than of the I the annual deserters and betrayers of their na> whole political existence of his countrymen — | tive land. SPRING-GUNS.* [Edikbuhgh Review, 1821.] Whbn Lord Dacre (then Mr. Brand) brought into the House of Commons his bill for the amendment of the game laws, a system of greater mercy and humanity was in vain re- commended to that popular branch of the legis- lature. The interests of humanity, and the inte- rests of the lord of the manor, were not, however, opposed to each other ; nor any attempt made to deny the superior importance of the last. No such bold or alarming topics were agitated ; but it was contended that, if laws were less ferocious, there would be more partridges — if the lower orders of mankind M'cre not torn from their families and banished to Botany Bay, hares and pheasants would be increased in number, or, at least, not diminished. It is not, however, till after long experience that mankind ever think of recurring to humane expedients for effecting their objects. The rulers who ride the people never think of coaxing and petting till they have worn out the lashes of their whips, and broken the rowels of their spurs. The legislators of the trigger replied, that two laws had lately passed which would answer their purpose of preserving game: the one, an act for transport- ing men found with arms in their hands for the purposes of killing game in the night; the other, an act for rendering the buyers of the game equally guilty with the seller, and for involving both in the same penalty. Three seasons have elapsed since the last of these laws was passed ; and we appeal to the experience of all the great towns in England, whether the difficulty of pro- curing game is in the slightest degree increased 1 — whether hares, partridges and pheasants are not purchased with as much facility as before the passing this acti — whether the price of such unlawful commodities is even in the slightest degree increased] Let the Assize and Sessions' calendars bear witness, whether the law for transporting poachers has not had the most direct tendency to encourage brutal assaults and ferocious murders. There is hardly now a jail- delivery in which some gamekeeper has not murdered».a poacher — or some poacher a game- keeper. If the question concerned the payment of five pounds, a poacher would hardly risk his life rather than be taken ; but when he is to go to Botany Bay for seven years, he summons together his brother poachers — they get brave from rum, numbers and despair — and a bloody battle ensues. Another method by which it is attempted to * 77ie Shooter''$ Guide. By J. B. Johnson. ISiao. Ed- vaids and Knibb, 1819. defeat the depredations of the poacher, is by set- ting spring-guns to murder any person who comes within their reach ; and it is to this last new feature in the supposed game laws, to which, on the present occasion, we intend principally to confine our notice. We utterly disclaim all hostility to the game laws in general. Game ought to belong to those who feed it. All the landowners in England are fairly entitled to all the game in England. These laws are constructed upon a basis of substantial justice; but there is a great deal of absurdity and tyranny mingled with them, and a perpetual and vehement desire on the part of the country gentlemen to push the provisions of these laws up to the highest point of tyrannical severity. " Is it lawful to put to death by a spring-gun, or any other machine, an unqualified person trespassing upon your woods or fields in pursuit of game, and who has received due notice of your intention, and of the risk to which he is exposed?" This, we think, is stating the ques- tion as fairly as can be stated. We purposely exclude gardens, orchards and all contiguity to the dwelling-house. We exclude, also, all fe- lonious intention on the part of the deceased. The object of his expedition shall be proved to be game ; and the notice he received of his dan- ger shall be allowed to be as complete as pos- sible. It must also be part of the case, that the spring-gun was placed there for the express purpose of defending the game, by killing or wounding the poacher, or spreading terror, or doing any thing that a reasonable man ought to know would happen from such a proceeding. Suppose any gentleman were to give notice that all other persons must abstain from his manors; that he himself and his servants pa- raded the woods and fields with loaded pistols and blunderbusses, and would shoot anybody who fired at a partridge ; and suppose he were to keep his word, and shoot through the head some rash trespasser who defied this bravado, and was determined to have his sport: — Is there any doubt that he would be guilty of murder 1 We suppose no resistance on the part of the trespasser; but that, the moment he passes the line of demarcation with his dogs and gun, he is shot dead by the proprietor of the land from behind a tree. If this is not murder, what is murder T We will make the case a little belter for the homicide squire. It shall be night; the poacher, an unqualified person, steps over the line of demarcation with his nets and snares, and is instantly shot through the head by the WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 151 pistol of the proprietor. We have no doubt that this would be murder — that it ought to be considered as murder, and punished as murder. We think this so clear that it would be a waste of ticoe to argue it. There is no kind of resist- ance on the part of the deceased ; no attempt to run away; he is not even challenged: but in- stantly shot dead by the proprietor of the wood, for no other crime than the intention of killing game unlawfully. We do not suppose that any man, possessed of the elements of law and com- mon sense, would deny this to be a case of murder, let the previous notice to the deceased have been as perfect as it could be. It is true, a trespas.-!er in a park may be killed ; but then it is when he will not render himself to the keepers, upon a hue and cry to stand to the king's peace. But deer are property, game is not; and this power of slaying deer-stealers is by the 21st Edward I., de Malefadoribus in Parcis, and by 3d and 4th William & Mary, c. 10. So rioters may be killed, house-burners, ravishers, felons refusing to be arrested, felons escaping, felons breaking jail, men resisting a civil pro- cess — may all be put to death. All these cases of justifiable homicide are laid down and ad- mitted in our books. But who ever heard that to pistol a poacher was justifiable homicide 1 It has long been decided that it is unlawful to kill a dog who is pursuing game in a manor. " To decide the contrary," says Lord Ellenborough, "would outrage reason and sense." (Vere u. Lord Cawdor and King, 11 East, 368.) Pointers have always been treated by the legislature with great delicacy and consideration. To " wish to be a dog and to bay the moon" is not quite so mad a wish as the poet thought it. If these things are so, what is the difference between the act of firing yourself, and placing an engine which does the same thingl In the one case your hand pulls the trigger; in the other, it places the wire which communicates with the trigger, and causes the death of the trespasser. There is the same intention of slay- ing in both cases — there is precisely the same human agency in both cases ; only the steps are rather more numerous in the latter case. As to the bad eifects of allowing proprietors of game to put trespassers to death at once, or to set guns that will do it, we can have no hesitation in saying, that the first method, of giving the power of life and death to esquires, would be by far the most humane. For, as we have ob- served in a previous Essay on the Game Laws, a !ive armigeral spring-gun would distinguish an accidental trespasser from a real poacher — a woman or a boy from a man — perhaps might spare a friend or an acquaintance — or a father of a family with ten children — or a small free- holder who voted for administration. But this new rural artillery must destroy, without mercy and selection, every one who approaches it. In the case of Hot versus Wilks, Esq., the four judges. Abbot, Bailey, Holroyd and Best, gave their opinions serj'a/jVw on points connected with this question. In this case, as reported in Chet- wynd's edition of Burn's Justice, 1820, vol. ii. p. 500, Abbot, C. J. observes as follows : — "I cannot say that repeated and increasing acts of aggression may not reasonably call for increased means of defence and protection. I believe that many of the persons who cause en- gines of this description to be placed in their grounds, do not do so with an intention to injure any person, but really believe that the publica- tion of notices will prevent any person from sustaining an injury: and that no person having the notice given him, will be weak and foolish enough to expose himself to the perilous conse- quences of his trespass. Many persons who place such engines in their grounds, do so for the purpose of preventing, by means of terror, injury to their property, rather than from any motive of doing malicious injury." " Increased means of defence and protection," but increased (his lordship should remember) from the payment of five pounds to instant death — and instant death inflicted, not by the arm of law, but by the arm of the proprietor; — could the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in- tend to say, that the impossibility of putting an end to poaching by other means would justify the infliction of death upon the offender? Is he so ignorant of the philosophy of punishing, as to imagine he has nothing to do but to give ten stripes instead of two, an hundred instead of ten, and a thousand, if an hundred will not doT to substitute the prison for pecuniary fines, and the gallows instead of the jail 1 It is impossible so enlightened a judge can forget, that the sym- pathies of mankind must be consulted; that it would be wrong to break a person upon the wheel for stealing a penny loaf, and that grada- tions in punishments must be carefully accom- modated to gradations in crime; that if poaching is punished more than mankind in general think it ought to be punished, the fault will either es- cape with impunity, or the delinquent be driven to desperation ; that if poaching and murder are punished equally, every poacher will be an as- sassin. Besides, too, if the principle is right in the unlimited and unqualified manner in which the chief justice puts it — if defence goes on in- creasing with aggression, the legislature at least must determine upon their equal pace. If an act of Parliament made it a capital offence to poach upon a manor, as it is to commit a bur- glary in a dwelling-house, it might then be as lawful to shoot a person for trespassing upon your manor as it is to kill a thief for breaking into your house. But the real question is — and so in sound reasoning his lordship should have put it — "If the law at this moment determines the aggression to be in such a state that it merits only a pecuniary fine after summons and proof, has any sporadic squire the right to say, that it shall be punished with death, before any sum- mons and without any proof]" It appears to us, too, very singular to say that many persons who cause engines of this description to be placed in their ground, do not do so with an intention of injuring any person, but really believe that the publication of notices will prevent any person from sustaining an injury, and that no person, having the notice given him, will be weak and foolish enough to expose himself to the perilous consequences of his trespass. But if this is the real belief of the engineer — if he thinks the mere notice will keep people away — then he must think it a mere inutility that the guns should be placed at all ; if he thinks that many will be deterred* 152 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. and a few come, then he must mean to shoot those few. He who believes his gun will never be called upon to do its duty, need set no gun, and trust to rumour of their being set, or being loaded for his protection. Against the gun and the powder we have no complaint ; they are perfectly fair and admissible : our quarrel is with the bullets. He who sets a loaded gun, means that it should go off if it is touched. But what signifies the mere empty wish that there may be no mischief, when I perform an action which my common sense tells me may produce the worst mischief? If I hear a great noise in the street, and fire a bullet to keep people quiet, I may not, perhaps, have intended to kill; I may have wished to have produced quiet by mere terror, and I may have expressed a strong hope that my object has been effected without the destruction of human life. Still I have done that which every man of sound in- tellect knows is likely to kill; and if any one falls from my act, I am guilty of murder. — "Further," (says Lord Coke,) "if there be an evil intent, though that intent extendeth not to death, it is murder. Thus, if a man, knowing that many people are in the street, throw a stone over the wall, intending only to frighten them, or to give them a little hurt, and there- upon one is killed — this is murder — for he had an ill intent; though that intent extended not to death, and though he knew not the party slain." (3 Inst. .57.) If a man is not mad, he must be presumed to foresee common consequences if he puts a bullet into a spring gun — he may be supposed to foresee that it will kill any poacher who touches the wire — and to that consequence he must stand. We do not suppose all pre- servers of game to be so bloodily inclined that they would prefer the death of a poacher to his staying away. Their object is to preserve game; they have no objection to preserve the lives of their fellow-creatures, also, if both can exist at the same time ; if not, the least worthy of God's creatures must fall — the rustic without a soul — not the Christian partridge — not the immortal pheasant — not the rational woodcock, or the accountable hare. The chief justice quotes the instance of glass and spikes fixed upon walls. He cannot mean to infer from this, because the law con- nives at the infliction of such small punish- ments for the protection of property, that it does allow, or ought to allow, proprietors to proceed to the punishment of death. Small means of annoying trespassers may be con- sistently admitted by the law, though more severe ones are forbidden, and ought to be for- bidden; unless it follows, that what is good in any degree, is good in the highest degree. You may correct a servant boy with a switch; but if you bruise him sorely, you are to be indicted — if you kill him, you are hanged. A black- smith corrected his servant with a bar of iron ; the boy died, and the blacksmith was executed. (Grey's Case, Kel. 64, 65.) A woman kicked and stamped on the belly of her child — she was found guilty of murder. (1 East, P. C. 261.) Si immoderate suo jure utatur, tunc reus homicidii sit. There is, besides, this additional has condemned to Hard Labour as a Punishment, by allowing them to spend a Portion of their Earnings during their Imprisonment. By George Holford, Esq. M. P. Riv- ington. 1821. 2. Gurney on Prisons. Constable and Co. 1819. 3. Report of Society for bettering the Condition of Prisons. Bensley. 1820. t Report of Prison Society, xiv. to another : but the advocates of prison improve- ment are men in earnest — not playing at reli- gion, but of deep feeling, and of indefatigable industry in charitable pursuits. Mr. Buxton went in company with men of the most irre- proachable veracity; and found, in the heart of the metropolis, and in a prison of which the very Turkey carpet alderman was an oflScial visitor, scenes of horror, filth and cruelty, which would have disgraced even the interior of a slave-ship. This dislike of innovation proceeds sometimes from the disgust excited by false humanity, cant- ing hypocrisy, and silly enthusiasm. It pro- ceeds, also, from a stupid and indiscriminate horror of change, whether of evil for good, or good for evil. There is also much party spirit in these matters. A good deal of these humane projects and institulions originates from Dis- senters. The plunderers of the public, the job- bers, and those who sell themselves to some great man, who sells himself to a greater, all scent from afar the danger of political change — are sensible that the correction of one abuse may lead to that of another — feel uneasy at any visi- ble operation of public spirit and justice — hate and tremble at a man who exposes and rectifies abuses from a sense of duty — and think, if such things are sufiered to be, that their candle-ends and cheese-parings are no longer safe : and these sagacious persons, it must be said for them, are not very wrong in this feeling. Providence, which has denied to them all that is great and good, has given them a fine tact for the pre- servation of their plunder: their real enemy is the spirit of inquiry — the dislike of wrong — the love of right — and the courage and diligence which are the concomitants of these virtues. When once this spirit is up, it may be as well directed to one abuse as another. To say you must not torture a prisoner with bad air and bad food, and to say you must not tax me with out my consent or that of my representative, are both emanations of the same principle, occur ring to the samesortof understanding, congenial to the same disposition, published, protected and enforced by the same qualities. This it is that really excites the horror against Mrs. Fry, Mr. Gurney, Mr. Bennet, and Mr. Buxton. Alarmists such as we have described have no particular wish that prisons should be dirty, jailers cruel, or prisoners wretched; they care little about such matters either way ; but all their malice and meanness are called up into action when they see secrets brought to light, and abuses giving way before the diffusion of intel- ligence, and the aroused feelings of justice and compassion. As for us, we have neither love of change, nor fear of it; but a love of what is just and wise, as far as we are able to find it out. In this spirit we shall ofller a few observa- Ib6 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tions upon prisons, and upon the publications before us. The new law should keep up the distinction between jails and houses of correction. One of each should exist in every country, either at a distance from each other, or in such a state of juxtaposition that they might be under the same governor. To the jail should be committed all persons accused of capital offences, whose trials would come on at the assizes ; to the house of correction, all offenders whose cases would be cognizable at the Quarter Sessions. Sen- tence of imprisonment in the house of cor- rection, after trial, should carry with it hard labour; sentence of imprisonment in the jail, after trial, should imply an exemption from compulsory labour. There should be no com- pulsory labour in jails — only in houses of cor- rection. In using the terms Jail and House of Correction, we shall always attend to these dis- tinctions. Prisoners for trial should not only not be compelled to labour, but they should have every indulgence shown to them compatible ■with safety. No chains — much better diet than they commonly have — all possible access to their friends and relations — and means of earn- ing money if they choose it. The broad and obvious distinction between prisoners before and after trial should constantly be attended to; to violate it is gross tyranny and cruelty. The jails for men and women should be so far separated, that nothing could be seen or heard from one to the other. The men should be divided into two classes: \st, those who are not yet tried; 2rf, those who are tried and con- victed. The first class should be divided into those who are accused as misdemeanants and as felons; and each of these into first tnisde- meanants and second misdemeanants, men of better and worse character; and the same with felons. The second class should be divided into, \st, persons condemned to death; 2c?/y, per- sons condemned for transportation ; Zdly, first class of confined, or men of the best character under sentence of confinement; Uhly, second confined, or men of worse character under sen- tence of confinement. To these are to be added separate places for king's evidence, boys, luna- tics, and places for the first reception of prison- ers, before they can be examined and classed: — a chapel, hospital, yards and workshops for such as are willing to work. The classifications in jails will then be as follows : — Men before Trial. Men after Trial, \st Misdemeanants. Sentenced to death. 2c? Ditto. Ditto transportation. \st Felons. Ist Confined. 2rf Ditto. 2d Confined. Other Divisions in a Jail. King's Evidence. Criminal Lunatics. Boys. Prisoners on their first reception. And the same divisions for Women. But there is a division still more important than any of these ; and that is, a division into much smaller numbers than are gathered to- gether in prisons : — 40, 50 and even 70 and 80 felons, are often placed together in one yard and live together for months previous to their trial Any classification of offences, while there is such a multitude living together of one class, is perfectly nugatory and ridiculous ; no character can escape from corruption and extreme vice in such a school. The law ought to be peremp- tory against the confinement of more than fifteen persons together of the same class. Unless some measure of this kind is resorted to, all re- formation in prisons is impossible.* A very great, and a very neglected object in prisons, is diet. There should be, in every jail and house of correction, four sorts of diet; — 1st, Bread and water ; 2dly, Common prison diet, to be settled by the magistrates ; 3dlt/, Best prison diet, to be settled by ditto ; 4ihly, Free diet, from which spirituous liquors altogether and fer- mented liquors in excess, are excluded. All prisoners, before trial, should be allowed best prison diet and be upon free diet if they could afford it. Every sentence for imprisonment should expressly mention to which diet the pri- soner is confined; and no other diet should be, on any account, allowed to such prisoner after his sentence. Nothing can be so preposterous and criminally careless as the way in which per- sons confined upon sentence are suffered to live in prison. Misdemeanants, who have money in their pockets, may be seen in many of our prisons with fish, buttered veal, rump steaks and every other kind of luxury; and as the practice prevails of allowing them to purchase a pint of ale each, the rich prisoner purchases many pints of ale in the name of his poorer brethren and drinks them himself. A jail should be a place of punishment, from which men re- coil with horror — a place of real suffering, pain- ful to the memory, terrible to the imagination; but if men can live idly, and live luxuriously, in a clean, well-aired, well-warmed, spacious habitation, is it any wonder that they set the law at defiance, and brave that magistrate who restores them to their former luxury and easel ' There are a set of men well known to jailers, called Familymen, who are constantly returning to jail, and who may be said to spend the greater part of their life there,— up to the time when they are hanged. Minutes of Evidence taken before Select Com- mittee on Gaols "Mr. WiiLiAM Beebt, Keeper of the New Clerkenwell Prison. — Have you many prisoners that return to you on re-commitment'? A vast number; some of them are frequently dis- charged in the morning and I have them back again in the evening; or they have been dis- charged in the evening, and I have had them back in the morning." — Evidence before the Com- mittee of the House of Commons in 1819, p. 278. " Francis Const, Esq., Chairman of the Mid- dlesex Quarter-sessions. — Has that opinion been confirmed by any conduct you have observed in prisoners that have come before you for trial? I only judge from the opposite thing, that, going into a place where they can be idle, and well protected from any inconveniences of the weather and other things that poverty is open * We should much prefer solitary imprisonment; but are at present speaking of the regulations in jails where that system is excluded. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 157 to, they are not amended at all ; they laugh at it frequently, and desire to go to the house of cor- rection. Once or twice, in the early part of the winter, upon sending a prisoner for two months, he has asked whether he could not stay longer, or words to that effect. It is an insulting way of saying they like it."— Evidence before the Com- mittee of the House of Commons in 1819, p. 285. The fact is, that a thief is a very dainty gen- tleman. Male porta cito dilabuntur. He does not rob to lead a life of mortification and self- denial. The difficulty of controlling his appe- tites, in all probability, first led him to expenses, which made him a thief to support them. Hav- ing lost character and become desperate, he orders crab and lobster and veal cutlets at a public house, while a poor labourer is refresh- ing himself with bread and cheese. The most vulnerable part of a thief is his belly; and there is nothing he feels more bitterly in confinement than a long course of water-gruel and flour- puddings. It is a mere mockery of punishment to say, that such a man shall spend his money in luxurious viands, and sit down to dinner with fetters on his feet, and fried pork in his stomach. Restriction to diet in prisons is still more necessary, when it is remembered that it is im- possible to avoid making a prison, in some respects, more eligible than the home of a cul- prit. It is almost always more spacious, cleaner, better ventilated, better warmed. All these ad- \'antages are inevitable on the side of the prison. The means, therefore, that remain of making a prison a disagreeable place, are not to be ne- glected ; and of these, none are more powerful ihan the regulation of diet. If this is neglected, the meaning of sentencing a man to prison will be this — and it had better be put in these words — " Prisoner at the bar, you are fairly convicted, by a jury of your country, of having feloniously stolen two pigs, the property of Stephen Muck, farmer. The court having taken into conside- ration the frequency and enormity of this of- fence, and the necessity of restraining it with the utmost severity of punishment, do order and adjudge that you be confined for six months in a house larger, better aired, and warmer than your own, in company with 20 or 30 young per- sons in as good health and spirits as yourself. You need do no work, and you may have any thing for breakfast, dinner and supper, you can buy. In passing this sentence, the court hope that your example will be a warning to others ; and that evil-disposed persons will perceive, from your suflering, that the laws of their country are not to be broken with impunity." As the diet, according to our plan, is always to be a part of the sentence, a judge will, of course, consider the nature of the offence for which the prisoner is committed, as well as the quality of the prisoner: and we have before stated, that al! prisoners, before trial, should be upon the best prison diet, and unrestricted as to what they could purchase, always avoiding in- temperance. These gradations of diet being fixed in all prisons, and these definitions of Jail and House of Correction being adhered to, the punishment of imprisonment may be apportioned with the greatest nicety, either by the statute, or at the discretion of the judge, if the law chooses to give him that discretion. There will be-— Imprisonment for different degrees of time. Imprisonment solitary, or in company, or in darkness. In jails without labour. In houses of correction with labour. Imprisonment with diet on bread and water. Imprisonment with common prison diet. Imprisonment with best prison diet. Imprisonment with free diet. Every sentence of the judge should state diet, as well as light or darkness, time, place, solitude, society, labour or ease ; and we are strongly of opinion, that the punishment in prisons should be sharp and short. We would, in most cases, give as much of solitary confinement as would not injure men's minds, and as much of bread and water diet as would not injure their bodies. A return to prison should be contemplated with horror — horror, not excited by the ancient filth, disease and extortion of jails; but by calm, well-regulated, well-watched austerity—by the gloom and sadness wisely and intentionally thrown over such an abode. Six weeks of such sort of imprisonment would be niuch more efficacious than as many months of jolly company and veal cutlets. It appears, by the Times newspaper of the 24th of June, 1821, that two persons, a man and his wife, were committed at the Surrey Sessions for three years. If this county jail is bad, to three years of idleness and good living — if it is a manufacturing jail, to three years of regular labour, moderate living and accumulated gains. They are committed principally for a warning to others, partly for their own good. Would not these ends have been much more effectually answered, if they had been committed for nine months, to solitary cells upon bread and water; the first and last month in dark cells 1 If this is too severe, then lessen the duration still more, and give them more light days and fewer dark ones; but we are convinced the whole good sought may be better obtained in much shorter periods than are now resorted to. For the purpose of making jails disagreeable, the prisoners should remain perfectly alone all night, if it is not thought proper to render their confinement entirely solitary during the whole period of their imprisonment. Prisoners dis- like this— and therefore it should be done; it would make their residence in jails more dis- agreeable, and render them unwilling to return there. At present, eight or ten women sleep in a room with a good fire, pass the night in sound sleep or pleasant conversation ; and this is called confinement in a prison. A prison is a place where men, alter trial and sentence, should be made unhappy by public lawful enact- ments, not so severe as to injure the soundness of mind or body. If this is not done, prisons are a mere invitation to the lower classes to wade through felony and larceny to better ac- commodations than they can procure at home. And here, as it appears to us» is the mistake of the many excellent men who busy themselves (and wisely and humanely busy themselves) about prisons. Their first object seems to be the reformation of the prisoners, not the refor- mation of the public; whereas the first object 158 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. should be, the discomfort and discontent of their prisoners; that they should become a warning, feel unhappy, and resolve never to act so again as to put themselves in the same predicament; and then as much reformation as is compatible with this the better. If a man says to himself, this prison is a comfortable place, while he says to the chaplain or the visitor that he will come there no more, we confess we have no great confidence in his public declaration; but if he says "this is a place of misery and sorrow, you shall not catch me here again," there is much "reason to believe he will be as good as his word; and he then becomes (which is of much more consequence than his own reformation) a warning to others. Hence it is we object to that spectacle of order and decorum — carpen- ters in one shop, tailors in another, weavers in a third, sitting down to a meal by ring of bell, and receiving a regular portion of their earnings. We are afraid it is better than real life on the other side of the wall, or so very little worse that nobody will have any fear to encounter it. In Bury jail, which is considered as a pattern jail, the prisoners under a sentence of confine- ment are allowed to spend their weekly earnings (two, three, and four shillings per week) in fish, tobacco and vegetables ; so states the jailer in his examination before the House of Commons — and we have no doubt it is well meant; but is it punishment 1 We were most struck, in reading the evidence of the jail committee be- fore (he House of Commons, with the opinions of the jailer of the Devizes jail, and with the prac- tice of the magistrates who superintend it.* "Mr. T. Bhutton, Governor of the Gaol at Devizes. — Does this confinement in solitude make prisoners more averse to return to pri- son ? I think it does. — Does it make a strong impression upon them ? I have no doubt of it. — Does it make them more obedient and orderly while in gaol? I have no doubt it does. — Do you consider it the most effectual punishment you can make use of 1 I do.— Do you think it has a greater effect upon the minds of prisoners than any apprehensions of personal punishment? I have no doubt of it.— Ha ve you any dark cells for the punishment of refractory prisoners 1 I have. — Do you find it necessary occasionally to use them? Very seldom. — Have you, in any in- stance, been obliged to use the dark cell, in the case of the same prisoner twice ? Only on one occasion, I think.— What length of time is it necessary to confine a refractory prisoner to bring him to his senses? Less than one day.— Do you think it essential, for the purpose of keeping up the discipline of the prison, that you should have it in your power to have recourse to the punishment of dark cells ? I do ; I con- sider punishment in a dark cell for one day, has a greater effect upon a prisoner than to keep him on bread and water for a month." — Evi- dence before the Committee of the House of Com- mons in 1819, p. 359. The evidence of the governor of Gloucester jail is to the same effect. " Mr. Tuo.HAs CnNNiifGHAM, Keeper ofGhuces- ier Gaol. — Do you attribute the want of those * The Winchester' and Devizes jails seem lo us to be conducted upon better principles than any other, though even these are by no means what jails should be certificates entirely to the neglect of enforcing the means of solitary confinement? I do most certainly. Sometimes, where a certificate has not been granted, and a prisoner has brought a certificate of good behaviour for one year, Sir George and thfe committee ordered one pound or a guinea from the charity. — Does that arise from your apprehension that the prisoners have not been equally reformed, or only from the want of the means of ascertaining such refor- mation? It is for want of not knowing; and we cannot ascertain it, from their working in numbers. — They may be reformed? Yes, but we have not the means of ascertaining it. There is one thing I do which is not provided for by the rules, and which is the only thing in which I deviate from the rules. When a man is com- mitted for a month, I never give him any work; he sits in solitude, and walks in the yard by him- self for air; he has no other food but his bread and water, except twice a week a pint of peas soup. I never knew an instance of a man com- ing in a second time who had been committed for a month. I have done that for these seventeen or eighteen years. — What has been the result? They dread so much coming in again. If a man is committed for six weeks we give him work. Do you apprehend that solitary confinement for a month, without employment, is the most bene- ficial means of working reform? I conceive it is. — Can it operate as the means of reform, any more than it operates as a system of punish- ment ? It is only for small offences they com- mit for a month. — Would not the same effect be produced by corporeal punishment? Corporeal punishment may be absolutely necessary some- times; but I do not think corporeal punishment would reform them so much as solitary confine- ment. — Would not severe corporeal punishment have the same effect? No, it would harden them more than any thing else. — Do you think benefit is derived from the opportunity of reflec- tion afforded by solitary confinement? Yes. — And very low diet also? Yes." — Evidence he- fore the Committee of the House of Commons in 1819, p. 391. We must quote, also, the evidence of the go- vernor of Horsley jail. "Mr. William Stokes, Governor of the House of Correction at Horsley. — Do you observe any difference m the conduct of prisoners who are employed, and those who have no employment? Yes, a good deal; I look uponit,from what judg- ment I can form, and I have been a long while in it, that to take a prisoner and discipline him according to the rules as the law allows, and if he have no work, that that man goes through more punishment in one month than a man who is employed and receives a portion of his labour three months ; but still I should like to have em- ployment, because a great number of times I took men away, who have been in the habit of earning sixpence a week to buy a loaf, and put them in solitary confinement; and the punish- ment is a great deal more without work. — Which of the prisoners, those that have been employed, or those unemployed, do you think would go out of the prison the better men ? I think, that let me have a prisoner, and I never treat any one with severity, any further than that they should be obedient, and to let them see that I will do WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 159 my duty, I have reason to believe, that, if a pri- soner is committed under my,care, or any other man's care, to a house of correction, and he has to go under the discipline of the law, if he is in for the value of a month or six weeks, that man is in a great deal better state than though he stays for six months ; he gets hardened by being in so long, from one month to another. — You are speaking now of solitude without labour ; do you think he would go out better, if he had been em- ployed during the month you speak of? No, nor half; because I never task those people, in order that they should not say I force them to do more than they are able, that they should not slight it; for if they perform any thing in the bounds of reason, I never find fault with them. The prisoner who is employed, his time passes smooth and comfortable, and he has a propor- tion of his earnings, and he can buy additional diet ; but if he has no labour, and kept under the discipline of the prison, it is a tight piece of punishment to go through. — Which of the two should you think most likely to return immedi- ately to habits of labour on their own accounts The dispositions of all men are not alike; but my opinion is this, if they are kept and disci- plined according to the rules of the prison, and have no labour, that one month will do more than six; I am certain, that a man who is kept there without labour once, will not be very ready 10 come there again." — Evidence before the Com- mittee of the House of Commons, pp. 398, 399. Mr. Gurney and Mr. Buxton both lay a great stress upon the quiet and content of prisoners, upon their subordination and the absence of all plans of escape; but, where the happiness of prisoners is so much consulted, we should be much more apprehensive of a conspiracy to break into, than to break out of, prison. The mob outside may, indeed, envy the wicked ones ■within ; but the felon who has left, perhaps, a scolding wife, a battered cottage, and six starving children, has no disposition to escape from regularity, sufficient food, employment which saves him money, warmth, ventilation, cleanliness and civil treatment. These symp- toms, upon which these respectable and excel- lent men lay so much stress, are by no means proofs to us that prisons are placed upon the best possible footing. The governor of Bury jail, as well as Mr. Gurney, insist much upon the few prisoners who return to the jail a second time, the manu- facturing skill which they acquire there, and the complete reformation of manners for which the prisoner has afterwards thanked him the go- vernor. But this is not the real criterion of the excellence of a jail, nor the principal reason why jails were instituted. The great point is, ■not the average recurrence of the same prison- ers, but the paucity or frequency of commit- ments, upon the whole. You may make a jail such an admirable place of education, that it may cease to be infamous to go there. Mr. Holford tells us (and a very curious anecdote it is,) that parents actually accuse their children falsely of crimes, in order to get them into the Philanthropic Charity ! and that it is conse- quently a rule with the governors of that cha- rity never to receive a child upon the accusa- tion of the parents alone. But it is quite obvious what the next step will be, if the parents cannot get their children in by fibbing. They will take good care that the child is really qualified for the Philanthropic, by impelling him to those crimes which are the passport to so good an education. "If, on the contrary, the offender is to be pun- ished simply by being placed in a prison, where he is to be well lodged, well clothed, and well fed, to be instructed in reading and writing, to receive a moral and religious education, and to be brought up to a trade ; and if this prison is to be within the reach of the parents, so that they may occasionally visit their child, and have the satisfaction of knowing, from time to time, that all these advantages are conferred upofi him, and that he is exposed to no hardships, although the confinement and the discipline of the prison may be irksome to the boy ; yet the parents may be apt lo congratulate themselves on having got him off their hands into such a good berth, and maybe considered by other parents as hav- ing drawn a prize in the lottery of human life by their son's conviction. This reasoning is not theoretical, but is founded in some degree upon experience. Those who have been in the habit of attending the committee of the Philanthropic Society know, that parents have often accused their children of crimes falsely, or have exag- gerated their real offences, for the sake of induc- ing thai society to take them; and so frequent has been this practice, that it is a rule with those who manage that institution, never to receive an object upon the representation of its parents, unless supported by other strong testi- mony." — Holford, pp. 44, 4.5. It is quite obvious that, if men were to appear again, six months after they were hanged, hand- somer, richer, and more plump than before exe- cution, the gallows would cease to be an object of terror. But here are men who come out of jail, and say, ' Look at us, — we can read and write, we can make baskets and shoes, and we went in ignorant of every thing: and we have learnt to do without strong liquors, and have no longer any objection to work; and we did work in the jail, and have saved money, and here it is." What isthere.of terror and detriment in all this? and how are crimes to be lessened if they are thus rewarded ? Of schools there cannot be too many. Penitentiaries, in the hands of wise men, may be rendered excellent institutions; but a prison must be a prison — a place of sor- row and wailing; which should be entered with horror, and quitted with earnest resolution never to return to such misery; with that deep impres- sion, in short, of the evil which breaks out into perpetual warning and exhortation to others. This great point efiected, all other reformation must do the greatest good. There are some very sensible observations upon this point in Mr. Holford's book, who upon the whole has, we think, best treated the sub- ject of prisons, and best understands them. "In former limes, men were deterred from pursuing the road that led to a prison, by the ap- prehension of encountering there disease and hunger, of being loaded with heavy irons, and of remaining without clothes to cover tliem, or abed to lie on; we have done no more than what justice required in relieving the inmates of a prison from these hardships; but there is 160 WORKS OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH. no reason ihat they should be freed from the fear of all other sufferings and privations. And I hope that those whose duty it is to take up the consideration of these subjects, will see, that in penitentiaries, offenders should be subjected to separate confinement, accompanied by such work as may be found consistent with that sys- tem of imprisonment ; that in jails or houses of correction, they should perform that kind of la- bour which the law has enjoined; and that in prisons of both descriptions, instead of being allowed to cater for themselves, they should be sustained by such food as the rules and regula- tions of the establishment should have provided for thetn ; in short, that prisons should be con- sidered as places of punishment, and not as scenes of cheerful industry, where a compro- mise must be made with the prisoner's appetite to make him do the common work of a journey- man or manufacturer, and the labours of the spinning-wheel and the loom must be alleviated by indulgence."* This is good sound sense; and it is a pity that it is preceded by the usual nonsense about " the tide of blasphemy and sedition." If Mr. Hol- ford is an observer of tides and currents, whence comes it that he observes only those which set one way] Whence comes it that he says no- thing of the tides of canting and hypocrisy which are flowing with such rapidity? — of abject political baseness and sycophancy — of the dis- position so prevalent among Englishmen, to sell their conscience and their country to the Mar- quis of Londonderry for a living for the second * " That I am guilty of no exaggeration in thus describ- ing a prison conducted upon the principles now coming into fashion, will be evideiU to any person who will turn to the latter part of the article, ' Penitentiary. MiUbank,' in Mr. Buxton's Book on Prisons. He there states what passed in conversation between himself and the gover- nor of Bury jail, (whiclijail, by the bye, he praises as one of the three be.st prisons he has ever seen, and strongly recommends to our imitation at MiUbank.) Having ob- served that the governor of Bury jail had mentioned his having coumed 34 spinning-wheels in full activity when he left that jail at 5 o'clock in the morning on the preced- ing da)', Mr. Buxton proceeds as follows : — ' After he had seen the MiUbank Penitentiary, I asked him wh.at would be the consequence, if the regulations there used were adopted by him ?' ' The consequence would be,' ho replied, ' that every wheel would be stopped.' Mr. Buxton tlien adds, ' I would not be considered as supposing that the prisoners will altogether refuse to work at MiUbank — they will work durmg the stated hours; but the present incentive being wanting, the labour will, I apprehend, be languid and desultory.' I shall not, on my part, under- take to say that they will do as nuich work as will be done in those prisons in which work is the primary ob- ject; but, besides the encouragement of the portion of earnings laid up for them, they know that diligence is among the qualities that will recommend them to the mer- cy of the crown, and that ihewantof it is, by the rules and regfulations of the prison, an offence to be punished. The governor of Bury jail, who is a very intelligent man, must have spoken hastily, in his eagerness to support his own system, and did not, I conceive, give himself credit for as much power and authority in his prison as he really possesses. It is not to be wondered at, that the keepers of prisons should like the new system: there is less trouble in the care of a manufactory than in that of a jail ; but I am surprised to find that so much reliance is placed in argument on the declaration of some of these officers, that the prisoners are quieter where their work is encouraged, by allowing them to spend a portion of tlieir earnings. It may naturally be e.xpected. that offenders will be least discontented, and consequently least turbulent, where their punishment is lightest, or where, to use Mr. Buxton's own words, ' by making labour productive of comfort or convenience, you do much towards rendering it agreeable ;' bin I must 1)e per- mitted to doubt, whether these are the prisons of which men will live inmost dread." — Hol/ord, pp. 78 — 80. son — or a silk gown for the nephew — or for a frigate for my brother the captain 1 How comes- our loyal careerist to forget all these sorts of tides'? There is a great confusion, as the law now stands, in the government of jails. The justice!* are empowered, by several statutes, to make subordinate regulations for the government of the jails ; and the sheriff supersedes those regu- k lations. Their respective jurisdictions and: I powers should be clearly arranged. The female prisoners should be under the care of a matron, with proper assistants. Where this is not the case, the female part of the prison is often a mere brothel for the turnkeys. Can any thing be so repugnant to all ideas of re- formation, as a male turnkey visiting a solitary female prisoner 1 Surely, women can take care of women as effectually as men can take care of men ; or, at least, women can do so properly assisted by men. This want of a matron is a very scandalous and immoral neglect in any prison system. The presence of female visitors, and instruc- tors for the women, is so obviously advantageous and proper, that the offer of forming such an institution must be gladly and thankfully re- ceived by any body of magistrates. That they should feel any jealousy of such interference is too absurd a supposition to be made or agreed upon. Such interference may not effect all that zealous people suppose it will effect; but, if it does any good, it had better be. Irons should never be put upon prisoners before trial; after trial, we cannot object to the humiliation and disgrace which irons and a parti-coloured prison dress occasion. Let them be a part of solitary confinement, and let the words "Solitary Confinement," in the sentence, imply permission to use them. The judge then knows what he inflicts. We object to the office of prison inspector, for reasons so very obvious, that it is scarcely neces- sary to enuinerale them. The prison inspector would, of course, have a good salary ; that, in England, is never omitted. It is equally matter of course that he would be taken from among treasury retainers ; and that he never would look at a prison. Every sort of attention should be paid to the religious instruction of these unhappy people; but the poor chaplain should be paid a little better; — every possible duty is expected from him — and he has one hundred per annum. Whatever money is given to prisoners, should be lodged with the governor for their benefit, to be applied as the visiting magistrates point out — no other donations should be allowed or ac- cepted. If voluntary work before trial, or compulsory work after trial, is the system of a prison, there should be a task-master; and it should be re- membered, that the principal object is not profit. Wardsmen, selected in each yard among the best of the prisoners, are very serviceable. If prisoners work, theyshould work in silence. At all times, the restrictions upon seeing friends should be very severe; and no food should be sent from friends. Our general system then is — that a prison should be a place of real punishment; but of known, enacted, measurable and measure WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 161 punishment A prisoner (not for assault, or refusing to pay parish dues, but a bad felonious prisoner), should pass a part of his three months in complete darkness ; the rest in complete soli- tude, perhaps in complete idleness, (for solitary idleness leads to repentance, idleness in com- pany to vice.) He should be exempted from cold, be kept perfectly clean, have sufficient food to prevent hunger or illness, wear the prison dress and moderate irons, have no com- munication with any body but the officers of the prison and the magistrates, and remain otherwise in the most perfect solitude. We strongly suspect this is the way in which a bad man is to be made afraid of prisons ; nor do we think that he would be less inclined to receive moral and religious instruction than any one of seven or eight carpenters in jail, working at a common bench, receiving a part of their earn- ings, and allowed to purchase with them the delicacies of the season. If this system is not resorted to, the next best system is severe work, ordinary diet, no indulgences, and as much seclusion and solitude as are compatible with work; — always remarking, that perfect sanity of mind and body are to be preserved. To this system of severity in jails there is but one objection. The present duration of punishments was calculated for prisons con- ducted upon very different principles ; — and if the discipline of prisons was rendered nwre strict, we are not sure that the duration of imprison- ment would be practically shortened ; and the punishments would then be quite atrocious and disproportioned. There is a very great disposi- tion, both in judges and magistrates, to increase the duration of imprisonment; and, if that is done, it will be dreadful cruelty to increase the bitterness as well as the time. We should think, for instance, six months' solitary imprisonment to be a punishment of dreadful severity; but we find, from the House of Commons' report, that prisoners are sometimes committed by county magistrates for two years* of solitary confinement. And so it may be doubted, whe- ther it is not better to wrap up the rod in flannel, and make it a plaything, as it really now is, than to show how it may be wielded with effectual severity. For the pupil, instead of giving one or two stripes, will whip his patient to death. — But if this abuse were guarded against, the real way to improve would be, now we have made prisons healthy and airy, to make them odious and austere — engines of punishment and ob- jects of terror. In this age of charity and of prison improve- ment, there is one aid to prisoners which appears to be wholly overlooked ; and that is, the means of regulating their defence, and providing them witnesses for their trial. A man is tried for murder, or for house-breaking or robbery with- out a single shilling in his pocket. The non- sensical and capricious institutions of the Eng- lish law prevent him from engaging counsel to speak in his defence, if he had the wealth of Croesus ; but he has no money to employ even an attorney, or to procure a single witness, or to take out a subpoena. The judge, we are told, is his counsel ; — this is sufficiently absurd ; but it is not pretended that the judge is his witness. He solemnly declares that he has three or four witnesses who could give a completely different colour to the transaction ; — but they are sixty or seventy miles distant, working for their daily bread, and have no money for such a journey, nor for the expense of a residence of some days in an assize town. They do not know even the time of the assize, nor the modes of tendering their evidence if they could come. When every thing is so well marshaled against him on the opposite side, it would be singular if an inno- cent man, with such an absence of all means of defending himself, should not occasionally be hanged or transported : and accordingly we believe that such things have happened.* Let any man, immediately previous to the assizes, visit the prisoners for trial, and see the many wretches who are to answer to the most serious accusations, without one penny to defend them- selves. If it appeared probable, upon inquiry, that these poor creatures had important evidence which they could not bring into court for want of money, would it not be a wise application of compassionate funds, to give them this fair chance of establishing their innocencel — It seems to us no bad finale of the pious labours of those who guard the poor from ill-treatment during their imprisonment, to take care that they are not unjustly hanged at the expiration of the term. * HouBe of Commons' Report, 355. * From the Clonmell Advertiser it appears, that John Brieii, alias Captain Wheeler, was fouiul guilty of murder at the late assizes for the county of AVaterford. Previous to his execution he made the following confession : — " I now again most solemnly aver, in the presence of that God by whom I will soon be judged, and who sees the secrets of my heart, that only three, viz , Morgan Brien, Patrick Brien and my unlbrtunate self, committed the horrible crimes of murder and burning at Bally- garron, and that the four unfortunate men who have be- fore suffered for them, were not in the smallest- degree accessary to them. I have been the cause for which they have innocently suffered death. I have contracted a death of justice with them — and the only and least re- stitution I can make them, is thus publicly, solemnly, and with death before my eyes, to acquit their memory of any guilt in the crimes for which I shall deservedly svtffei 1 ! '" —Philanthropist, No. 6. 208. Pereunt et itnputantUT. 21 o2 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. PRISONS.* [Edikburgh Review, 1822.] There never was a society calculated, upon the whole, to do more good than the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline; and, hitherto, it has heen conducted with equal en- ergy and prudence. If now, or hereafter, there- fore, we make any criticisms on their proceed- ings, these must not be ascribed to any defi- ciency of good will or respect. We may differ from the society in the means — our ends, we are proud to say, are the same. In the improvement of prisons, they consider the small number of recommitments as the great test of amelioration. Upon this subject we have ventured to differ from them in a late number; and we see no reason to alter our opinion. It is a mistake, and a very serious and fundamental mistake, to suppose that the principal object in jails is the reformation of the offender. The principal object undoubtedly is, to prevent the repetition of the offence by the punishment of the offender; and, therefore, it is quite possible to conceive that the offender himself may be so kindly, gently and agreeably led to reformation, by the efforts of good and amiable persons, that the effect of the punish- ment may be destroyed, at the same time that the punished may be improved. A prison may lose its terror and discredit, though the prisoner may return from it a better scholar, a better artificer, and a better man. The real and only test, in short, of a good prison system is, the diminution of offences by the terror of the pun- ishment. If it can be shown, that in propor- tion as attention and expense have been em- ployed upon the improvement of prisons, the number of commitments has been diminished, this indeed would be a convincing proof that such care and attention were well employed. But the very reverse is the case; the number of commitments within these last ten years having nearly doubled all over England. The following are stated to be the committals in Norfolk county jail. From 1796 to 1815, the number averaged about 80. In 1816 it was 134 1817 - 142 1818 - 159 1819 - 161 1820 - 223.— i?epor<, p. 57. In Staffordshire, the commitments have gradu- ally increased from 195 to 1815, to 443 in 1820 — though the jail has been built since How- ard's time, at an expense of 30,000/. — {Report, p. 67.) In Wiltshire, in a prison which has * 1. The Third Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reforma- tion of Juvenile Offenders. I^ondon, 1621. 2. Remarks upon Prison Discipline, S^c SfC., in a Letter addressed to the Lord-Lieutenant and Magistrates of the County of Essex. By C. C. Western, Esq. M. P. London, 1821. cost the county 40,000/., the commitments hare increased from 207 in 1817 to 504 in 1821. Within this perriod, to the eternal scandal and disgrace of our laws, 378 persons have been committed for game offences — constituting a sixth part of all the persons committed; — so much for what our old friend, Mr. Justice Best, would term the unspeakable advantages of country gentlemen residing upon their own property ! When the committee was appointed in the county of Essex, in the year 1818, to take into consideration the state of the jail and houses of correction, they found that the number of prisoners annually committed had increased, within the ten preceding years, from 559 to 1993; and there is little doubt (adds Mr. West- ern) of this proportion being a tolerable speci- men of the whole kingdom. We are far from attributing this increase solely to the imper- fection of prison discipline. Increase of popu- lation, new statutes, the extension of the breed of pheasants, landed and mercantile distress, are very operative causes. But the increase of commitments is a stronger proof against the present state of prison discipline, than the de- crease of recommitments is in its favour. — We may, possibly, have made some progress in the art of teaching him who has done wrong to do so no more ; but there is no proof that we have learnt the more important art of de- terring those from doing wrong who are doubt- ing whether they shall do it or not, and who, of course, will be principally guided in their de- cision by the sufferings of those who have pre- viously yielded to temptation. There are some assertions in the report of the society, to which we can hardly give credit, — not that we have the slightest sus- picion of any intentional misrepresentation, but that we believe there must be some uninten- tional error. "The Ladies' Committees visiting Newgate and the Borough Compter, have continued to devote themselves to the improvement of the female prisoners, in a spirit worthy of their enlightened zeal and Christian charity. The beneficial effects of their exertions have been evinced by the progressive decrease in the i number of female prisoners recommitted, which I has diminished, since the visits of the ladies to ' Newgate, no less than 40 per cent." That is, that Mrs. Fry and her friends have reclaimed forty women out of every hundred, who, but for them, would have reappeared in jails. Nobody admires and respects Mrs. Fry more than we do ; but this fact is scarcely cre- dible; and, if accurate, ought, in justice to the reputation of the society and its real interests, 10 have been thoroughly substantiated by names and documents. The ladies certainly lay claim WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 163 to no such extraordinary success in their own report quoted in the Appendix : but speak ■with becoming modesty and moderation of the result of their labours. The enemies of all these reforms accuse the reformers of enthu- siasm and exaggeration. It is of the greatest possible consequence, therefore, that their state- ments should be correct, and their views prac- tical ; and that all strong assertions should be supported by strong documents. The English are a calm, reflecting people ; they will give time and money when they are convinced ; but they love dates, names and certificates. In the midst of the most heart-rending narratives, Bull requires the day of the month, the year of our Lord, the name of the parish and the countersign of three or four respectable house- holders. After these affecting circumstances, he can no longer hold out; but gives way to the kindness of his nature — puffs, blubbers and subscribes I A case is stated in the Hertford house of correction, which so much more resembles the sudden conversions of the Methodist Maga- zine, than the slow and uncertain process by which repentance is produced in real life, that we are a little surprised the society should have inserted it. "Two notorious poachers, as well as bad men, were committed for three months, for not pay- ing the penalty after conviction, but who, in consequence of extreme contrition and good conduct, were, at the intercession of the clergy- men of their parish, released before the expira- tion of their term of punishment. Upon leaving the house of correction, they declared that they had been completely brought to their senses — spoke with gratitude of the benefit they had derived from the advice of the chaplain, and promised, upon their return to their parish, that they would go to their minister, express their thanks for his interceding for them; and more- over that they would, for the future, attend their duty regularly at church. It is pleasing to add, that these promises have been faithfully fulfil- led."— ^jd;}. to Third Report, pp. 29, 30. Such statements prove nothing, but that the clergyman who makes them is an amiable man, and probably a college tutor. Their introduction however, in the report of a society depending upon public opinion for success, is very detri- mental. It is not fair to state the recommitments of one prison, and compare them with those of another, perhaps very differently circumstanced, —the recommitments, for instance, of a county jail, where offences are generally of serious magnitude, with those of a borough, where the most trifling faults are punished. The import- ant thing would be, to give a table of recom- mitments, in the same prison, for a series of years, — the average of recommitments, for ex- ample, every five years in each prison for twen- ty years past. If the society can obtain this, it will be a document of some importance, (though of less, perhaps, than they would consider it to be.) At present they tell us, that the average of recommitments in certain prisons is 3 per cent.: in certain other prisons 5 per cent.: but what were they twenty years ago in the same prison 1 — what were they five years agol If recommitments are to be the test, we must know whether these are becoming, in any given pri- son, more or less frequent, before we can deter- mine whether that prison is better or worse governed than formerly. Recommitments will of course be more numerous where prisoners are received from large towns, and from the resorts of soldiers and sailors ; because it is in these situations that we may expect the most hardened offenders. The different nature of the two soils which grow the crimes, must be con- sidered before the produce gathered into prisons can be justly compared. The quadruple column of the state of prisons for each year, is a very useful and important document; and we hope, in time, the society will give us a general and particular table of i commitments and recommitments carried back' for twenty or thirty years ; so that the table may contain (of Gloucester jail, for instance,) 1st,, the greatest number it can contain ; 2dly, the greatest number it did contain at any one period in each year; 3diy, its classification; 4thly, the greatest number committed in any given year; 5thly, four averages of five years each, taken from the twenty years preceding, and stating the greatest number of commitments; 6thly, the greatest number of recommitments in the year under view ; and four averages of recommit- ments, made in the same manner as the average of the commitments ; and then totals at the bot- tom of the columns. Tables so constructed would throw great light upon the nature and efficacy of imprisonment. We M'ish the society would pay a little more attention to the question of solitary imprison- ment, both in darkness and in light; and to the extent to which it may be carried. Mr. West- ern has upon this subject some ingenious ideas. " It appears to me, that if relieved from these impediments, and likewise from any idea of the necessity of making the labour of prisoners profitable, the detail of corrective prison discip- line would not be difficult for any body to chalk out. I would first premise, that the only pun- ishment for refractory conduct, or any misbe- haviour in the gaol, should, in my opinion, be solitary confinement; and that, instead of being in a dark hole, it should be in some part of the house where they could fully see the light of the day ; and I am not sure that it might not be desirable, in some cases, if possible, that they should see the surrounding country and mov ing objects at a distance, and every thing that man delights in, removed, at the same time, from any intercourse or word or look with any human being, and quite out of the reach of being themselves seen. I consider such confinement would be a punishment very severe, and calcu- lated to produce a far better effect than dark- ness. All the feelings that are good in men would be much more likely to be kept alive; the loss of liberty, and all the blessings of life which honesty will insure, more deeply to be felt. There would not be so much danger of any de- linquent sinking into that state of sullen, insen- sible condition, of incorrigible obstinacy, which sometimes occurs. If he does, under those circumstances, we have a right to keep him out of the way of mischief, and let him there remain. But I believe such solitary confinement as I IM WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. have described, with scanty fare, would very rarely fail of its effect." — Western^ s Remarks, pp. 59, 60. There is a good deal in this ; it is well worth the trial ; and we hope the society will notice it in their next report. It is very difficult to hit upon degrees; but we cannot help thinking the society lean too much to a system of indulgence and education in jails. We shall be very glad to see them more stern and Spartan in their discipline. They recom- mend work, and even hard work; but they do not insist upon it, that the only work done in jails by felons should be hard, dull and uninte- resting; they do not protest against the conver- sion of jails into schools and manufactories. Look, for example, to " Preston House of Cor- rection." " Preston House of Correction is justly distin- guished by the industry which prevails. Here an idle hand is rarely to be found. There were lately 150 looms in full employ, from each of which the average weekly earnings are 5s. About 150 pieces of cotton goods are worked off per week. A considerable proportion of the looms are of the prisoners' own manufacture. In one month, an inexperienced workman will be able to earn the cost of his gaol allowance of food. Weaving has these advantages over other prison labour: the noise of the shuttle prevents conversation, and the progress of the work constantly requires the eye. The ac- counts of this prison contained in the Appen- dix, deserve particular attention, as there ap- pears to be a balance of clear profit to the county, from the labour of the prisoners, in the year, of 1398/. 9s. Id. This sum was earned by weaving and cleaning cotton only; the prison- ers being besides employed in tailoring, white- washing, flagging, slating, painting, carpenter- ing and labourers' work, the earnings of which are not included in the above account." — Third Report, pp. 21, 22. "At Worcester county gaol, the system of employment is admirable. Every article of dress worn by the prisoners is made from the raw material ; sacking and bags are the only articles made for sale." — lb. p. 23. " In many prisons, the instruction of the pri- soners in reading and writing has been attend- ed with excellent effects. Schools have been formed at Bedford, Durham, Chelmsford, Win- chester, Hereford, Maidstone, Leicester house of correciion, Shrewsbury, Warwick, Worces- ter, &c. Much valuable assistance has been derived in this department from the labours of respectable individuals, especially females, act- ing under the sanction of the magistrates, and direction of the chaplain." — lb. pp. 30, 31. We again enter our decided protest against these modes of occupation in prisons; they are certainly better than mere idleness spent in so- ciety; but they are not ihe kind of occupations which render prisons terrible. We would ban- ish all the looms of Preston jail, and substitute nothing but the tread-wheel, or the capstan, or some species of labour where the labourer could not see the results of his toil, — where it was as monotonous, irksome and dull as pos- sible, — pulling and pushing, instead of reading and writing, — no share of the profits — not a sin- gle shilling. There should be no tea and sugar,. — no assemblage of female felons round the washing-tub, — Nothing but beating hemp, and pulling oakum, and pounding bricks, — no work but what was tedious, unusual and unfeminine. Man, woman, boy and girl, should all leave the jail, unimpaired, indeed, in health, but heartily wearied of their residence; and taught, by sad experience, to consider it as the greatest misfor- tune of their lives to return to it. We have th,e strongest belief that the present lenity of jails, the education carried on there — the cheerful assemblage of workmen — the indulgence ia diet — the shares of earnings enjoyed by prison- ers, are one great cause of the astonishingly rapid increase of commitments. Mr. Western, who entirely agrees with us upon these points, has the following judicious observations upon the severe system: — " It may be imagined by some persons, that the rules here prescribed are too severe; but such treatment is, in my opinion, the tenderest mercy, compared with that indulgence which is so much in practice, and which directly tends to ruin, instead of saving, its unfortunate vic- tim. This severity it is which in truth forms the sole effective means which imprisonment gives ; only one mitigation, therefore, if such it may be termed, can be admissible, and that is, simply to shorten the duration of the imprison- ment. The sooner the prisoner comes out the better, if fully impressed with dread of what he has suffered, and communicates information -to his friends what they may expect if they get there. It appears to me, indeed, that one great and primary object we ought to have in view is, generally, to shorten the duration of impri- sonment, at the same time that we make it such a punishment as is likely to deter, correct and reform ; shorten the duration of imprisonment before trial, which we are called upon, by every principle of moral and political justice, to do; shorten also the duration of imprisonment after trial, by the means here described; and I am satisfied our prisons would soon lose, or rather would never see, half the number of their pre- sent inhabitants. The long duration of impri- sonment, where the discipline is less severe, renders it perfectly familiar, and, in conse- quence, not only destitute of any useful influ- ence, but obviously productive of the worst effects; yet this is the present practice; and I think, indeed, criminals are now sentenced to a longer period of confinement than formerly. "The deprivation of liberty certainly is a punishment under any circumstances; but the system generally pursued in our gaols might rather be considered as a palliative of that pun- ishment, than to make it effectual to any good purpose. An idle life, society unrestrained, with associates of similar character and habits, better fare and lodgings in many cases, and in few, if any, worse than falls to the lot of the hard-working and industrious peasant; and very often much better than the prisoners were in the enjoyment of before they were appre- hended. " I do not know what could be devised more agreeable to all the different classes of offenders than this sort of treatment: the old hardened sinner, the juvenile offender, or the idle vaga- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 166 bond, who runs away and leaves a sick wife and family to be provided for by his parish, alike have little or no apprehension; at present, of any imprisonment to which they may be sen- tenced; and thus are the most effective means we possess to correct and reform rendered totally unavailable, and even perverted, to the more certain ruin of those who might be restored to society good and valuable members of it. "There are, it is true, various occupations now introduced into many prisons, but which, I confess, I think of very little use ; drawing and preparing straws, platting, knitting, heading pins, &c., weaving and working at a trade even, as it is generally carried on — prisoners coaxed to the performance of it, the task easy, the re- ward immediate — afford rather the means of passing away the time agreeably. These occu- pations are, indeed, better than absolute idleness, notwithstanding that imprisonment may be ren- dered less irksome thereby. I am far from denying the advantage, still less would I be sup- posed to derogate from the merits of those who, with every feeling of humanity, and with inde- fatigable pains, in many instances, have esta- blished such means of employment; and some of them for women, with washing, &c., amount to hard labour; but I contend that,for men, they are applicable only to a house of industry and by no means suited to the corrective discipline which should be found in a prison. Individuals are sent here to be punished and for that sole purpose ; in many cases for crimes which have induced the forfeiture of life: they are not sent to be educated, or apprenticed to a trade. The horrors of dungeon imprisonment, to the credit of the age, no longer exist. But, if no cause of dread is substituted, by what indication of com- mon sense is it that we send criminals there at all ? If prisons are to be made into places in Avhich persons of both sexes and all ages may be well fed, clothed, lodged, educated and taught a trade, where they may find pleasant society, and are required not to take heed for the mor- row, the present inhabitants should be turned out, and the most deserving and industrious of our poorest fellow-subjects should be invited to take their place, which I have no doubt they would be eager to do." — Western, pp. 13-17. In these sentiments we most cordially agree. They are well worth the most serious attention of the society. The following is a sketch from Mr. Western's book of what a prison life should be. It is im- possible to write with more good sense, and a more thorough knowledge of the subject. " The operations of the day should begin with the greatest punctuality at a given hour; and as soon as the prisoners have risen from their beds, they should be, according to their several classes, marched to the workhouses, where they should be kept to hard labour two hours at least; from thence they should be taken back to wash, shave, comb and clean themselves; thence to the chapel to hear a short prayer, or the go- vernor or deputy should read to them in their respective day-rooms ; and then their breakfast, which may, altogether,. occupy an hour and a half or more. I have stated, in a former part of my letter, that the hours of meals and leisure should be in solitude, in the sleeping cells of the prison ; but I presume, for the moment, this may not always be practicable. I will, therefore, consider the case as if the classes assembled at meal-times in the different day-rooms. After breakfast they should return to hard labour for three or four hours, and then take another hour for dinner; labour after dinner two or three hours, and their supper given them to eat in solitude in their sleeping cells. "This marching backwards and forwards to chapel and mill-house, &c., may appear objec- tionable, but it has not been so represented to me in the prisons where it. actually now takes place; and it is, to my apprehension, materially useful in many respects. The object is to keep the prisoners in a state of constant motion, so that there shall be no lounging time or loitering, which is always favourable to mischief or cabal. For the same reason it is I propose two hours' labour the moment they are up, and before washing, &c., that there may be no time lost, and that they may begin the day by a portion of labour, which will tend to keep them quiet and obedient the remainder of it. Each interval for meal, thus occurring between labour hours, has also a tendency to render the mischief of in- tercourse less probable, and at the same time the evening association, which is most to be appre- hended in this respect, is entirely cut off. The frequent moving of the prisoners from place to place keeps the governor and sub-officers of the prison in a similar state of activity and atten- tion, which is likewise of advantage, though their numbers should be such as to prevent their duty becoming too arduous or irksome. Their situation is not pleasant and their respon- sibility is great. An able and attentive governor, who executes all his arduous duties with unre- mitting zeal and fidelity, is a most valuable public servant and entitled to the greatest re- spect. He must be a man of no ordinary capa- city, with a liberal and comprehensive mind, possessing a control over his own passions, firm and undaunted, a character that commands from those under him, instinctively, as it were, respect and regard. In vain are our buildings, and rules, and regulations, if the choice of a governor is not made an object of primary and most solicitous attention and consideration. "It does not appear to me necessary for the prisoners to have more than three hours' leisure, inclusive of meal-times ; and I am convinced the close of the day must be in soUtude. Eight or ten hours will have passed in company with their fellow-prisoners of the same class (for I am presuming that a separate compartment of the workhouse will be allotted to each) where, though they cannot associate to enjoy society as they would wish, no gloom of solitude can oppress them : there is more danger even then of too close an intercourse and conversation, though a ready cure is in that case to be found by a wheel put in motion, the noise of which speedily overcomes the voice. Some time after Saturday night should be allowed to them, more particularly to cleanse themselves and their clothes, and they should have a bath, cold or warm, if necessary; and on the Sunday they should be dressed in their best clothes, and the day should be spent wholly in the chapel, the cell, and the airing-ground ; the latter in presence 166 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. of a day-watchman, as I have described to be in practice at Warwick. I say nothing about teaching to read, write, work, &c. &c.; any pro- portion of time necessary for any useful pur- pose may be spared from the hours of labour or of rest, according to circumstances; but I do not place any reliance upon improvement in any branch of education : they would not, indeed, be there long enough. All I want them to learn is, that there exists the means of punishment for crime, and be fully impressed with dread of re- petition of what they have undergone; and a short time will suffice for that purpose. Now, if each successive day was spent in this manner, can it be doubted that the frequent commission of crime would be checked, and more done to deter, correct and reform than could be accom- plished by any other punishment 1 A period of such discipline, longer or shorter, according to the nature of the offence, would surely be suffi- cient for any violation of the law short of mur- der, or that description of outrage which is likely to lead on to the perpetration of it. This sort of treatment is not to be overcome: it cannot be braved, or laughed at, or disiegarded, by any force of animal spirits, however strong or vigo- rous of mind or body the individual may be. The dull, unvarying course of hard labour, with hard fare and seclusion, must in time become so painfully irksome, and so wear and distress him, that he will inevitably, in the end, be sub- dued." — Western, pp. 64-69. There is nothing in the Report of the Prison Society, so good as this. The society very properly observe upon the badness of town jails, and the necessity for their suppression. Most towns cannot spare the funds necessary for building a good jail. Shop- keepers cannot spare the time for its superin- tendence ; and hence it happens that town jails are almost always in a disgraceful state. The society frequently allude to the diffusion of tracts. If education is to be continued in jails, and tracts are to be dispersed, we cannot help lamenting that the tracts, though full of good principles, are so intolerably stupid — and all apparently constructed upon the supposition, that a thief or a peccant ploughman is inferior in common sense to a boy of five years old. The story generally is, that a labourer with six chil- dren has nothing to live upon but mouldy bread and dirty water; yet nothing can exceed his cheerfulness and content — no murmurs — no discontent: of mutton he has scarcely heard — of bacon he never dreams : furfurous bread and the water of the pool constitute his food, establish his felicity, and excite his warmest gratitude. The squire or parson of the parish always happens to be walking by and overhears him praying for the king and the members for the county, and for all in authority ; and it gene- rally ends with their offering him a shilling, which this excellent man declares he does not want, and will not accept! These are the pamphlets which Goodies and Noodles are dis- persing with unwearied diligence. It would be a great blessing if some genius would arise who had a talent of writing for the poor. He would be of more value than many poets living upon the banks of lakes — or even (though we think highly of ourselves) of greater value than many reviewing men living in the garrets of the north. The society offer some comments upon the prison bill now pending, and which unfortu- nately* for the cause of prison improvement, has bein so long pending in the legislature. In the copy of this bill, as it stands at present, nothing is said of the limitation of numbers in any particular class. We have seen forty felons of one class in one yard before trial. If this is to continue, all prison improvement is a mere mockery. Separate sleeping cells should be enacted positively, and not in words, which leave this improvement optional. If any visit- ing justice dissents from the majority ,"1" it should be lawful for him to give a separate report upon the state of the prison and prisoners to the judge or the quarter sessions. All such reports of any visiting magistrate or magistrates, not ex- ceeding a certain length, should be puSblished in the county papers. The chairman's report to the secretary of state should be published in the same manner. The great panacea is pub- licity ; it is this which secures compliance with wise and just laws, more than all the penalties they contain for their own preservation. We object to the reading and writing clause. A poor man, who is lucky enough to have his son committed for a felony, educates him, under such a system, for nothing ; while the virtuous simpleton on the other side of the wall is pay- ing by the quarter for these attainments. He sees clergymen and ladies busy with the larce- nous pupil ; while the poor lad, who respects the jighth commandment, is consigned, in some dark alley, to the frowns and blows of a ragged pedagogue. It would be the safest way, where a prisoner is kept upon bread and water alone, to enact that the allowance of bread should not be less than a pound and a half for men, and a pound for women and boys. We strongly re- commend, as mentioned in a previous number, that four sorts of diet should be enacted for every prison; 1st, Bread and water ; 2d, Better prison diet; 3d, Best prison diet; 4th, Free diet — the second and third to be defined by the visiting magistrates. All sentences of impri- sonment should state to which of these diets the prisoner is to be confined ; and all deviation from it on the part of the prison officers should be punished with very severe penalties. The regulation of prison diet in a prison is a point of the very highest importance ; and to ask of visiting magistrates that they should doom to bread and water a prisoner whom the law has left at liberty to purchase whatever he has the money to procure, is a degree of severity which it is hardly fair to expect from country gentle- men, and, if expected, those expectations will not be fulfilled. The whole system of diet, one of the main-springs of all prison discipline, will get out of order, if its arrangement is left to the interference of magistrates and not to the sen- tence of the judge. Free diet and bread diet need no interpretation : and the jailer will take care to furnish the judge with the definitions of *The county of York, with a prison under presentment, has been waiting nearly three years for this bill, in order to proceed upon the improvement of their county jail. t It would be an entertaining change in human affairs to determine every thing by mximrities. They are almost always 'n the right. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 167 tetter prison diet and best prison diet. A know- ledge of the diet prescribed in a jail is absolntely necessary for the justice of the case. Diet dif- fers so much in different prisons, that six weeks in one prison is as severe a punishment as three months in another. If any country gentleman, engaged in legislation for prisons, is inclined to undervalue the importance of these regulations, let him appeal to his own experience, and re- member, in the vacuity of the country, how often he thinks of his dinner, and of what there will be for dinner ; and how much his amenity and courtesy for the evening depend upon the successful execution of this meal. But there is nobody so gluttonous and sensual as a thief; and he will feel much more bitterly fetters on his mouth than his heels. It sometimes hap- pens that a gentleman is sentenced to imprison- ment for manslaughter in a duel, or for a libel. Are visiting justices to doom such a prisoner to bread and water, or are they to make an invidi- ous distinction between him and the other pri- soners? The diet should be ordered by the judge, or it never will be well ordered — or ordered at all: The most extraordinary clause in the bill is the following — " And be it further enacted, that in case any criminal prisoner shall be guilty of any repeated offence against the rules of the prison, or shall be guilty of any greater offence which the jailer or keeper is not by this act empowered to pun- ish, the said jailer or keeper shall report the same to the visiting justices, or one of them, for the time being; and such justices, or one of them, shall have power to inquire upon oath, and determine concerning any such offence so reported to him or them, and shall order the offender to be punished, either by moderate whipping, repeated whippings, or by close con- finement, for any term not exceeding .' — Act, p. 21, Upon this clause, any one justice may order repeated whippings for any offence greater than that which the jailer may punish. Our respect for the committee will only allow us to say, that we hope this clause will be reconsidered. We beg leave to add, that there should be a return to the principal secretary of state of recommit- ments as well as commitments. It is no mean pleasure to see this attention to jail-discipline travelling from' England to the detestable and despotic governments of the con- tinent, — to see the health and life of captives admitted to be of any importance, — to perceive that human creatures in dungeons are of more consequence than rats and black beetles. All this is new — is some little gained upon ty- ranny; and for it we are indebted to the labours of the Prison Society. Still the state of prisons, on many parts of the continent, is shocking be- yond all description. It is a most inconceivable piece of cruelty and absurdity in the English law, that the prisoner's counsel, when he is tried for any capital felony, is not allowed to speak for him ; and this we hope the new prison bill will correct. Nothing can be more ridiculous in point of reasoning, or more atrociously cruel and unjust in point of fact. Any number of counsel may be employed to take away the poor man's life. They are at full liberty to talk as long as they like; but not a syllable is to be uttered in his defence. — not a sentence to show why the prisoner is not to be hung. This practice is so utterly ridiculous to any body but lawyers (to whom nothing that is customary is ridiculous), that men not versant with courts of justice will not believe it. It is, indeed, so utterly inconsistent with the common cant of the humanity of the English law, that it is often considered to be the mistake of the nar- rator, rather than the imperfection of the sys- tem. We must take this opportunity, therefore, of making a few observations on this very strange and anomalous practice. The common argument used in its defence is that the judge is counsel for the prisoner. But the defenders of this piece of cruel and barbar- ous nonsense must first make their election, whether they consider the prisoner to be, by this arrangement, in a better, a worse or an equally good situation as if his counsel were allowed to plead for him. If he is in a worse situation, why is he so placed? Why is a man, in a solemn issue of life or death, deprived of any fair advantage which any suitor in any court of justice possesses'' This is a plea of guilty to the charge we make against the prac- tice; and its advocates, by such concession, are put out of court. But, if it is an advantage, or no disadvantage, whence comes it that the choice of this advantage, in the greatest of all human concerns, is not left to the party or to his friends? If the question concerns a foot- path — or a fat ox — every man may tell his own story, or employ a barrister to tell it for him. The law leaves the litigant to decide on the method most conducive to his own interest. But, when the question is whether he is to Hv» or die, it is at once decided for him that his counsel are to be dumb ! And yet, so ignorant are men of their own interests, that there is not a single man tried who would not think it a great privilege if counsel were allowed to speak in his favour, and who would not be supremely happy to lay aside the fancied advantage of their silence. And this is true not merely ot ignorant men; but there is not an Old Bailey barrister who would not rather employ another Old Bailey barrister to speak for him, than en- joy the advantage (as the phrase is) of having the judge for his counsel. But in what sense, after all, is the judge counsel for the prisoner? He states, in his summing up, facts as they have been delivered in evidence; and he tells the jury upon what points they are to decide: he mentions what facts are in favour of the prisoner, and what bear against him; and he leaves the decision to the jury. Does he do more than this in favour of the prisoner? Does he misstate? does he mislead? does he bring forward arguments on one side of the question, and omit equally important arguments on the other? If so, he is indeed counsel for the pri- soner; but then who is judge? who takes care of the interests of the public ? But the truth is, he does no such thing; he does merely what we have stated him to do ; and would he do less, could he do less, if the prisoner's counsel spoke for him? If an argument was just, or an in- ference legitimate, he would not omit the one, or refute the other, because they had been put or 168 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. drawn in the speech of the prisoner's counsel. He would be no more prejudiced against the defendant in a criminal than in a civil suit. He would select from the speeches of both counsel all that could be fairly urged for or against the defendant, and he would reply to their fallacious reasonings. The pure administration of justice requires of him, in either case, the same con- duct. Whether the whole bar spoke for the prisoner, or whether he was left to defend him- self, what can the judge do, or what ought he to do, but to state to the jury the facts as they are given in evidence, and the impression these facts have made upon his own mind 1 In the mean time, while the prisoner's counsel have been compelled to be silent, the accuser's, the opposite party, have enjoyed an immense ad- vantage. In considering what bears against the prisoner, the judge has heard, not only the suggestions of his own understanding, but he has been exposed to the able and artful reason- ing of a practised advocate, who has been pre- viously instructed in the case of which the judge never heard a syllable before he came into court. Suppose it to be a case depending upon circumstantial evidence ; in how many new points of view may a man of genius have placed those circumstances, which would not have occurred to the judge himself! How many inferences may he have drawn, which would have been unnoticed but for the efforts of a man whose bread and fame depend upon his exertions, and who has purposely, and on contract, flung the whole force of his under- standing into one scale! In the mean time, the prisoner can say nothing, for he has not the gift of learned speech; his counsel can say nothing, though he has communicated with the prisoner, and could place the whole circumstances, per- haps, in the fairest and clearest point of view for the accused party. By the courtesy of Eng- land this is called justice — we in the north can- not admit of the correctness of the appellation. It seems utterly to be forgotten, in estimating this practice, that two understandings are better than one. The judge must inevitably receive many new views against the prisoner by the speech of one counsel, and lose many views in favour of the prisoner by the silence of the other. We are not to suppose (like ladies going into court in an assize town) that the judge would have thoughtof every thing which the counsel against the prisoner has said, and which the counsel for the prisoner would have said. The judge, wigged and robed as he is, is often very inferior in acuteness to either of the persons who are pleading under him — a cold, slow, parchment and precedent man, without passions or prse- cordia, — perhaps a sturdy brawler for church and king, — or a quiet man of ordinary abilities, steadily, though perhaps conscientiously, fol- lowing those in power through thick and thin — through right and wrong. Whence comes it that the method of getting at truth, which is so excellent on all common occasions, should be considered as so improper on the greatest of all occasions, where the life of a man is concerned? If an acre of land is to be lost or won, one man says all that can be said on one side of the ques- tion — another on the other; and the jury, aided by the impartiality of the judge, decide. The wit of man can devise no better method of disen- tangling difficulty, exposing falsehood, and de- tecting truth. " Tell me why I am hurried away to a premature death, and 710 man suffered to speak in my defence, when at this very moment, and in my hearing, all the eloquence of the bar, on the other side of your' justice hall, is employed in defending a path or a hedge? Is a foot of land dearer to any man than my life is to me? The civil plaintiff has not trusted the smallest part of his fate or for- tune to his own efforts,- and will you grant me no assistance of superior wisdom, who have suffered a long famine to purchase it — who am broken by prison — broken by chains — and so shamed by this dress of guilt, and abashed by the presence of my superiors, that I have no words which you could hear without derision — that 1 could not give way for a moment to the fulness and agitation of my rtide heart without moving your contempt?" So spoke a wretched creature to a judge in our hearing! and what answer could be given but "Jailer, take him away?" We are well aware that a great decency of language is observed by the counsel employed against the prisoner, in consequence of the silence imposed upon the opposite counsel ; but then, though there is a decency as far as con- cerns impassioned declamation, yet there is no restraint, and there can be no restraint, upon the reasoning powers of a counsellor. He may put together the circumstances of an imputed crime in the most able, artful and ingenious manner, without the slightest vehemence or passion. We have no objection to this, if any counter statement were permitted. We want only fair play. Speech for both sides, or speech for none. The first would be the wiser system; but the second would be clear from the intolera- ble cruelty of the present. We see no harm that would ensue, if both advocates were to fol- low their own plan without restraint. But, if the feelings are to be excluded in all causes of this nature (which seems very absurd), then let the same restraint be exacted from both sides. It might very soon be established, as the eti- quette of the bar, that the pleadings on both sides were expected to be calm, and to consist of reasoning upon the facts. In high treason, where the partiality of the judge and power of the court are suspected, this absurd incapacity of being heard by counsel is removed. No body pretends to say, in such cases, that the judge would be counsel for the prisoner; and yet, how many thousand cases are there in a free country which have nothing to do with high treason, and where the spirit of party, unknown to himself, may get possession of a judge? Suppose any trial for murder to have taken place in the Manchester riots, — will any man say that the conduct of many judges on such a question ought not to have been watched with the most jealous circumspection ? Would any prisoner — would any fair mediator between the prisoner and the public — be satisfied at such a period with the axiom that the judge is counsel for the prisoner? We are not saying that there is no judge who might not be so trusted, but that all judges are not, at all times, to be so intrusted. We are not saying that any judge would wil- fully do wrong ; but that many might be led to do wrong by passions and prejudices of which WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 169 they were unconscious ; and that the real safe- guard to the prisoner, the best, the only safe- guard, is full liberty of speech for the counsel he has employed. What would be the discipline of that hospi- tal where medical assistance was allowed in all trifling complaints, and withheld in every case of real danger? where Bailey and Halford were lavished upon stomach-aches and refused in typhus fever? where the dying patient beheld the greatest skill employed upon trifling evils of others, and was told, because his was a case of life and death, that the cook or the nurse was to be his physician? Suppose so intolerable an abuse (as the at- torney and solicitor-general would term it) had been established, and that a law for its correc- tion was now first proposed, entitled an Act to prevent the Counsel for Prisoners from being heard in their Defence ! ! ! What evil would result from allowing counsel to be heard in defence of prisoners ? Would too many people be hung from losing that valu- able counsellor, the judge ? or would too few people be hung? or would things remain much as they are at present ? We never could get the admirers of this practice to inform us what the results would be of deviating from it ; and we are the more particularly curious upon this point, because our practice is decidedly the re- verse, and we find no other results from it than a fair administration of criminal justice. In all criminal cases that require the intervention of a jury in Scotland, a prisoner must have, 1st, a copy of the indictment, which must contain a minute specification of the offence charged ; 2dly, a list of witnesses; 3dly, a list of the as- size; and, 4thly, in every question that occurs, and in all addresses to the jury, the prisoner's counsel has the last word. Where is the boasted mercy of the English law after this ? The truth is, it proceeds from the error which, in all dark ages, pervades all codes of laws, of confounding the accused with the guilty. In the early part of our state trials, the prisoners were not allowed to bring evidence against the wit- nesses of the crown. For a long period after this, the witnesses of the prisoner were not suf- fered to be examined upon oath. One piece of cruelty and folly has given way after another. Each has been defended by the attorney and solicitor-general for the time, as absolutely necessary to the existence of the state, and the most perfect performance of our illustrious an- cestors. The last grand hope of every foolish person is the silence of the prisoner's counsel. In the defence of this, it will be seen what stu- pidity driven to despair can achieve. We beg pardon for this digression; but flesh and blood cannot endure the nonsense of lawyers upon this subject. The society have some very proper remarks upon the religious instructions of the chaplain — an appointment of vast importance and utility; unfortunately very ill paid, and devolving en- tirely upon the lower clergy. It is said that the present Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Ryder, goes into jails and busies himself with the temporal ■wretchedness and the eternal welfare of the prisoners. If this is so, it does him great honour, and is a noble example to all ranks of 22 clergy who are subject to him. Above all, do not let us omit the followin? beautiful anecdote, while we are talking of good and pious men. " The committee cannot refrain from extract- ing from the report of the Paris Society, the interesting anecdote of the excellent P6re Jous- sony, who being. sent, by the Consul at Algiers, to minister to the slaves, fixed his residence in their prison; and, during a period of thirty years, never quitted his post. Being compelled to repair to France, for a short period, he re- turned again to the prison, and at length resign- ed his breath in the midst of those for whose interests he had laboured, and who were dearer to him than life." — Report, p. 30. It seems to be a very necessary part of the prison system, that any poor person, when ac- quitted, should be passed to his parish ; and that all who are acquitted should be immediately liberated. At present, a prisoner, after acquit- tal, is not liberated till the grand jury are dis- missed,* in case (as it is said) any more bills should be preferred against him. This is really a considerable hardship; and we do not see, upon the same principle, why the prisoner may not be detained for another assize. To justify such a practice, notice should, at all events, fte given to the jailer of intention to prefer other charges against him. To detain a man who is acquitted of all of which he has been accused, and who is accused of nothing more, merely because he may be accu^d of something more, seems to be a great perversion of justice. The greatest of all prison improvements, however, would be the delivery of jails four times in the year. It would save expense; render justice more terrible, by rendering it more prompt; facilitate classification, by lessening numbers ; keep constantly alive, in the minds of wicked men, the dread of the law ; and diminish the unjust sufl'erings of those who, after long im- prisonment, are found innocent. " From documents," says Mr. Western, "upon the table of the House of Commons in 1819, 1 drew out an account, which I have already ad- verted to in part, but which I shall restate here, as it places, in a strong point of view, the ex- tent of injustice, and inconsistency, too, arising out of the present system. It appeared that, at the Maidstone Lent Assizes of that year there were one hundred and seventy-seven prisoners for trial; of these, seventeen were in prison be- fore the 1st of October, eighty-three before the 1st of January, the shortest period of confine- ment before trial being six months of the former, three months of the latter. Nothing can show us more plainly the injustice of such confine- ment than the known fact of six months' impri- sonment being considered a sufficient punish- ment for half the felonies that are committed: but the case is stronger, whert we consider the number acquitted; seventeenof the twenty-seven first mentioned were acquitted, nineof the seven- teen were discharged, not being prosecuted, or having no bill found against them. On the other side it appeared, that twenty-five con- victed felons were sentenced to six months' im- prisonment, or under, the longest period of whose confinement did not, therefore, exceed ♦ This has since been done away with P 170 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. the shortest of the seventeen acquitted, or that of the nine, against whom no charge was ad- duced; there were three, who, after being about seven months in prison, were then discharged, whilst various convicted felons suffered six- sevenths only of the punishment, including the time before trial as well as after condemnation. By the returns from the Lent Assizes at Chelms- ford, the same year, the cases were not less striking than those of Maidstone: the total num- ber was one hundred and sixty-six ; of these, twenty-five were in prison before the 1st of Oc- tober, of whom eleven were acquitted, and of these eleven, six were discharged without any indictment preferred; two were in prison eight months; three, seven months and fifteen days. three, six months and fifteen days. On the other hand, sixteen convicted of felony, were consi- dered to be sufficiently puoished by imprisonment under six months. Upon the whole, it appeared that four hundred and five persons had been in gaol before the 1st of October, whilst eight hun- dred convicted felons were sentenced to a lighter punishment, to a shorter duration of imprison- ment, than these four hundred and five had ac- tually undergone. "It is a curious fact, that, upon an average, more than one-third of the total number com- mitted for trial are acquitted. In the seven years ending 1819, seventy-two thousand two hundred and sixteen persons were committed ; of these, fourteen thousand two hundred and ninety-one were acquitted on trial, eleven thou- sand two hundred and seventy-four were dis- charged, there being no prosecutions, or no bills found against them. This large proportion of acquittals aggravates the evil and injustice of long confinement before trial; but were it other- wise, what possible right can we have to detain a man in custody six months, upon any charge exhibited against him, before he is brought to trial 1 What excuse or palliation can be found for so barbarous a violation of all the principles of justice and humanity? How contemptible it is, by way of delisnce, to talk of the inexpe- diency of increasing the number of the judges, the expense, inconvenience, trouble, &c.! It is wrong to contend with such arguments against the unanswerable claims of justice, as it is only to admit they are entitled to weight. The fact is, we are so completely under the influence of habitual respect for established practice, that we do not stop to question the possibility of the existence of any serio-us defects in the adminis- tration of the law that can be capable of remedy. The public attention has never been earnestly and steadily fixed and devoted to the attainment of a better system." — Western, pp. 80—83. The public cannot be too grateful to Mr. W'estern for his labours on this subject. We strongly recommend his tract for general cir- culation. It is full of stout good sense, without one particle of nonsense or fanaticism : — good English stuff, of the most improved and best sort. Lord Londonderry has assented to the measure; and his assent does him and the government very great credit. It is a measure of first-rate importance. The multiplicity of imprisonments is truly awful. Within the distance of ten miles round Lon- don, thirty-one fairs are annually held, which continue eighty days within the space of seven months. The effect of these fairs, in filling the prisons of the metropolis, it is easy to ima- gine; and the topic is very wisely and properly brought forward by the society. Nothing can be so absurd as the reasoning used about Jlds/i houses. They are sufiered to exist, it seems, because it is easy to the oflicers of justice to find, in such places, the prisoners of whom they are in search I But the very place where the thief is found is most probably the place which made him a thief. If it facili- tates the search, it creates the necessity for searching, and multiplies guilt while it pro- motes detection. Wherever thieves are known to haunt, that place should be instantly purged of thieves. We have pushed this article to a length which will prevent us from dwelling upon that part of the plan of the Prison Society which embraces the reformation of juvenile delin- quents, of whom it is calculated there are not less than 8000 in London who gain their livelihood by thieving. To this subject we may, perhaps, refer in some future number. We must content ourselves at present with a glimpse at the youthful criminals of the metro- polis, " Upon a late occasion (in company with Mr.. Samuel Hoare, the chairman of the Society for the Reform of Juvenile Delinquents), I visited^ about midnight, many of those receptacles of thieves which abound in this metropolis. We selected the night of that day in which an exe- cution had taken place; and our object was, to ascertain whether that terrible demonstration^ of rigour could operate even a short suspen. sion of iniquity, and keep for a single nigh the votaries of crime from their accustomed orgies. In one room, I recollect, we found a large number of children of both sexes, the oldest under eighteen years of age, and in the centre of these a man who had been described to me by the police as one of the largest sellers of forged bank-notes. At another part, we were shown a number of buildings, into which only children were allowed to enter, and in which, if you could obtain admission, which you can- not, you would see scenes of the most flagrant,. the most public, and the most shocking de- bauchery. Have I not, then, a right to say, that you are growing crimes at a terrible rate, and producing those miscreants who are to dis- turb the public peace, plunder the public pro- perty, and to become the scourge and the dis- grace of the country 1" — Buxton, pp. 66, 67. Houses dedicated to the debauchery of chil- dren, where it is impossible to enter ! ! ! Whence comes this impossibility'? To show that their labours are not needlessly continued, the society make the following state- ment of the present state of prisons : — " But although these considerations are highly encouraging, there is yet much to accomplish in this work of national improvement. So ex- tensive are the defects of classification, that in thirty gaols, constructed for the confinement of 2985 persons, there were, at one time in the last year, no fewer than 5837 prisoners; and the whole number imprisoned in those gaols, dur- ing that period, amounted to 26,703. There are WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. ITl yet prisons where idleness and its attendant evils reign unrestrained — where the sexes are not separated— where all distinctions of crime are confounded — where few can enter, if uncor- rupted, without pollution; and, if guilty, with- out incurring deeper stains of criminality. — There are yet prisons which receive not the pious visits of a Christian minister — which the light of knowledge never enters — and where the truths and consolations of the Gospel are never heard. — There are yet prisons where, for the security of the prisoners, measures are re- sorted to as revolting to British feeling as they are repugnant to the spirit and letter of English law." — Report, pp. 63, 64. With this statement we take our leave of the subject of prisons, thoroughly convinced that, since the days of their cleanliness and salu- brity, they have been so managed as to become the great school for crimes and wretchedness ; and that the public, though beginning to awake, are not yet sufficiently aware of this fact, and sufficiently alarmed at it. Mrs. Fry is an ami- able, excellent woman, and ten thousand times better than the infamous neglect that preceded her; but hers is not the method to stop crimes. In prisons, which are really meant to keep the multitude in order, and to be a terror to evil doers, there must be no sharing of profits—no visiting of friends — no education but religious education — no freedom of diet — no weavers' looms or carpenters' benches. There must be a great deal of solitude ; coarse food ; a dress of shame; hard, incessant, irksome, eternal la- bour; a planned and regulated and unrelenting exclusion of happiness and comfort. 172 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. PERSECUTING bishops; [Edinburgh Revieu^ 1822.] It is a great point in any question to clear away encumbrances, and to make a ualied circle about the object in dispute, so that there may be a clear view of it on every side. In pursuance of this disencumbering process, we shall first acquit the bishop of all wrong inten- tions. He has a very bad opinion of the prac- tical effects of high Calvinistic doctrines upon the common people ; and he thinks it his duty to exclude those clergymen who profess them from his diocese. There is no moral wrong in this. He has accordingly devised no fewer than eighty-seven interrogatories, by which he thinks he can detect the smallest taint of Cal- vinism that may lurk in the creed of the can- didate ; and in this also, whatever we may think of his reasoning, we suppose his pur- pose to be blameless. He believes, finally, that he has legally the power so to in- terrogate and exclude; and in this perhaps he is not mistaken. His intentions, then, are good, and his conduct, perhaps, not amenable to the law. All this we admit in his favour: but against him we must maintain, that his conduct upon the points in dispute has been singularly injudicious, extremely harsh, and, in its effects (though not in its intentions), very oppressive and vexatious to the clergy. We have no sort of intention to avail our- selves of an anonymous publication to say unkind, uncivil, or disrespectful things to a man of rank, learning, and character — we hope to be guilty of no such impropriety; but we cannot believe we are doing wrong in ranging ourselves on the weaker side, in the cause of propriety and justice. The mitre protects its wearer from indignity; but it does not secure impunity. It is a strong presumption that a man is wrong, when all his friends, whose habits na- *l. An Appeal to the Legislature and Public ; or, the Le- gality of the Eighty-seven Questions proposed by Dr. Her- bert Marsh, the Bishop of Peterborough, to Candidates for Holy Orders, and for Licenses, within that Diocese, consi- dered. 2d Edition. London, Seely, 1821. 2. A Speech, delivered in the House of Lords, on Friday, June 7, 1822, by Herbert, Lord Bishop'of Peterbnrouirh, on the Presentation of a Petition an-ainst his Examination Questions : with Explanatory J^otes, a Supplement, and a Copy of the Questions. London. Rivinirton. 1822. 3. The Wrongs of the Clergy of the Diocese ,>f Peterbo- rough stated and illustrated. By the Rev. T. S. Gri.ii- SHAWE, M. A., Rector of Burton, North.-iniptonshire ; and Vicar of Biddenhain, Bedfordshire. London, !*eely, 1822. 4. Episcopal Innovation : or, the Test of Modern Ortho- doxy, in Eighty-seven Questions, imposed, as Articles of Faith, upon Candidates for License.; or if he is content with the Latin, he has then only seventeen.* Words, in their origin, have a natural or primary sense. The accidental associations of the people w^ho use it, afterwards give to that word a great number of secondary meanings. In some words the primary meaning is very common, and the secondary meaning very rare. In other instances it is just the reverse ; and in very many the particular secondary meaning'is pointed out by some preposition which accompanies it, or some case by which it is accompanied. But an accurate translation points these things out gradually as it proceeds. The common and most probable meanings of the word Baxxco, or of any other word, are, in the Hamiltonian method, insensibly but surely fixed on the mind, which, by the lexi- con method, must be done by a tentative pro- cess, frequently ending in gross error, noticed with peevishness, punished with severity, con- suming a great deal of time, and for the most part only corrected, after all, by the accurate viva voce translation of the master — or, in other words, by the Hamiltonian method. The recurrence to a translation is treated in our schools as a species of imbecility and meanness ; just as if there was any other dig- nity here than utility, any other object in learn- ing languages, than to turn something you do not understand, into something you do under- stand, and as if that was not the best method which effected this object in the shortest and simplest manner. Hear upon this point the judicious Locke : — " But if such a man cannot be got, who speaks good Latin, and being able to instruct your son in all these parts of know- ledge, will undertake it by this method, the next best is to have him taught as near this way as may be — which is by taking some easy and pleasant book, such as .^sop's Fables, and writing the English translation (made as literal as it can be) in one line, and the Latin words which answer each of them just over it in another. These let him read every day over and over again, till he perfectly understands the Latin ; and then go on to another fable, till he be also perfect in that, not omitting what he is already perfect in, but sometimes reviewing that, to keep it in his memory ; and when he comes to write, let these be set him for copies, which, with the exercise of his hand, will also advance him in Latin. This being a more im- perfect way than by talking Latin unto him, the formation of the verbs first, and afterwards the declensions of the nouns and pronouns perfectly learned by heart, may facilitate his acquaintance with the genius and manner of * In addition to the other needless difficulties and mise- ries entailed upon children who are learning languages, their Greek Lexicons give a Latin instead of an English translation ; and a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose attainments in Latin are of course but mode- rate, is expected to make it the vehicle of knowledge for other languages. This is setting the short-sighted and blear-eyed to lead the blind; and is one of those afflicting pieces of absurdity which escape animadver- sion, because they are, and have long been, of daily oc- currence. Mr. Jones has published an English and Greek Lexicon, which we recommend to the notice of all persons engaged in education, and not sacraraented against all improvement. the Latin tongue, which varies the significa- tion of verbs and nouns, not as the modem languages do, by particles prefixed, but by changing the last syllables. More than this of grammar I think he need not have till he can read himself ' Sanctii Minerva' — with Sciop- pius and Perigonius's notes." — Locke an Edu- cation, p. 74, folio. Another recommendation which we have not mentioned in the Hamiltonian system is, that it can be combined, and is constantly combined, with the system of Lancaster. The Key is pro- bably sufficient for those who have no access to classes and schools : but in an Hamiltonian school during the lesson, it is not left to the op- tion of the child to trust to the Key alone. The master stands in the middle, translates accurate- ly and literally the whole verse, and then asks the boys the English of separate words, or chal- lenges them to join the words together, as he has done. A perpetual attention and activity is thus kept up. The master, or a scholar (turned into a temporary Lancasterian master), acts as a living lexicon ; and, if the thing is well done, as a lively and animating lexicon. How is it possible to compare this with the solitary wretchedness of a poor lad of the desk and lexicon, suffocated with the nonsense of grammarians, overwhelmed with every species of difficulty disproportioned to his age, and driven by despair to peg top or marbles ■? "Taking these principles as a basis, the teacher forms his class of eight, ten, twenty or one hundred. The number is of little moment, it being as easy to teach a greater as a smaller one, and brings them at once to the language itself, by reciting, with a loud articulate voice, the first verse thus : — In in, principio in begin- ning, Verbum Word, erat was, et and, Verbum Word, erat was, apud at, Deiun God, et and, Verbum Word, erat was, Dens God. Having recited the verse once or twice himself, it is then recited precisely in the same manner by any person of the class whom he may judge most capable ; the person copying; his manner and intonations as much as possible. — When the verse has been thus recited, hy six or eight persons of the class, the teacher recites the 2d verse in the same manner, which is recited as the former by any members of the class ; and thus continues until he has recited from ten to twelve verses, which usually constitute the first lesson of one hour. — In three lessons, the first Chapter may be thus readily translated, the teacher gradually diminishing the number of repetitions of the same verse till the fourth lesson, when each member of the class trans- lates his verse in turn from the mouth of the teacher ; from which ^exioA. fifty, sixty, or even seventy, verses may be translated in the time of a lesson, or one hour. At the seventh lesson, it is invariably found that the class can trans- late without the assistance of the teacher, far- ther than for occasional correction, and for those words which they may not have met in the preceding chapters. But, to accomplish this, it is absolutely necessary that every mem- ber of the class know every tvord of all the pre- ceding lessons ; which is, however, an easy task, the words being always taught him in class, and the pupil besides being able to refer 236 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. to the key whenever he is at a loss — the key translated in the very words which the teacher has used in the class, from which, as was be- fore remarked, he must never deviate. — In ien lessons, it will be found that the class can readily translate the whole of the Gospel of St John, which is called the first section of the course. — Should any delay, from any cause, prevent them, it is in my classes always for account of teacher, who gives the extra lesson or lessons always gratis. — It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the pupil, that a perfect knowledge of every ivord of his first section is most important to the ease and com- fort of his future progress. — At the end of ten lessons, or fitst section, the custom of my es- tablishments is to give the pupil the Epitome Historias Sacrse, which is provided with a key in the same manner. — It was first used in our classes for the first and second sections ; we now teach it in one section of ten lessons, which we find easier than to teach it in two sections before the pupil has read the Testa- ment. — When he has read the Epitome, it will be then time to give him the theory of the verbs and other words which change their ter- minations. — He has already acquired a good practical knowledge of these things ; the theory becomes then very easy. — A grammar contain- ing the declensions and conjugations, and printed specially for my classes, is then put into the pupil's hands, (not to be got by heart, nothing is ever got by rote on this system,) but that he may comprehend more readily his teacher who lectures on grammar generally, but especially on the verbs. From this time, that is, from the beginning of the third section, the pupil studies the theory and construction of the language as well as its practice. For this purpose he reads the ancient authors, be- ginning with Caesar, which, together with the Seleda e Profanis, fills usefully the third and fourth sections. When these with the preced- ing books are well known, the pupil will find little difficulty in reading the authors usually read in schools. The fifth and sixth sections consist of Virgil and Horace, enough of which is read to enable the pupil to read them with facility, and to give him correct ideas of Pro- sody and Versification. Five or six months, with mutual attention on the part of the pupil and teacher, will be found sufficient to acquire a knowledge of this language, which hithe^-to has rarely been the result of as many years." We have before said, that the Hamiltonian system must not depend upon Mr. Hamilton's method of carrying it into execution ; for in- stance, he banishes from his schools the efl^ects of emulation. The boys do not take each other's places. This, we think, is a sad ab- surdity. A cook might as well resolve to make bread without fermentation, as a peda- gogue to carry on a school without emulation. It must be a sad doughy lump without this vivifying principle. Why are boys to be shut out from a class of feelings to which society owes so much, and upon which their conduct in future life must (if they are worth any thing) be so closely constructed? Poet A writes verses to outshine poet B. Philosopher ■ C sets up roasting Titanium, and boiling Chromium, that he may be thought more of than philosopher D. Mr. Jackson strives to out-paint Sir Thomas ; Sir Thomas Lethbridge to overspeak Mr. Canning ; and so society gains good chemists, poets, painters, speakers, and orators ; and why are not boys to be emu- lous as well as men 1 If a boy were in Paris, would he learn the language better by shutting himself up to read French books with a dictionary, or by con- versing freely with all whom he met 1 and what is conversation but an Hamiltonian school ■? Every man you meet is a living lexicon and grammar — who is perpetually changing your English into French, and per- petually instructing you, in spite of yourself, in the terminations of French substantives and verbs. The analogy is still closer, if you converse with persons of whom you can ask questions, and who will be at the trouble of correcting you. What madness would it be to run away from these pleasing facilities, as too dangerously easy — to stop your ears, to double-lock the door, and to look out chickens, taking a walk, and fine iveather, in Boyer's Dictionary — and then, by the help of Cham- baud's Grammar, to construct a sentence which should signify, "Come to my house, and eat some chickens, if it is fine .?" But there is in England almost a love of difficulty and need- less labour. We are so resolute and industri- ous in raising up impediments which ought to be overcome, that there is a sort of suspicion against the removal of these impediments, and a notion that the advantage is not fairly come by without the previous toil. If the English were in a paradise of spontaneous productions, they would continue to dig and plough, though they were never a peach nor a pine-apple the better for it. A principal point to attend to in the Hamil- tonian system, is the prodigious number of words and phrases which pass through the boy's mind, compared with those which are presented to him by the old plan. As a talka- tive boy learns French sooner in France than a silent boy, so a translator of books learns sooner to construe, the more he translates. An Hamiltonian makes, in six or seven les- sons, three or four hundred times as many exchanges of English for French or Latin, as a grammar schoolboy can do ; and if he loses 50 per cent, of all he hears, his progress is still, beyond all possibility of comparison, more rapid. As for pronunciation of living languages, we see no reason why that consideration should be introduced in this place. We are decidedly of opinion, that all living languages are best learned in the country where they are spoken, or by living with those who come from that country; but if that cannot be, Mr. Hamilton's method is better than the grammar and dic- tionary method. Casteris paribus, Mr. Hamil- ton's method, as far as French is concerned, would be better in the hands of a Frenchman, and his Italian method in the hands of an Italian ; but all this has nothing to do with the system. " Have I read through Lilly 1 — have I learned by heart that most atrocious momument of n WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 237 absurdity, the Westminster Grammar 1 — have I been whipt fo'^ the substantives ? — whipt for the verbs 7 — and whipt for and with the inter- jections ? — have I picked the sense slowly, and word by word, out of Hederick 1 — and shall my son Daniel be exempt from all this misery? — Shall a little unknown person in Cecil Street, Strand, No. 25, pretend to tell me that all this is imnecessary 1 — Was it possible that I might have been spared all this ? — The whole system is nonsense, and the man an impostor. If there had been any truth in it, it must have occurred to som€ one else before this period." — This is a very common style of observation upon Mr. Hamilton's system, and by no means an uncommon wish of the mouldering and decaying part of mankind, that the next generation should not enjoy any advantages from which they themselves have been precluded. — "^?/, ay, ifs all mighty ivell — but I went through this myself, and I am deter- mined my children shall do the same." We are convinced that a great deal of opposition to improvement proceeds from this principle. Crabbe might make a good picture of an un- benevolent old man, slowly retiring from this sublunary scene, and lamenting that the com- mg race of men would be less bumped on the roads, better lighted in the streets, and less tormented with grammars and lexicons, than in the preceding age. A great deal of compli- ment to the wisdom of ancestors, and a great degree of alarm at the dreadful spirit of inno- vation, are soluble into mere jealousy and envy. But what is to become of a boy who has no difficulties to grapple with? How enervated will that understanding be, to which every thing is inade so clear, plain, and easy; — no hills to walk up, no chasms to step over ; everj"- thing graduated, soft, and smooth. All this, however, is an objection to the multiplication table, to Napier's bones, and to every invention for the abridgment of human labour. There is no dread of any lack of difficulties. Abridge intellectual labour by any process you please — multiply mechanical powers to any extent — there will be sufficient, and infinitely more than sufficient, of laborious occupation for the mind and body of man. Why is the boy to be idle 1 — By and by comes the book without a key ; by and by comes the lexicon. They do come at last — though at a better period. But if they did not come — if they were useless, if language could be attained without them — would any human being wish to retain diffi- culties for their own sake, which led to nothing useful, and by the annihilation of which our faculties were left to be exercised, by diffi- culties which do lead to something useful — by mathematics, natural philosophy, and every branch of useful knowledge ? Can any one be so anserous as to suppose, that the faculties of yoimg men cannot be exercised, and their industry and activity called into proper action, because Mr. Hamilton teaches, in three or four years, what has (in a more vicious system) demanded seven or eight? Besides, even in the Hamiltonian method it is very easy for one boy to outstrip another. Why may not a clever and ambitious boy employ three hours upon his key by himself, while another boy has only employed one ? There is plenty of corn to thrash, and of chaff to be winnowed away, in Mr. Hamilton's system; the differ- ence is, that every blow tells, because it is properly directed. In the old way, half their force was lost in air. There is a mighty fool- ish apophthegm of Dr. Bell's,* that it is not what is done for a boy that is of importance, but what a boy does for himself. This is just as wise as to say, that it is not the breeches which are made for a boy that can cover his nakedness, but the breeches he makes for himself. All this entirely depends upon a comparison of the time saved, by showing the boy how to do a thing, rather than by leaving him to do it for himself. Let the object be, for example, to make a pair of shoes. The boy will effect this object much better if you show him how to make the shoes, than if you merely give him wax, thread, and leather, and leave him to find out all the inr. Doyle's Letter to Lord Liverpool, 115. ■WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 261 cabinet. Those who use such arguments know the answer to them as well as we do. The real evil they dread is the destruction of the church of Ireland, and, through that, of the Church of England. To which we reply, that such danger must proceed from the regular proceedings of Parliament, or be effected by insurrection and rebellion. The Catholics, re- stored to civil functions, would, we believe, be more likely to cling to the church than to Dis- senters. If not, both Catholics and Dissenters must be utterly powerless against the over- whelming English interests and feelings in the house. Men are less inclined to run into rebel- lion, in proportion as they have less to com- plain of; and, of all other dangers, the greatest to the Irish and English church establishments, and to the Protestant faith throughout Europe, is to leave Ireland in its present stale of discontetit. If the intention is to wait to the last, before concession is made, till the French or Ameri- cans have landed, and the holy standard has been unfurled, we ought to be sure of the terms which can be obtained at such a crisis. This game was played in America. Commissioners were sent in one year to offer and to press what "would have been most thankfully received the year before ; but they were always too late. The rapid concessions of England were out- stripped by the more rapid exactions of the colonies ; and the commissioners returned with the melancholy history, that they had humbled themselves before the rebels in vain. If you ever mean to concede at all, do it when every concession will be received as a favour. To wait till you are forced to treat, is as mean in principle as it is dangerous in effect. Then, how many thousand Protestant Dis- senters are there who pay a double allegiance to the king, and to the head of their church, who is not the king ? Is not Mr. William Smith, member for Norwich, the head of the Unitarian Church 7 Is not Mr. Wilberforce the head of the Clapham Church'? Are there not twenty preachers at Leeds, who regulate all the proceedings of the Methodists] The gentle- men we have mentioned are eminent, and most excellent men ; but if any thing at all is to be apprehended from this divided allegiance, we should be infinitely more afraid of some Jaco- binical fanatic at the head of Protestant vota- ries — some man of such character as Lord George Gordon — than we should of all the efforts of the Pope. As so much evil is supposed to proceed from not obeying the king as head of the church, it might be supposed to be a very active office — that the king was perpetually interfering with the affairs of the church — and that orders were in a course of emanation from the throne which regulated the fervour, and arranged the devotion, of all the members of the Church of England. But we really do not know what orders are ever given by the king to tVie church, except the appointment of a fast- day once in three or four years ; — nor can we conceive (for appointment to bishoprics is out of the question) what duties there would be to perform, if this allegiance were paid, instead of being withholden. Supremacy appears to us to be a mere name, without ex- ercise of power — and allegiance to be a duty without any performance annexed. If any one will say what ought to be done, which is not done, on account of this divided allegiance, we shall better understand the magnitude of the evil. Till then, we shall consider it as a lucky Protestant phrase, good to look at, like the mottos and ornaments on cake, but not fit to be eaten. Nothing can be more unfair than to expect, in an ancient church like that of the Catholics, the same uniformity as in churches which have not existed for more than two or three centuries. The coats and waistcoats of the reign of Henry VIII. bear some resemblance to the same garments of the present day ; but, as you recede, you get to the skins of wild beasts, or the fleeces of sheep, for the garments of savages. In the same way, it is extremely difficult for a church, which has to do with the counsels of barbarous ages, not to be detected in some discrepancy of opinion ; while in younger churches, every thing is fair and fresh, and of modern date and figure ; and it is not the custom among theologians to own their church in the wrong. "No religion can stand, if men, without regard to their God, and with regard only to controversy, shall rake out of the rubbish of antiquity the obsolete and quaint follies of the sectarians, and affront the majesty of the Almighty, with the impudent catalogue of their devices ; and it is a strong argument against the proscriptive system, that it helps to continue this shocking contest. Theologian against theologian, polemic against polemic, until the two madmen defame their common parent, and expose their common religion." — Grattan's Speech on the Catholic Question, 1805. A good-natured and well-conditioned person has pleasure in keeping and distributing any thing that is good. If he detects any thing with superior flavour, he presses and invites, and is not easy till others participate ; — and so it is with political and religious freedom. It is a pleasure to possess it, and a pleasure to com- municate it to others. There is something shocking in the greedy, growling, guzzling mo- nopoly of such a blessing. France is no longer a nation of atheists ; and therefore, a great cause of offence to the Irish Roman Catholic clergy is removed. Naviga- tion by steam renders all shores more accessi- ble. The union among Catholics is consoli- dated ; all the dangers of Ireland are redoubled ; every thing seems tending to an event fatal to England — fatal (whatever Catholics may fool- ishly imagine) to Ireland — and which will subjecWhem both to the dominion of France. Formerly a poor man might be removed from a parish if there was the slightest danger of his becoming chargeable ; a hole in his coat or breeches excited suspicion. The church- wardens said, " He has cost us nothing, but he may cost us something; and we must not live even in the apprehension of evil." All this is changed ; and the law now says, " Wait till you are hurt ; time enough to meet the evil when it comes; you have no right to do a certain evil to others, to prevent an uncertain evil to your- selves." The Catholics, however, are told that what they do ask is objected to, from the fear 262 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. of what they may ask ; that they must do with- out that which is reasonable, for fear they should ask what is unreasonable. " I would give you a penny (says the miser to the beggar), if I was quite sure you would not ask me for half a crown." " Nothing, I am told, is now so common on the continent as to hear our Irish policy dis- cussed. Till of late the extent of the disabili- ties was but little understood, and less regarded, partly because, having less liberty themselves, foreigners could not appreciate the deprivations, and partly because the pre-eminence of Eng- land was not so decided as to draw the eyes of the world on all parts of our system. It was scarcely credited that England, that knight- errant abroad, should play the exclusionist at home ; that every where else she should declaim against oppression, but contemplate it without emotion at her doors. That her armies should march, and her orators philippize, and her poets sing against continental tyranny, and yet that laws should remain extant, and principles be operative within our gates, which are a bitter satire on our philanthropy, and a melancholy negation of our professions. Our sentiments have been so lofty, our deportment to foreigners so haughty, we have set up such liberty and such morals, that no one could suppose that we were hypocrites. Still less could it be foreseen that a great moralist, called Joseph Surface, kept a ' little milliner' behind the scenes, we too should be found out at length in taking the diversion of private tyranny after the most approved models for that amusement." — Letter to Lord Milton, pp. 50, 51. We sincerely hope — we firmly believe — it never will happen ; but if it were to happen, why cannot England be just as happy with Ireland being Catholic, as it is with Scotland being Presbyterian 1 Has not the Church of England lived side by side with the Kirk, with- out crossing or jostling, for these last hundred years 1 Have the Presbyterian members enter- ed into any conspiracy for mincing bishoprics and deaneries into synods and presbyteries 1 And is not the Church of England tenfold more rich and more strong than when the separation took place 1 But however this may be, the real danger, even to the church of Ireland, as we have before often remarked, is the refusal of Catholic emancipation. It would seem, from the phrenzy of many worthy Protestants, whenever the name of Ca- tholic is mentioned, that the greatest possible diversity of religious opinions existed between the Catholic and the Protestant — that they were as different as fish and flesh — as alkali aM acid — as cow and cart-horse ; whereas it is quite clear, that there are many Protestant sects whose difference from each other is much more marked, both in church discipline and in tenets of faith, than that of Protestants and Catholics. We maintain that Lambeth, in these two points, is quite as near to the Vatican as it is to the Kirk — if not much nearer. Instead of lamenting the power of the priests over the lower orders of the Irish, we ought to congratulate ourselves that any influence can affect or control them. Is the tiger less formi- dable in the forest than when he has been caught and laught to obey a voice, and tremble at an hand 1 But we overrate the power of the priest, if we suppose that the upper orders are to encounter all the dangers of treason and rebellion, to confer the revenues of the Protest- ant church upon the Catholic clergy. If the influence of the Catholic clergy upon men of rank and education is so unbounded, why can- not the French and Italian clergy recover their possessions, or acquire an equivalent for them 1 They are starving in the full enjoyment of an influence which places (as we think) all the wealth and power of the country at their feet — an influence which, in our opinion, overpowers avarice, fear, ambition, and is the master of every passion which brings on change and movement in the Protestant world. We conclude with a few words of advice to the different opponents of the Catholic ques- tion. To the No-Popery Fool. You are made use of by men who laugh at you, and despise you for your folly and igno- rance ; and who, the moment it suits their purpose, will consent to emancipation of the Catholics, and leave you to roar and bellow No Popery ! to vacancy and the moon. To the No-Popery Rogue. A shameful and scandalous game, to sport with the serious interests of the country, in order to gain some increase of public power ! To the Holiest No-Popery People, We respect you very sincerely — but are astonished at your existence. To the Base. Sweet children of turpitude, beware ! the old anti-popery people are fast perishing away. Take heed that you are not surprised by an emancipating king, or an emancipating admin- istration. Leave a locus panitentia ! — prepare a place for retreat — get ready your equivoca- tions and denials. The dreadful day may yet come, when liberality may lead to place and power. We understand these matters here. It is the safest to be moderately base — to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when any thing is to be gained by virtue. To the Catholics. Wait. Do not add to your miseries by a mad and desperate rebellion. Persevere in civil exertions^ and concede all you can concede. All great alterations in human affairs are pro- duced by compromise. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH, 263 NECKAE'S LAST VIEWS/ [Edinburgh Review, 1803.] If power could be measured by territory, or counted by population, the inveteracy, and the disproportion which exists between France and England, must occasion to every friend of the latter country the most serious and well-found- ed apprehensions. Fortunately however for us, the question of power is not only what is the amount of population ] but, how is that population governed 1 How far is a confidence in the stability of political institutions establish- ed by an experience of their wisdom ? Are the various interests of society adjusted and pro- tected by a system of laws thoroughly tried, gradually ameliorated, and purely administer- ed ■? What is the degree of general prosperity evinced by that most perfect of all criteria, ge- neral credit? These are the considerations to which an enlightened politician, who speculates on the future destiny of nations, will direct his attention, more than to the august and impos- ing exterior of territorial dominion, or to those brilliant moments, when a nation, under the influence of great passions, rises above its neighbours, and above itself, in military re- nown. If it be visionary to suppose the grandeur and safety of the two nations as compatible and co-existent, we have the important (though the cruel) consolation of reflecting, that the French have yet to put together the very ele- ments of a civil and political constitution ; that they have to experience all the danger and all the inconvenience which result from the rash- ness and the imperfect views of legislators, who have every thing to conjecture, and every thing to create ; that they must submit to the confusion of repeated change, or the greater evil of obstinate perseverance in error; that they must live for a century in that state of perilous uncertainty in which every revolution- ized nation remains, before rational liberty be- comes feeling and habit, as well as law, and is written in the hearts of men as plainly as in the letter of the statute; and that the opportu- nity of beginning this immense edifice of hu- man happiness is so far from being presented to them at present, that it is extremely problem- atical whether or not they are to be bandied from one vulgar usurper to another, and remain for a century subjugated to the rigour of a military government, at once the scorn and the scourge of Europe.f * To the more pleasing supposition, that the First Consul will make use of his power to give his country a free constitution, we are in- debted for the work of M. Neckar now before us, a work of which good temper is the charac- teristic excellence : it every where preserves * Derniires Vvesde Politiques, et.de Fivance. Par M. Neckar. An 10, 1S02. f All this is, unfortunately, as true now as it was •when written thirty years ago. that cool impartiality which it is so difficult to retain in the discussion of subjects connected with recent and important events ; modestly proposes the results of reflection ; and, neither deceived nor wearied by theories, examines the best of all that mankind have said or done for the attainment of rational liberty. The principal object of M. Neckar's book is to examine this question, " An opportunity of election supposed, and her present circumstan- ces considered — what is the best form of go- vernment which France is capable of receiv- ing?" and he answers his own query by giving the preference to a Republic One and Indivisible. The work is divided into four parts. 1. An Examination of the present constitu- tion of France. 2. On the best form of a Republic One and Indivisible. 3. On the best form of a Monarchical Go- vernment. 4. Thoughts upon Finance. From the misfortune which has hitherto at- tended all discussions of present constitutions in France, M. Neckar has not escaped. The subject has proved too rapid for the author; and its existence has ceased before its proper- ties were examined. This part of the work, therefore, we shall entirely pass over : because, to discuss a mere name, is an idle waste of time; and no man pretends that the present constitution of France can, with propriety, be considered as any thing more. We shall pro- ceed to a description of that form of a republi- can government which appears to M. Neckar best calculated to promote the happiness of that country. Every department is to be divided into five parts, each of which is to send one member. Upon the eve of an election, all persons paying 200, livres of government taxes in direct con- tribution, are to assemble together, and choose 100 members from their own number, who form what M. Neckar calls a chamber of indi- cation. This chamber of indication is to pre- sent five candidates, of whom the people are to elect one ; and the right of voting in this latter election is given to every body engaged in a wholesale or retail business ; to all super- intendents of manufactures and trades; to all commissioned and non-commissioned officers and soldiers who have received their discharge ; and to all citizens paying, in direct contribu- tion, to the amount of twelve livres. Votes are not to be given in one spot, but before the chief magistrate of each cmnnmnc where the voter resides, and there inserted in registers ; from a Comparison of which, the successful candidate is to be determined. The municipal officers are to enjoy the right of recommending one of these candidates to the people, who are free to adopt their recommendation or not, as 264 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. they may think proper. The right of voting is confined to qualified single men of twenty-five years of age : married men of the same de- scription may vote at any age. To this plan of election we cannot help thinking there are many great and insuperable objections. The first and infallible conse- quence of it would be, a devolution of the whole elective franchise upon the chamber of indication, and a complete exclusion of the people from any share in the privilege : for the chamber bound to return five candidates, would take care to return four out of the five so tho- roughly objectionable, that the people would be compelled to choose the fifth. Such has been the constant effect of all elections so con- stituted in Great Britain, where the power of conferring the office has always been found to be vested in those who nanied the candidates, not in those who selected an individual from the candidates named. But if such were not the consequences of a double election ; and if it were so well consti- tuted, as to retain that character which the legislature meant to impress upon it, there are other reasons which would induce us to pro- nounce it a very pernicious institution. The only foundation of political liberty is the spirit of the people ; and the only circumstance which makes a lively impression upon their senses, and powerfully reminds them of their importance, their power, and their rights, is the periodical choice of their represen- tatives. How easily that spirit may be to- tally extinguished, and of the degree of abject fear and slavery to which the human race may be reduced for ages, every man of reflection is sufficiently aware : and he knows that the pre- servation of that feeling is, of all other objects of political science, the most delicate and the most difficult. It appears to us, that a people who did not choose their representatives, but only those who chose their representatives, would very soon become indifferent to their elections altogether. To deprive them of their power of nominating their own candidate, would be still M'orse. The eagerness of the people to vote, is kept alive by their occasional expulsion of a candidate who has rendered himself objectionable, or the adoption of one who knows how to render himself agreeable to them. They are proud of being solicited personally by a man of family or wealth. The uproar even, and the confusion and the clamour of a popular election in England, have their use : they give a stamp to the names, Liberty, Constitution, and People : they infuse sentiments which nothing but violent passions and gross objects of sense roidd infuse ; and which would never exist, perhaps, if the sober constituents were to sneak, one by one, into a notary's office to deliver their votes for a representative, or were to form the first link in that long chain of causes and effects, which, in this compound kind of elections, ends with choosing a mem- ber of parliament. "Above all things (says M. Neckar) languor is the most deadly to a republican government; for when such a political association is anima- ted neither by a kind of instinctive affection for its beauty, nor by the continual homage of reflection to the happy union of order and liberty, the public spirit is half lost, and with it the republic. The rapid brilliancy of despot- ism is preferred to a mere complicated ma- chine, from which every symptom of life and organization is fled." Sickness, absence, and nonage, would (even under the supposition of universal suff"rage) re- duce the voters of any country to one fourth of its population. A qualification much lower than that of the payment of twelve livres in direct contribution, would reduce that fourth one half, and leave the number of voters in France three millions and a half, which, divided by 600, gives between five and six thousand constituents for each represensative ; a num- ber not amounting to a third part of the voters for many counties in England, and which cer- tainly is not so unwieldy as to make it neces- sary to have recourse to the complex mechan- ism of double elections. Besides, too, if it could be believed that the peril were consider- able, of gathering men together in such masses, we have no hesitation in saying, that it would be infinitely preferable to thin their numbers, by increasing the value of the qualification, than to obviate the apprehended bad effects, by complicating the system of election. M. Neckar (much as he has seen and ob- served,) is clearly deficient in that kind of ex- perience which is gained by living under free governments : he mistakes the riots of a free, for the insurrections of an enslaved people ; and appears to be impressed with the most tre- mendous notions of an English election. The difference is, that the tranquillity of an arbi- trary government is rarely disturbed, but from the most serious provocations, not to be expi- ated by any ordinary vengeance. The excesses of a free people are less important, because their resentments are less serious ; and they can commit a great deal of apparent disorder with very little real mischief. An English mob, which, to a foreigner, might convey the belief of an impending massacre, is often contented by the demolition of a few windows. The idea of diminishing the number of con- stituents, rather by extending the period of non- age to twenty-five years, than by increasing the value of the qualification, appears to us to be new and ingenious. No person considers him- self as so completely deprived of a share in the government, who is to enjoy it when he be- comes older, as he would do, were that privi- lege deferred till he became richer; time comes to all, wealth to few. This assembly of representatives, as M. Neckar has constituted it, appears to us to be in extreme danger of turning out to be a mere collection of country gentlemen. Every thing is determined by territorial extent and popula- tion ; and as the voters in towns must, in any single division, be almost always inferior to the country voters, the candidates will be returned in virtue of large landed property ; and that in- finite advantage which is derived to a popular assembly, from the variety of characters of which it is composed, would be entirely lost under the system of M. Neckar. The sea-ports, the universities, the great commercial towns, should all have their separate organs in the- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 265 parliament of a great country. There should be some means of bringing in active, able, young men, who would submit to the labour of business, from the stimulus of honour and ■wealth. Others should be there, expressly to speak the sentiments, and defend the interests of the executive. Every popular assembly must be grossly imperfect, that is not composed of such heterogeneous materials as these. Our own parliament may perhaps contain within itself too many of that species of representa- tives, who could never have arrived at the dig- nity under a pure and perfect system of elec- tion ; but, for all the practical purposes of go- vernment, amidst a great majority fairly elected by the people, we should always wish to see a certain number of the legislative body repre- senting interests very distinct from those of the people. The legislative part of his constitution M. Neckar manages in the following manner. There are two councils, the great and the little. The great council is composed of five mem- bers from each department, elected in the man- ner we have just described, and amounting to the number of six hundred. The assembly is re-elected every five years. No qualification* of property is necessary to its members, who receive each a salary of 12,000 livres. No one is eligible to the assembly before the age of twenty-five years. The little national council consists of one hundred members, or from that number to one hundred and twenty; one for each department. It is re-elected every ten years ; its members must be thirty years of age ; and they receive the same salary as the mem- bers of the great council. For the election of the little council, each of the five chambers of indication, in every department, gives in the name of one candidate ; and, from the five so named, the same voters who choose the great council select one. The municipal officers enjoy, in this election, the same right of recommending one of the can- didates to the people; a privilege which they would certainly exercise indirectly, without a law, wherever they could exercise it with any effect, and the influence of which the sanction of the law would at all times rather diminish than increase. The grand national council commences all deliberations which concern public order, and the interest of the state, with the exception of those only which belong to finance. Neverthe- less, the executive and the little council have it in their power to propose any law for the con- sideration of the grand council. When a law has passed the two councils, and received the sanction of the executive senate, it becomes binding upon the people. If the executive senate disapprove of any law presented to them for their adoption, they are to send it back to the two councils for their reconsideration ; but if it pass these two bodies again, with the ap- probation of two-thirds of the members of each assembly, the executive has no longer the power of withholding its assent. All measures of finance are to initiate with government. ♦ Nothing can be more at>.surit thrin our qualification for parliiiment : il is notliiiig but a foolish and expen- sive lie on parctii;u:nt. 34 We believe M. Neckar to be right in his idea of not exacting any qualification of property in his legislative assemblies. When men are left to choose their own governors, they are guided in their choice by some one of those motives which has always commanded their homage and admiration : — if they do not choose wealth, they choose birth or talents, or military fame; and of all these species of pre-eminence, a large popular assembly should be constituted. In England, the laws, requiring that members of parliament should be possessed of certain pro- perty, are (except in the instance of members for counties) practically repealed. In the salaries of the members of the two councils, with the exception of the expense, there is, perhaps, no great balance of good or harm. To some men it would be an induce- ment to become senators; toothers, induced by more honourable motives, it would afford the means of supporting that situation without dis- grace. Twenty-five years of age is certainly loo late a period for the members of the great council. Of what astonishing displays of elo- quence and talent should we have been de- prived in this country under the adoption of a similar rule! The institution of two assemblies cohstitutes a check upon the passion and precipitation by which the resolutions of any single popular as- sembly may occasionally be governed. The chances, that one will correct the other, do not depend solely upon their dividuality, but upon the different ingredients of which they are com- posed, and that difference of system and spirit, which results from a difference of conformei- tion. Perhaps M. Neckar has not sufficiently attended to this consideration. The difference between his two assemblies is not very mate- rial ; and the same popular fury which marked the proceedings of the one, would not be very sure of meeting with an adequate corrective in the dignified coolness and wholesome gravity of the other. All power which is tacitly allowed to devolve upon the executive part of a government, from the experience that it is most conveniently placed there, is both safer, and less likely to be complained of, than that which is conferred upon it by law. If M. Neckar had placed some agents of the executive in the great council, all measures of finance would, in fart, have origi- nated in them, without any exclusive right to such initiation; but the right of initiation, from M. Neckar's contrivance, is likely to excite that discontent in the people, which alone can render it dangerous and objectionable. In this plan of a republic, every thing seems to depend upon the purity and the moderation of its governors. The executive has no con- nection with the great council; the members of the great council have no motive of hope, or interest, to consult the wishes of the executive. The assembly, which is to give example to the nation, and enjoy its confidence, is composed of six hundred men, whose passions have no other control than that pure love of the public, which it is hoped they may possess, and that cool inves- tigation of interests, which it is hoped they may pursue. Of the effects of such a constitution, every Z 266 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. thing must be conjectured; for experience ena- bles us to make no assertion respecting it. There is only one government in the modern world, which, from the effects it has produced, and the time it has endured, can with justice be called o-Qod and free. Its constitution, in books, contains the dej^cription of a legislative assem- bly, similar to that of M. Neckar's. Happily, perhaps, for the people, the share they have really enjoyed in its election, is much less ample than that allotted to them in this republic of the closet. How long a really popular assembly would tolerate any rival and co-existing power m the state — for what period the feeble execu- tive, and the untitled, unblazoned peers of a republic, could not stand against it — whether any institutions, compatible with the essence and meaning of a republic, could prevent it from absorbing all the dignity, the popularity and the power of the state, — are questions that we leave for the resolution of wiser heads ; with the sincerest joy, that we have only a theoretical interest in stating them.* The executive senate is to consist of seven ; and the right of presenting the candidates, and selecting from the candidates alternately from one assembly to the other, i. e. on a vacancy, the great council pfesent three candidates to the little council, who select one from that number; and, on the next vacancy, by the in- version of this process, the little council pre- sent, and the great council select; and so alter- nately. The members of the executive must be thirty-five years of age. Their measures are determined by a majority. The president, called the Consul, has a casting vote : his sal- ary is fixed at 300,000 livres ; that of all the other senators at 60,000 livres. The office of consul is annual. Every senator enjoys it in his turn. Every year one senator goes out, unless re-elected; which he may be once, and even twice, if he unites three-fourths of the votes of each council in his favour. The exe- cutive shall name to all civil and military of- fices, except to those of mayors and municipali- ties. Political negotiations, and connections with foreign countries, fall under the direction of the executive. Declarations of war or peace, when presented by the executive to the legislative body, are to be adopted, the first by a majority of three-fifths, the last by a simple majority. The parade, honours, and ceremo- nies of the executive, devolve upon the consul alone. The members of the senate, upon going out of office, become members of the little council, to the number of seven. Upon the vacation of an eighth senator, the oldest ex- senator in the little council resigns his seat to make room for him. All responsibility rests upon the consul alone, who has a right to stop the proceedings of a majority of the executive senate, by declaring them unconstitutional; and if the majority persevere, in spite of this declaration, the dispute is referred to and de- cided by a secret committee of the little coun- cil. M. Neckar takes along with him the same mistake through the whole of his constitution, * That interest is at present not quite so theoretical as it was. by conferring the choice of candidates on one body, and the election of the member on an- other : so that though the alternation would take place between the two councils, it would turn out to be in an order directly opposite to that which was intended. We perfectly acquiesce in the reasons M. Neckar has alleged for the preference given to an executive constituted of many individuals, rather than of one. The prize of supreme power is too tempting to admit of fair play in the game of ambition ; and it is wise to lessen its value by dividing it : at least it is wise to do so under a form of government that cannot admit the better expedient of rendering the ex- ecutive hereditary ; an expedient (gross and absurd as it seems to be) the best calculated, perhaps, to obviate the effects of ambition upon the stability of governments, by narrowing the field on which it acts, and the object for which it contends. The Americans have determined otherwise, and adopted an elective presidency : but there are innumerable circumstances, as M. Neckar very justly observes, which render the example of America inapplicable to other governments. America is a federative repub- lic, and the extensive jurisdiction of the indi- vidual stales exonerates the president from so great a portion of the cares of domestic go- vernment, that he may almost be considered as a mere minister of foreign affairs. America presents such an immediate, and such a seduc ing species of provision to all its inhabitants, that it has no idle discontented populace ; its population amounts only to six millions, and it is not condensed in such masses as the popu- lation of Europe. After all, an experiment of twenty years is never to be cited in politics ; nothing can be built upon such a slender infer- ence. Even if America were to remain sta- tionary, she might find that she had presented too fascinating and irresistible an object to hu- man ambition: of course, that peril is increas- ed by every augmentation of a people, who are hastening on, with rapid and irresistible pace, to the highest eminences of human grandeur. . Some contest for power there must be in every free state : but the contest for vicarial and de- puted power, as it implies the presence of a moderator and a master, is more prudent than the struggle for that which is original and su- preme. The difficulty of reconciling the responsi- bility of the executive with its dignity, M. Neckar foresees ; and states, but does not reme- dy. An irresponsible executive, the jealousy of a republic would never tolerate ; and its amenability to punishment, by degrading it in the eyes of the people, diminishes its power. All the leading features of civil liberty are copied from the constitution of this country, with hardly any variation. Having thus finished his project of a repub- lic, M. Neckar proposes the government of this country as the best model of a temperate and hereditary monarchy; pointing out such alter- ations in it as the genius of the French people, the particular circumstances in which they are placed, or the abuses which have crept into our policy, may require. From one or the other of these motives he re-establishes the WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 267 salique law ;* forms his elections after the same manner as that previously described in his scheme of a republic; and excludes the clergy from the house of peers. This latter assembly M. Neckar composes of 250 heredi- tary peers chosen from the best families in France, and of 50 assistant peers enjoying that dignity for life only, and nominated by the crown. The number of hereditary peers is limited as above ; the peerage goes only in the male line ; and upon each peer is perpetually entailed landed property to the amount of 30,000 livres. This partial creation of peers for life only, appears to remedy a very material defect in the English constitution. An heredi- tary legislative aristocracy not only adds to the dignity of the throne, and establishes that gra- dation of ranks which is, perhaps, absolutely necessary to its security, but it transacts a con- siderable share of the business of the nation, as well in the framing of laws as in the dis- charge of its juridical functions. But men of rank and wealth, though they are interested by a splendid debate, will not submit'to the drijdg- ery of business, much less can they be supposed conversant in all the niceties of law questions. It is therefore necessary to add to their number a certain portion of novi homines, men of estab- lished character for talents, and upon whom the previous tenor of their lives has necessa- rily impressed the habits of business. The evil of this is, that the title descends to their posterity, without the talents and the utility that procured it ; and the dignity of the peerage is impaired by the increase of its numbers : not only so, but as the peerage is the reward of military, as well as the earnest oi' civil ser- vices, and as the annuity commonly granted with it is only for one or two lives, we are in some danger of seeing a race of nobles wholly dependent upon the crown for their support, and sacrificing their political freedom to their necessities. These evils are eflectually, as il should seem, obviated by the creation of a ccr- tain-\ number of peers for life only ; and the in- crease of power which it seems to give to the crown, is very fairly counteracted by the ex- clusion of the episcopacy, and the limitation of the hereditary peerage. As the weight of business in the upper house would principally devolve upon the created peers, and as they would hardly arrive at that dignity without having previously acquired great civil or mili- tary reputation, the consideration they j/ould enjoy would be little inferior to that of the other part of the aristocracy. When the no- blesse of nature are fairly opposed to the noblesse created by political institutions, there is little fear that the former should suifer by the com- parison. If the clergy are suffered to sit in the lower house, the exclusion of the episcopacy from the upper house is of less importance : but, in some part of the legislative bodies, the inter- * A most sensible and valuable law, banishing gal- lantry and chivalry from cabinets, and preventing the amiable antics of grave statesmen. f The most useless and offensive tumour in the body politic, is the titled son of a great man whose merit has 'friaced him in the peerage. The name, face, and per- haps the pension, remain. The dsnion is gone ; or lliere is a slight flavour from the cask, but it is empty. ests of the church ought unquestionably to be represented. This consideration M. Neckar wholly passes over.* Though this gentleman considers an heredi- tary monarchy as preferable in the abstract, he deems it impossible that such a government could be established in. France, under her pre- sent circumstances, from the impracticability of establishing with it an hereditary aristocra- cy ; because the property, and the force of opinion, which constituted their real power, are no more, and cannot be restored. Though we entirely agree with M. Neckar, that an heredi- tary aristocracy is a necessary part of temperate monarchy, and that the latter must exist upon the base of the former, or not at all — we are by no means converts to the very decided opinion he has expressed of the impossibility of restor- ing them both to France. We are surprised that M. Neckar should at- tempt to build any strong argument upon the durability of opinions in nations that are about to undergo, or that have recently undergone, great political changes. What opinion was- there in favour of a republic in 1780 7 Or against it in 1794 ? Or, what opinion is there now in favour of it in 1802? Is not the tide of opinions, at this moment, in France, setting back with a strength equal to its flow 1 and is there not reason to presume, that, for some time to come, their ancient institutions may be adored with as much fury as they were de- stroyed ? If opinion can revive in favour of kings (and M. Neckar allows it may), why not in favour of nobles ? It is true their property is in the hands of other persons ; and the whole of that species of proprietors will exert them- selves to the utmost to prevent a restoration so pernicious to their interests. The obstacle is certainly of a very formidable nature. But why this weight of property, so weak a weapon of defence to its ancient, should be deemed so irresistible in the hands of its present possessors, we are at a loss to conceive; unless, indeed, it be supposed, that antiquity of pot;session di- minishes the sense of right and the vigour of retention ; and that men will struggle harder to keep what they have acquired only yesterday, than that which they have possessed, by them- selves or their ancestors, for six centuries. In France, the inferiority of the price of revolutionary lands to others, is immense. Of the former species, church land is considerably dearer than the forfeited estates of emigrants. Whence the difference of price, but from the estimated difference of security! Can any fact display more strongly the state of public opinion with regard to the probability of a future resto- ration of these estates, either partial or total ? and can any circumstance facilitate the execu- tion of such a project more than the general belief that it will be executed? M. Neckar allows, that the impediments to the formation of a republic are very serious ; but thinks they would all yield to the talents and activity of Buonaparte, if he were to dedicate himself to * The parochial clergy are as much unrepresented in the English Parliament as they are in the Parliament of Brobdisnag. The bishops make just what laws they please, and the bearing they may have on the happiness of the clergy at large never for one moment comes into the serious consideration of Parliament 268 WORKS OF THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH. the superintendence of such a government during the period of its infancy : of course, therefore, he is to suppose the same power dedicated to the formation of an hereditary monarchy : or his parallel of difficulties is un- just, and his preference irrational. Buonaparte could represent the person of a monarch, during his life, as well as he could represent the execu- tive of a republic ; and if he could overcome the turbulence of electors, to whom freedom was new, he could appease the jealousy that his generals would entertain of the returning nobles. Indeed, without such powerful inter- vention, this latter objection does not appear to us to be by any means insuperable. If the his- tory of our own restoration were to be acted over again in France, and royalty and aristo- cracy brought back by the military successor of Buonaparte, it certainly could not be done without a veiy liberal distribution of favours among the great leaders of the army. Jealousy of the executive is one feature of a republic ; in consequence, that government is clogged with a multiplicity of safeguards and restrictions, which render it unfit for investi- gating complicated details, and managing ex- tensive relations with vigour, consistency, and despatch. A republic, therefore, is better fitted for a little state than a large one. A love of equality is another very strong principle in a republic ; therefore it does not tolerate hereditary honour or wealth ; and all the effect produced upon the minds of the people by this factitious power is lost, and the govern- ment weakened; but, in proportion as the government is less able to command, the people should be more willing to obey; therefore a republic is better suited to a moral than an im- moral people. A people who have recently experienced great evils from the privileged orders and from mon- archs, love republican forms so much, that the warmth of their inclination supplies, in some degree, the defect of their institutions. Imme- diately, therefore, upon the destruction of des- potism, a republic 7?iay be preferable to a limited monarchy. And yet, though narrowness of territory, purity of morals, and recent escape from des- potism, appear to be the circumstances which most strongly recommend a republic, M. Neckar proposes it to the most numerous and the most profligate people in Europe, who are disgusted with the very name of liberty, from the incredi- ble evils they have suffered in pursuit of it. Whatever be the species of free government adopted by France, she can adopt none without the greatest peril. The miserable dilemma in which men living under bad governments are placed, is, that, without a radical revolution, they may never be able to gain liberty at all ; and, with it, the attainment of liberty appears to be attended with almost insuperable difficul- ties. To call upon a nation, on a sudden, totally destitute of such knowledge and experience, to perform all the manifold functions of a free constitution, is to entrust valuable, delicate, and abstruse mechanism, to the rudest skill and the grossest ignorance. Public acts may confer liberty; but experience only can teach a people to use it; and, till they have gained that expe- rience, they are liable to tumult, to jealousy, to collision of powers, and to every evil to which men are exposed, who are desirous of preserv- ing a great good, without knowing how to set about it. In an old established system of liberty, like our own, the encroachments which one de- partment of the state makes on any other, are slow, and hardly intentional ; the political feel- ings and the constitutional knowledge which every Englishman possesses, create a public voice, which tends to secure the tranquillity of the whole. Amid the crude sentiments and new-born precedents of sudden liberty, the crown might destroy the commons, or the commons the crown, almost before the people had formed any opinion of the nature of their contention. A nation grown free in a single day, is a child bom with the limbs and the vigour of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze, that he might chuckle over the splendour. Why can factious eloquence produce such limited effects in this country? Partly because we are accustomed to it, and know how to ap- preciate it. We are acquainted with popular assemblies ; and the language of our Parlia- ment produces the effect it ought upon public opinion, because long experience enables us to conjecture the real motives by which men are actuated ; to separate the vehemence of party spirit from the language of principle and truth; and to discover whom we can trust, and whom we cannot. The want of all this, and of much more than this, must retard, for a very long pe- riod, the practical enjoyment of liberty iu France, and present very serious obstacles to her prosperity; obstacles little dreamed of by men who seem to measure the happiness and future grandeur of France by degrees of lon- gitude and latitude, and who believe she might acquire liberty with as much facility as she could acquire Switzerland or Naples. M. Neckar's observations on the finances of France, and on finance in general, are useful, entertaining, and not above the capacity of every reader. France, he says, at the begin- ning of 1781, had 438 millions of revenue; and, at present 540 millions. The state paid, in 1781, about 21.5 millions in pensions, the in- terest of perpetual debts, and debts for life. It pays, at present, 80 millions in interests and pensions ; and owes about 12 millions for anti- cipations on the public revenue. A considera- ble ^are of the increase of the revenue is raised upon the conquered countries; and the people are liberated from tithes, corvees, and the tax on salt. This, certainly, is a magnifi- cent picture of finance. The best informed people at Paris, who would be very glad to con- sider it as a copy from life, dare not contend that it is vso. At least, we sincerely ask pardon of M. Neckar. if our information as to this point be not correct : but we believe he is gene- rally considered to have been misled by the public financial reports. In addition to the obvious causes which keep the interest of money so high in France, M. Neckar states one which we shall present to our readers : — "There is one means for the establishment of credit," he says, " equally important with WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 269 the others which I hare stated — a sentiment of respect for morals, sufficiently diffused to over- awe the government, and intimidate it from treating with bad faith any solemn engagements contracted in the name of the state. It is this respect for 7norah ivhich seems at present to have dis- appeared? a respect which the Revolution has destroyed, and which is unquestionably one of the firmest supports of national faith." The terrorists of this country are so ex- tremely alarmed at the power of Buonaparte, that they ascribe to him resources which M. Neckar very justly observes to be incompati- ble — despotism and credit. Now, clearly, if he is so omnipotent in France as he is represented to be, there is an end of all credit; for nobody will trust /lit^twhom nobody can compel to pay; and if he establishes a credit, he loses all that temporary vigour which is derived from a re- volutionary government. Either the despotism or the credit of France directed against this country would be highly formidable; but, both together, can never be directed at the same time. In this part of his work, M. Neckar very justly points out one of the most capital defects of Mr. Pitt's administration ; who always sup- posed that the power of France was to cease with her credit, and measured the period of her existence by the depreciation of her assignats. Whereas, France was never more powerful than when she was totally unable to borrow a single shilling in the whole circumference of Europe, and when her assignats were not worth the paper on which they were stamped. Such are the principal contents of M. Neck- ar's very i-espectable work. Whether, in the course of that work, his political notions ap- pear to be derived from a successful study of the passions of mankind, and whether his plan for the establishment of a republican govern- ment in France, for the ninth or tenth time, evinces a more sanguine, or a more sagacious mind, than the rest of the world, we would ra- ther our readers should decide for themselves, than expose ourselves to any imputation of ar- rogance,"by deciding for them. But when we consider the pacific and impartial disposition which characterizes the Last Vieivs on Politics and Finance, the serene benevolence which it always displays, and the pure morals which it always inculcates, we cannot help entertaining a high respect for its venerable author, and feel- ing a fervent wish, that the last views of every public man may proceed from a heart as up- right, and be directed to objects as good. z 2 2Y0 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. CATTEAU, TABLEAU DES ETATS DANOIS/ [Edinburgh Review, 1803.] The object of this book is to exhibit a pic- ture of the kingdom of Denmark, under all its social relations, of politics, statistics, science, morals, manners, and every thing which can influence its character and importance, as a free and independent collection of human beings. This book is, upon the whole, executed with great diligence and good sense. Some sub- jects of importance are passed over,- indeed, with too much haste; but if the publication had exceeded its present magnitude, it would soon have degenerated into a mere book of reference, impossible to be read, and fit only, like a dictionary, for the purposes of occasional appeal : It would not have been a picture pre- senting us with an interesting epitome of the whole; but a typographical plan, detailing, with minute and fatiguing precision, every trifling circumstance, and every subordinate feature. We should be far from objecting to a much more extended and elaborate perform- ance than the present; because those who read, and those who write, are now so nume- rous, that there is room enough for varieties and modifications of the same subject : but information of this nature, conveyed in a form and in a size adapted to continuous reading, gains in surface what it loses in depth, — and gives general notions to many, though it can- not afibrd all the knowledge which a few have it in their power to acquire, from the habits of more patient labour, and more profound research. This work, though written at a period when enthusiasm or disgust had thrown most men's minds off their balance, is remarkable, upon the whole, for sobriety and moderation. The observations, though seldom either strikingly ingenious or profound, are just, temperate, and always benevolent. We are so far from per- ceiving any thing like extravagance in Mr. Catteau, that we are inclined to think he is occasionally too cautious for the interests of truth; that he manages the court of Den- mark with too much delicacy; and exposes, by distant and scarcely perceptible touches, that which it was his duty to have brought out boldly and strongly. The most disa- greeable circumstance in the style of the book is, the author's compliance with that irresistible avidity of his country to declaim upon common-place subjects. He goes on, mingling bucolic details and sentimental effu- sions, melting and measuring, crying and caU culating, in a manner which is very bad, if it is poetry, and worse if it is prose. In speaking of the mode of cultivating potatoes, he cannot avoid calling the potato a modest vegetable : and * Tableaux des Etats Danois. Par Jeak Pierre Cat- TEAO. 3 tomes. 1802. a Paris. when he comes to the exportation of horses from the duchy of Holstein, we learn that "these animals are dragged from the bosom of their peaceable and modest country, to hear, in foreign regions, the sound of the warlike trum- pet; to carry the combatant amid the hostile ranks ; to increase the eclat of some pompous procession; or drag, in gilded car, some favourite of fortune." We are sorry to be compelled to notice these untimely effusions, especiallj' as they may lead to a suspicion of the fidelity of the work ; of which fidelity, from actual examina- tion of many of the authorities referred to, we have not the most remote doubt. Mr. Catteau is to be depended upon as securely as any writer, going over such various and extensive ground, can ever be depended upon. He is occasionally guilty of some trifling inaccura- cies ; but what he advances is commonly de- rived from the most indisputable authorities ; and he has condensed together a mass of infor- mation, which will render his book the most accescible and valuable road of knowledge, to those who are desirous of making any re- searches respecting the kingdom of Den- mark. Denmark, since the days of piracy, has hardly been heard of out of the Baltic. Mar- garet, by the union of Calmar, laid the founda- tion of a monarchy, which (could it have been preserved by hands as strong as those which created it) would have exercised a powerful influence upon the destinies of Europe, and have strangled, perhaps in the cradle, the in- fant force of Russia. Denmark, reduced to her ancient bounds by the patriotism and talents of Gustavus Vasa, has never since been able to emerge into notice by her own natural resources, or the genius of her minis,- ters and her monarchs. During that period, Sweden has more than once threatened to give laws to Europe ; and, headed by Charles and Gustavus, has broke out into chivalrous enter- prises, with an heroic valour, which merited wiser objects, and greater ultimate success. The spirit of the Danish nation has, for the last two or three centuries, been as little car- ried to literature or to science, as to war. They have written as little as they have done. With the exception of Tycho Brahe and a volume of shells, there is hardly a Danish book, or a Danish writer, known five miles from the Great Belt. It is not sufficient to say, that there are many authors read and admired in Denmark: there are none that have passed the Sound, none that have had energy enough to force themselves into the circulation of Eu- i rope, to extort universal admiration, and live, I without the aid of municipal praise, and local approbation. From the period, however, of the first of the Bernstorffs, Denmark has made a WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 271 great spring, and has advanced more within the last twenty or thirty years, than for the three preceding centuries. The peasants are now emancipated; the laws of commerce, foreign and interior, are simplified and ex- panded ; the transport of corn and cattle is made free ; a considerable degree of liberty is granted to the press ; and slavery is to cease this very year in their West Indian possessions. If Ernest Bernstorff was the author of some less considerable measures, they are to be attributed more to the times, than to the defects of his understanding, or of his heart. To this great minister succeeded the favourite Struen- see, and to him Ove Guild berg: the first, with views of improvements, not destitute of libe- rality or genius, but little guided by judgment, or marked by moderation ; the latter, devoid of that energy and firmness which were ne- cessary to execute the good he intended. In 1788, when the king became incapable of bu- siness, and the crown-prince assumed the go- vernment. Count Andrew Bernstorfi", nephew of Ernest, was called to the ministry: and, while some nations were shrinking from the very name of innovation, and others overturn- ing every establishment and violating every principle, Bernstorff steadily pursued, and ulti- mately effected, the gradual and bloodless amelioration of his country. His name will ever form a splendid epoch in the history of Denmark. The spirit of economical research and improvement which emanated from him still remains ; while the personal character of the prince of Denmark, and the zeal with which he seconded the projects of his favourite minister, seem to afford a guarantee for the continuation of the same system of adminis- tration. In his analysis of the present state of Den- mark, Mr. Catteau, after a slight historical sketch of that country, divides his subject into sixteen sections. 1. Geographical and physical qualities of the Danish territory' : 2. Form of Government: 3. Administration: 4. Institutions relative to government and administration : 5. Civil and criminal laws, and judiciary institutions : 6. Military system, land, array, and marine : 7. Finance : 8. Popiilation : 9. Productive indus- try, comprehending agriciilture, the fisheries, and the extraction of mineral substances : 10. Manufacturing industry : 11. Commerce, "in- terior and exterior, including the state of the great roads, the canals of navigation, the mari- time insurances, the bank, &c. &c. : 12. Es- tablishments of charity and public utility : 13. Religion: 14. Education : 15. Language, cha- racter, manners, and customs: 16. Sciences and arts. — This division we shall follow. From the southern limits of Holstein to the southern extremity of Norway, the Danish do- minions extend to 300 miles* in length, and * The mile alluded to here, and through the whole of the book, is the Danish mile, 15 to a degree, or 4000 toises in round numbers : the ancient mile of Norway is much more considerable. It may he as well to mention here, that the Danes reckon their money by rixdollars, marks, and schellings. A rixdollar contains 6 niarks, and a mark 16 schellings ; 20 schellings are equal to one livre ; con- sequently, the pound sterling is equal to 4 r. 4 m. 14 sch., > or nearly 5 rixdollars. are, upon an average, from about 50 to 60 in breadth ; the whole forms an area of about 8000 square miles. The western coast of Jutland, from Riba to Lemvig, is principally alluvial, and presents much greater advan- tages to the cultivator, than he has yet drawn from it. The eastern coast is also extremely favourable to vegetation. A sandy and barren ridge stretching from north to south, between the two coasts, is unfavourable to every spe- cies of culture, and hardly capable of support- ing the wild and stunted shrubs which lan- guish upon its surface. Towards the north, where the Jutland peninsula terminates in the Baltic, every thing assumes an aspect of bar- renness and desolation. It is Arabia, without its sun or its verdant islands ; but not without its tempests or sands, which sometimes over- whelm what little feeble agriculture they may encounter, and convert the habitual wretched- ness of the Jutlanders into severe and cruel misfortune. The Danish government has at- tempted to remedy this evil, in some measure, by encouraging the cultivation of those kinds of shrubs which grow on the sea-shore, and by their roots give tenacity and aggregation to the sand. The Elymus Arenaria, though found to be the most useful for that purpose, is still inadequate to the prevention of the ca- lamity.* The Danish isles are of a green and pleasant aspect. The hills are turfed up to the top, or covered with trees ; the valleys animated by the passage of clear streams ; and the whole strikingly contrasted with the savage sterility, or imposing grandeur, of the scenes on the op- posite coast of Jutland. All the seas of Den- mark are well stored with fish ; and a vast number of deep friths and inlets affords a cheap and valuable communication with the interior of the country. The Danish rivers are neither numerous nor considerable. The climate, generally speaking, is moist and subject to thick fogs, which al- most obscure the horizon. Upon a mean of twenty-six years, it has rained for a hundred and thirty days every year, and thundered for thirteen. Their summer begins with June, and ends with September. A calm serene sky, and an atmosphere free from vapours, are very rarely the lot of the inhabitants of Denmark ; but the humidity with which the air is impreg- nated is highly favourable to vegetation ; and all kinds of corn and grass are cultivated there with great success. To the south of Denmark are the countries of Sleswick and Holstein. Nature has divided these countries into two parts ; the one of which is called Geetsland, the other Marschland. Geetsland is the elevated ground situated along the Baltic. The soil resembles that of Denmark. The di- vision of Marschland forms a band or stripe, which extends from the Elbe to the frontiers of Jutland, an alluvium gained and preserved from the sea, by a labour which, though vigi- lant and severe, is repaid by the most ample * There is a Danish work, by Professor Viborg, upon those plants which grow in sand. It has been very ac- tively distributed in Jutland, by the Danish administra- tion, and might be of considerable service in Norfolk, and other parts of Great Britain. 272 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. profits. The sea, however, in all these allu- vial countries, seldom forgets his original rights. Marschland, in the midst of all its tranquillity, fat, and silence, was invaded by this element in the year 1634, with the loss of whole villages, many thousands of horned cat- tle, and 1500 human beings. Nature is as wild and grand in Norway as she is productive in Marschland. Cataracts amid the dark pines ; the eternal snow on the mountains ; seas that bid adieu to the land, and stretch out to the end of the world ; an end- less succession of the great and the terrible, — leave the eye and the mind without repose. The climate of Norway is extremely favoura- ble to the longevity of the human race, and sufficiently so to the life of many animals do- jnesticated by man. The horses are of good breed; the horned cattle excellent, though .small. Crops of grain are extremely precari- ous, and often perish before they come to ma- turity.* In 1660, the very year in which this happier country was laying the foundations of rational liberty by the wise restrictions imposed upon its returning monarch, the people of Denmark, by a solemn act, surrendered their natural rights into the hands of their sovereign, en- dowed him with absolute power, and, in express words, declared him, for all his political acts, accountable only to him to whom all kings and governors are accountable. This revolu- tion, similar to that effected by the king and people at Stockholm in 1772, was not a change from liberty to slavery ; but from a worse sort of slavery to a better ; from the control of an insolent and venal senate, to that of one man : it was a change which simplified their degra- dation, and, by lessening the number of their tyrants, put their servitude more out of sight. There ceased immediately to be an arbitrary monarch in every parish, and the distance of the oppressor either operated as a diminution of the oppression, or was thought to do so. The same spirit, to be sure, which urged them to victory over one evil, might have led them on a little farther to the subjugation of both ; and they might have limited the king, by the same powers which enabled them to dissolve the senate. But Europe, at that period, knew no more of liberty than of galvanism ; and the peasants of Denmark no more dreamt of be- coming free than the inhabitants of Paris do at this moment. At present, Denmark is in theory one of the most arbitrary governments on the face of the earth. It has remained so ever since the revo- lution to which we have just alluded ; in all which period the Danes have not, by any im- portant act of rebellion, evinced an impatience of their yoke, or any sense that the enormous power delegated to their monarchs has been improperly exercised. In fact, the Danish go- vernment enjoys great reputation for its for- bearance and mildness; and sanctifies, in a certain degree, its execrable constitution, by the moderation with which it is administered. * We shall take littte notice of Iceland in this review, from the attetilion we mean to pay to that subject in the review of " Voyage en Iceland, fait par ordre de sa MajestI Danoise," 5 vols. 1802. We regret extremely that Mr. Catteau has given us, upon this curious subject of the Danish government, such a timid and sterile dissertation. Many governments are despotic in law, which are not despotic in fact ; not be- cause they are restrained by their own mode- ration, but because, in spite of their theoretical omnipotence, they are compelled, in many important points, to respect either public opinion or the opinion of other balancing pow- ers, which, without the express recognition of law, have gradually sprung up in the state. Russia, and Imperial Rome, had its praetorian guards. Turkey has its uhlema. Public opi- nion almost always makes some exceptions to its blind and slavish submission ; and in bow- ing its neck to the foot of a sultan, stipulates how hard he shall tread. The very fact of en- joying a mild government for a century and a half, must, in their own estimation, have given the Danes a sort of right to a mild govern- ment. Ancient possession is a good title in all cases ; and the King of Denmark may have completely lost the power of doing many just and many unjust actions, from never having exercised it in particular instances. What he has not done for so long a period, he may not dare to do now ; and he may in vain pro- duce constitutional parchment, abrogated by the general feelings of those whom they were intended to control. Instead of any informa- tion of this kind, the author of the Tableau has given us at full length the constitutional act of 1660, and has afforded us no other knowledge than we could procure from the most vulgar histories ; as if state papers were the best place to look for constitutions, and as if the rights of king and people were really adjusted, by the form and solemnity of covenant and pacts ; by oaths of allegiance, or oaths of coro- nation. The king has his privy council, to which he names whom he pleases, with the exception of the heir-apparent, and the princes of the blood, who sit there of right. It is customary, also, that the heads of colleges should sit there. These colleges are the offices in which the various business of the state is carried on. The chancelry of Denmark interprets all laws which concern privileges in litigation, and the different degrees of authority belonging to va- rious public bodies. It watches over the in- terests of church and poor: issues patents, edicts, grants, letters of naturalization, legiti- macy, and nobility. The archives of the state are also under its custody. The German chancelry has the same powers and privileges in Sleswick and Holstein, which are fiefs of the empire. There is a college for foreign af- fairs ; two colleges of finance ; and a college of economy and commerce; which, divided into four parts, directs its attention to four ob- jects : 1. Manufacturing industry: 2. Com- merce : 3. Productions : 4. Possessions in the East Indies. All projects and speculations, relative to any of these objects, are referred to this college; and every encouragement given to the prosecution of such as it may approve. There are two other colleges, which respec- tively manage the army and navy. The total number is nine. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY" SMITH. 273 The court of Denmark is on a footing of great simplicity. The pomp introduced by Christian IV., who modelled his establishments after those of Louis XIV., has been laid aside, and a degree of economy adopted, much more congenial to the manners of the people, and the resources of the country. The hereditary nobility of Denniark may be divided into those of the ancient, those of the modern fiefs, and the personal nobility. The first class are only distinguished from the second, by the more extensive privileges annexed to their fiefs ; as it has been the policy of the court of Denmark, in latter times, not to grant such immunities to the possessors of noble lands as had been accorded to them at earlier periods. Both of these classes, however, derive their nobility from their estates, which are inalienable, and descend according to the laws of primogeni- ture. In the third class, nobility derives from the person, and not from the estate. To pre- vent the female noblesse from marrying be- neath their rank, and to preserve the dignity of their order, nine or ten Protestant nunne- ries have been from time to time endowed, in each of which about twelve noble women are accommodated, who, not bound by any vow, find in these societies an economical and ele- gant retirement. The nobility of Norway have no fiefs. The nobility of Holstein and Sleswick derive their nobility from their fiefs, and are possessed of very extensive privileges. Every thing which concerns their common interest is discussed in a convention held periodically in the town of Keil ; during the vacations of the convention, there is a perma- nent deputation resident in the same town. Interests so well watched by the nobles them- selves, are necessarily respected by the court of Denmark. The same institution of free nunneries for the female nobility prevails in these provinces. Societies of this sort might perhaps be extended to other classes, and to other countries with some utility. The only objection to a nunnery is, that those who change their mind cannot change their situa- tion. That a number of unmarried females should collect together into one mass, and subject themselves to some few rules of con- venience, is a system which might aiford great resources and accommodation to a number of helpless individuals, without proving injurious to the community ; unless, indeed, any very timid statesman shall be alarmed at the pro- gress of celibacy, and imagine that the increase and multiplication of the human race may be- come a mere antiquated habit. The lowest courts in Denmark are com- posed of a judge and a secretary, both chosen by the landed proprietors within the jurisdic- tion, but confirmed by the king, in whose name all their proceedings are carried on. These courts have their sessions once a week in Denmark, and are attended by four or five burgesses or farmers, in the capacity of asses- sors, who occasionally give their advice upon subjects of which their particular experience may entitle them to judge. From this juris- diction there is appeal to a higher court, held every month in different places in Denmark, by judges paid by the crown. The last appeal 35 for Norway and Denmark is to the Hoieste Rett, or supreme court, fixed at Copenhagen, which is occupied for nine months in the year, and composed half of noble, half of plebeian judges. This is the only tribunal in which the advocates plead viva voce; in all the others, litigation is carried on by writing. The king takes no cognisance of pecuniary suits determined by this court, but reserves to himself a revision of all its sentences which affect the life or honour of the subject. It has always been the policy of the court of Den- mark to render justice as cheap as possible. We should have been glad to have learned from Mr. Catteau, whether or not the cheap- ness of justice operates as an encouragemerit to litigation ; and whether (which we believe is most commonly the case) the quality of Danish justice is not in the ratio of the price. But this gentleman, as we have before re- marked, is so taken up by the formal part of institutions, that he has neither leisure nor inclination to say much of their spirit. The Tribunal of Conciliation, established since 1795, is composed of the most intelligent and re- spectable men in the vicinage, and its sessions are private. It is competent to determine upon a great number of civil questions ; and if both parties agree to the arrangement pro- posed by the court, its decree is registered, and has legal authority. If the parties cannot be brought to agreement by the amicable inter- ference of the mediators, they are at full liberty to prosecute their suit in a court of justice. All the proceedings of the Tribunal of Conciliation are upon unstamped paper, and they cannot be protracted longer than fifteen days in the country, and eight days in the towns, unless both parties consent to a longer delay. The expenses, which do not exceed three shillings, are not payable, but in case of reconciliation. During the three years preceding this institution, there came before the courts of law, 25,521 causes; and, for the three years following, 9653, makitig the asto- nishing difference of fifteen thousand eight hun- dred and sixty-three lawsuits. The idea of this court was taken from the Dutch, among whom it likewise produced the most happy effects. And when we consider what an important point it is, that there should be time for dis- putants to cool ; the strong probability there is, that four or five impartial men from the vicinage will take a right view of the case, and the reluctance that any man must feel to embark his reputation and property in opposi- tion to their opinion, we cannot entertain a doubt of the beauty and importance of the invention. It is hardly possible that it should be bad justice which satisfies both parties, and this species of mediation has no validity but upon such condition. It is curious, too, to remark, how much the progress of rancour obstructs the natural sense of justice ; it ap- pears that plaintiff and defendant were both satisfied in 15,868 causes : if all these causes had come on to a regular hearing, and the parties been inflamed by the expense and the publicity of the quarrel, we doubt if there would have been one single man out of the whole number who would have acknowledged 27€ WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. that his cause was justly given against . him. There are some provisions in the criminal law of Denmark, for the personal liberty of the subject, which cannot be of much import- ance, so long as the dispensing power is vested in the crown ; however, though they are not much, they are better than nothing ; and have probably some effect in offences merely crimi- nal, where the passions and interests of the governors do not interfere. Mr. Catteau con- siders the law which admits the accused to bail, upon finding proper security, to be unjust, because the poor cannot avail themselves of it. But this is bad reasoning : for every coun- try has a right to impose such restrictions and liens upon the accused, that they shall be forthcoming for trial ; at the same time, those restrictions are not to be more severe than the necessity of the case requires. The primary and most obvious method of security is im- prisonment. Whoever can point out any other method of effecting the same object, less oppressive to himself and as satisfactory to the justice of the country, has a right to re- quire that it be adopted ; whoever cannot, must remain in prison. It is a principle that should never be lost sight of, that an accused person is presumed to be innocent; and that no other vexation should be imposed upon him than what is absolutely necessary for the purposes of future investigation. The im- prisonment of a poor man, because he cannot find bail, is not a gratuitous vexation, but a necessary severity ; justified only, because no other nor milder mode of security can, in that particular instance, be produced. Inquisitorial and penal torture is, in some instances, allowed by the laws of Denmark : the former, after having been abolished, was re-established in 1771. The corporations have been gradually and covertly attacked in Den- mark, as they have been in Great Britain. The peasants, who had before been attached to the soil, were gradually enfranchised be- tween 1788 and 1800; so that, on the first day of the latter year, there did not remain a single slave in the Danish dominions ; or, to speak more correctly, slavery was equalized among all ranks of people. We need not descant on the immense importance of this revolution ; and if Mr. Catteau had been of the same opinion, we should have been spared two pages of very bad declamation ; beginning, in the true French style, with " oh toi," and going on with what might be expected to follow such a beginning. The great mass of territorial proprietors in Denmark are the signiors, possessing fiefs with very extensive privileges and valuable exemp- tions from taxes. Many persons hold lands under these proprietors, with interests in the land of very different descriptions. There are some cultivators who possess freeholds, but the number of these is very inconsiderable. The greater number of farmery are what the French call Metayers, put in by the landlord, furnished with stock and seed at his expense, and repaying him in product, labour, or any other manner agreed on in the contract. This ■ is the first, or lowest stage of tenantry, and . is the surest sign of a poor country. The feudal system never took root very deeply in Norway: the greater part of the lands are freehold, and cultivated by their owners. Those which are held under the few privileged fiefs which still exist in Norway, are subjected to less galling conditions than farms of a simi- lar tenure in Denmark. Marriage is a mere civil contract among the privileged orders : the presence of a priest is necessary for its celebration among the lower orders. In every large town, there are two public tutors ap- pointed, who, in conjunction with the magis- trates, watch over the interests of wards, at the same time that they occupy themselves with the care of the education of children within the limits of their jurisdiction. Natural children are perhaps more favoured in Den- mark than in any other kingdom of Europe; they have half the portion which the law allots to legitimate children, and the whole if there are no legitimate. A very curious circumstance took place in the kingdom of Denmark, in the middle of the last century, relative to the infliction of capital punishments upon malefactors. They were attended from the prison to the place of execu- tion by priests, accompanied by a very nu- merous procession, singing psalms, &c. &c. : which ended, a long discourse was addressed by the priest to the culprit, who was hung as soon as he had heard it. This spectacle, and all the pious cares bestowed upon the cri- minah, so far seduced the imaginations of the common people, that many of them committed murder purposely to enjoy such inestimable advantages, and the governmentwas positively obliged to make hanging dull as well as deadly, before it ceased to be an object of popular ambition. In 1796, the Danish land forces amounted to 74,654, of which 50,880 were militia.* Amongst the troops on the Norway establish- ment, is a regiment of skaters. The pay of a colonel in the Danish service is about 1740 rixdollars ^er cnrawTO, with some perquisites; that of a private 6 schellings a day. The entry into the Danish states from the German side is naturally strong. The passage between Lubeck and Hamburg is only eight miles, and the country intersected by marshes, rivers, and lakes. The straits of the Baltic afford considerable security to the Danish isles ; and there are very few points in which an army could penetrate through the Norway moun- tains to overrun that country. The principal fortresses of Denmark are Copenhagen, Rendsbhurg, Gluchstadt, and Frederickshall. In 1801, the Danish navy consisted of 3 ships of 80 guns, 12 of 74, 2 of 70, 3 of 64, and 2 of 60 ; 4 frigates of 40, 3 of 36, 3 of 24, and a number of small vessels ; in all, 22 of the line, and 10 frigates.f * The militia is not embodied in regiments by itself, but divided among the various regiments of the line. t In 1T91, the Swedish army amounted to 47,000 men, regulars and militia ; their navy to not more than 16 ships of the line : before the war it was about equal to the Danish navy. The author of Voyage des deux Fran- fais places the regular troops of Russia at 250,000 men exclusive of guards and garrisons;, and her navy, as it existed in 1791, at 30 frigates, and 50 sail of the line, of which 8 were of UO guns. This is a brief picture of the forces of the Baltic powers. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 275 The revenues of Denmark are derived from the interest of a capital formed by the sale of crown lands ; from a share in the tithes ; from the rights of fishing and hunting let to farm ; from licenses granted to the farmers to distil their own spirits ; from the mint, post, turn- pikes, lotteries, and the passage of the Sound. About the year 1750, the number of vessels which passed the Sound both ways, was annually from 4000 to 5000; in 1752, the number of 6000 was considered as very ex- traordinary. They have increased since in the following ratio : — 1770 - - 7,736 1777 - - 9,047 1783 - - 11,166 1790 - - 9,734 1796 - - 12,113 1800 - - 9,048 In 1770, the Sound duties amounted to 459,890 rixdollars ; and they have probably been increased since that period to about half a million. To these sources of revenue are to be added, a capitation tax, a land tax, a tax on rank, a tax on places, pensions, and the clergy ; the stamps, customs, and excise ; con- stituting a revenue of 7,270,172 rixdollars.* The following is a table of the expenses of the Danish government. Rixdollars. The court 250,000 The minor branches of the royal family - 180,000 Civil servants ...... 707,500 Secret service money and pensions - - 231,000 Army 2,080,000 Navy 1,200,000 East India colonies ----- 180,000 Bounties to commerce and manufactures - 300,000 Annuities 27,000 Buildings and repairs - - - - l 120,000 Interest of the public debt - - . . 1,100,000 Sinking ftind ------- 150,000 - 6,525,500 Total The state of the Danish debt does not ap- pear to be well ascertained. Voyage des deux Frangais makes it amount to 13,645,046 rix- dollars. Catteau seems to think it must have been above 20,000,000 rixdollars at that period. The Danish government has had great re- course to the usual expedient of issuing paper money. So easy a method of getting rich has of course been abused ; and the paper was, in the year 1790, at a discount of 8, 9, and 10 per cent. There is, in general, a great want of specie in Denmark; for, though all the Sound duties are paid in gold and silver, the government is forced to export a considerable quantity of the precious metals, for the payment of its foreign debts and agents ; and, in spite of the rigid prohibitions to the contrary, the Jews, who swarm at Copenhagen, export Danish ducats to a large value. The court of Denmark has no great credit out of its own dominions, and has always experienced a con- siderable difficulty in raising its loans in * Upon the subject of the Danish revenues, see Toze's Introduction to the Statistics, edited and improved by Heinz, 1T99, torn. xi. From this work, Mr. Catteau has taken his information concerning the Danish revenues. See also the ICth cap. vol. ii. of Voyaire des detii Frnn^au, which is admirable for e.xtent and precision of informa- tion. In general, indeed, this work cannot be too much attended to by those who wish to become acquainted with the statistics of the north of Europe. Switzerland, Genoa, and Holland, the usual markets it has resorted to for that purpose. In the census taken in 1769, the return was as follows : — In Denmark 785,690 Norway ----- 722,141 Iceland ----- 4«,201 Ferro Isles ' - - - - - 4,754 Sleswick , - ... - 243,605 Holstein 134,665 Oldenbourg and Delmenhurst - 79,071 2,017,127 This census was taken during the summer, a season in which great numbers of sailors are absent from their families ; and as it does not include the army, the total ought, perhaps, to be raised to 2,225,000. The present popula- tion of the Danish states, calculating from the tables of life and death, should be about two millions and a half; the census lately taken has not yet been published. From registers kept for a number of years, it appears that the number of marriages were to the whole popula- tion, as 1 to 125; and the number of births to the whole population, were as 1 to 32 or 33 ; of deaths, as 1 to 38. In 1797, in the diocese of Vibourg, out of 8600 children, 80 were bastard : in the diocese of Fionia, 280 out of 1146. Out of 1356, dead in the first of these dioceses, 100 had attained the age of 80, and one of 100. In 1769, the population of the towns was 144,105 ; in 1787, it was 142,880. In the first of these years, the population of the country was 641,485; and in the latter, 667,165. The population of Copenhagen con- sisted, in the year 1799, of 42,142 males, and 41,476 females. The deaths exceeded the births, says Mr. Catteau ; and to prove it, he exhibits a table of deaths and births for six years. Upon calculating this table, however, it appears, that the sum of the births, at Co- penhagen, during that period, exceeds the sum of the deaths by 491, or nearly ^2 per annum; about j-^\-g of the whole population of the city. The whole kingdom increases y/j^f, or nearly 17^2 in a year.* There is no city in Denmark proper, except Copenhagen, which has a po- pulation of more than 5000 souls. The density of population in Denmark proper is about 1300 to the square mile.f The proportion of births and deaths in the duchies is the same as in Denmark ; that of marriages, as 1 to 1 15. Altona, the second city in the Danish domi- nions, has a population of 20,000. The density of population in Marschland is 6000 per square mile. The paucity of inhabitants in Norway is not merely referable to the difiiculties of sub- sistence, but to the administrative system established there, and to the bad state of its civil and economical laws. It has been more than once exposed to the horrors of famine, by the monopoly of the commerce of grain esta- blished there, from which, however, it has at length been delivered. The proportion of births to the living, is as 1 to 35 ; that of deaths to the living, as 1 to 49.+ So that the whole * The average time in which old countries double their population is stated by Adam Smith to be about 500 years. + The same rule is used here as in p. 279. X This proportion is very remarkable proof of the longevity of the Norwegians. 276 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Danish dominions increase, every year, by about 2^3 ; and Norway, which has the worst climate and soil, by about ^^ 3 ; exceeding the common increase by nearly" ^^^ of the whole population. Out of 26,197 persons who died in Denmark in 1799, there were 165 between 80 and 100; and out of 18,354 who died in Norway the same year, there were 208 indi- viduals of the same advanced age. The country population is to the town population in the ratio of 13 to 137. In some parts of Nordland and Finmarken, the population is as low as 15 to the square mile. Within the last twenty or thirty years, the Danes have done a great deal for the improve- ment of their country. The peasants, as we have before mentioned, are freed from the soil. The greater part of the clerical, and much of the lay tithes are redeemed, and the corvees and other servile tenures begin to be commuted for money. A bank of credit is established at Copenhagen, for the loan of money to per- sons engaged in- speculations of agriculture and mining. The interest is 4 per cent., and the money is repaid by instalments in the course of from 21 to 28 years. In the course of 12 years, the bank has lent about three mil- lions of rixdoUars. The external and domestic commerce of grain is now placed upon the most liberal footing. The culture of potatoes (ce fruit modeste) has at length found its way into Denmark, after meeting with the same objections which it experienced at its first in- troduction from every nation in Europe. Hops are a good deal attended to in Fionia, though enough are not yet grown for the supply of the country. Tobacco is cultivated in the en- virons of Fredericia, in Jutland, by the indus- trious descendants of a French colony planted there by Frederick IV. Very little hemp and flax are grown in the Danish dominions. They had veterinary schools previous to the present establishment of them in Great Britain. In- deed, there was a greater necessity for them in Denmark ; as no country in Europe has suf- fered so severely from diseases among its animals. The decay of the woods begins to be very perceptible ; and great quantities, both for fuel and construction, are annually im- ported from the other countries bordering the Baltic. They have pit-coal ; but, either from its inferior quality, or their little skill in work- ing it, they are forced to purchase to a con- siderable amount from England. The Danes have been almost driven out of the herring market by the Swedes. Their principal ex- port of this kind is dried fish; though, at Altona, their fisheries are carried on with more ap- pearance of enterprise than elsewhere. The districts of Hedemarken, Hodeland, Toten, and Romerige, are the parts of Norway most cele- brated for the cultivation of grain, which prin- cipally consists of oats. The distress in Nor- way is sometimes so great, that the inhabitants are compelled to make bread of various sorts of lichens, mingled with thdr grain. It has lately been discovered that the Lichen rangif- erus, or rein-deer's moss, is extremely well calculated for that purpose. The Norway fisheries bring to the amount of a million and a half of rixdollars annually into the country. The most remarkable mines in Norway are, the gold mines of Edsvold, the silver mines of 4j Konigsberg, the copper mines of Rasraas, and. ll the iron mines of Arendal and Kragerse, the cobalt mines of Fossum, and the black-lead mines of Englidal. The court of Denmark is not yet cured of the folly of entering into com- mercial speculations on its own account. From the year 1769 to 1792, 78,000 rixdollars per annum have been lost on the royal mines alone.- Norway produces marble of ditferent colours, very beautiful granites, mill, and whet-stones,, and alum. The principal manufactures of Denmark are those of cloth, cotton-printing, sugar refining, and porcelain ; of which latter manufactures, carried on by the crown, the patient proprie- tors hope that the profits may at some future period equal the expenses. The manufactories for large and small arms are at Frederick- waerk and Elsineur ; and, at the gates of Co- penhagen, there has lately been erected a cot- ton spinning-mill upon the construction so well known in England. At Tendern, in Sles- wick, there is a manufacture of lace ; and very considerable glass manufactories in several parts of Norway. All the manufacturing arts have evidently travelled from Lubeck and Hamburg; the greater part of the manufac- turers are of German parentage ; and vast numbers of manufacturing Germans are to be met with, not only in Denmark, but throughout Sweden and Russia. The Hoi stein canal, uniting the Baltic and the North Sea, is extremely favourable to the interior commerce of Denmark, by rendering unnecessary the long and dangerous voyage round the peninsula of Jutland. In the year 1785, there passed through this canal 409 Danish, and 44 foreign ships. In the year 1798, 1086 Danish, and 1164 foreign. This canal is so advantageous, and the passage round Jutland so very bad, that goods, before the creation of the canal, were very often sent by land from Lubeck to Hamburg. The amount of cargoes despatched from Copenha- gen for Iceland, between the years 1764 and 1784, was 2,560,000 rixdollars; that of the returns, 4,665,000. The commerce with the isles of Foeroe is quite inconsiderable. The exports from Greenland, in the year 1787, amounted to 168,475 rixdollars ; its imports to 74,427. None of these possessions are suf- fered to trade with foreign nations, but through the intervention of the mother country. The cargoes despatched to the Danish West Indies consist of all sorts of provisions, of iron, of copper, of various Danish manufactures, and of some East India goods. The returns are made in sugar, rum, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and coffee. There are about 75 vessels em- ployed in this commerce, from the burden of 40 to 200 tons. If the slave trade, in pursuance of the laws to that effect, ceases in the Danish colonies, the establishments on the coast of Africa will become rather a burden than a profit. What measures have been taken to insure the aboli- tion, and whether or not the philanthropy of the mother country is likely to be defeated by the interested views of the colonists, are deli- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 277 cate points, which Mr. Catteau, who often seems to think more of himself than of his reader, passes over with his usual timidity and caution. The present year is the period at which all further importation of negroes ought to cease ; and if this wise and noble law be really carried into execution, the Danes will enjoy the glory of having been the first to erase this foulest blot in the morality of Europe, and to abolish a wicked and absurd traffic, which purchases its luxuries at the price of impending massacre, and present oppression. Deferred revenge is always put out to com- pound interest, and exacts its dues with more than Judaicai rigour. The Africans have begun with the French : Jam proximus ardet UcaXegon. Tea, rhubarb, and porcelain are the princi- pal articles brought from China. The factories in the East Indies send home cotton cloths, silk, sugar, rice, pepper, ginger, indigo, opium, and arrack. Their most important East Indian settlement is Fredericksnager.* Denmark, after having been long overshadowed by the active industry of the Hanseatic towns, and embarrassed by its ignorance of the true prin- ciples of commerce, has at length established important commercial connections with all the nations of Europe, and has regulated those connections by very liberal and enlightened principles. The regulations for the customs, published in 1791, are a very remarkable proof of this assertion. Every thing is there arranged upon the most just and simple prin- ciples ; and the whole code evidences the striking progress of mercantile knowledge in that country. In looking over the particulars of the Danish commerce, we were struck with the immense increase of their freightage dur- ing the wars of this country ; a circumstance which should certainly have rendered them rather less disposed to complain of the vexa- tions imposed upon the neutral powers during such periods.f In the first six months of the year 1796, 5032 lasts of Danish shipping were taken up by strangers for American voyages only. The commercial tonnage of Denmark is put at about 85,000 lasts. There appears to exist in the kingdom of Denmark, according to the account of Mr. Catteau, a laudable spirit of religious tolera- tion; such as, in some instances, we might copy, with great advantage, in this island. It is not, for instance, necessary in Denmark, that a man should be a Lutheran, before he can be the mayor of a town; and, incredible as it may seem to some people, there are many officers and magistrates, who are found capable of civil trusts, though they do not take the sacraments, exactly in the forms prescribed by the established church. There is no doubt, * We should very willingly have gone through every branch of the Danish commerce, if we had not been ap- prehensive of extending this article loo fiir. Mr. Catteau gives no general tables of the Danish exports and im- ports. A German work places them, for the year 1768, as follows :— Exports, 3,067,051 rixdoUars ; imports, 3,215,085. — Ut. Kunden, par Oatspari, tTo say nothing of the increased sale of Norway tim- ber, out of 86,000 lasts exported from Norway, 1799, 76,000 came to Great Britain. however, of the existence of this very extraor- dinary fact; and, if Mr. Catteau's authority is called in question, we are ready to corroborate it by the testimony of more than one dozen German statists. The Danish church consists of 13 bishops, 227 archpriests, and 2462 priests. The principal part of the benefices are, in Norway, in the gift of the crown. In some parts of Denmark, the proprietors of the pri- vileged lands are the patrons ; in other parts, the parishes. The revenues of the clergy are from the same sources as our own clergy. The sum of the church revenues is computed to be 1,391,895 rixdollars ; which is little more than 500 for each clergyman.* The court of Denmark is so liberal upon the subject of sec- taries, that the whole royal family and the Bishop of Seland assisted at the worship of the Calvinists in 1789, when they celebrated, in the most public manner, the centenary of the foundation of their church. In spite of this tolerant spirit, it is computed that there are not more than 1800 Calvinists in the whole Danish dominions. At Christianfield, on the frontiers of Sleswick and Jutland, there is a colony of Northern Quakers, or Hernhutes, of which Mr. Catteau has given a very agreeable account. They appear to be characterized by the same neatness, order, industry, and ab- surdity, as their brethren in this country ; tak- ing the utmost care of the sick and destitute, and thoroughly persuaded that by these good deeds, aided by long pockets and slouched hats, they are acting up to the true spirit of the Gospel. The Greenlanders were converted to Christianity by a Norwegian priest, named John Egede. He was so eminently successful in the object of his mission, and contrived to make himself so very much beloved, that his memoiy is still held among them in the highest veneration ; and they actually date their chro- nology from the year of his arrival, as we do ours from the birth of our Saviour. There are, in the University of Copenhagen, seven professors of theology, two of civil law, two of mathematics, one of Latin and rhetoric, one of Greek, one of oriental languages, one of history, five of medicine, one of agriculture, and one of statistics. They enjoy a salary of from 1000 to 1500 rixdollars, and are well lodged in the university. The University of Copenhagen is extremely rich, and enjoys an income of 3,000,000 rixdollars. Even Mr. Catteau admits that it has need of reform. In fact, the reputation of universities is almost always short-lived, or else it survives their merit. If they are endowed, professors be- come fat-witted, and never imagine that the arts and sciences are any thing else but in- comes. If universities, slenderly endowed, are rendered famous by the accidental occur- rence of a few great teachers, the number of scholars attracted there by the reputation of the place, makes the situation of a professor worth intriguing for. The learned pate is not fond of ducking to the golden fool. He who has the best talents for getting the office, has most commonly the least for filling it; and * The Jews, however, are still prohibited from enter- ing the kingdom of Norway. 3 A 278 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. men are made moral and mathematical teach- ers by the same trick and filthiness with which they are made tide-waiters, and clerks of the kitchen. The number of students in the University of Copenhagen is about 700 : they come not only from Denmark, but from Norway and Iceland : the latter are distinguished as well for the regularity of their manners, as for the intensity of their application; the instruments of which application are furnished to them by a library containing 60,000 volumes. The Danes have primary schools established in the towns, but which have need of much re- form, before they can answer all the beneficial ends of such an institution. We should have been happy to have learned from Mr. Catteau, the degree of information diffused among the lower orders in the Danish dominions ; but upon this subject he is silent. In the Univer- sity of Keil there is an institution for the in- struction of schoolmasters ; and in the list of students in the same university, we were a good deal amused to fmd only one student dedicating himself to belles lettres. The people of Holstein and Sleswick are Dutch in their manners, character, and ap- pearance. Their language is in general the low German ; though the better sort of peo- ple in the towns begin to speak high German.* In Jutland and the isles, the Danish language is spoken : within half a century this language has been cultivated with some attention : be- fore that period, the Danish writers preferred to make use of the Latin or the German language. It is in the island of Finland that it is spoken with the greatest purity. The Danish charac- ter is not agreeable. It is marked by silence, phlegm, and reserve. A Dane is the excess and extravagance of a Dutchman ; more breeched, more ponderous, and more satur- nine. He is not often a bad member of society in the great points of morals, and seldom a good one in the lighter requisites of manners. His understanding is alive only to the useful and the profitable ; he never lives for what is merely gracious, courteous, and ornamental. His faculties seem to be drenched and slack- ened by the eternal fogs in which he resides ; he is never alert, elastic, nor serene. His state of animal spirits is so low, that what in other countries would be deemed dejection, proceed- ing from casual misfortune, is the habitual tenour and complexion of his mind. In all the operations of his understanding, he must have time. He is capable of undertaking great journeys; but he travels only a foot pace, and never leaps nor runs. He loves arithmetic better than lyric poetry, and aff'ects Cocker rather than Pindar. He is slow to speak of fountains and amorous maidens ; but can take a spell at porisms as well as another ; and will make profound and extensive com- binations of thought, if you pay him for it, and do not insist thai he shall either be biisk or brief. There is somethiujr, on the contrarv. * Mr. Catteau's description of Heligoland is entertain- ing. In an island containing a population of 2000, there is neither honse, cart, nor plough. We could not have imagined the possibility of such a fact in any part of Europe. extremely pleasing in the Norwegian style of character. The Norwegian expresses firra ness and elevation in all that he says and does. . In comparison with the Danes, he has always been a free man ; and you read his history in his looks. He is not apt, to be sure, to for- give his enemies ; but he does not deserve any ; for he is hospitable in the extreme, and prevents the needy in their wants. It is not possible for a writer of this country to speak ill of the Norwegians ; for, of all strangers, the people of Norway love and admire the British the most. In reading Mr. Catteau's account of the congealed and blighted Lap- landers, we were struck with the infinite de- light they must have in dying ; the only cir- cumstance in which they can enjoy any supe- rioritjr over the rest of mankind; or which tends, in their instance, to verify the theory of the equality of human condition. If we pass over Tycho Brahe, and the well known history of the Scaldes, of the chronicles of Isleif, Saemunder, Hiinfronde, Snorro, Sturle- son, and other Islandic worthies, the list of Danish literati will best prove that they have no literati at all. Are there twenty persons in Great Britain who have ever heard of Longo- montanus, Nicholas Stenaonis, Sperling Lau- renburg, Huitfeild, Gramn, Holberg, Lange- beck, Carstens, Suhm, Kofod, Anger 1 or of the living Wad, Fabricius, Hanch, Tode, and Zasga 1 We do not deny merit to these various personages ; many of them may be much ad- mired by those who art more conversant in Danish literature than we can pretend to be : but they are certainly not names on which the learned fame of any country can be built very high. They have no classical celebrity and diflusion : they are not an universal language ;. they have not enlarged their original dominion,, and become the authors of Europe instead of the authors of Denmark. It would be loss of lime to speak of the fine arts in Denmark : they hardly exist. We have been compelled to pass over many parts of Mr. Catteau's book more precipitately than we could have wished; but we hope we have said and exhibited enough of it, to satisfy the public that it is, upon the whole, a very valuable publication. The two great requisites for his undertaking, moderation and industry, we are convinced this gentleman possesses in an eminent degree. He represents every thing without prejudice, and he represents every thing authentically. The same cool and judicious disposition which clears him from the spirit of party, makes him perhaps cautious in excess. We are convinced that every thing he says is true ; but we have been sometimes induced to suspect that we do not see the whole truth. After all, perhaps, he has told as much truth as he could do, compatibly with the opportunity of telling any. A person more disposed to touch upon critical and offensive subjects might not have submitted as diligently to the investigation of truth, with which passion was not concerned. How few writers are, at the same time, laborious, impartial, and in- trepid ! We cannot conclude this article without expressing the high sense we entertain of the WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. ' 279 importance of such researches as those in which Mr. Catteau has been engaged. They must form the basis of all interior regulations, and ought principally to influence the conduct of every country in its relations towards fo- reign powers. As they contain the best esti- mate of the wealth and happiness of a people, they bring theory to the strictest test ; and measure, better than all reasoning, the wisdom with which laws are made, and the mildness with which they are administered. If such judicious and elaborate surveys of the state of this and other countries in Europe, had been made from time to time for the last two centuries, they would have quickened and matured the progress of knowledge, and the art of governing by throwing light on the spi- rit and tendency of laws ; they would have checked the spirit of officious interference in legislation ; have softened persecution, and expanded narrow conceptions of national po- licy. The happiness of a nation would have been proclaimed by the fulness of its garners, and the multitudes of its sheep and oxen ; and rulers might sometimes have sacrificed their schemes of ambition, or their unfeeling splen- dour, at the detail of silent fields, empty har- bours, and famished peasants. THOUGHTS ON THE RESIDENCE OE THE CLERGY.* [Edinburgh Review, 1803.] This pamphlet is the production of a gen- tleman who has acquired a right to teach the duties of the clerical character by fulfilling them ; and who has exercised that right in the present instance, with honour to himself, and benefit to the public. From the particular character of understanding evinced in this work, we should conceive Dr. Sturges to pos- sess a very powerful claim to be heard on all questions referable to the decision of practi- cable good sense. He has availed himself of his experience to observe ; and of his observa- tion, to judge well: he neither loves his pro- fession too little, nor too much ; is alive to its interests, without being insensible to those of the community at large; and treats of those points where his previous habits might render a little intemperance venial, as well as proba- ble, with the most perfect good humour and moderation. As exceptions to the general and indisputa- ble principle of residence. Dr. Sturges urges the smallness of some livings ; the probability that their incumbents be engaged in the task of education, or in ecclesiastical duty, in situa- tions where their talents may be more appro- priately and importantly employed. Dr. Stur- ges is also of opinion, that the power of en- forcitig residence, under certain limits, should be invested in the bishops ; and that the acts prohibiting the clergy to hold or cultivate land should be in a great measure repealed. We sincerely hope that the two cases sug- gested by Dr. Sturges, of the clergyman who may keep a school, or be engaged in the duty of some parish not his own, will be attended to in the construction of the approaching bill, and admitted as pleas for non-residence. It certainly is better that a clergyman should do ihe duty of his own benefice, rather than of any other. But the injury done to the com- munity, is not commensurate with the vexa- tion imposed upon the individual. Such a measure is either too harsh, not to become * Tneughts en the Residence of tke Clergy. By John Stcboes, LL. D. obsolete; or, by harassing the clergy with a very severe restriction, to gain a very dispro- portionate good to the community, would bring the profession into disrepute, and have a ten- dency to introduce a class of men into the church, of less liberal manners, education, and connection ; points of the utmost importance, in our present state of religion and wealth. Nothing has enabled men to do wrong with impunity so much as the extreme severity of the penalties with which the law has threatened them. The only method to insure success to the bill for enforcing ecclesiastical residence, is to consult the convenience of the clergy in its construction, as far as is possibly consist- ent with the object desired, and even to sacri- fice something that ought to be done, in order that much may be done. Upon this principle, the clergyman should not be confined to his parsonage-house, but to the precincts of his parish. Some advantage would certainly at- tend the residence of the clergy in their official mansions ; but, as we have before obsenred, the good one party would obtain, bears no sort of proportion to the evil the other would suffer. Upon the propriety of investing the bench of bishops with a power of enforcing resi- dence, we confess ourselves to entertain very serious doubts. A bishop has frequently a very temporary interest in his diocese : he has favours to ask; and he must grant them. Leave of absence will be granted to powerful intercession ; and refused, upon stronger pleas, to men without friends. Bishops are frequently men advanced in years, or immersed in stud;/. A single person who compels many others to their duty, has much odium to bear, and much activity to exert. A bishop is subject to ca- price, and enmity, and passion, in common with other individuals ; there is some danger, also, that his power over the clergy may be converted to a political purpose. From innu- merable causes, which might be reasoned upon to great length, we are apprehensive the object of the legislature will be entirely frus- 280 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. trated in a few years, if it be committed to espiscopal superintendence and care ; though, upon the first view of the subject, no other scheme can appear so natural and so wise. Dr. Sturges observes, that after all the con- ceivable justifications of non-residence are enumerated in the act, many others must from time to time occur, and indicate the propriety of vesting somewhere a discretionary power. If this be true of the penalties by which the clergy are governed, it is equally true of all other penal laws ; and the law should extend to every oflfence the contingency of discre- tionary omission. The objection to this sys- tem is, that it trusts too much to the sagacity and the probity of the judge, and exposes a country to the partial, lax, and corrupt admi- nistration of its laws. It is certainly incon- venient, in many cases, to have no other guide to resort to but the unaccommodating man- dates of an act of Parliament : yet, of the two inconveniences, it is the least. It is some pal- liation of the evils of discretionary power, that it should be exercised (as by the court of chancery) in the face of day, and that the •moderator of law should himself be moderated by the force of precedent and opinion. A •bishop will exercise his discretionary power in the dark ; he is at full liberty to depart to- morrow from the precedent he has established to-day; and to apply the same decisions to different, or different decisions to the same cir- cumstances, as his humour or interest may dictate. Such power may be exercised well under one judge of. extraordinary integrity; ^ but it is not very probable he will find a pro- per successor. To suppose a series of men so much superior to temptation, and to con- struct a system of church government upon such a supposition, is to build upon sand, with materials not more durable than the founda- tion. Sir William Scott has made it very clear, by his excellent speech, that it is not possible, in the present state of the revenues of the En- glish church, to apply a radical cure to the evil of non-residence. It is there stated, that out of 11,700 livings, there are 6000 under 80/. per annum ,- many of those, 20/., 30/., and some 2LS low as 2/. or 3/. per annum. In such a state of endowment, all idea of rigid resi- dence is out of the question. Emoluments which a footman would spurn, can hardly re- compense a scholar and a gentleman. A mere palliation is all that can be applied ; and these are the ingredients of which we wish such a palliation should be composed : — 1. Let the clergymen have the full liberty of farming, and be put in this respect exactly upon a footing with laymen. 2. Power to reside in any other house in the parish, as well as the parsonage-house, and to be absent five months in the year. 3. Schoolmasters, and ministers bona fide discharging ministerial functions in another parish, exempt from residence. 4. Penalties in proportion to the value of livings, and number of times the offence has been committed. 5. Common informers to sue as at present; though probably it might be right to make the name of one parishioner a necessary addition; and a proof of non-residence might be made to operate as a nonsuit in an action for tithes. 6. No action for non-residence to lie where the benefice was less than 80/. per annum; and the powers of bishops to remain precisely as they are. These indulgences would leave the clergy without excuse, would reduce the informations to a salutary number, and diminish the odium consequent upon them, by directing their ef- fects against men who regard church prefer- ment merely as a source of revenue, not as an obligation to the discharge of important duties. We venture to prognosticate, that a bill of greater severity either will not pass the House of Commons, or will fail of its object Con- sidering the times and circumstances, we are convinced we have stated the greatest quan- tum of attainable good ; which of course will not be attained, by the customary error, of at- tending to what is desirable to be done, rather than to what it is practicable to do. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 381 TRAVELS FEOM PALESTINE/ [Edinburgh Review, 1807/ Ibt the year 1432, many great lords in the dominions of Burgundy, holding offices under Duke Philip le Bon, made a pilgrimage to Je- rusalem. Among them was his first esquire- carver La Brocquiere, who, having performed many devout pilgrimages in Palestine, re- turned sick to Jerusalem, and during his con- valescence, formed the bold scheme of return- ing to France over land. This led him to traverse the western parts of Asia, and East- ern Europe ; and, during the whole journey, except towards the end of it, he passed through the dominions of the Musselmen. The execu- tion of such a journey, even at this day, would not be without difficulty; and it was then thought to be impossible. It was in vain that his companions attempted to dissuade him ; he was obstinate ; and, setting out, over- came every obstacle ; returned in the course of the year 1433, and presented himself to the Duke in his Saracen dress, and on the horse ■which had carried him during the whole of his journey. The duke, after the fashion of great people, conceiving that the glory of his esquire-carver was his own, caused the work to be printed and published. The following is a brief extract of this va- liant person's peregrinations. " After perform- ing the customary pilgrimages, we went," says La Brocquiere, " to the mountain where Jesus fasted forty days ; to Jordan, where he was baptized ; to the church of St. Martha, where Lazarus was raised from the dead ; to Bethle- hem, where he was born ; to the birth-place of St. John the Baptist; to the house of Zacha- riah ; and, lastly, to the holy cross, where the tree grew that formed the real cross." From Jerusalem the first gentleman-carver betook himself to Mount Sinai, paying pretty hand- somely to the Saracens for that privilege. These infidels do not appear to have ever pre- vented the Christian pilgrims from indulging their curiosity and devotion in visiting the most interesting evangelical objects in the Holy Land ; but, after charging a good round price for this gratification, contented them- selves with occasionally kicking them, and spitting upon them. In his way to Mount Si- nai, the esquire-carver passed through the Val- ley of Hebron, where he tells us, Adam was created ; and from thence to Gaza, where they showed him the columns of the building which Samson pulled down; though, of the identity of the building, the esquire seems to entertain some doubts. At Gaza five of his companions fell sick and returned to Jerusalem. The se- cond day's journey in the desert the carver fell ill also, — returned to Gaza, where he was * The Travels of Bertravdon de la Brocquiere. First Es- (fuire- Carver to Philip le Bon. I'ukc if Burffiindy. during the years 1432, 1433.— Translated from the French, by Thomas Johnks, Esq. ;^6 cured by a Samaritan, — and finding his way back to Jerusalem, hired some pleasant lodg- ings on Mount Sion. Before he proceeded on his grand expedi- tion over land, he undertook a little expedition to Nazareth, hearing, first of all, divine service at the Cordeliers, and imploring, at the tomb of our lady, her protection for his journey. From Jerusalem their first stage was Acre, where they gave up their intended expedition, and repaired to Baruth, whence Sir Samson de Lalaing and the author sallied afresh, un- der better auspices, to Damascus. He speaks with great pleasure of the valley where Noah built the ark, through which valley he passed in his way to Damascus ; upon entering which town he was knocked down by a Saracen for wearing an ugly hat, — as he probably would be in London for the same offence in the year 1807. At Damascus, he informs us the Chris- tians are locked up every night, — as they are in English workhouses, night and day, when they happen to be poor. The greatest misfor- tune attendant upon this Damascene incarce- ration, is the extreme irregularity with which the doors are opened in the morning, their janitor having no certain hour of quitting his bed. At Damascus, he saw the place where St. Paul had a vision. " I saw also," says he, " the stone from which St. George mounted his horse, when he went to combat the dragon. It is two feet square ; and they say that, when formerly the Saracens attempted to carry it away, in spite of all the strength they em- ploj'ed, they could not succeed." After hav- ing seen Damascus, he returns with Sir Sam- son to Baruth ; and communicates his inten- tions of returning over land to France to his companions. They state to him the astonish- ing difficulties he will have to overcome in the execution of so extraordinary a project; but the admirable carver, determined to make no bones, and to cut his way through every ob- stacle, persists in his scheme, and bids them a final adieu. He is determined, however, not to be baffled in his subordinate expedition to Nazareth ; and, having now got rid of his timid companions, accomplishes it with ease. We shall here present our readers with an extract from this part of his journal, requesting them to admire the naif manner in which he speaks of the vestiges of ecclesiastical history. "Acre, though in a plain of about four leagues in extent, is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and on the fourth by the sea. I made acquaintance there with a Venetian merchant called Aubert Franc, v.'ho received me well, and procured me much useful infor- mation respecting mv two pilgrimages, by which I profited. " With the aid of his advice, I took the road to Nazareth; and, having crossed an extensive plain, came to the foun- 2*2 282 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tain, the water of which our Lord changed into ! wine at the marriage of Archetreclin ; it is near a village where St. Peter is said to have been born. " Nazareth is another large village, built between two mountains ; but the place where the angel Gabriel came to announce to the Virgin Mary that she would be a mother, is in a pitiful state. The church that had been there built is entirely destroyed ; and of the house wherein our lady was when the angel pp- peared to her, not the smallest remnant exibts. "From Nazareth I went to Mount Tabor, the place where the transfiguration of our Lord, and many other miracles took effect. These pasturages attract the Arabs who come thither with their beasts ; and I was forced to engage four additional men as an escort, two of whom were Arabs. The ascent of the mountain is rugged, because there is no road; I performed it on the back of a mule, but it took me two hours. The summit is terminated by an al- most circular plain of about two bow-shots in length, and one in width. It was formerly en- closed with walls, the ruins of which, and the ditches, are still visible : within the wall, and around it, were several churches, and one es- pecially, where, although in ruins, full pardon for vice and sin is gained. ".We went to lodge at Samaria, because I wished to see the lake of Tiberias, where it is said St. Peter was accustomed to fish ; and, by so doing, some pardons may be gained, for it was the ember week of September. The Moucre left me to myself the whole day. Sa- maria is situated on the extremity of a moun- tain. We entered at the close of day, and left it at midnight to visit the lake. The Moucre had proposed this hour to evade the tribute exacted from all who go thither; but the night hindered me from seeing the surround- ing country. "I went first to Joseph's Well, so called from his being cast into it by his brethren. There is a handsome mosque near it, which I entered with my Moucre, pretending to be a Saracen. "Further on is a stone bridge over the Jar- don, called Jacob's Bridge, on account of a house hard by, said to be the residence of that patriarch. The river flows from a gentle lake situated at the foot of a mountain to the north- west, on which Namcardin has a very hand- some castle." — (pp. 122 — 128.) From Damascus, to which he returns after his expedition to Nazareth, the first carver of Philip le Bon sets out with the caravan for Bursa. Before he begins upon his journey, he expatiates with much satisfaction upon the admirable method of shoeing horses at Damas- cus, — a panegyric which certainly gives us the lowest ideas of that art in the reign of Philip le Bon ; for it appears that, out of fifty days, his horse was lame for twenty-one, owing to this ingenious method of shoeing. As a mark of gratitude to the leader of the caravan, the esquire presents him with a pot of green ginger; and the caravan proceeds. Before it has advanced one day's j-ourney, the esquire, however, deviates from the road, to pay his devoirs to a miraculous image of our Lady of Serdenay, which always sweats — not ordinary sudorific matter — but an oil of great ecclesias- tical efficacy. While travelling with the cara- van, he learnt to sit cross-legged, got drunk privately, and was nearly murdered by some Saracens, who discovered that he had money. In some parts of Syria, M. de la Brocquiere met with an opinion, which must have been extremely favourable to the spirit of proselyt- ism, in so very hot a country — an opinion that the infidels have a very bad smell, and that this is only to be removed by baptism. But as the baptism was according to the Greek ritual, by total immersion, Bertrandon se«ms to have a distant suspicion that this miracle may be resolved into the simple phenomenon of wash- ing. He speaks well of the Turks, and repre- sents them, to our surprise, as a very gay, laughing people. We thought Turkish gravity had been almost proverbial. The natives of the countries through which we passed pray (says he) for the conversion of Christians ; and especially request that there may be never sent among them again such another terrible man as Godfrey of Boulogne. At Couhongue the caravan broke up ; and here he quitted a Mameluke soldier, who had kept him company during the whole of the journey, and to whose courage and fidelity Europe, Philip le Bon, and Mr. Johnes of Hafod, are principally indebted for the preservation of the first esquire-carver. "I bade adieu," he says, " to my Mameluke. This good man, whose name was Mohammed, had done me innumerable services. He was very charitable, and never refused alms when asked in the name of God. It was through charity he had been so kind to me ; and I must confess that, without his assistance, I could not have performed my journey without in- curring the greatest danger; and that had it not been for his kindness, I should often have been exposed to cold and hunger, and much embarrassed with my horse. " On taking leave of him, I was desirous of showing my gratitude ; but he would not ac- cept of any thing except a piece of our fine European cloth to cover his head, which seem- ed to please him much. He told me all the occasions that had come to his knowledge, on which, if it had not been for him, I should have run risks of being assassinated, and warned me to be very circumspect in my connections with the Saracens, for that there were among them some as wicked as the Franks. I write this to recall to my reader's memory, that the person who, from his lote to God, did me so many and essential kindnesses, was a man not of our faith."— (pp. 196, 197.) For the rest of the journey, he travelled with the family of the leader of the caravan, without any occurrence more remarkable than those we have already noticed ; — arrived at Con- stantinople, and passed through Germany to the court of Philip le Bon. Here his narrative concludes. Nor does the carver vouchsafe to inform us of the changes which time had made in the appetite of that great prince, — whether veal was more pleasing to him than lamb, — if his favourite morsels were siiiJ in request, — if animal succulence were as grateful to him WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 283 as before the departure of the carver, — or if this semisanguineous partiality had given way to a taste for cinereous and torrefied meats. All these things the first esquire-carver might have said, — none of them he does say, — nor does Mr. Johnes of Hafod supply, by any antiquarian conjectures of his own, the dis- tressing silence of the original. Saving such omissions, there is something pleasant in the narrative of this arch-divider of fowls. He is an honest, brave, liberal man; and tells his singular story with great brevity and plainness. We are obliged to Mr. Johnes for the amuse- ment he has afibrded us ; and we hope he will persevere in his gentlemanlike, honourable, and useful occupations. LETTER* ON THE CURATFS SALARY BILL.t [Edinburgh Review, 1808.] Tub poverty of curates has long been a favourite theme with novelists, sentimental tourists, and elegiac poets. But notwith- standing the known accuracy of this class of philosophers, we cannot help suspecting that there is a good deal of misconception in the popular estimate of the amount of the evil. A very great proportion of all the curacies in England are filled with men to whom the emolument is a matter of subordinate import- ance. They are filled by young gentlemen who have recently left college, who of course are able to subsist as they had subsisted for seven years before, and who are glad to have an opportunity, on any terms, of acquiring a practical familiarity with the duties of their profession. They move away from them to higher situations as vacancies occur ; and make way for a new race of ecclesiastical apprentices. To those men, the smallness of the appointment is a grievance of no very great magnitude ; nor is it fair with relation to them, to represent the ecclesiastical order as degraded by the indigence to which some of its members are condemned. With regard, again, to those who take curacies merely as a means of subsistence, and with the prospect of remaining permanently in that situation, it is certain that by far the greater part of them are persons born in a very humble rank in society, and accustomed to no greater opulence than that of an ordinary curate. There are scarcely any of those persons who have taken a degree in an university, and not very many who have resided there at all. Now the son of a small Welsh farmer, who works hard every day for less than 40/. a year, has no great reason to complain of degradation or disappointment, if he get from 50/. to 100/. for a moderate portion of labour one day in seven. The situation, accordingly, is looked upon by these people as extremely eligible ; and there is a great competition for curacies, even as they are now provided. The amount * A Letter to the Right Honourable Spencer Perceval, on a Subject connected with his Bill, now under Discussion in Parliament, for improving the Situation of Stipendiarii Curates. 8vo. Hatchard, London. 1808. I Now we are all dead, it may be amusing to state that I was excited to this article by Sir William Scott, who brought me the book in his pocket; and begged I would attend to it, caref\illy concealing his name: my I wn opinions happened entirely to agree with bis. of the evil, then, as to the curates themselves, cannot be considered as very enormous, when there are so few who either actually feel, or are entitled to feel, much discontent on the subject. The late regulations about residence, too, by diminishing the total number of cu- rates, will obviously throw that office chiefly into the hands of the well educated and com- paratively independent young men, who seek for the situation rather for practice than pro- fit, and do not complain of the want of emolu- ment. Still we admit it to be an evil, that the resi- dent clergyman of a parish should not be ena- bled to hold a respectable rank in society from the regular emoluments of his office. But it is an evil which does not exist exclusively among curates ; and which, wherever it exists, we are afraid is irremediable, without the de- struction of the Episcopal church, or the aug- mentation of its patrimony. More than one- half of the livings in England are under 80/. a year ; and the whole income of the church, including that of the bishops, if thrown into a common fund, would not afibrd above ISO/, for each living. Unless Mr. Perceval, therefore, will raise an additional million or two for the church, there nmst be poor curates, — and poor rectors also ; and unless he is to reduce the Episcopal hierarchy to the republican equality of our Presbyterian model, he must submit to very considerable inequalities in the distribu- tion of this inadequate provision. Instead of applying any of these remedies, however, — instead of proposing to increase the income of the church, or to raise a fund for its lowest servants by a general assess- ment upon those who are more opulent, — in- stead of even trying indirectly to raise the pay of curates, by raising their qualifications in respect of regular education, Mr. Perceval has been able, after long and profound study, to find no better cure for the endemic poverty of curates, than to ordain all rectors of a certain income to pay them one-fifth part of their emoluments, and to vest certain alarming powers in the bishops for the purpose of con- trolling their appointment. Now this scheme, it appears to us, has all the faults which it is possible for such a scheme to have. It is unjust and partial in its principle, — it is evi- dently altogether and utterly inefficient for the 284 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. correction of the evil in question, — and it in- troduces other evils infinitely greater than that ■which it vainly proposes to abolish. To this project, hovi^ever, for increasing the salary of curates, Mr. Perceval has been so long and so obstinately partial, that he re- turned to the charge in the last session of Par- liament, for the third time ; and experienced, in spite of his present high situation, the same defeat which had baffled him in his previous attempts. Though the subject is gone by once more for the present, we cannot abstain from be- stowing a little gentle violence to aid its merited descent into the gulf of oblivion, and to extinguish, if possible, that resurgent prin- ciple which has so often disturbed the serious business of the country, and averted the atten- tion of the public from the great scenes that are acting in the world — to search for some golden medium between the selfishness of the sacred principal, and the rapacity of the sacred deputy. If church property is to be preserved, that precedent is not w^ithout danger which dis- poses at once of a fifth of all the valuable livings in England. We do not advance this as an argument of any great importance against the bill, but only as an additional rea- son why its utility should be placed in the clearest point of view, before it can attain the assent of well-wishers to the English establish- ment- Our first and greatest objection to such a measure, is the increase of power which it gives to the bench of bishops, — an evil which may produce the most serious effects, by placing the whole body of the clergy under the absolute control of men who are themselves so much under the influence of the crown. This, indeed, has been pretty effectually ac- complished, by the late residence bill of Sir William Scott; and our objection to the pre- sent bill is, that it tends to augment that ex- cessive power before conferred on (he prelacy. If a clergyman lives in a situation which is destroying his constitution, he cannot ex- change with a brother clergyman without the consent of the bishop ; in whose hands, under such circumstances, his life and death are actually placed. If he wishes to cultivate a little land for his amusement or better sup- port, — he cannot do it without the license of the bishop. If he wishes to spend the last three or four months with a declining wife or child at some spot where better medical assist- ance can be procured — he cannot do so with- out permission of the bishop. If he is struck with palsy, or "tacked with stone — the bishop can confine him in the most remote village in England. In short, the power which the bishops at present possess over their clergy is so enormous, that none but a fool or a mad- man would think of compromising his future happiness, by giving the most remote cause of offence to his diocesan. We ought to re- collect, however, that the clergy constitute a body of 12 or 15,000 educated persons; that the whole concern of education devolves upon them ; that some share of the talents and in- formation which exist in the country mu?t naturally fall to their lot ; and that the com- plete subjugation of such a body of men can- not, in any point of view, be a matter of in- difference to a free country. It is in vain to talk of the good character of bishops. Bishops are men ; not always the wisest of men ; not always preferred for emi- nent virtues and talents, or for any good rea- son whatever known to the public. They are almost always devoid of striking and indeco- rous vices ; but a man may be very shallow, very arrogant, and very vindictive, though a bishop ; and pursue with unrelenting hatred a subordinate clergyman, whose principles he dislikes,* and whose genius he fears. Bishops, besides, are subject to the infirmities of old age, like other men ; and in the decay of strength and understanding, will be governed as other men are, by daughters and wives, and who- ever ministers to their daily comforts. We have no doubt that such cases sometimes oc- cur ; and produce, whenever they do occur, a very capricious administration of ecclesiasti- cal affairs.f As the power of enforcing resi- dence must be lodged somewhere, why not give the bishop a council, consisting of two- thirds ecclesiastics, and one-third laymen: and meeting at the same time as the sessions and deputy sessions ; — the bishop's license for non- residence to issue, of course, upon their re- commendation. Considering the vexatious bustle of a new, and the laxity of an aged bishop, we cannot but think that a diocese would be much more steadily administered under this system than by the present means. Examine the constitutional effects of the power now granted to the bench. What hin- ders a bishop from becoming in the hands of the court a very important agent in all county elections 1 what clergyman would dare to re- fuse him his vote 1 But it will be said that no bishop will ever condescend to such sort of intrigues : — a most miserable answer to a most serious objection. The temptation is admit- ted, — the absence of all restraint ; the danger- ous consequences are equally admitted ; and the only preservative is the personal charac- ter of the individual. If this style of reason- ing were general, what would become of law, constitution, and every wholesome restraint which we have been accumulating for so many centuries'? We have no intention to speak disrespectfully of constituted authori- ties ; but when men can abuse power with impunity, and recommend themselves to their superiors by abusing it, it is but common sense to suppose that power will be abused; if it is, the country will hereafter be convulsed to its very entrails, in tearing away that power from the prelacy which has been so improvi- dently conferred upon them. It is useless to talk of the power they anciently possessed. They have never possessed it since England has been what it now is. Since we have en- joyed practically a free constitution, the bishops have, in point of fact, possessed little or no power of oppression over their clergy. * Bold language for the year 1608. + I have seen in the course of my life, as the mind of the prelate decayed, wife bishops, daughter bishops, but> ler bishops, and even cook and housekeeper bishops. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 285 It must be remembered, however, that we are speaking only of probabilities : the fact may turn out to be quite the reverse ; the power vested in the bench may be exercised for spiritual purposes only, and with the great- est moderation. We shall be extremely happy to find that this is the case; and it will reflect great honour upon those who have corrected the improvidence of the legislature by their own sense of propriety. It is contended by the friends of this law, that the respectability of the clergy depends in some measure on their wealth ; and that, as the rich bishop reflects a sort of worldly con- sequence upon the poor bishop, and the rich rector upon the poor rector ; — so, a rich class of curates could not fail to confer a greater degree of importance upon that class of men in general. This is all very well, if you in- tend to raise up some new fund in order to enrich curates : but you say that the riches of some constitute the dignity of the whole ; and then you immediately take away from the rector the superfluous wealth which, according to your own method of reasoning, is to deco- rate and dignify the order of men to whom he belongs! The bishops constitute the first class in the church ; the beneficed clergy the second; the curates the last. Why are you to take from the second to give to the last? Why not as well from the first* to give to the second — if you really mean to contend that the first and second are already too rich 1 It is not true, however, that the class of rec- tors is generally either too rich, or even rich enough. There are 6000 livings below 80/. per annum, which is not very much above the average allowance of a curate. If every rec- tor, however, who has more than 500/. is obliged to give a fifth part to a curate, there seems to be no reason why every bishop who has more than 1000/. should not give a fifth part among the poor rectors in his diocese. It is in vain to say this assessment upon rectors is reasonable and right, because they may re- side and do duty themselves, and then they will not need a curate ; — that their non-resi- dence, in s?iort, is a kind of delinquency for which they compound by this fine to the parish. If more than half of the rectories in England are under 80/. a year, and some thou- sands of them under 40/., pluralities are abso- lutely vecessary ; and clergymen, who have not the gift of ubiquity, must be non-resident at some of them. Curates, therefore, are not the deputies of negligent rectors ; — they are an order of priests absolutely necessary in the present form of the Church of England : and a rector incurs no shadow of delinquency by employing one, more than the king does by appointing a lord-lieutenant of Ireland, or a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, instead of doing the duty of these offices in person. If the legislature, therefore, is to interfere to raise the natural, i. e. the actual wages of this order of men, at the expense of the more opulent ministers of the Gospel, there seems to be no sort of reason for exempting the bishops from their share in * The first unfortunately make tbe laws. this pious contribution, or for refusing to make a similar one for the benefit of all I'ectors who have less than lOOZ. per annum. The true reason, however, for exempting my lords the bishops from this imposition is, that they have the privilege of voting upon all bills brought in by Mr. Perceval, and of ma- terially affecting his comfort and security by their parliamentary control and influence. This, however, is to cure what you believe to be unjust, by means which you must know to be unjust ; to fly out against abuses which may be remedied without peril, and to con- nive at them when the attempt at a remedy is attended with political danger; to be mute and obsequious towards men who enjoy church pro- perty to the amount of 8 or 19,000/. per an- num ; and to be so scandalized at those who possess as many hundreds, that you must melt their revenues down into curacies, and save to the eye of political economy the spectacle of such flagrant inequality! In the same style of reasoning, it may be asked why the lay improprietors are not com- pelled to advance the salary of their perpetual curacies, up to a fifth of their estates ] The answer, too, is equally obvious — Many lay im- proprietors have votes in both houses of Par- liament; and the only class of men this cowardly reformation attacks, is that which has no means of saying any thing in its own defence. Even if the enrichment of curates were the most imperious of all duties, it might very well be questioned, whether a more unequal and pernicious mode of fulfilling it could be devised than that enjoined by this bill. Curacies are not granted for the life of the curate ; but for the life or incumbency or good-liking of the rector. It is only rectors worth 500/. a-year who are compelled by Mr. Perceval to come down with a fifth to their deputy ; and these form but a very small proportion of the whole non-resident rectors ; so that the great multi- tude of curates mnist remain as poor as for- merly, — and probably a little more discontented. Suppose,however, that one has actually entered on the enjoyment of 250/. per annum. His wants, and his habits of expense, are enlarged by this increase of income. In a year or two his rector dies, or exchanges his living ; and the poor man is reduced, by the effects of com- parison, to a much worse state than before the operation of the bill. Can any person say that this is a wise and eflfectual mode of ameliorat- ing the condition of the lower clergy 1 To us it almost appears to be invented for the express purpose of destroying those habits of economy and caution, which are so indispensably neces- sary to their situation. If it is urged that the curate, knowing his wealth only to be tempo- rary, will make use of it as a means of laying up a fund for some future day, — we admire the good sense of the man : but what becomes of all the provisions of the billT what becomes of that opulence which is to confer respecta- bility upon all around it, and to radiate even upon the curates of Wales ? The money was expressly given to blacken his coat, — to render him convex and rosy, — to give him a sort of pseudo-rectorial appearance, and to dazzle the 286 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. parishioners at the rate of 250/. per annum. The poor man, actuated by those principles of common sense which are so contrary to all the provisions of the bill, chooses to make a good thing of it, because he knows it will not last; wears his old coat, rides his lean horse, and defrauds the class of curates of all the advan- tages which they were to derive from the sleek- ness and splendour of his appearance. It is of some importance to the welfare of a parish, and thfi credit of the church, that the curate and his rector should live upon good terms together. Such a bill, however, throws between them elements of mistrust and hatred, which must render their agreement highly im- probable. The curate would be perpetually prying into every little advance which the rector made upon his tithes, and claiming his proportionate increase. No respectable man could brook such inquisition ; some, we fear, would endeavour to prevent its effects by clan- destine means. The church would be a per- petual scene of disgraceful animosities ; and the ears of the bishop never free from the clamours of rapacity and irritation. It is some slight defect in such a bill, that it does not proportion reward to the labour done, but to the wealth of him for whom it is done. The curate of a parish containing 400 persons, may be paid as much as another person who has the care of 10,000 ; for, in England, there is very little proportion between the value of a living, and the quantity of duty to be performed by its clergyman. The bill does not attain its object in the best way. Let the bishop refuse to allow of any cu- rate upon a living above 500/. per annum, who is not a Master of Arts of one of the universities. Such curates will then be obtained at a price which will render it worth the while of such men to take curacies ; and such a degree and situation in society will secure good curates much more effectually than the complicated provisions of this bill : for, prima facie, it ap- pears to us much more probable, that a curate should be respectable, who is a Master of Arts in some English university, than if all that we knew about him was, that he had a fifth of the profits of the living. The object is, to fix a good clergyman in a parish. The law will not trust the non-resident rector to fix both the price and the person; but fixes the price, and then leaves him the choice of the person. Our plan is, to fix upon the description of person, and then to leave the price to find its level ; for the good price by no means implies a good person, but the good person will be sure to get a good price. Where the living will admit of it, we have commonly observed that the English clergy are desirous of putting in a proper substitute. If this is so, the bill is unnecessary; for it pro- ceeds on the very contrary supposition, that the great mass of opulent clergy consult no- thing but economy in the choice of their curates. It is very galling and irksome to any class of men to be compelled to disclose their pri- vate circumstances; a provision contained in, and absolutely necessary to this bill, under which the diocesan can always compel the minister to disclose the full value of his living. After all, however, the main and conclusive objection to the bill is, that its provisions are drawn from such erroneous principles, and betray such gross ignorance of human nature, that though it would infallibly produce a thousand mischiefs foreseen and not foreseen, it would evidently have no effect whatsoever in raising the salaries of curates. We do not put this as a case of common buyer and seller; we allow that the parish is a third party, having an interest ;* we fully admit the right of the le- gislature to interfere for their relief. We only contend, that such interference would be neces- sarily altogether ineffectual, so long as men can be found capable of doing the duty of cu- rates, and willing to do it for less than the statutory minimum. If there is a competition of rectors for cu- rates, it is quite unnecessary and absurd to make laws in favour of curates. The demand for them will do their business more effectually than the law. If, on the contrary (as the fact plainly is), there is a competition of curates for employment, is it possible to prevent this order of men from labouring under the regulation price 1 Is it possible to prevent a curate from pledging himself to his rector, that he will accept only half the legal salary, if he is so fortunate as to be preferred among an host of rivals, who are willing to engage on the same terms 1 You may make these contracts illegal : What then 1 Men laugh at such prohibitions ; and they always become a dead letter. In nine instances out of ten, the contract would be honourably adhered to ; and then what is the use of Mr. Perceval's law? Where the con- tract was not adhered to, whom would the law benefit? — A man utterly devoid of every par- ticle of honour and good faith. And this is the new species of curate, who is to reflect dig- nity and importance upon his poorer brethren! The law encourages breach of faith between gambler and gambler ; it arms broker against broker : — but it cannot arm clergyman against clergyman. Did any human being before, ever think of disseminating such a principle among the teachers of Christianity? Did any eccle- siastic law, before this, ever depend for its success upon the mutual treachery of men who ought to be examples to their fellow-creatures of every thing that is just and upright. We have said enough already upon the ab- surdity of punishing all rich rectors for non- residence, as for a presumptive delinquency. A law is already passed, fixing what shall be legal and sufficient causes for non-residence. Nothing can be more unjust, then, than to punish that absence which you admit to be legal. If the causes of absence are too nume- rous, lessen them; but do not punish him who has availed himself of their existence. We deny, however, that they are too numerous. TheVe are 6000 livings out of 11,000 in the English church under SOL per annum ; many * We remember Horace's description of the misery of a parish where there is no resident clergyman. " Illacrymabiles Urgentur, ignotique long4 Nocte, carent quia vate sacro." WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 287 of these 20^., many 301. per annum. The whole task of education at the university, public schools, private families, and in foreign travel, devolves upon the clergy. A great part of the literature of their country is in their hands. Residence is a very proper and necessary mea- sure ; but, considering all these circumstances, it requires a great deal of moderation and temper to carry it into effect, without doing more mischief than good. At present, how- ever, the torrent sets the other way. Every lay plunderer, and every fanatical coxcomb, is forging fresh chains for the English clergy; and we should not be surprised, in a very little time, to see them absenting themselves from their benefices by a kind of day-rule, like prisoners in the king's bench. The first bill, ■which was brought in by Sir William Scott, always saving and excepting the power granted to the bishops, is full of useful provisions, and characterized throughout by great practical wisdom. We have no doubt but that it has, upon the whole, improved the condition of the English church. Without caution, mildness, or information, however, it was peculiarly un- fortunate to follow such a leader. We are extremely happy the bill was rejected. We have seldom witnessed more of ignorance and error stuffed and crammed into so very narrow a compass. Its origin, we are confident, is from the Tabernacle ; and its consequences would have been, to have sown the seeds of discord and treachery in an ecclesiastical con- stitution, which, under the care of prudent and honest men, may always be rendered a source of public happiness. One glaring omission in this bill we had almost forgotten to mention. The chancellor of the exchequer has entirely neglected to make any provision for that very meritorious class of men, the laxj curates, who do all the business of those offices, of which lazy and non-resident placemen receive the emoluments. So much delicacy and conscience, however, are here displayed on the subject of pocketing unearned emoluments, that we have no doubt the moral irritability of this servant of the crown will speedily urge him to a species of reform, of which he may be the object as well as the mover. PEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VICE,* [Edinburgh Review, 1809.] A SOCIETY that holds out as its object the suppression of vice, must at first sight con- ciliate the favour of ever)^ respectable person; and he who objects to an institution calculated apparently to do so much good, is bound to give very clear and satisfactory reasons for his dissent from so popular an opinion. We certainly have, for a long time, had doubts of its utility; and now think ourselves called upon to state the grounds of 'our distrust. Though it were clear that individual inform- ers are useful auxiliaries to the administration of the laws, it M'ould by no means follow that these informers should be allowed to com- bine, — to form themselves into a body, — to make a public purse, — and to prosecute under a common name. An informer, whether he is paid by the week, like the agents of this society — or by the crime, as in common cases — is, in general, a man of a very indiflerent character. So'much fraud and deception are necessary for carrying on his trade — it is so odious to his fellow subjects, — that no man of respectability will ever undertake it. It is evidently impossible to make such a character otherwise than odious. A man who receives * Statement of the Proceedings of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, from July 9 to J^ovemher 12, read at ■ Iheir General Meetipn-. held J^orember i% 1804. With an Jtppendix, euntainin and have to boast to the public that there was one point upon which he was better informed than that illustrious statesman 1 As to the preposterous apology which seems to be hinted at in the book itself, viz., that it was Mr. Fox's business to have asked for these papers, and not Mr. Rose's to have offered them, we shall only observe, that it stands on a point of etiquette, which would scarcely be permitted to govern the civilities of tradesmen's wives ; and that it seems not a little unreasonable to lay Mr. Fox under the necessity of asking for papers, the very existence of which he could have no reason to expect. This narrative of Sir Pat- rick Hume has now lain in the archives of his family for 130 years, unknown and unsus- pected to all but its immediate proprietor; and, distinguished as Sir Patrick was in his day in Scotland, it certainly does not imply any extra- ordinary stupidity in Mr. Fox, not to know, by intuition, 'that there were papers of his in exist- ence which might afford him some light on the subject of his history. We may appear to have dwelt too long on these preliminary considerations, since the intrinsic value of Mr. Rose's observations cer- tainly will not be affected by the truth or the fallacy of the motives Tie has assigned for pub- lishing them. It is impossible, however, not to see that, when a writer assigns a false motive for his coming forward, he is commonly conscious that the real one is discreditable: and that to expose the hollowness of such a pretence, is to lay the foundation of a whole- some distrust of his general fairness and tem- per. Any bo.dv certainly had a right to publish remarks on Mr. Fox's work— and nobody a 298 WORKS OF THfc REV. SYDNEY SMITH. better right than Mr. Rose % and if he had stated- openly, that all the habits and connections of his life had led him to wish to see that work discredited, no one would have been entitled to complain of his exertions in the cause. When he chooses to disguise this motive, however, and to assign -another, which does not at all account for the phenomenon, we are so far from forgetting the existence of the other, that we are internally convinced of its being much stronger than we should otherwise have sus- ' pected; and that it is only dissembled, because it exists in a degree that could not have been decently avowed. For the same reason, there- fore, of enabling our readers more distinctly to appreciate the intellect and temper of this right honourable author, we must say a word or two more of his Introduction, before proceeding to the substance of his remarks. Besides the edifying history of his motive for writing, we are favoured, in that singular piece, with a number of his opinions upon points no way connected with Mr. Fox or his history ; and with a copious account of his labours and studies in all kinds of juridical and constitutional learning. In order to con- ■firm an opinion that a minute knowledge of our ancient history is not necessary to understand our actual constitution, he takes an unintelligi- ble survey of the progress of our government, from the days of King Alfred, — and quotes Lord Coke, Plowden, Doomsday Book, Lord Ellesmere, Rymer's Fosdera, Dugdale's Ori- gines, the Rolls of Parliament, Whitelock, and Abbot's Records ; but, above all, " a report which / made several years ago on the state of the records in my custody." He then goes on, in the most obliging manner, to inform his readers that " Vertot's Account of the Revolu- tions of Rome has been found very useful by persons who have read the Roman History; but the best model that I have met with for such a work as appears to me to be much wanted, is a short History of Poland, which I translated nearly forty years ago, but did not publish ; the manuscript of which his majesty at the time did me the honour to accept; and it probably is still in his majesty's library." — Introduction, pp. xxiv. xxv. Truly all this is very interesting, and very much to the purpose: — but scarcely more so than eight or nine pages that follow, containing a long account of the conversations which Lord Marchmont had with Lord Bolingbroke, about the politics of Queen Anne's ministers, and which Mr. Rose now gives to the world from his recollection of various conversations between himself and Lord Marchmont. He tells us, moreover, that, " accustorped as he has been to official accuracy in statement," he had naturally a quick eye for mistakes in fact or in dediiction ; — that "having long enjoyed the confidence and aifectionate iT-iendship of Mr. Pitt," he has been more scrupulous than he would otherwise have been in ascertaining the grounds of his animadversions on the work of his great rival ; — and that, notwithstanding all this anxiety, and the want of "disembarrass- ment of mind" and "leisure of. time,'/ he has compiled this volume in about as many icceks as Mr. Fox took years to the work on which it fomments ! For the Observations themselves, we must say that we have perused them with conside- rable pleasure — not certainly from any extra- ordinary gratification which we derived from the justness of the sentiments, or the elegance of the style, but from a certain agreeable sur- prise which we experienced on finding how few parts of Mr. Fox's doctrine were considered as vulnerable, even by Mr. Rose ; and in how large a proportion of his freest and strongest observations that jealous observer has ex- pressed his most cordial concurrence. The Right Honourable George Rose, we rather be- lieve, is commonly considered as one of the least whiggish or democratical of all the pub- lic characters who have lived in our times ;. and he has himself acknowledged, that a long habit of political opposition to Mr. Fox had perhaps given him a stronger bias against his favourite doctrines than he might otherwise have entertained. It was, therefore, no slight consolation to us to filid that the true princi- ^ pies of English liberty had made so great a progress in the opinions of all men in upper life, as to extort such an am^le admission of them, even from a person of Mr. Rose's habits and connections. As we fear, however, that the same justness and liberality of thinking are by no means general among the more ob- scure retainers of party throughout the country, we think it may not be without its use to quote a few of thfe passages to which we have alluded, just to let the vulgar tories in the provinces see how much of their favourite, doctrines has been abjui'ed by their more en- . lightened chief and leaders in the seat of go- vernment. In the first place, there are all the passages (which it would be useless and tedious to re- cite) in which the patriotism and public virtue of Sir P. Hume are held up to the admiration of posterity. Now, Sir P. Hume, that true and sincere lover of his country, whose " talents and virtues his sovereign acknowledged and» rewarded," and " whose honours have been attended by the suffrage of his country and the approbation of good men," was, even in the reign of Charles, concerned in desigris analo- gous to those of Russell and Sydney ; — and, very soon after the accession of James, and (as Mr. Rose thinks) before that monarch had done any thing in the least degree blameablie, rose up openly in arms, and endeavoured to stir up the people to overthrow the existing government. Even Mr. Fox hesitated as to the wisdom and the virtue of those engaged in such enterprises ; — and yet Mr. Rose, profess- ing to see danger in that writer's excessive zeal for liberty, writes a book to extol the pa- triotism of a premature insurgent. After this we need not quote our author's warm panegyrics on the Revolution — "that gloiious event to which the measures of JameS necessarily led," — or on the character df Lord Sommers, " whose wisdom, talents, political coi(,rnge and mrlue, would alone have been sufli- cient to insure the success of that measure." It may surprise some of his political admirers a little more, however, to find him professing WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 399 that he "concurs with Mr. Fox as to the expe- diency of the bill of exclusion," (that boldest and most decided of all whig measures) ; and thinks " that the events which took place in the next reign aflord a strong justification of the conduct of the promoters of that measure." When his tory friends have digested that sen- timent, they may look at his patriotic invec- tives against the degrading connection of the two last of the Stuart princes with the court of France ; and the " scandalous profligacy by which Charles and his successor betrayed the best interests of their country for miserable stipends." There is something very edifying, indeed, th'ough we should fear a little alarm- ing to courtly tempers, in the warmth with which our author winds up his diatribe on this interesting subject. " Every one,". he ob- serves, " who carries on a clandestine corre- spondence with a foreign power, in matters touching the interests of Great Britain, is pru ma facie guilty of a great moral, as well as po- litical, crime. If a subject, he is a traitor to his king and his country ; and if a monarch, he is a traitor to the crown which he wears, and to the empire which he governs. There may, by possibility, be circumstances to extenuate the former; there can be none to lessen our de- testatipn of the latter."— (pp. 149, 1.50.) Conformably to these sentiments, Mr. Rose expresses his concurrence with all that Mr. Fox says of the arbitrary and oppressive mea- sures which distinguished the latter part of Charles's reign ; — declares that " he has mani- fested great temperance and forbearance in the character which he gives of Jefieries ; — and understated the enormity of the cruel and detestable proceedings of the Scottish govern- ment, in its unheard of acts of power, and the miseries and persecutions which it inflicted ;" 'admits that Mr. Fox's work treated of a period, "in which the tyranny of the sovereign at home was not redeemed by any glory or success abroad ;" — and speaks of the Revolution as the era " when the full measure of the monarches tyrannical usurpations made resistaiice a duty para- mount to every consideration of personal or public danger." It is scarcely possible, 'we conceive, to read these, and many other passages which might be quoted from the work before us, without taking the author for a whig ; and it certainly is not easy to comprehend how the writer of . them could quarrel with any thing in Mr. Fox's history, for want of deference and vene- ration for the monarchical part of our consti- tutions To say the truth, we have not always .been able to satisfy ourselves of the worthy author's consistency ; and holding, as we are inclined to do, that his natural and genuine sentiments are liberal and manly, we can only account for the narrowness and unfairness of some of his I'emarks, by supposing them to Originate from the habits of his practical poli- tics, and of that long course of opposition, in which he learned to consider it a duty to his party to discredit every thing that came from the advocate of the people. We shall now say •a word or two on the remarks themselves, wTiich, as we have already noticed, will be found to be infinitely fewer, and more insigni- ficant, than any one, looking merely at the Ijulk'of the volume, could possibly have con- jectured. The first, of any sort of importance, is made on those passages in which Mr. Fox calls the execution pf the king " a far less violent mea- sure than that of Lord Straflx)rd;" and says, " that there was something in the splendour and magnanimity of the act, which has served to raise. the character of the nation in the opinion of Europe in general." Mr. Rose takes great offence at both these remarks ; and says, that the constitution itself was violated by the exe- cution of the king, while the case of Lord Strafford was but a private iiyury. We are afraid Mr. Rose does not perfectly understand Mr. Fox, — otherwise it would be difficult not to agree with him. The grossness of Lord Strafford's case consisted in this, that a bill of attainder was brought in, after a regular pro- ceeding by impeachment had been tried against him. He was substantially acquitted, by the most unexceptionable process known in our law, before the bill of attainder came to declare him guilty, and to punish him. There was here, therefore, a most flagrant violation of all law and justice, and a preoedent for endless abuses and oppressions. In the case of the king, on the other hand, there could be no vio- lation of settled rules or practice ; because the case itself was necessarily out of the purview of every rule, and could be drawn into no pre- cedent. The constitution, no doubt, was ne- cessarily destroyed or suspended by the trial ; but Mr. Rose appears to forget that it had been destroyed or suspended before, by the war, or by the acts of the king which brought on the war. If it was lawful to fight against the king, it must have been lawful to take him prisoner: after he was a prisoner, it was both lawful and necessary to consider what should be done with him ; and every deliberation of this sort had all the assumption, and none of the fair- ness of a trial. Yet Mr. Rose has himself told us, that " there are cases in which resist- ance becomes a paramount duty;" and pro- bably is not prepared to say, that it was more violent and criminal to drive King James from the throne in 1688, than to wrest all law and justice to take the life of Lord Straflxjrd in 1641. Yet the constitution was as much violated by the forfeiture of the oae sove- reign, as by the trial and execution of the other. It was impossible that the trial of King Charles might have terminated in a sentence of mere deprivation ; and if James had fought against his people, and been conquered, he might have been tried and.executed. The con- stitution was gone for the time, in both cases, as soon as force was mutually appeS.led to ; and the violence that followed thereafter, to the person of the monarch, can receive no ag- gravation from any view of that nature. With regard, again, to the loyal horror which Mr. Rose expresses, when Mr. Fox speaks of the splendour and magnanimity of the pro- ceedings against the king, it is probable that this zealous observer was not awa,re, that his favourite " prerogative writer," Mr. Hume, hai used the same, or still loftier expressions, Ir^ relation to the same event. Some of the words 300 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. of that loyal and unsuspected historian arQ as follows :-^" the pomp, the dignity, th% cere- mony of this transaction, correspond to the greatest conceptions that are suggested in the annals of human kind ; — the delegates of a great people sitting in judgment upon their supreme magistrate, and trying him for his mismanagement and breach of trust."* Cor- dially as we agree with Mr. Fox in the unpro- fitable severity of this example, it is impossi- ble, we conceive, for anyone to 'consider the great, grave, and solemn movement of the nation that led to it, or the stern and dispas- sionate temper in which it was conducted, without feeling that proud contrast between this execution and that of aM other deposed sovereigns in history, — which led Mr. Fox, in common with Mr. Hume, and every other writer on the subject, to make use of the ex- pressions which have been alluded to. When Mr. Rose, in the close of his remarks upon this subject, permits himself to insinu- ate, that if Mr. Fox thought such high praise due to the publicity, «&c., of King Charles's trial, he must have felt unbounded admiration •at that of Lewis XVI., he has laid himself open to a charge of *uch vulgar and uncandid un- fairness, as was not to -have been at all ex- pected from a person of his rank and descrip- tion. If Lewis XVI. had been openly in arms against his people, — if the Convention had required no other victim — and had settled into a regular government as soon as he was re- moved, — there might have been more room for a parallel, — to which, as the fact actually .stands, every Briton must listen with indigna- tion. Lewis XVI. was wantonly sacrificed to the rage of an insane and bloodthirsty faction, and tossed to the executioner among the com- mon supplies for the . guillotine. The publi- city and parade of his trial were assumed from no love of justice, 'or sense of dignity; but from a low principle of profligate and clamo- rous defiance to every thing that had become displeasing: and ridiculous and incredible as it would appear of any other nation, we have not the least doubt that a certain childish emu- lation of the avenging liberty of the English had its share in producing this paltry copy of our grand and original daring. The insane coxcombs who blew out their brains, after a piece «f tawdry declamation, in some of the provincial assemblies, were about as like Cato or Hannibal, as the trial and execution of Lewis was like the condemnation of King Charles. Our regicides were serious and ori- ginal at least, in the bold, bad deeds which they committed. The regicides of France were jpoor theatrical imitators, — intoxicated with blood and with power, and incapable even of forming a sober estimate of the guilt or the consequences of their actions. Before leav- ing this subject, we must remind our readers that Mr. Fox unequivocally condemns the exe- cution of the king ; and spends some time in showing that it was excusable neither on the ground of present expediency nor future warn- ing. After he had finished that statement, he proceeds to say, that notwithstanding what the more reasonable part of mankind may think. ♦ Hume's History, vol. vii. p. HI. it is to be doubted, whether that proceeding has not served to raise the national character in the eyes of foreigners, &c. ; and then goes on to refer to the conversations he had liira- self witnessed on that subject abroad. A man must be a very zealous royalist, indeed, to dis- believe or be offended with this. " Mr. Rose's next observation is in favour of General Monk; upon whom he is of opinion that Mr. Fox has been by far too severe, — at the same time that he fails utterly in obviating any of the grounds upon which that severity is justified. Monk was not responsible alotie, indeed, for restoring the king, without taking any security for the people ; but as wielding the whole power of the army, by which that restoration was effected, he is certainly chiefly responsible for that most criminal omission. As to Ijis indifference to the fate of his com- panions in arms, Mr. Rose does, indeed; quote the testimony of his chaplain, who wrote a complimentary life of his patron, to prove that, on the trial of the regicides, he behaved with great moderation. We certainly do not rate this testimony very highly ; and do think it far more than compensated by that of Mrs. Hutchinson, who, in the life of her husband, says, that on the first proceedings against the regicides in the House of Commons, "Monk sate still, and had not one word to interpose for any man, but was as forward to set vengeance on foot as any one."* And a little afterwards she adds, apparently from her own personal knowledge and observation, that "before the prisoners were brought to the Tower, Mouk and his wife came one evening to the garden, and caused them to be brought down, only to stare at them, — which was such a behaviour for that man, who had betrayed so many of those that had honoured and trusted him, &c., as no story can parallel the inhumanity of."-)- With regard again to Mr. Fox's charge of Monk's tamely acquiescing in the insults so meanly put on the illustrious corps of his old commander Blake, it is perfectly evident, even from the authorities referred to by Mr. Rose, that Blake's body was dug up by the king's order, among others, and removed out of the hallowed precincts of Westminster, to be re- interred, with twenty more, in one pit at St. Margaret's. But the chief charge is, that on the trial of Argyle, Monk spontaheously sent down some confidential letters, which turned the scale of evidence against that unfortunate nobleman. This statement, to which Mr. Fox is most ab- surdly blamed for giving credit, is made on the authority of the three historians who lived nearest to the date of the transaction, and who all report it as quite certain and notorious. These historians are Burnet, Baillie, and Cun- ningham ; not are they contradicted by any one writer on the subject, except Dr. Camp- bell, who, at a period comparatively recent, and without pretending to have discovered any new document on the subject, is pleased to dis- believe them upon certain hypothetical and ar- gumentative reasons of his own. These rea- sons Mr. Laing has examined and most satis- factorily obviated in his history; and Mr. Rose . * Life of Colonel Hutcbinson, p. 372. f Ibid. p. 378. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 301 has exerted incredible industry to defend. The Scottish records for that period have perished ; and for this reason, and because a collection of pamphlets and newspapers of that age, in Mr- Rose's possession, make no mention of the circumstance, he thinks fit to discredit it alto- gether. If this kind of scepticism were to be indulged, there would be an end of all reliance on history. In this particular case, both Bur- net and Baillie speak quite positively, from the information of contemporaries ; and state a circumstance that would very well account for the silence of the formal accounts of the trial, if any such had been preserved, viz., that Monk's letters were not produced till after the evidence was finished on both sides, and the debate begun on the result; — an irregularity, by the way, by much too gross to have been charged against a public proceeding 'without any foundation. Mr. Rose's next observation is directed ra- ther against Judge Blackstone than against Mr. Fox; and is meant to show, that this learned person was guilty of great inaccuracy in representing the year 1679 as the era of good laws and bad government. It is quite imjjDSsible to follow him through the dull de- tails and feeble disputations by which he la- bours, to make it appear that our laws were not very good in 1679, and tha.t they, as well as the administration of them, were much mended after the Revolution. Mr. Fox's, or rather Blackstone's remark is too obviously and strikingly true in substance, to admit of any argument or illustration.* The .next eharge against Mr. Fox is for say- ing, that if Charles II.'s .ministers betrayed him, he betrayed them in return ; keeping, from some of them at least, the secret of what . *Mr. Rose talks a great deal, and justly, about the advantages of the jtidges not being removable at plea- sure; and, with a great air of erudition, informs us, that after 6 Charles, all the couimissions were made quavidiu nobis plwuerit. Mr. Rose's researches, we fear, do not often eo hcyond the records in his custody. If he had looked into Rushworth's Collection, he would have found, that, in 1641, King Charles agreed to make the commission, quamdiu se bene a-epserint ; and that some of those illegally removed in the following reicn, though not officiating in court, still'retained certain functions in consequence of that appointment. The following is the passage, at p. 1265, vol. iii. of Rushworth : "After the passingof these votes (16th December, 1640J against the judges, and transmitting them to the House of Peers, and their concurring with the House of Commons therein, , an address was made, unto the king shortly after, that his majesty, for the future, would not make any judge by paterit during- pleasure ; but that they may hold their places hereafter, quamdiu se bene gesserint; and his ma- jesty did really grant the same. And in his speech to both houses of Parliament, at the time of giving his royal assent to two bills, one to take away the High Commission Court, and the other the Court of Star- Chaniber, and regulating the power of the council table, lie hath this passage; 'If you consider what I have done this Parliament, discontents will not sit in your hearts ; for I hope you remember, that I have granted, that the judges hereafter shall hold their places quamdiu se bene gesserint.' And likewise, his gracious majesty King Charles the Second observed the same rule and method in granting patents to judges, quamdiu se bene gesserint; as appears upon record in the Rolls ; viz., to Sergeant Slide to be Lord Chief .Instice of the King's Bench. Sir Orlando Bridgeman to be Lord Chief Baron, and afterwards to be Lord Chief- .Justice' of Common Pleas ; to Sir Robert Forster, and others. Mr. Sergeant Archer, now living, notwithstanding his removal, still en- joys his patent, being quamdiu se bene gesserint ; and re- ceives a share in the profits of the court, as to fees and other proceedings, by virtue of his said patent : and his name is used in those fines, &c., as a judge of that court." he was pleased to call his religion, and the state of his connections with France. After the furious attack which Mr. Rose has made in another place upon this prince and his French connections, it is rather surprising to see with what zeal he undertakes his defence against this very venial sort of treachery, of concealing his shame from some of his more respectable ministers. The attempt, however, is at least as unsuccessful as it is unaccount- able. Mr. Fox says only, that some of the ministers were not trusted with the secret ; and both Dalrymple and Macpherson say, that none but the Catholic counsellors were admit- ted to this confidence. Mr. Rose mutters, that there is no evidence "of this ; and himself pro- duces an abstract of the secret treaty between Lewis and Charles, of May, 1670, to which the subscriptions of four Catholic ministers of the latter are affixed ! Mr. Fox is next taxed with great negligence for saying, that he does not know what proof there is of Clarendon's being priyy to Charles receiving money from France ; and very long quotations are inserted from the correspondence printed by Dalrymple and Macpherson — which do not prove Clarendon's knowledge of any mohey being teceiv»d, though they do s5em to establish that he must have known of its being stipulated for. After this comes Mr. Rose's grand attack; in which he charges the historian with his whole heavy artillery of argument and quota- tion, and makes a vigorous effort to drive him from the position, that the. early and primary object of James's reign was not to establish popery in this country, but in the first place to render himself absolute : and that, for a considerable time, he does not appear to have aimed at any thing more than a complete tole- ration for his own religion. The grounds upon which this opinion is maintained by Mr. Fox are certainly very probable. There is, in the first place, his zeal for the Church of Eng- land during his brother's life, and the violent oppressions by which he enforced a Protestant test in Scotland ; secondly, the fact of his carry- ing on the government and the persecution of nonconformist's by Protestant ministers; and, tj;iirdly, his addresses to his Parliament, and the tenour of much of his correspondence with Lewis. In opposition to this, Mr. Rose quotes an infinite variety of passages from Barillon's correspondence, to show in general the un- feigned zeal of this unfortunate prince for his religion, and his constant desire to glorify and advance it. Nbw, it is perfectly obvious, in the first place, that Mr. Fox never intended to . dispute James's zeal for popery ; and, in the second place, it is very remarkable, that in the first seuew passages quoted by Mr. Rose, nothing more is said to be in the king's contemplation than the complete toleration of that religion. " The free exercise of the Catholic religion in their own houses," — the abolition of the penal laws against Catholics, — "the free exercise of that religion," &c. &c., are the only objects to which the zeal of the king is said to be directed ; and it is not till after the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion, that these phrases are exchanged for "a resolution to establish the 2C 302 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Catholic religion," or " to get that religion esta- blished ;" though it would be fair, perhaps, to interpret some even of these phrases with re- ference to those which precede them in the correspondence ; especially as, in a letter from Lewis to Barillon, so late as 20th August, 1685, he merely urges the great expediency of James establishing "the free exercise" of that religion. " After all, in reality, there is not much sub- stantial difference as to this point between the historian and his observer. Mr. Fox admits most explicitly, that James was zealous in the cause of popery; and that after Monmouth's execution, he made attempts equally violent and undisguised to restore it. Mr. Rose, on the other hand, admits that he was exceeding- ly desirous to render himself absolute ; and that one ground of his attachment to popery probably was, its natural affinity with an arbi- trary government. Upon which of these two objects he set the chief value, and which of them be wished to make subservient to the other, it is not perhaps now very easy to de- termine. In addition to the authorities referred to by Mr. Fox, however, there are many more which tend directly to show that one great ground of his antipathy to* the reformed reli- gion was, his conviction that it led to rebellion and republicanism. There are very many passages in Barillon to this effect; and, in- deed, the burden of all Lewis's letters is to convince James that "the existence of mo- narchy" in England depended on the protec- tion of the Catholics. Barillon says (Fox, App. p. 125), that " the king often declares publicly, that all Calvinists are naturally ene- mies to royalty, and above all, to royalty in England." And Burnet observes (vol. i. p. 73), that the king told him, "that among other prejudices he had against the Protestant religion, this was one, that his brother and himself being in many companies in Paris incognito (during the Commonwealth), where ther6 were Protestants, he found they were all alienated from them, and great admirers of Cromwell; so-he believed they were all rebels in their hearts." It will not be forgotten either, that in his first address to the council, on his accession, he made use of those memorable words : — "I know the principles of the Church ,of England are for monarchy, and therefore I shall always take care to defend and support it." While he retained this opinion of its loyalty, accordingly, he did defend and sup- port it; and did persecute all dissidents from its doctrine, at least as violently as he after- wards did those who opposed popery. It was only when he found that the orthodox doc- trines of non-resistance and fus divinvm would not go all lengths, and that even the bishops would not send his proclamation to their clergy, that he came to class them with the rest of the heretics, and to rely entirely upon the slavish votaries of the Roman supersti- tion. The next set of remarks is introduced for the purpose of showing that Mr. Fox has gone rather too far, in stating that the object both of Charles and James in taking money from Lewis was to render themselves independent of Parliament, and to enable them to govern without those assemblies. Mr. Rose admits that this was the point which both monarchs were desirous of attaining; and merely says, that it does not appear thai either of them ex- pected that the calling of Parliaments could be entirely dispensed with. There certainly is not here any worthy subject of contention. The next point is, as to the sums of money which Barillon says he distributed to the whig leaders, as well as to the king's minis- ters. Mr. Rose is very liberal and rational on this subject; and thinks it not unfair to doubt the accuracy of the account which this minis- ter renders of his disbursements. He even quotes two passages from Mad. de Sevigne, to show that it was the general opinion that he had enriched himself greatly by his mission to Englahd. In a letter written during the continuance of that mission, she says, " Baril- lon s'en va, &c. ; son emploi est admirable cette Q-nnee ; it mangei'a cinquante mille francs ; mais il sait bien oil les prendre." And after his final return, she says he is old and rich, and looks without envy on the brilliant situation of M. D'Avaus. The only inference he draws from the discussion is, that it should have a little shaken Mr. Fox's confidence in his accuracy. The answer to which obviously is, that his mere dishonesty, Avhere his private interest was concerned, can afford no reason for doubt- ing his accuracy where it was not affected. In the concluding section of his remarks, Mr. Rose resumes his eulogium on Sir Patrick Hume, — introduces a splendid encomium on the Marquis "of Montrose, — brings authority to show that torture was used to extort con- fession in Scotland even after the Revolu- tion, — and then breaks out into a high tory rant against Mr. Fox, for supposing that the councillors who condemned Argyle might not be very easy in their consciences, and for call- ing those who were hunting down that noble- man's dispersed followers "authorized assas- sins." James, he says, was their lauful sove- reign; and the parties in question having been in open rebellion, it was the evident duty of all who had not joined with them (o suppress them. We are not very fond of arguing gene- ral points of this nature; and the question here is fortunately special and simple. If the tyranny and oppression of James in Scotland — the unheard-of enormity of \^hich Mr. Rose owns that Mr. .Fox has understated — had al- ready given that country a far juster title to renounce him than England had in 1688; then James was not " their lawful sovereign" in any sense in which that phrase can be understood by a fiee people ; and those whose cowardice or despair made them submit to be the instru- ments of the tyrant's vengeance on one who had armed for their deliverance, may very in- nocently be presumed to have suffered some remorse for their compliance. With regard, again, to the phrase of "authorized assassins," it is plain, from thf context of Mr. Fox, that it is not applied to the regular forces acting against the remains of Argyle's orwcrf follow- ers, but to those individuals, whether military or not, who pursued the disarmed and soli- tary fugitives, for the purpose of butchering WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 303 them in cold blood, in their caverns and moun- ■ tains. Such is the substance of Mr. Rose's obser- vations ; which certainly do not appear to us of any considerable value — though they indi- cate, throughout, a laudable industry, and a still more laudable consciousness of infe- riority, — together with (what we are deter- mined to believe) a natural disposition to liberality and moderation, counteracted by the littleness of party jealousy and resentment. We had noted a great number of petty m'is- representations and small inaccuracies ; but in a work which is not likely either to. be much read, or long remembered, these things are not worth the trouble of correction. Though the book itself is very dull, how- ever, we must say that the Appendix is very entertaining. Sir Patrick's narrative is clear and spirited; but what delights us far more, is another and more domestic and miscellaneous narrative of the adventures of his family, from the period of Argyle's discomfiture till Uieir return in the train of King William. This is from the hand of Lady Murray, Sir Patrick's grand-daughter ; and is mostly furnished from the informationr of her mother, his favourite and exemplary daughter. There is an air of cheerful magnanimity and artless goodness about this little history, which is extremely engaging : and a variety of traits of Scottish simplicity and 'homeliness of character, which recommend it, in a peculiar manner, to our national feelings. Although we have already enlarged this article beyond its proper .limits, we must give our readers a few specimens of this singular chronicle. After Sir Patrick's escape, he made his way to his own castle, and was concealed for some time in a vault* under the church, where his daughter, then a girl under twenty, went alone, every night, with an heroic fortitude, to com- fort and feed him. The gaiety, however, which lightejied this perilous intercourse, is to us still more admirable than its heroism. " She went every night by herself, at mid- night, to carry him victuals and drink ; and stayed with him as long as she could to get home before day. In all this time, my grand- father showed the same constant composure, and cheerfulness of mind, that he continued to possess to his death, which was at the age of eighty-four; all which good qualities she in- herited from him in a high degree. Often did they laugh heartily in that doleful habitalion, at different accidents that happened. She at that time had a terror for a churchyard, especially in the dark, as is not uncommon at her age, by idle nursery stories ; but when engaged by concern for her father, she stumbled over the graves every night alone, without fear of any kind entering her "thoughts, but .for soldiers and parties in search of him, which the least noise or motion of a leaf put her in terror for. The minister's house was near the church. The first night she went, his dogs kept fTlich a barking as put her in the utmost fear of a dis- covery. My grandmother sent for the minister next day, and, upon pretence of a mad dog, got him to hang all his dogs. There was also dit^culty of getting victuals to carry him, with- out the servants suspecting : the only way it was done, was by stealing it off her plate at dinner, into her lap. Many a diverting story she has told about this, and other things of the like nature. Her father liked sheep's head ; and, while the children were eating their broth, she had conveyed most of one into her lap. When her brother Sandy (the late Lord March- mont) hjd done, he looked up with astonish- ment and said,_ ' Mother, will you look at Grizzel ; while we have been eating our broth, she has eat up the whole sheep's head.'' This occasioned so much mirth among them, that her father, at night, was greatly entertained, by it : and desired Sandy might have a share in the next." — App. p. [v.] They then tried to secrete him in a low room in his own house ; and, for this purpose, to con- trive a bed concealed under the floor, which this atffectionate and light-hearted girl secretly excavated herself, by scratching up the earth with her nails, " till she left not a nail on her fingers," and carrying it into the garden at night in bags. At last, however, they all got over to Holland, where they seem to have lived in great poverty, — but in the same style of magnanimous gaiety and cordial affection, of which some instances have been recited. This admirable young woman, who livedafterwards with the same simplicity of character in the first society in England, seems to have exerted herself in a way that nothing but affection could have rendered tolerable, even to one bred up to drudgery. "All the time they were there" (says his daughter), " there was not a week my mother did not sit up two nights, to do the business that was necessary. She went to market ; went to the mill to have their corn ground, which, it seems, is the way with good mana- gers there ; dressed the linen ; cleaned the house ; made ready dinner; mended the child- ren's, stockings, and other clothes ; made what she could for them ; and, in short, did every thing. Her sister Christian, who was a year or two younger, diverted her father and mother, and the rest, who were fond of music. Out of their small income they bought a harpsichord for little money (but is a Rucar*), now in my custody, and most valuable. My aunt played and sung well, and had a great deal of life and humour, but no turn to business. Though my mother had the same qualifications, and liked it as well as she did, she was forced to drudge ; and many jokes used to pass betwixt the sisteis about their different occupatiotis." — p. [ix.] "Her brother soon afterwards entered intq the Prince of Orange's guards : and her con- stant attention was to have him appear right in his linen and dress. They wore little point cravats and cuffs, which many a night she sat up to have in as "good order for him as any in the place ; and one of their greatest expenses was in dressing him as he ought to be. As their house was always full of the unfortunate banished people like themselves, they seldom went to dinner, without three, or four, or five of them, to share with them ; and many a hun- dred times I. have heard her say, she could ♦ An eminent maker of tbfct time. 3«i. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. never look back upon their manner of living there, without thinking it a miracle. They had no want, but plenty of every thing they desired, and much contentment; and always declared it the most pleasing part of her life, though they were not without their little distresses ; but to (hem they were rather jokes than grievances. The professors, and men of learning in the place, came (jften to see my grandfathef. The best entertainment he could give them was a glass of alabast beer, which wa? a belter kind of ale than common. He sent his son An- drew, the late Lord Kimmerghame, a boy, to draw some for them in the cellar : he brought ft up with great diligence ; but in the other hand the spigot of the barrel. My grandfather said, 'Andrew, what is that in your hand 1' When he saw it he run down with speed; "but the beer was all run out before he got there. This occasibned much mirth; though, perhaps, they did not well know where to get more." — pp. [X. xi.] Sir Patrick, we are glad to hear, retained this kindly cheerfulness of character to the last; and, after he was an earl and chancellor of Scotland, and unable to stir with gout, had himself carried to the room where his children and grandchildren were dancing, and insisted on beating time with his foot. Nay, when dying at the j^dvanced age of eighty-four, he could not resist his old propensity to joking, but uttered various pleasantries on the disap- pointment the worms would meet with, when, after boring through his thick cofTm, they would find little but bones. There is, in the Appendix, besides these narrations, a fierce attack upon_ Burnet, which is full of inaccuracies and ill temper; and some interesting particulars of Monmouth's imprisonment and execution. We dare say Mr. Rose could publish a volume or two of very interesting tracts; and' can venture to predict that his collections will be much more popular than his observations. DISTURBANCES AT MADRAS/ [Edinburgh Review, 1810.] The disturbances which have lately taken place in our East Indian possessions, would, at any period, have excited a considerable de- gree of alarm ; and those feelings are, of course, not a little increased by the ruinous aspect' of our European affairs. The revolt of an army of eighty thousand men is an event which seems to threaten so nearly the ruin of the country in which it happens, that no com- mon curiosity is excited as to the causes which could have led to it, and the means by which its danger was averted. On these points, we shall endeavour to exhibit to our readers the information afforded to us by the pamphlets whose titles we have cited. The first of these is understood to be written by an agent of Sir George Barlow, sent over for the express pur- pose of defending his measures ; the second is most probably the production of some one of the dismissed officers, or, at least, founded upon their representations ; the third statement is by Mr. Petrie, — and we most cordially recommend it to the perusal of our readers. It is charac- terized, throughout, by moderation, good sense, and a feeling of duty. We have seldom read a narrative, which, on the first face of it, look- ed so much like truth. It has, of course, pro- duced the ruin and dismissal of this gentleman, though we have not the shadow of doubt, that if his advice had been followed, every unplea- * Jfarrative of the Origin and Progress of the Dissen- sions at the Presidency of Madras, founded on Oritrinal Papers and Correspondence. Lloyd, London, 1810. .Account of the Origin and Progress of the late Discon- tents of the Srmy on the Madras Establishment,. Cadell and Davies, London, 1810. Statement of Pacts delivered to the Right honourable Lord Minto:) By William Petrie Esq. Stockdale, London, 1810. t sant occurrence which has happened in India might have been effectually prevented. In the year 1802, a certain monthly allow- ance, proportioned to their respective ranks, was given to each officer of the coast army, to enable him to provide himself with camp equipage; and a monthly'allo\^ance was also made to the commanding officers of the native corps, for the provision of the camp equipage of these corps. This arrangement was com- monly called the tent contract. Its intention (as the pamphlet of Sir George Barlow's agent very properly states) was to combine facility of movement in military operations with views of economy. In the general revision of its establishments, set on foot for the purposes of economy by the Madras government, this con- tract was considered as entailing upon them a very unnecessary expense ; and the then com- mander-in-chief. General Craddock, directed Colonel Munro, the' quartermaster-general, to make a report to him upon the subject. The report, which was published almost as soon as it was made up, recommends the abolition of this contract; and, among other passages for the support of this opinion, has the following one: — "Six years' experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the camp equipage equipment of the native. army, has afforded means of forming a judgment relative to its advantages and efficiency which were not pos'sessed by the persons who proposed its introduction ; and an attentive examination of its operations during that period of time has suggested the following observations, re- garding it : — " After stating that the contract is needlessly WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 305 expensive — that it subjects the Company to the same charges for troops in garrison as for those in the field — the report proceeds to state the following observation, made on the autho- rity of six years' experience and attentive examina- tion. " Thirdly. By granting the same allowances in peace and war for the equipment of native corps, while the .expenses incidental to that charge are unavoidably much greater in war than peace, it places the interest and duty of officers commanding native corps in direct opposition to one another. It makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong inducements to neglect their most important duties." — Accurate and Authentic Narrative, pp. 117, 118. Here, then, is not only a proposal for re- ducing the emoluments of the principal offi- cers of the Madras army, but a charge of the most flagrant nature. The first they might possibly have had some right to consider as a hardship ; but, when severe and unjust invec- tive was superadded to strict retrenchment — ■when their pay and their reputation were diminished at the same time — it cannot be considered as surprising, that such treatment, on the part of the government, should lay the foundation for a spirit of discontent in those troops who had recently made such splendid additions to the Indian empire, and establish- ed, in the progress of these actjuisitions, so high a character for discipline and courage. It must be remembered, that an officer' on European and one on Indian service are in very different situations, and propose to them- selves ve^y different objects. The one never thinks of making a fortune by his profession, while the hope of ultimately gaining an inde- pendence is the principal motive for which the Indian officer banishes himself from his country. To diminish the emoluments of his profession is to retard the period of his return, and to frustrate the purpose for which he ex- poses his life and health i«i a burning climate, on the other side of the world. We make these observations, certainly, without any idea of denying the right of the East India Com- pany to make any retrenchments they may think proper, but to show that it is a right .which ought to be exercised with great deli- cacy and with sound discretion — that it should only be exescised when the retrenchment is of real importance — and above all, that it should always be accompanied with every mark of suavity and conciliation. Sir George Barlow, on thje contrary, committed the singular im- prudence of stigmatizing the honour, and wounding the feelings of the Indian officers. At the same moment that he diminishes their emolnmeftts he tells them, that the India Com- pany take away their allowances for tents, because those allowances have been abused jn the meanest, most profligate, and most un- soldier-like manner; for this and more than {his is conveyed in the report of Colonel Munro, published by order of Sir George Bar- low. If it was right, in the first instance, to diminish the emoluments of so vast an army, 39 it was certainly indiscreet to give such reasons for it. If any individual had abused the ad- vantages_of the tent-contract, he might have been brought to a court-martial; and, if his guilt had been established, his punishment, we will venture to assert, would not have occa- sioned a moment of complaint or disaffection in the army ; but that a civilian, a gentleman accustomed only to the details of commerce, should begin his government, over a settle- ment with which he was utterly unacquainted,, by telling one of the bravest set of officers in the world, that, for six years past, they had been, in the basest manner, sacrificing their duty to their intarest, does ap.pear to us an in- stance of indiscretion which, if frequently repeated, would soon supersede the necessity of any further discussion upon Indian affairs. The whole transaction, indeed, appears to have been gone into with a disregard to the common professional feelings of an army, which is. to us utterly inexplicable. The opinion of the commander-in-chief. General Macdowall, was never asked upon the sub- ject ; not a single w^itness was examined; the whole seems to have depended upon the report of Colonel Munro, the youngest staff- officer of the army, published in spite of the earnest remonstrance of Colonel Capper, the adjutant-general, and before three days had been given him to substitute his own plan, which Sir George Barlow had promised to read before the publication of Colonel Munro's report. Nay, this great plan of reduction was never even submitted to the military board, by whom all subjects of that description were, according to the orders of the court of directors, and the usage of the service, to be discussed and digested, previous to their coming before government. Shortly after the promulgation of this very indiscreet paper, the commander-in-chief. Ge- neral Macdowall, received letters from almost all the officers commanding native corps, representing, in terms adapted to the feelings of each, the stigma which was considered to attach to them individually, and appealing to the authority of the commander-in-chief for redress against such charges, and to his per- sonal experience for their falsehood. To these letters the general replied, that the orders in question had been prepared without any refer- ence to his opinion, and that, as the matter was so far advanced, he deemed it. inexpedient to interfere. The officers commanding corps, finding that no steps were taken to remove the obnoxious insinuations, and considering that, while they remained, an indelible disgrace was ^ cast upon their characters, prepared charges ' against Colonel Munro. These charges were | forwarded to General Macdowall, referred by him to the judge advocate general, and re- turned, with his objections to them, to the officers who had preferred -the charges. For two months after this period, General Mac- dowall appears to have remained in a state of uncertainty, as to whether he would or would not bring Colonel Munro to a court-martial upon the charges preferred against him by the commanders of corps. At last, urged by the discontents of the army, he deterrhined in the 2 c 2 306 WORKS OF THE JIEV. SYDNEY SMITH. affirmative ; and Colonel Muhro was put in arrest, preparatory to his trial. Colonel Munro then appealed directly to the governor, Sir George Barlow ; and was released by a posi- tive order froiti him. It is necessary to state, that all appeals of officers to the government in India always pass through the hands of the , commandsr-in-chief ; and this appeal, there- fore, of Colonel Munro, directed to the govern- ment, was considered by General Macdowall as a great infringement of military discipline. We have very great doubts whether Sir George Barlow was not guilty of another great mistake m preventing this court-martial from taking place. It is undoubtedly true, that no servant of the public is amenable to justice for doing what the government orders him to do ; but he is not entitled to protection under the pre- . tence of that order, if he has done something which it evidently did not require of him. If Colonel Munro had been ordered to report upon the conduct of an individual officer, — and it, could be proved that, in gratification of private malice, he had taken that opportunity of stating the most infamous and malicious falsehoods, — could it be urged that his conduct might not be fairly scrutinized in a court of justice, or a court-martial 1 If this were other- wise, any duty delegated by government to an individual Avould become the most intolerable source of oppression : he might gratify every enmity and antipathy — indulge in every act of malice — vilify and traduce every one whom he hated — and then shelter himself under the plea of public service. Every body has a right- to do what the supreme power orders him to do; but he does not thereby acquire a right to do what he has not been ordered to do. Colonel Munro was directed to make a report upon the state of the army : the officers whom he has traduced accuse him of reporting something utterly different from the state of the army — something which he and every body else knew to be different — and this'for the malicious purpose of calumniating their reputation. If this was true. Colonel Munro could not plead the authority of government ; for the authority of government was afforded to him for a very different purpose. In this view of the case, we cannot see how the dig- nity of government was attacked by the pro- posal of the court-martial, or to what other remedy those who had suffered from his abuse of his power could have had recourse. Colonel Munro had been promised, by General Mac- dowall, that the court-martial should consist of king's officers : there could not, therefore, |j have been any rational suspicion that his trial would have been unfair, or his judges unduly influenced. Soon after Sir George Barlow had shown this reluctance to give the complaining officers an opportunity of re-establishing their injured character, General Macdowall sailed for Eng- land, and left behind him, for publication, an order, in which Colonel Munro was repri' manded for a violent breach in military disci- pline, in appealing to the governor otherwise than through the customary and prescribed channel of tlje commander-in-chief. As this paper is very short, and at the same time very necessary to the right comprehension of this case, we shall lay it before our readers. " G. O. by the Commander-in-chief. "The immediate departure of Lieutenant General Macdowall from Madras will prevent his pursuing the design of bringing Lieutenant- Colonel Munro, quartermaster-general, to trial, for disrespect to the commander-in-chief, for disobedience of orders, and for contempt of military authority, in having resorted to the power of the civil government, in defiance of the judgment of the officer at the head of the army, who had placed him under arrest, on charges preferred against him by a number of officers commanding native corps, in conse- quence of which appeal direct to the honourable the president in council. Lieutenant-General Macdowall has received positive orders from the chief secretary to liberate Lieutenant- Colonel Munro from arrest. " Such conduct on the part of Lieutenant- ' Colonel Munro, being destructive of subordi- nation, subversive of military discipline, a violation of the sacred rights of the com- mander-in-chief, and holding out a most dan- gerous example to the service, Lieutenant- General Macdowall, in support of the dignity of the profession, and his own station and character, .feels it incumbent on him to express his strong disapprobation of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro's unexampled proceedings, and con- - siders it a solemn duty imposed upon him to reprimand Lieutenant-Colonel Munro in gene- ral orders ; and he is hereby reprimanded accordingly. (Signed) ,T. Boles, r. a. g." — Jccur. ^ Juth. Nar. pp. 68, 69. Sir George Ba,rlow, in consequence of this paper, immediately deprived General Mac- dowall of his situation of commander-in-chief, which he had not yet resigned, though he had quitted the settlement ; and as the official sig- nature qf the deputy adjutant-general appeared to the paper, that officer also was suspended from his situation. Colonel Capper, the adju- tant-general, in the most honourable manner informed Sir George 'Barlow, that he was the culpable and responsible person ; and that the name of his deputy only appeared to the paper in consequence of his positive order, and be- cause he himself happened to be absent on shipboard with General Macdowall. This generous conduct on the part of Colonel Cap- per involved himself in punishment, without extricating the innocent person whom he in- tended to protect. The Madras government, always swift to condemn, doomed him to the same punishment as Major Boles;' and he was suspended from his office. This paper we have read over with great attention ; and we really cannot see wherein its criminality consists, or on what account it could have drawn down upon General Mac- dowall so severe a punishment as the priva- tion of the high and dignified office which, he held. The censure upon Colonel Munro was for a violation of the regular etiquette of the army, in appealing to the governor otherwise than through the channel of the commander-in-chief. This was an entirely new oflence on the part of Colonel Munro. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 307 Sir George Barlow had given no opinion upon it; it hafl not been discussed between him and the commander-in-chief; and the com- matider-in-chief was clearly at liberty to act in this point as he pleased. He does not repri- mand Colonel Munro for obeying Sir George Barlow's orders ; for Sir George had given no orders upon the subject; but he blames him for transgressing a well-known and important rule of the service. We have great doubts if he was not quite right in giving this reprimand. But at all events, if he was wrong, — if Colonel Munro was not guilty of the offence imputed, still the erroneous punishment which the general had inflicted merited no such •severe retribution as that resorted to by Sir George Barlow. There are no reflections in the paper on the conduct of the governor or the government. The reprimand is grounded en- tirely upon the breach of that military disci- pline which it was undoubtedly the business of General Macdowall to maintain in the most perfect purity and vigour. Nor has the paper any one expression in it foreign to this pur- •pose. We were, indeed, not a little astonished at reading it. We had imagined that a paper, which drew after it such a long train of dismissals and suspensions, must have contained a declaration of war against the Madras government, — an exhortation to the troops to throw off their allegiance, — or an advice to the natives to drive their intrusive masters away, and become as free as their forefathers had left them. Instead of this, we find nothing more than a common reprimand from a commander-in-chief to a subordinate officer, for transgressing t^he bounds of his duty. If Sir George Barlow had governed kingdoms six months longer, we cannot help thinking he would have been a little more moderate. But whatever difference of opinion there may be respecting the punishment of General Macfiowall, we can scarcely 'think there can be any with regard to the conduct observed towards the adjutant-general and his deputy. They were the subordinates of the commander- in-chief, and were peremptorily bound to pub- lish any general orders which he might com- mand them to publish. They would have been liable to very severe punishment if they had not ; and it appears to us the most flagrant outrage against all justice to convert their obedience into a, fault. It is true, no suboritU- nate officer is bound to obey any order which is plainly, and to any common apprehension, illegal ; but then the illegality must be quite manifest; the order must imply such a contra- diction to common sense, and such a violation of duties superior to the duty of military obedience, that there can be scarcely two opinions on the subject. Wherever any fair doubt can be raised, the obedience of the inferior officer is to be considered as proper and meritorious. Upon any other principle, his situation is the most cruel imaginable : he is liable to the severest punishment, even to instant death, if he refuses to obey ; and if he does obey, he is exposed to the animadver- sion of the civil power, which teaches him that he ought to have canvassed the order, — to have remonstrated against it, — and, in case this opposition proved ineffectual, to have disobeyed it. We have no hesitation in pro- nouncing the imprisonment of Colonel Capper and Major Boles to have been an act of great severity and great indiscretion, and such as might very fairly give great offence to an army, who saw themselves exposed to the same punishments, for the same adherence to their duties. "The measure of removing Lieutenant- Colonel Capper and Major Boles," says Mr. Petrie, "was universally condemned by the most respectable oflicers in the army, and not more so by the officers in the Company's ser- vice, than by those of his majesty's regiments. It was felt by all as the introduction of a most dangerous principle, and setting a pernicious example of disobedience and insubordination to all the gradations of military rank and authority; teaching inferior officers to ques- tion the legality of the orders of their superiors, and bringing into discussion questions which may endanger the very existence of govern- ment. Our proceedings at the time operated like an electric shock, and gave rise to combi- nations, associations, antl discussions, preg- nant with danger to every constituted authority in India. It was observed that the removal of General Macdowall (admitting the expe- diency of the measure) sufficiently vindicated the authority of government, and exhibited to the army a memorable proof that the supreme power is vested in the civil authority. "The offence came from the general, and he wa.s punished for it ; but to suspend from the service the mere instruments of office, for the oi'dijiary transmission of an order (o the army, was universally condemned as -an act of inapplicable severity, which might do infi- nite mischief, but could not accomplish any good or beneficial purpose. It was to court unpopularity, and adding fuel to' the flame, which was ready to burst forth in every divi- sion of the army ; that tx) vindicate the mea- sure on the assumed illegality of the order, Is to resort to a principle of a most dangerous .tendency, capable of being extended in its ap- plication to purposes subversive of the foun- dations of all authoiity, civil as well as mili- tary. If subordinate officers are encouraged to judge of the legality of the orders of their superiors, we introduce a precedent of incal- culable mischief, neither justified by the spirit nor practice of the laws. Is it not better to have the responsibility on the head of the authority which issuer the order, except in cases so plain that the most common capacity can judge' of their being direct violations of the established and acknowledged laws? Is the intemperance of the Expressions, the indis- cretions of the opinions, the inflammatory tendency of the order, so eminently dangerous, so evidently calculated to excite to mutiny and disobedience, so strongly marked with features of criminality, as not to be mistaken 1 ' Was the order, I beg leave to ask, of this descrip- tion, of such a nature afe to justify the adjutant- general and his deput^v in their refusal to pub- lish it, to disobey the order of the commander- in-chief, to revolt from his authority, and to 308« WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. ' complain of him to the government 1 Such were the views I took of that unhappy trans- action ; and, as I foresaw serious mischief from the measure, nol only to the discipline of the army, but even to the security of the civil government, it was my duty to state my opinion to Sir G. Barlow, and to use every argument which my reason suggested, to pre- vent the publication of the order. In this I completely failed ; the suspension took effect ; and the match was laid that has communicated the flame to almost every military mind in India. I recorded no dissent ; for, as a formal opposition could only tend to exonerate myself from a certain degree of responsibility, with- out effecting any good public purpose, and might probably be misconstrued or miscon- ceived by those to whom our proceedings were made known, it was . a more honourable dis- charge of my duty to relinquish this advan- tage, than to comply with the mere letter of the order respecting dissents. I explained this motive of my conduct to Sir G. Barlow." — Statement of Facts, pp. 20 — 23. After these proceedings on the part of the Madras government,- the disaffection of the troops rapidly increased ; absurd and violent manifestoes were published by the general officers ; government was insulted ; and the army soon broke out into open mutiny. When the mutiny was fairly begun, the con- duct of the Madras government in quelling it, ■seems nearly as objectionable as that by which it had been excited. The governor, in attempt- ing to be dignified, perpetually fell into the most puerile irritability ; and wishing to be firm, was guilty of injustice an"d violence. Invita- tions to dinner were made an affair of state. Long negotiations appear respecting whole corps of officers who refused to dine with Sir George Barlow; and the first persons in the settlement were employed to persuade them to eat the repast which his excellency had pre- pared for them. A whole school of military lads were sent away, for some trifling display of partiality to the cause of the army ; and every unfortunate measure recurred to, which a weak understanding and a captious temper could employ to bring a government into con- tempt. Officers were dismissed; butdismissed without trial, and -even without accusation. The object seemed to be to punish somebody: ■w4iether it was the right or the wrong person was less material. Sometimes the subordinate was selected, where the principal was guilty ; sometimes the superior was sacrificed for the ungovernable conduct of, those who were un- der his charge. The blows were strong enough ; but they came from a man who shut his eyes, and struck at random ; — conscious that he must do something to repel the danger ; — but so agitated by its proximity that he could not look at it, or take a proper aim. Among other absurd measures resorted to by this new eastern emperor, was the notable expedient of imposing a test upon the officers of the army, expressive of their loyalty and attachment to the government ; and as this was done at a time when some officers were in open rebellion, others fluctuating, and many almost resolved to adhere to their duty, it had the very natural and probaWe effect of uniting them all in opposition to governmeilt. To impose a t.est, or trial of opinions, is at all times an unpopular species of inquisition ; and at a period when men were hesitating whether they should obey or not, was certainly a very dangerous and rash measure. It could be no security; for men who would otherwise rebel against their government, certainly would not be restrained by any verbal barriers of this' kind ; and, at the same time that it promised no effectual security, it appeared to increase the danger, of irritated combination. This very rash measure immediately produced the strongest, representations and remonstrances from king's officers of the most vmquestionable loyalty. " Lieutenant-Colonel Vesey, commanding at Palamcotah, apprehends the most fatal conse- quences to the tranquillity of the southern pro- vinces, if Colonel Wilkinson makes any hos- tile movements from Trichinopoly. In different letters he states, that such a step must inevi- tably throw the company's troops into open revolt. He has ventured to write in the strongest terms tq Colonel Wilkinson, entreat- ing him not to march against the southern troops, and pointing out the ruinous conse- quences which may be expected from such a measure. " Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart in Travancore, and Colonel Forbes in Malabar, have written, that they are under no apprehension for the tranquillity of those provinces, or for the fide- lity of the company's troops, if government does not insist on enforcing the orders for the signature of the test; but that, if this is at- tempted, the security of the country will be imminently endangered. These orders are to be enforced; and I tremble for the conse- quences." — Statement of Facts, pp. 53, 54. The following letter from the Honourable Colonel Stuart, commanding a king's regi- ment, was soon after received by Sir George Barlow : — " The late measures of government, as car- ried into effect at the Presidency and Trichi- nopoly, have created a most violent ferment among the corps here. At those places where the European force was so far superior in number to the native, the. measure probably was executed without difficulty; but here, whete there are seven battalions of sepoys, and a company and a half of artillery, to our one regimen*, I found it totally impossible to carry the business to the same length, parti- cularly as any tumult among our own corps would certainly bring, the people of Travan- core upon us. " It is in vain, therefore, for me, with the small force I can depend upon, to attempt to stem the torrent here by any acts of violence. "Most sincerely and anxiously do I wish that the present tumult may subside, without fatal consequences; which, if the present vio- lent measures are continued, I much fear will not be the case. If blood is once spilt in the cause, there is no knowing where it may end; and the probable consequences will be. that India will be lost for ever. So many officers WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 309 •of the army have gone to such lengths, that, tinless a general amnesty is granted, tranquil- lity can never be restored. "The honourable the governor in council ■will not, I trust, impute to me any other mo- tives for having thus given my opinion. I am actuated solely by anxiety for the public good and the benefit of my country; and I think it my duty, holding the responsible situation I now do, to express my sentimerffc at so awful a period. " Where there are any prospects of success, ' it might be right to persevere ; but, where every day's experience proves, that the more coercive the measures adopted, the more vio- lent are the congequences, a different and more conciliatory line of conduct ought to be adopted. I have the honour, &c." — Statement of Fads, pp. 55, 56. "A letter from Colonel Forbes, commanding in Malabar, states, that to prevent a revolt in the province, and the probable march of the company's troops towards Seringapatam, he had accepted of a modification in the test, to be signed by the officers on their parole, to make no hostile movements until the pleasure " -of the government was known. — Disapproved by government, and ordered to enforce the former orders." — Statement of Facts, p. 61. It can scarcely be credited, that in spite of these repeated remonstrances from officers, whose loyalty and whose knowledge of the sub- ject could not be suspected, this test was or- dered to be enforced, and the severest rebukes inflicted upon those who had presumed to doubt of its propriety, or suspend its operation. Nor let any man say that the opinionative person who persevered in this measure saw more clearly and deeply into the consequence of his own measures than those who were about him; for unless Mr. Petrie has been , guilty, and repeatedly guilty, of a most down- right and wilful falsehood. Sir George Barlow "had not the most distant conception, during all these measures, that the army would ever venture upon revolt. " Government, or rather the head of the go- vernment, was never correctly informed of the actual state of the army, or I think he would have acted otherwise; he was told, and he was willing to believe, that the discontents were confined to a small part of the troops ; that a great majority disapproved of their proceedings, and were firmly and unalterably attached to government." — Statement of Fads, pp. 23, 24. ' . In a conversation which Mr. Petrie had with Sir George Barlow upon the subject of the army — and in the course of which he recom- mends to that gentleman more lenient mea- sures, and warns him of the increasing disaf- fection of the troops — he gives us the following account of Sir George Barlow's notions of the then state of the army: — " Sir G. Barlow assured me I was greatly misinformed ; that he could rely upon his in- telligence ; and would produce to council the must satisfactory and unequivocal proofs of the fidelity of nine-tenths of the army; that discontents were. confined almost exclusively to the southern division of the army ; that the troops composing the subsidiary force, those in the ceded districts, in the centre, and a part of the northern division, were all untainted by those principles which had misled the rest of the army." — Statement of Facts, pp. 27, 28. All those violent measures, then, the spirit and wisdom of which have been so much ex- tolled, were not measures of the consequences of which their author had the most distant suspicion. They were not the acts of a man who knew that he must unavoidably, in the discharge of his duty, irritate, but that he could ultimately overcome that irritatidh. They appear, on the contrary, to have pro- ceeded from a most gross and scandalous ignorance of the opinions of the army. He expected passive submission, and met with universal revolt. So far, then, his want of intelligence and sagacity are unqu(*stionably proved. He did not proceed with useful mea- sures, and run the risk of a revolt, for which he was fully prepared ; but he carried these measures into execution, firmly convinced that they would occasion no revolt at all.* The fatal nature of this mistak-e is best ex- emplified by the means recurred to for_ its correction. The grand expedient relied upon was to instigate the natives, men and officers, to disobey their European commanders; an expedient by which present safety was secured at the expense of every principle upon which the permanence of our Indian empire rests. There never was in the world a more singular spectacle than to see a few thousand Europeans governing so despotically fifty or sixty mil- lions of people, of different climate, religion, and habits — forming them into large and well- disciplined armies — and leading them out to the further subjugation of the native powers of India. But can any words be strong enough to paint the rashness of provoking a mutiny, which could only be got under by teaching these armies to act against their Eu- ropean commanders, and to use their actual strength in overpowering their officers ? — or, is any man entitled to the praise of firmness and sagacity, who gets rid of a present danger by encouraging a principle which renders that danger more frequent and more violent 1 We will venture to assert, that a more unwise or a more unstatesmanlike action' was never committed by any man in any country ; and we are grievously mistaken, if any length of time elapse before the evil consequences of it are felt and deplored by every man who deems the welfare of our Indian colonies of any im- portance to the prosperity of the mother coun- try. We cannot help contrasting the manage- ment of the discontent of the Madras army, with the manner in which the same difficulty was got over with the army at Bengal. A little increase of attention and emolument to the head of that army, under the management of a man of rank and talents, dissipated ap- * We should have been alarmed to have seen Sir George Barlow, junior, churchwarden of St. George's, Hanover Square,— an office so nobly filled by Giblet and Leslie : it was an huge affliction to see so incapable a man at the head of the Indian empire. 310 WORKS . OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. pearances which the scepjred pomp of a mer- chant's clerk would have blown up into a rebellion in three week's ; and yet the Bengal army is at this moment in as good a state of discipline, as the English fleet to which Lord Howe made such abject concessions — and in a state to be much more permanently depended upon than the army which has been so effec- tually ruined by the inconveniently great soul of the present governor of Madras. Sir George Barlow's agent, though faithful to his employment of calumniating those who were in any degree opposed to his principal, seldom loses sight of sound discretion, and .confines his invectives to whole bodies of men, except where the dead are concerned. Against Colonel Capper, General Macdowall, and Mr. Roebuck, who are now no longer ' alive to answer for themselves, he is intrepidly severe ; in all these instances he givee a full loose to his sense of duly, and inflicts upon them the severest chastisement. In his attack upon the civilians, he is particularly careful to keep to generals ; and so rigidly does he adhere to this principle, that he does not support his asser- tion, that the civil service was disaffected as well as the military, by one single name, one single fact, or by any other means' whatever, than his own affirmation of the fact. The truth (as might be supposed to be the case from such sort of evidence) is diametrically opposite. Nothing could be more exemplary, during the whole of the rebellion, than the con- duct of the civil servants; and though the courts of justice were interfered with,— though the most respectable servants of the company were punished for the verdicts they had given as jurymen, — though many were dismissed for the slightest opposition to the pleasure of go- vernment, even in the discharge of official duties, where remonstrance was absolutely ne- cessary, — though the greatest provocation was given, and the greatest opportunity afforded to the civil servants for revolt, — there is not a single instance in which the shadow of disaf- fection has been proved against any civil ser- vant This we say, from an accurate exami- nation of all the papers which have been published on the subject; and we do not hesi- tate to affirm, that there never was a more unjust, unfounded,' and profligate charge made against any body of men ; nor have we often witnessed a more complete scene of folly and violence, than the conduct of the Madras government to its civil servants, exhibited during the whole period of the mutiny. Upon the whole, it appears to us, that the Indian army was ultimately driven into revolt by the indiscretion and violence of the Madras government; and that every evil which has happened might, with the greatest possible fa- cility, have been avoided. We have no sort of doubt that the governor always meant well; but, we are equally certain that he almost always acted ill ; and where in- capacity rises to a certain height, for all prac- tical purposes the motive is of very little con- sequence. That the late Gen. Macdowall was a weak man, is unquestionable. He was also irritated (and not without reason), because he was deprived of a seat in council, which the commanders before him had commonly en- joyed. A little attention, however, on the part of the government— the compliment of con- sulting him upon subjects connected with his profession — any of those little arts which are taught, not by a consummate political skill, but dictated by common good nature, and by the habit of mingling with the world, would have produced i high ecclesiastical stations. In ordinary times, it is of less importance who fills them ; but when the bitter period arrives, in which the people must give up some of their darling absurdities; — when the senseless clamour, which has been carefully handed down from father fool to son fool, can be no longer indulged ; — when %t is of incalculable importance to turn the people to a better ivay of thinking; the greatest im- pediments to' all amelioration are too often found among those to whose councils, at such periods, the country ought to look for ioisdom and peace. We will suppress, however, the feelings of indig- nation which such productions, from such men, naturally occasion. We will give the Bishop of Lincoln credit for being perfectly sincere ; — we will suppose, that every argu- ment he uses has not been used and refuted ten thousand times before ; and we will sit down as patiently to defend the religious liber- ties of mankind, as the reverend prelate has done to abridge them. We must begin with denying the main posi- tion upon which the Bishop of Lincoln has built his reasoning — The Catholic religion is not tolerated in England. No man can be fairly said to be permitted to enjoy his own worship who is punished for exercising that worship. , His lordship seems to have ho other idea of punishment, than lodging a man in the Poultry compter, or flogging him at the cart's tail, or fining him a sum of money ; — just as if inca- pacitating a man from enjoying the dignities and emoluments to ■rt'hich men of similar con- * ^ Charge delivered 1o the Clergy of the Diocese of Lin- coln, at the Triennial Visitation of that Diocese in'JUay, June, and July, 1812. By GeobgbTomline, D.D., F.R.S., Lord Bishop of Lincoln. London. Cadell and Co. 4to. t It is impospible to conceive the mischief which this mean and cunning prelate did at this period. dition, and other faith, may fairly aspire, was not frequently the most severe and galling of all punishments. This limited idea of the nature of punishm'ents is the more extraordi- nary, as incapacitation is actually one of the .most common punishments in some branches of our law. The sentence of a court-martial frequently purports, that a man is rendered for ever incapable of serving his majesty, &c. &c. ; and a person not in holy orders, who performs the functions of a clergyman, is rendered for ever incapable of holding any preferment in the church. There are, indeed, many species of offence for which no punishment more appo- site and judicious could be devised. It would be rather extraprdinary, however, if the court, in passing such a sentence, were to assure the culprit, " that such incapacitation' was not by them considered as a punishment ; that.it was only exercising a right inherent in all govern- ments, of determining who should be eligible for office and who ineligible." His lordship thinks the toleration complete, because he sees a permission in the statutes for the exercise of . the Roman Catholic worship. He sees the per- mission — but he does not choose to see the consequences to which they are exposed who avail themselves of this permission. It is the liberality of a father who says to a son, " Do as you please, my dear boy; follow your own ifi- clination. Judge for yourself; you are free as air. But remember, if you marry that lady, I will cut you off with a shilling." We have scarcely ever read a more solemn and frivolous statement than the Bishop of Lincoln's anti- thetical distinction between persecution and the denial of political power. " It is sometimes said, that Papists, being excluded from 'power, are consequently perse- cuted; as if exclusion from power and reli- gious persecution were convertible terms. But surely this is to confound things totally distinct in their nature. Persecution inflicts positive- punishment upon persons who hold certain religious tenets, and endeavours to accomplish the renunciation and extinction of those tenets by forcible nieans : exclusion from power is entirely negative in its operation — it only de- 312 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Clares that those who hold certain opinions shall not fill certain situations ; but it acknowledges men to be perfectly free to hold those opinions. Persecution compels men to adopt a prescribed faith, or to suffer the loss o'f liberty, property, or even life : exclusion from power prescribes no faith ; it allows men to think and believe as they please, without miolestation or interfer- ence. Persecution requires men to worship God in one and in no other way : exclusion from power neither commands nor forbids any mode of divine worship — it leaves the busi- ness of religion, where it ought to be left, to every man's judgment and conscience. Per- secution proceeds from a bigoted and sangui- nary spirit of intolerance ; exclusion from power is founded in the natural and rational principle of self-protection and self-preserva- tion, equally applicable to nations and to indi- viduals. History informs us of the mischiev- ous and fatal effects of the one, and proves the expediency and necessity of the other." — (pp. 16, 17.) We will venture to say, there is no one sen- tence in this extract which does not contain either a contradiction, or ^a misstatement. For how can that law acknowledge men to be per- fectly free to hold an opinion, which excludes from desirable situations all who do hold that opinion 1 How can that law be said neither to molest, nor interfere, which meets a man in every branch of industry "and occupation, to institute an inquisition into his religious opi- nions ■? And how is the business of religion left to every man's judgment and conscience, where so powerful a bo7ius is given to one set of religious opinions, and such a mark of in- famy and degradation fixed upon all other modes of belief? But this is comparatively a very idle part of the question. Whether the present condition of the Catholics is or is not to be denominated a perfect state of toleration, is more a controversy of words than things. That they are subject to some restraints, the bishop will admit : the important question is, whether or "not these restraints are necessary 1 For his lordship will, of course, allow, that every restraint upon human liberty is an evil in itself; and can only be justified by the su- perior good which it can be shown to produce. My lord's fears upon the subject of Catholic emancipation are conveyed in the following 'paragraph : — " It is a principle of our constitution, that the king should have advisers in the discharge of every part of his royal functions — and is it to be imagined that Papists would advise mea- sures in support of the cause of Protestantism 1 A similar observation may be applied to the two Houses of Parliament : would popish peers or popish members of the Hoilse of Commons, enact laws for the security of the Protestant government? Would they not rather repeal "the whole Protestant code, and make Popery again the established religion of the country'" -(p. 14.) And these are the apprehensions which the ckrgy of the diocese have prayed my lord to tnake public. Kind Providence never sends an evil without a remedy : — and arithmetic is the natural cure for the passion of fear. If a coward can be made to count his enemies, his terrors may be reasoned with, and he may think of ways and means of counteraction. Now, might it not have been expedient that the reverend prelate, before he had alarmed his country clergy with the idea of so large a measure as the repeal of Protestantism, should have counted up the probable number of Catholics who would be seated in both houses of Parliament 1 Does he' believe that there would be ten Catholic peers, and thirty Catholic commoners 1 But, admit double that number (and more, Dr. Duigenan himself would not ask), — will the Bishop of Lincoln seriously assert, that he thinks the Whole Protestant code in danger of repeal from such an admixture of Catholic legislators as this 1 Does he forget, amid the innumerable answers which may be made to such sort«of apprehensions, what a picture he is drawing of the weakness and versatility of Protestant principles "? — that an handful of Catholics, in the bosom of a Protestant legis- lature, is to overpower the ancient jealousies, . the fixed opinions, the inveterate habits of twelve millions of people! — that the king is' to apostatize, the clergy to be silent, and the Par- liament be taken by surprise 1 — that the nation is to go to bed over night, and to see the Pope walking arm in arm with Lord Castlereagh the next morning! — One would rea'W^ suppose, from the bishop's fears, that the civil defences of mankind were, like their military bul^^'a^ks, transferred, by superior skill and courage> in a few hours, from the vanquished to the victor — that the destruction of a church was like the blowing up of a mine, — deans, prebendaries, churchwardens and overseers, all up in the air in an instant. Does his lordship really ima- gine, when the mere dread of the Catholics becoming legislators has induced him to charge his clergy, and his agonized clergy, to extort from their prelate the publication of the charge, that the full and mature danger will produce less alarm than the distant suspi- cion of it has done in the present instance ? — that the Protestant writers, whose pens are now up to the feather in ink, will, at any future period, yield up their church, without passion, pamphlet, or pugnacity 1 We do not blame the Bishop of Lincoln for being afraid; but we blame him for not rendering his fears in- telligible and tangible — for not circumscribing and particularizing them by some individual case — for not showing us how it is possible that the Catholics (granting their intentions to be as bad as possible) should ever be able to ruin the Church of England. His lordship appears to be in k fog ; and, as daylight breaks in upon him, he will be rather disposed to dis- own his panic. The noise he hears is "not roaring, — but braying ; the teeth and the mane are all imaginary; there is nothing but ears. It is not a lion that stops the way, but an ass. One method his lordship takes, in handling this question, is by pointing out dangers that are barely possible, and then treating of them as if they deserved the active and present atten- tion of serious men. But if no measure is to WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 313 be carried into execution, and if no provision is safe in which the minute inspection of an ingenious man cannot find the possibility of danger, then all human action is impeded, and no human institution is safe or commendable. The king has the power of pardoning, — and so every species ofgulitmay remain unpunished: he has a negative upon legislative acts, and so no law may pass. None but Presbyterians may be returned to the House of Commons, — and so the Church of England may be voted down. The Scottish and Irish members may join together in both houses, and dissolve both unions. If probability is put out of sight, — and if, in the enumeration of dangers, it is sufficient to state any which, by remote con- tingency, may happen, then is it time that we should begin to provide against all the host of perils which we have just enumerated, and which are many of them as likely to happen, as those which the reverend prelate has stated in his charge. His lordship forgets that the Catholics are not asking for election but for eligibility — not to be admitted into the cabinet, but not to be excluded from it. A century may elapse before any Catholic actually becomes a member of the cabinet; and no event can be more utterly destitute of probability, than that they should gain an ascendency there, and direct that ascendency against the Protestant interest. If the bishop really wishes to know upon what our security is founded; it is 4/pon the prodigious and decided superiority of the Pro- testant interest in the British nation, and in the United Parliament. No Protestant king would select such a cabinet, or countenance such measures ; no man would be mad enough to attempt them ; the English Parliament and the English people would not endure it for a mo- ment. No man, indeed, but under the sanctity of the mitre, would have ventured such an ex- travagant opinion. — Wo to him, if he had been only a dean. But, in spite of his venerable office, we must express our decided belief, that his lordship (by no means averse to a good bargain) would not pay down five pounds, to receive fifty millions for his posterity, when- ever the majority of the cabinet should be (Catholic emancipation carried) members of the Catholic religion. And yet, upon such terrors as these, which, when put singly to him, his better senses would laugh at, he has thought fit to excite his clergy to petition, and done all in his power to increase the mass of hatred against the Catholics. It is true enough, as his lordship remarks, that events do not depend upon laws alone, but upon the wishes and intentions of those who administer these laws. But then his lordship totally puts out of sight two considerations — the improbability of Catholics ever reaching the highest offices of the state — and those fixed Protestant opinions of the country, which would render any attack upon the established church so hopeless, and therefore, so impro- bable. Admit a supposition (to us perfectly ludicrous, but still necessary to the bishop's argument), that the cabinet council consisted entirely of Catholics, we should even then have no more fear of their making the English 40 people Catholics, than we should have of a cabi- net of butchers making the Hindoos eat beef. The bishop has not stated the true and great security for any course of human actions. It is not the word of the law, nor the spirit of the government, but the general way of think- ing among the people, especially when that way of thinking is ancient, exercised upon high interests, and connected with striking passages in history. The Protestant church does not rest upon the little narrow founda- tions where the Bishop of Lincoln supposes it to be placed : if it did, it would not be worth saving. It rests upon the general opinion en- tertained by a free and reflecting people, that the doctrines of the church are true, her pre- tensions moderate, and her exhortations useful. It is accepted by a people who have, from good taste, an abhorrence of sacerdotal mummery; and from good sense, a dread of sacerdotal ambition. Those feelings, so generally diffused, and so clearly pronounced on all occasions, are our real bulwarks against the Catholic re- ligion, and the real cause which makes it so safe for the best friends of the church to di- minish (by abolishing the test laws) so very fertile a source of hatred to the state. In the 15th page of his lordship's charge, there is an argument of a very curious nature. " Let us suppose," (says the Bishop of Lin- coln), "that there had been no test laws, no disabling statutes, in the year 1745, when an attempt was made to overthrow the Protestant government, and to place a popish sovereign upon the throne of these kingdoms ; and let us suppose, that the leading men in the houses of Parliament, that the ministers of state, and the commanders of our armies, had then been Papists. Will any one contend, that that for- midable rebellion, supported as it was by a foreign enemy, would have been resisted with the same zeal, and suppressed with the same facility, as when all the measures were planned and executed by sincere Protestants 1" (p. 15.) And so his lordship means to infer, that it would be foolish to abolish the laws against the Catholics now, because it would have been foolish to have abolished them at some other period ; — that a measure must be bad, because there was formerly a combination of circum- stances, when it would have been bad. His lordship might, with almost equal propriety, debate what ought to be done if Julius Caesar were about to make a descent upon our coasts ; or lament the impropriety of emancipating the Catholics, because the Spanish Armada was putting to sea. The fact is that Julius Csesar is dead — the Spanish Armada was de- feated in the reign of Queen Elizabeth— for half a century there has been no disputed suc- cession — the situation of the world is changed — and, because it is changed, we can do now what we could not do then. And nothing can be more lamentable than to see this respecta- ble prelate wasting his resources in putting imaginary and inapplicable cases, and reason- ing upon their solution, as if they had any thing to do with present afl'airs. 2D 314 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. These remarks enrirely put an end to the common mode of arguing a Gulielmo. What did King William do 1 — what would King William sa}- 1 &c. King William was in a very different situation from that in which we are placed. The whole world was in a very different situation. The great and glorious authors of the Revolution (as they are com- monly denominated) acquired their greatness and their glory, not by a superstitious reverence for inapplicable precedents, but by taking hold of present circumstances to lay a deep founda- tion for liberty ; and then using old names for new things, they left the Bishop of Lincoln, and other good men, to suppose that they had been thinking all the time about ancestors. Another species of false reasoning, which pervades the Bishop of Lincoln's charge, is this : He states what the interests of men are, and then takes it for granted that they will eagerly and actively pursue them ; laying totally out of the question the probability or im- probability of their effecting their obj ect, and the inffuence which this balance of chances must produce upon their actions. For instance, it is the interest of the Catholics that our church should be subservient to theirs. Therefore, says his lordship, the Catholics will enter into a conspiracy against the English church. But, is it not also the decided interest of his lord- ship's butler that he should be bishop, and the bishop his butler 1 That the crozier and the corkscrew should change hands, — and the washer of the bottles which they had emptied become the diocesan of learned divines 1 What has prevented this change, so beneficial to the upper domestic, but the extreme improbability of success, if the attempt were made ; an im- probability so great that we will venture to say, the very notion of it has scarcely once entered into the understanding of the good man. Why, then, is the reverend prelate, who lives on so safely and contentedly with John, so dreadfully alarmed at the Catholics ? And why does he so completely forget, in their in- stance alone, that men do not merely strive to obtain a thing because it is good, but always mingle with the excellence of the object a con- sideration of the chance of gaining it 1 The Bishop of Lincoln (p. 19) states it as an argument against concession to the Catho- lics, that we have enjoyed " internal peace and entire freedom from all religious animosities and feuds since the Revolution." The fact, however, is not more certain than conclusive against his view of the question. For, since that period, the worship of the church of Eng- land has been abolished in Scotland — the cor- poration and test acts repealed in Ireland — and the whole of this king's reign has been one series of concessions to the Catholics. Relaxation, then (and we wish this had been remembered at the charge), of penal laws, on subjects of religious opinion, is perfectly com- patible with internal peace and exemption from religious animosity. But the bishop is always fond of lurking in generals, and cautiously avoids coming to any specific instance of the dangers which he fears. " It is declared in one of the 39 Articles, that the king is head of our church, without being subject to any foreign power ; and it is expressly said that the Bishop of Rome has no jurisdiction within these realms. On the con- trary, Papists assert, that the pope is supreme head of the whole Christian church, and that allegiance is diie to him from every individual member, in all spiritual matters. This direct opposition to one of the fundamental princi- ples of the ecclesiastical part of our constitu- tion, is alone sufficient to justify the exclusion of Papists from all situations of authority. They acknowledge, indeed, that obedience in civil matters is dite to the king. But cases must arise, in which civil and religious duties will clash ; and he knows but little of the influ- ence of the Popish religion over the mind of its votaries, who doubts which of these duties would be sacrificed to the other. Moreover, the most subtle casuistry cannot always dis- criminate between temporal and spiritual things ; and in truth, the concerns of this life not unfrequently partake of both characters." — (pp. 21, 22.) We deny entirely that any case can occur, where the exposition of a doctrine purely spe-- culative, or the arrangement of a mere point of church discipline, can interfere with civil duties. The Roman Catholics are Irish and English citizens at this moment ; but no such case has occurred. There is no instance in which obedience to the civil magistrate has been prevented, by an acknowledgment of the spiritual supremacy of the pope. The Catho- lics have given (in an oath which we suspect the bishop never to have read) the most solemn pledge, that their submission to their spiritual ruler should never interfere with their civil obedience. The hypothesis of the Bishop of Lincoln is, that it must very often do so. The fact is, that it has never done so. His lordship is extremely angry with the Catholics for refusing to the crown a veto upon the appointment of their bishops. He forgets, that in those countries of Europe where the crown interferes with the appointment of bish- ops, the reigning monarch is a Catholic, — which makes all the difference. We sincerely wish that the Catholics would concede this point; but we cannot be astonished at their reluctance to admit the interference of a Pro- testant prince with their bishops. What would his lordship say to the interference of any Catholic power with the appointment of the English sees 1 Next comes the stale and thousand times re- futed charge against the Catholics, that they think the pope has the power of dethroning heretical kings ; and that it is the duty of every Catholic to use every possible means to root- out and destroy heretics, &c. To all of which may be returned this one conclusive answer, that the Catholics are ready to deny these doc- trines upon oath. And as the whole contro- versy is, whether the Catholic shall, by means of oaths, be excluded from certain offices in the state ; — those who contend that the con- tinuation of these excluding oaths is essential to the public safety, must admit, that oaths are binding upon Catholics, and a security to the state that what they swear to is true. It is right to keep these things in view — and WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 315 to omit no opportunity of exposing and coun- teracting that spirit of intolerant zeal or intol- erable time-serving, which has so long dis- graced and endangered this country. But the truth is, that we look upon this cause as already gained; — and while we warmly congratulate the nation on the mighty step it has recently made towards increased power and entire security, it is impossible to avoid saying a word upon the humiliating and disgusting, but at the same time most edifying spectacle, which has lately been exhibited by the anti- Catholic addressers. That so great a number of persons should have been found with such a proclivity to servitude (for honest bigotry had but little to do with the matter), as to rush forward with clamours in favour of intolerance, upon a mere surmise that this would be ac- counted as acceptable service by the present possessors of patronage and power, affords a more humiliating and discouraging picture of the present spirit of the country, than any thing else that has occurred in our re- membrance. The edifying part of the spec- tacle is the contempt with which their officious devotions have been received by those whose favour they were intended to purchase, — and the universal scorn and derision with which, they were regarded by independent men of all parties and persuasions. The catastrophe, we think, teaches two lessons ; — one to the time- servers themselves, not to obtrude their servi- lity on the government, till they have reason- able ground to think it is wanted; — and the other to the nation at large, not to imagine that a base and interested clamour in favour of what is supposed to be agreeable to govern- ment, however loudly and extensively sounded, affords any indication at all, either of the ge- neral sense of the country, or even of what is actually contemplated by those in the adminis- tration of its affairs. The real sense of the country has been proved, on this occasion, to be directly against those who presumptuously held themselves out as its organs ; — and even the ministers have made a respectable figure, compared with those who assumed the charac- ter of their champions. MADAME D'EPINAY; [Edinburgh Review, 1818.1 There used to be in Paris, under the ancient regime, a few women of brilliant talents, who violated all the common duties of life, and gave T^ery pleasant little suppers. Among these supped and sinned Madame d'Epinay — the friend and companion of Rousseau, Dide- rot, Grimm, Holbach, and many other literary persons of distinction of that period. Her principal lover was Grimm ; with whom was deposited, written in feigned names, the history of her life. Grimm died — his secretary sold the history — the feigned names have been ex- changed for the real ones — and her works now appear abridged in three volumes octavo. Madame d'Epinay, though far from an im- maculate character, has something to say in palliation of her irregularities. Her husband behaved abominably; and alienated, by a series of the most brutal injuries, an attachment which seems to have been very ardent and sincere, and which, with better treatment, would probably have been lasting. For, in all her aberrations, Mad. d'Epinay seems to have had a tendency to be constant. Though ex- tremely young when separated from her hus- band, she indulged herself with but two lovers for the rest of her life ; — to the first of whom she seems to have been perfectly faithful, till he left her at the end often or twelve years ; — and to Grimm, by whom he was succeeded, she appears to have given no rival till the day of her death. The account of the life she led, both with her husband and her lovers, brings * Mimoircs et Correspondence de Madame d'Epinay. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1818. upon the scene a great variety of French cha- racters, and lays open very completely the interior of French life and manners. But there are some letters and passages which ought not to have been published ; which a sense of common decency and morality ought to have suppressed ; and which, we feel as- sured, would never have seen the light in this country. A French woman seems almost always lo have wanted the flavour of prohibition, as a ne- cessary condiment to human life. The provided husband was rejected, and the forbidden hus- band introduced in ambiguous light, through posterns and secret partitions. It was not the union to one man that was objected to — for they dedicated themselves with a constancy which the most household and parturient wo- man in England could not exceed ; — but the thing wanted was the wrong man, the gentle- man without the ring — the master unsworn to at the altar — the person unconsecrated by priests — "Oh! let me taste thee unexcised by kings." The following strikes us as a very lively picture of the ruin and extravagance of a fash- ionable house in a great metropolis. "M. d'Epinay a complete son domestique. II a trois laquais, et moi deux ; je n'en ai pas voulu davantage. II a un valet de chambre ; et il vouloit aussi que je prisse une seconde femme, mais comme je n'en ai que faire, j'ai tenu bon. Enfin les officiers, les fenfmes, les valets se montent au nombre de seize. Quoique la vie que je mene soil assez uniforme, j'espere 316 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. n'etre pas obligee d'en changer. Celle de M. d'Epinay est differente. Lorsqu'il est leve, son valet de chambre se met en devoir de I'accom- moder. Deux laquais sent debout a attendre ordres. Le premier secretaire vient nvec I'intention de lui rendre comple des lettres qu'il a refues de son departement, et qu'il est charge d'ouvrir; il doit lire les reponses et les faire signer; mais il est interrompu deux cents fois dans cette occupation par toutes sortes d'especes imaginables. C'est un maquignon qui a des chevaux uniques a vendre, mais qui sont retenus par un seigneur; ainsi il est venu pour ne pas manquer a sa parole; car on lui en donneroit le double, qu'on ne pourroit faire affaire. II en fait une description seduisante, on demande le prix. Le seigneur un tel en offre soixante louis. — Je vous en donne cent. — Cela est inutile, a moins qu'il ne se dedise. Cependant Ton conclut a cent louis sans les avoir vus, car le lendemain le seigneur ne manque pas de se dedire : voila ce que j'ai vu et entendu la semaine derniere. " Ensuite c'est un polisson qui vient brailler un air, et a qui on accorde sa protection pour le faire entrer a I'Opera, apres lui avoir donne quelques lecons de bon gout, et lui avoir appris ce que c'est que la proprete du chant fran9ois ; c'est une demoiselle qu'on fait attendre pour savoir si je suis encore la. Je me leva et je m'en vais; les deux laquais ouvrent les deux battans pour me laisser sortir, moi qui passe- rois alors par le trou d'une aiguille; et les deux estafiers crient dans I'anti-chambre : Ma- dame, messieurs, voila madame. Tout le monde se range en haie, et ces messieurs sont des marchands d'etoffes, des marchands d'in- strumens, des bijoutiers, des colporteurs, des laquais, des d^croteurs, des creanciers ; enfin tout ce que vous pouvez imaginer de plus ridi- cule et de plus affligeant. Midi ou une heure Sonne avant que cette toilette soit achevee, et le secretaire, qui, sans doute, sait par experi- ence I'impossibilite de rendre un compte de- taille des affaires, a un petit bordereau qu'il remet entre les mains de son maitre pour I'in- struire de ce qu'il doit dire a I'assemblee. Une autre fois il sort a pied ou en fiacre, rentre a deux heures, fait comme un bruleur de maison, dine tete a tete avec moi, ou admet en tiers son premier secretaire qui lui parle de la necessite de fixer chaque article de depense, de donner des delegations pour tel ou tel objet. La seuie reponse est: Nous verrons cela. Ensuite il court le monde et les spectacles; et il soupe en ville quand il n'a personne a souper chez lui. Je vois que mon temps de repos est fini."— L pp. 308—310. A very prominent person among the early friends of Madame d'Epinay is Mademoiselle d'Ette, a woman of great French respectabi- lity, and circulating in the best society ; and, as Ave are painting French manners, we shall make no apology to the serious part of our English readers, for inserting this sketch of her history and character by her own hand. " Je connois, me dit-elle ensuite, votre fran- chise et •»otre discretion : dites-moi naturelle- ment quelle opinion on a de moi dans le monde. La meilleure, lui dis-je, et telle que vous ne pourriez la conserver si vous pratiquiez la morale que vous venez de me prScher. Voila ou je vous attendois, me dit-elle. Depuis dix ans que j'ai perdu ma mere, je fus seduite par le chevalier de Valory qui m'avoit vu, pour ainsi dire, elever; mon extreme jeunesse et la confiance que j'avois en lui ne me permirent pas d'abord de me defier de ses veus. Je fus longtemps a. m'en apercevoir, et lorsque je m'en aperjus, j'avois pris tant de goilt pour lui, que je n'eus pas la force de lui resister. II me vint des scrupules ; il les leva, en me promettant de m'epouser. II y travailla ea effet ; mais voyant I'opposition que sa famille y apportoit, a cause de la disproportion d'age et de mon peu de fortune; et me trouvant, d'ailleurs, heureuse comme j'etois, je fus la premiere a etouffer mes scrupules, d'autant plus qu'il est assez pauvre. II commenjoit a faire des reflexions, je lui proposai de con- tinuer a vivre comme nous etions; il I'accepta. Je quittai ma province, et je le suivis a Paris; vous voyez comme j'y vis. Quatre fois la se- maine il passe sa journee chez moi; le reste du temps nous nous contentons reciproque- ment d'apprendre de nos nouvelles, a moins que le hasard ne nous fasse rencontrer. Nous vivons heureux, contens ; peut-etre ne le se- rious nous pas tant si nous etions maries." — L pp. Ill, 112. This seems a very spirited, unincumbered way of passing through life ; and it is some comfort, therefore, to a matrimonial English reader, to find Mademoiselle d'Ette kicking the chevalier out of doors towards the end of the second volume. As it is a scene very edifying to rakes, and those who decry the happiness of the married state, we shall give it in the words of Madame d'Epinay. " Une nuit, dont elle avoit passe la plus grande partie dans I'inquietude, elle entre chez le chevalier : il dormoit ; elle le reveille, s'as- sied sur son lit, et entame une explication avec toute la violence et la fureur qui I'ani- moient. Le chevalier, apres avoir employe vainement, pour le calmer, tous les moyens que sa bonte naturelle lui suggera, lui signifia enfin tres-precisement qu'il alloit se separer d'elle pour toujours, et fuir un enfer auquel il ne pouvoit plus tenir. Cette confidence, qui n'etoit pas faite pour I'appaiser, redoubla sa rage. Puis-qu'il est ainsi, dit-elle, sortez tout a I'heure de chez moi; vous deviez partir danS quatre jours, c'est vous rendre service de vous faire partir dans I'instant Tout ce qui est ici m'appartient; le bail est en mon nom: il ne me convient plus de vous souffrir chez moi: levez-vous, monsieur, et songez a ne rien em- porter sans ma permission." — II. pp. 193, 194. Our English method of asking leave to sepa- rate from Sir William Scott and Sir John Nicol is surely better than this. Any one who provides good dinners for clever people, and remembers what they say, cannot fail to write entertaining Memoires. Among the early friends of Madame d'Epinay was Jean Jacques Rousseau, — she lived with him in considerable intimacy; and no small part of her book is taken up with accounts of his eccentricity, insanity, and vice. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 317 "Nous avons debute par V Engagement teme- 1 raire, comedie nouvelle, de M. Rousseau, ami de Fraucueil qui nous I'a presente. L'auteur a joue un role dans sa piece. Quoique ce ne soit qu'une comedie de societe, elle a eu un grand succes. Je doute cependant qa'elle put r^ussir au theatre ; mais c'est I'ouvrage d'un homme de beaucoup d'esprit, et peut-etre d'un homme singulier. Je ne sais pas trop cepen- dant si c'est ce que j'ai vu de l'auteur ou de la piece qui me fait juger ainsi. II est com- plinaenteur sans etre poll, ou au moins sans en avoir I'air. II paroit ignorer les usages du monde ; mais il est aise de voir qu'il a infini- ment d'esprit. II a le teint brun : et des yeux pleins de feu animent sa physionomie- Lors- qu'il a parle et qu'on le regarde, il paroit joli ; mais lorsqu'on se le rappelle, c'est toujours en laid. On dit qu'il est d'une mauvaise sante, et qu'il a des souffrances qu'il cache avec soin, par je ne sais quel principe de vanite ; c'est apparemment ce qui lui donne, de temps en temps, I'air farouche. M. de Bellegarde, avec qui il a cause long-temps, ce matin, en est en- chante, et I'a engage a nous venir voir sou- vent. J'en suis bien aise ; je me promets de profiler beaucoup de sa conversation." — I. pp. 175, 176. Their friendship so formed, proceeded to a great degree of intimacy. Madame d'Epinay admired his genius, and provided him with hats and coats ; and, at last, was so far de- luded by his declamations about the country, as to fit him up a little hermit cottage, where there were a great many birds, and a great many plants and flowers — and where Rous- seau was, as might have been expected, su- premely miserable. His friends from Paris did not come to see him. The postman, the butcher, and the baker, hate romantic scenery; duchesses and marchionesses were no longer found to scramble for him. Among the real inhabitants of the country, the reputation of reading and thinking is fatal to character; and Jean Jacques cursed his own successful elo- quence which had sent him from the suppers and flattery of Paris to smell to daflTodils, watch sparrows, or project idle saliva into the passing stream. Very few men who have gratified, and are gratifying their vanity in a great metropolis, are qualified to quit it. Few have the plain sense to perceive that they must soon inevitably be forgotten, — or the for- titude to bear it when they are. They repre- sent to themselves imaginary scenes of de- ploring friends and dispirited companies, — but the ocean might as well regret the drops exhaled by the sunbeams. Life goes on ; and whether the absent have retired into a cottage or a grave, is much the same thing. — In Lon- don, as in law, de non apparentibus, et non cxist- entibus eadem est ratio. This is the account Madame d'Epinay gives of Rousseau soon after he had retired into the hermitage. "J'ai ete il y a deux jours a la Chevrette, pour terminer quelques affaires avant de m'y etablir avec mes enfans. J'avois fait prevenir Rousseaxi de mon voyage : il est venu me voir. Je crois qu'il a besoin de ma presence, et que la solitude a deja agite sa bile. II se plaint de tout le monde. Diderot doit toujours aller, et ne va jamais le voir; M.Grimm le neglige; le Baron d'Holbach I'oublie; Gauffecourt et moi seulement avons encore des egards pour lui, dit-il ; j'ai voulu les justifier ; cela n'a pas reussi. j'espere qu'il sera beaucoup plus a la Chevrette qu'a I'Hermitage. Je suis persuad^e qu'il n'y a que fa9on de prendre cet homme pour le rendre heureux ; c'est de feindre de ne pas prendre garde a lui, et s'en occuper sans cesse; c'est pour cela que je n'insistai point pour le retenir, lorsqu'il m'eut dit qu'il vouloit s'en retourner a I'Hermitage, quoiqu'il fflttardet malgre le mauvais temps." — II. pp. 253, 254. Jean Jacques Rousseau seems, as the reward of genius and fine writing, to have claimed an exemption from all moral duties. He borrowed and begged, and never paid ; — put his children in a poor-house — betrayed his friends — insulted his benefactors — and Avas guilty of every spe- cies of meanness and mischief. His vanity was so great, that it was almost impossible to keep pace with it by any activity of attention; and his suspicion of all mankind amounted nearly, if not altogether, to insanity. The fol- lowing anecdote, however, is totally clear of any symptom of derangement, and carries only the most rooted and disgusting selfishness. "Rousseau vous a done dit qu'il n'avoit pas porte son ouvrage a Paris ? II en a menti, car il n'a fait son voyage que pour cela. J'ai re§u hier une lettre de Diderot, qui peint votre her- mite comme si je le voyois. II a fait ces deux lieues a pied, est venu s'etablir chez Diderot sans I'avoir prevenu, le tout pour faire avec lui la revision de son ouvrage. Au point ou ils en etoient ensemble, vous conviendrez que cela est assez etrange. Je vois, par certains mots echappes a mon ami dans sa lettre, qu'il y a quelque sujet de discussion entre eux; mais comme il ne s'explique point, je n'y comprends rien. Rousseau I'a tenu impitoyablement a I'ouvrage depuis le Saniedi dix heures du matin jusqu'au Lundi onze heures du soir, sans lui donner a peine le temps de boire ni manger. La revision finie, Diderot cause avec lui d'un plan qu'il a dans la tete, et prie Rousseau de I'aider a arranger un incident qui n'est pas en- core trouve a sa fantaisie. Cela est trop difli- cile, repond froidement Thermite, il est tard, je ne suis point accoutume a veiller. Bon soir, je pars demain a six heures du matin, il est temps de dormir. II se leve, va se coucher, et laisse Diderot petrifie de son procede. Voila cet homme que vous croyez si pen6tre de vos lefons. Ajoutez a cette reflexion un propos singulier de la femme de Diderot, dont je vous piie de faire votre profit. Cette femme n'est qu'une bonne femme, mais elle a la tact juste. Voyant son mari desole le jour du depart de Rousseau, elle lui en demande la raison ; il la lui dit : C'est le manque de delicatesse de cet homme, ajoute-t-il, qui m'affligc; il me fait travailler comme un mancEUvre, je ne m'en serois, je crois, pas aper5u, s'il ne m'avoit re fuse aussi sechement de s'occuper pourmoi un quart-d'heure . . . Vous etes etonne de cela, lui repond sa femme, vous ne le connoissez done pas ? II est devors d'envie ; il enrage quand 2d3 318 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. il paroit quelque chose de beau qui n'est pas de lui. On lui verra faire un jour quelques grands forfaits plutot que de se laisser ignore r. TeneZ, je fie jurerois pas qu'il ne se langeat du parti des Jesuites, et qu'il n'enterprit leur apologie." — II. pp. 60, 61. The horror which Diderot ultimately con- ceived for him, is strongly expressed in the following letter to Grimm, — written after an interview which compelled him, with many pangs, to renounce all intercourse with a man who had, for years, been the object of his ten- derest and most partial feelings. " Get homme est un forcene. Je I'ai vu, je lui ai reproche, avec toute la force que donne I'honnetete et une sorte d'interet qui reste au fond du ccEur d'un ami qui lui est devoue de- puis long-temps, Tcnormite de sa conduite ; les pleurs verses aux pieds de Madame d'Epinay, dans le moment meme ou il la chargeoit pres de moi des accusations les plus graves; cette odieuse apologie qu'il vous a envoyee, et oii il n'y pas une seule des raisons qu'il avoit ii dire ; cette lettre projectee pour Saint-Lambert, qui devoit le tranquilliser sur des sentimens qu'il se reprochoit, et ou, loin d'avoucr une passion nee dans son cueur son malgre lui, il s'ex- cuse d'avoir alarme Madame d'Houdetot sur la sienne. Que sais-je encore ■? Je ne suis point content de ses responses ; je n'ai pas eu le courage de le lui temoigner j'ai mieux aime lui laisser la miserable consolation de croire qu'il m'a trompe. Qu'il vive ! II a mis dans sa defense un emportement froid qui m'a afflige. J'ai peur qu'il ne soit endurci. "Adieu, mon ami; soyons et continuons d'etre honnetes gens : I'etat de ceux qui ont cesse al'etre me fait peur. Adieu, mon ami; je vous embrasse bien tendrement Je ne jette dans vos bras comme un homme effraye ; je tache en vain de faire de lapoesie, mais cet homme me revient tout a travers mon travail ; il me trouble, et je suis comme si j'avois a cote de moi un damne ; il est damne, cela est sur. Adieu, mon ami Grimm, viola I'effet que je ferois sur vous, si je devenois jamais un mechant: en verite, j'aimerois mieux etre mort. II n'y a peut-etre pas le sens commun dans tout ce que je vous ecris, mais je vous avoue que je n'ai jamais eprouve un trouble d'ame si terrible que cela que j'ai. " Oh ! mon ami, quel spectacle que celui d'un homme mechant et bourrele ! Brulez, dechirez ce papier, qu'il ne retomhe plus sous vos yeux ; que je ne revoie plus cet homme la, il me feroit croire aux diables et a I'enfer. Si je suis jamais force de retouruer chez lui, je suis sur que je fremirai tout le longduche- min : j'avois la fievre en reveiiant. Je suis fache de ne lui avoir pas laisse voir I'horreur qu'il m'inspiroit, et je ne me reconcilie avec moi qu'en pensant, que vous, avec toute votre j fermete, vous ne I'auriez pas pu a ma place ; \ je ne sais pas s'il ne m'auroit pas tue. On . entendoit ses cris jusqu'au bout du jardin; et je le voyois ! Adieu, mon ami, j'irai demain vous voir; j'irai chercher un homme de bien, aupres duquel je m'asseye, qui me rassure, et qui chasse de mon ame je ne sais quoi d'in- fernal qui la tourmente et qui s'y est attache. Les poetes ont bien fait de mettre un inter- valle immense entre le ciel et les enfers. En verite, la main me tremble." — III. pp. 148, 149. Madame d'Epinay lived, as we before ob- served, with man}' persons of great celebrity. We could npt help smiling, among many others, at this anecdote of our countryman, David Hume. At the beginning of his splen- did career of fame and fashion at Paris, the historian was persuaded to appear in the cha- racter of a sultan ; and was placed on a sofa between two of the most beautiful women of Paris, who acted for that evening the part of inexorables, whose favour he was supposed to be soliciting. The absurdity of this scene can easily be conceived. " Le celebre David Hume, grand et gros his- toriographe d'Angleterre, connu et estime par ses ecrits, n'a pas autar.t de talens pour ce genre d'amusemens auquel toutes nos jolies femmes I'avoient decide propre. II lit son debut chez Madame de T * * * ; on lui avoit destine le role d'un sultan assis entre deux esclaves, employant toute son eloquence pour s'en faire aimer; les trouvant inexorables, il devoit chercher le sujet de lenrs peines et de leur re- sistance: on le place sur im sopha entre les deux plus jolies femmes de Paris, il les regarde attentiveraent, il se frappe le ventre et les ge- noux a plusieurs reprises, et ne trouve jamais ^utre chose a leur dire que . Eh bien ! mes de- moiselles .... Eh bien ! vous voild done .... Eh bien! vous voild .... vous voild ici? .... Cette phrasc dura un quart-d'heure,sans qu'il put en sortir. Une d'elles se leva d'impatience : Ah I dit-elle, je m'en etois bien doutee, cet homme n'est bon qu'a manger du veau ! Dupuis ce temps il est relegue au role de spectateur, et n'en est pas moins fete et cajole. C'est en ve- rite une chose plaisante que le role qu'il joue ici ; malheureusement pour lui, ou plutot pour la dignitephilosophique, car, pour lui, il paroit s'accommoder fort de ce train de vie ; il n'y avoit aucune manie dominante dans ce pays lorsqu'il y est arrive ; on I'a regarde comme une trouvaille dans cette circonstance, et I'ef- fervescence de nos jeunes tetes s'est tourn^e de son cote. Toutes les jolies femmes s'en sont emparees ; il est de tous les soupers fins, et il n'est point de bonne fete sans lui: en un mot, il est pour nos agreables ce que les Genevois sont pour moi." — III. pp. 284, 285. There is always some man, of whom the human viscera stand in greater dread than of any other person, who is supposed, for the time being, to be the only person who can dart his pill into their inmost recesses ; and bind them over, in medical recognisance, to assimilate and digest. In the Trojan war, Podalirius and Machaon Avere what Dr. Baillie and Sir Henry Halford now are — they had the fashionable practice of the Greek camp; and, in all pro- bability, received many a guinea from Aga- memnon dear to Jove, and Nestor the tamer of horses. In the time of Madame d'Epinay, Dr. Tronchin, of Geneva, was in vogue, and no lady of fashion could recover without writing to him, or seeing him in person. To the Esculapius of this very small and irritable republic, Madame d'Epinay repaired ; and, after a struggle between life and death, and Dr. Tronchin, recovered her health. During WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 319 her residence at Geneva, she became acquaint- ed with Voltaire, of whom she has left the following admirable and original account — the truth, talent, and simplicity of which, are not a little enhanced by the tone of adulation or abuse which has been so generally employed in speaking of this celebrated person. "Eh bien ! men ami, je n'aimerois pas a vivre de suite avec lui; il n'a nul principe ar- rete, il compte trop sur sa memoire, et il en abuse souvent; je trouve qu'elle fait tortquel- quefois a sa conversation ; il redit plus qu'il ne dit, et ne laisse jamais rien a faire aux autres. II ne sait point causer, et il humilie I'amour-propre ; il dit le pour et le centre, tant qu'on veut, toujours avec de nouvelles graces a la verite, et neanmoins il a toujours I'air .de se moquer de tout, jusqu'a lui-meme. II n'a nuUe philosophic dans la tete ; il est tout he- risse de petits prejuges d'enfans ; on les lui passeroit peut-etre en faveur de ses graces, du brilliant de son esprit et de son originalite, s'il ne s'afhchoit pas pour les secouer tous. II a des inconsequences plaisantes, et il est au milieu de tout cela tres-amusant a voir. Mais je n'aime point les gens qui ne font que m'amuser. Pour madame sa niece, elle est tout-a-fait comique. "II paroit ici depuis quelques jours un livre qui a vivement echauffe les t^tes, et qui cause des discussions fort interessantes entre differ- entes personnes de ce pays, parce que Ton pretend que la constitution de leur gouverne- ment y est interessee : Voltaire s'y trouve rael^ pour des propos assez vifs qu'il a tenu a ce sujet centre les pretres. La grosse niece trouve fort mauvais que tous les magistrals n'ayent pas pris fait et cause pour son oncle. Elle jette tour a tour ses grosses mains et ses petits bras par dessus sa tete, maudissant avec des cris inhumains les lois, les republiques, et surtout ces polissons de republicains qui vont a pied, qui sont obliges de souftrir les criail- leries de leurs pretres, et qui se croient libres. Cela est tout-d-fait bon a entendre et a voir." III. pp. 196, 197. Madame D'Epinay was certainly a woman of very considerable talent. Rousseau accuses her of writing bad plays and romances. This may be ; but her epistolary style is excellent — her remarks on passing events lively, acute, and solid — and her delineation of character admirable. As a proof of this, we shall give her portrait of the Marquis de Croismare, one uf the friends of Diderot and the Baron d'Hol- bach. "Je lui crois bien soixante ans; il ne les j paroit pourtant pas. II est d'une taille mediocre, sa figure a du etre tres-agreable : elle se dis- I tingue encore par un air de noblesse et d'ais- ance, qui repand de la grace sur tout sa personne. Sa physionomie a de la finesse. Ses gestes, ses attitudes ne sont jamais recherches; mais ils sont si bien d'accord avec la tournure de son esprit, qu'ils semblent ajouter a son originalite. II parle des choses les plus serieuses et les plus importantes d'un ton si gai, qu'on est souvent tente de ne rien croire de ce qu'il dit. On n'a presque jamais rien a citer de ce qu'on lui eutend dire ; mais lorsqu'il parle, on ne veut rien perdre de ce qu'il dit; s'il se tait, on desire qu'il parle encore. Sa prodigieuse vivacite, et une' sin- guliere aptitude a toutes sortes de talens et de connoissances, I'ont porte a tout voir et a tout connoitre ; au moyen de quoi vous comprenez qu'il est fort instruit. II a bien lu, bien vu, et n'a retenu que ce qui valoit la peine de I'etre. Son esprit annonce d'abord plus d'agrement que de solidite, mais je crois que quiconque le jugeroit frivole lui feroit tort. Je le soup- f onne de renfermer dans son cabinet les epines des roses qu'il distribue dans la societe : assez constamment gai dans le monde, seul je le crois melancolique. On dit qu'il a I'ame aussi tendre qu'honnete ; qu'il sent vivement et qu'il se livre avec impetuosite a ce qui trouve le chemin de son coeur.. Tout le monde ne lui plait pas ; il faut pour cela de I'originalite, ou des vertus distinguees, ou de certains vices qu'il appelle passions ; neanmoins dans le courant de la vie, il s'accommode de tout. Beaucoup de curiosite et de la facilite dans le caractere (ce qui va jusqu'a la foiblesse) I'entrainent souvent a negliger ses meilleurs amis et a les perdre de vue, pour se livrer a des gouts factices et passagers : il en rit avec eux ; mais on voit si clairement qu'il en rougit avec lui-meme, qu'on ne pent lui savoir mauvais gre de ses disparates." — III. pp. .324 —326. The portrait of Grimm, the French Boswell, vol. iii. p. 97, is equally good, if not superior ; but we have already extracted enough to show the nature of the work, and the talents of the author. It is a lively, entertaining book, — relating in an agreeable manner the opinions and habits of many remarkable men — mingled with some very scandalous and improper pas- sages, which degrade the whole work. But if all the decencies and delicacies of life were in one scale, and five francs in the other, what French bookseller would feel a single moment of doubt in making his selection 1 390 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. POOR-LAWS/ [Edinburgh Review, 1820.] OoB readers, we fear, will require some apology for being asked to look at anything upon the poor-laws. No subject, we admit, can be more disagreeable, or more trite. But, unfortunately, it is the most important of all the important subjects which the distressed state of the country is now crowding upon our notice. A pamphlet on the poor-laws generally con- tains some little piece of favourite nonsense, by which we are gravely told this enormous evil may be perfectly cured. The first gentle- man recommends little gardens ; the second cows; the third a village shop; the fourth a spade ; the fifth Dr. Bell, and so forth. Every man rushes to the press with his small morsel of imbecility ; and is not easy till he sees his impertinence stitched in blue covers. In this list of absurdities, we must not forget the pro- ject of supporting the poor from national funds, or, in other words, of immediately doubling the expenditure, and introducing every possible abuse into the administration of it. Then there are M^orthy men, who call upon gentlemen of fortune and education to become overseers — meaning, we suppose, that the pre- sent overseers are to perform the higher duties of men of fortune. Then merit is set up as the test of relief; and their worships are to enter into a long examination of the life and character of each applicant, assisted, as they doubtless would be, by candid overseers, and neighbours divested of every feeling of malice and partiality. The children are next to be taken from their parents, and lodged in im- mense pedagogueries of several aci'es each, where they are to be carefully secluded from those fathers and mothers they are commanded to obey and honour, and are to be brought up in virtue by the churchwardens. — And this is gravely intended as a corrective of the poor- laws ; as if (to pass over the many other ob- jections which might be made to it,) it would not set mankind populating faster than carpen- ters and bricklayers could cover in their child- ren, or separate twigs to be bound into rods for their flagellation. An extension of the poor- laws to personal property is also talked of We should be very glad to see any species of property exempted from these laws, but have no wish that any which is now exempted should be subjected to their influence. The case would infallibly be like that of the income-tax, — the more easily the tax was raised, the more * 1. Safe Method for renderinir Income arising from Per- sonal Property available to the Poor-Laics. Longman &Co. 1819. 2. Summary Review of the Report and Evidence relative to the Poor-Laws. By S. W. Nicol. York. 3. Essn.y on the Practicability of modifying- the Poor-Laws. Sherwood. 1819. 4. Considerations on the Poor-Laws. By John Davison, A. M. Oxford. profligate would be the expenditure. It is pro- posed also that alehouses should be diminished, and that the children of the poor should be catechized publicly in the church, — both very respectable and proper suggestions but of them- selves hardly strong enough for the evil. We have every wish that the poor should accus- tom themselves to habits of sobriety; but we cannot help reflecting, sometimes, that an ale- house is the only place where a poor fired creature, haunted with every species of wretch- edness, can purchase three or four times a year three pennyworth of ale — a liquor upon which wine-drinking moralists are always ex- tremely severe. We must not forget, among other nostrums, the eulogy of small farms — in other words, of small capital, and profound ig- norance in the arts of agriculture ; — and the evil is also thought to be curable by periodical contributions from men who have nothing, and can earn nothing without charity. To one of these plans, and perhaps the most plausible, Mr. Nicol has stated, in the following passage, objections that are applicable to almost all the rest. "The district school would no doubt be well superintended and well regulated; magistrates and country gentlemen would be its visitors. The more excellent the establishment, the greater the mischief; because the greater the expense. We may talk what we will of econ- omy, but where the care of the poor is taken exclusively into the hands of the rich, compa- rative extravagance is the necessary conse- quence: to say that the gentleman, or even the overseer, would never permit the poor to live at the district school, as they live at home, is saying far too little. English humanity will never see the poor in any thing like want, when that want is palpably and visibly brought be- fore it : first, it will give necessaries, next com- forts ; until its fostering care rather pampers, than merely relieves. The humanity itself is highly laudable; but if practised on an exten- sive scale, its consequences must entail an al- most unlimited expenditure. " Mr. Locke computes that the labour of a child from 3 to 14, being set against its nourish- ment and teaching, the result would be exone- ration of the parish from expense. Nothing could prove more decisively the incompetency of the board of trade to advise on this question. Of the productive labour of the workhouse, I shall have to speak hereafter; I will only ob- serve in this place, that after the greatest care and attention bestowed on the subject, after ex- pensive looms purchased, &c., the 50 boys of the blue coat school earned in the year 1816, 59/. 10s. 3r?.; the 40 girls earned, in the same time, 40Z. 7s. 9cl. The ages of these children are from 8 to 16. They earn about one pound in the year, and cost about twenty. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 321 " The greater the call for labour in public institutions, be they prisons, workhouses, or schools, the more difficult to be procured that labour must be. There will thence be both much less of it for the comparative numbers, and it will afford a much less price ; to get any labour at all, one school must underbid an- other. " It has just been observed, that ' the child of a poor cottager, half clothed, half fed, with the enjoyment of home and liberty, is not only happier but better than the little automaton of a parish workhouse :' and this I believe is ac- curately true. I scarcely know a more cheer- ing sight, though certainly many more elegant ones, than the youthful gambols of a village green. They call to mind the description given by Paley of the shoals of the fry of fish : ' They are so happy that they know not what to do with themselves ; their attitude, their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it, all conduce to show their excess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that excess.' "Though politeness may be banished from the cottage, and though the anxious mother may sometimes chide a little too sharply, yet here both maternal endearments and social affection exist in perhaps their greatest vigour : the at- tachments of lower life, where independent of attachment there is so little to enjoy, far out- strip the divided if not exhausted sensibility of the rich and great ; and in depriving the poor of these attachments, we may be said to rob them of their little all. " But it is not to happiness only I here refer ; it is to morals. I listen with great reserve to that system of moral instruction, which has not social affection for its basis, or the feelings of the heart for its ally. It is not to be con- cealed, that every thing may be taught, yet no- thing learned, that systems planned with care, and executed with attention, may evaporate into unmeaning forms, where the imagination is not roused, or the sensibility impressed. "Let us suppose the children of the 'district school,' nurtured with that superabundant care which such institutions, when supposed to be well conducted, are wont to exhibit ; they rise with the dawn ; after attending to the calls of cleanliness, prayers follow ; then a lesson ; then breakfast ; then work, till noon liberates them, for perhaps an hour, from the walls of their prison to the walls of their prison court. Dinner follows ; and then, in course, work, les- sons, supper, prayers ; at length, after a day dreary and dull, the counterpart of every day which has preceded, and of all that are to fol- low, the children are dismissed to bed. — This system may construct a machine, but it will not form a man. Of what does it consist 1 of prayers parroted without one sentiment in ac- cord with the words uttered : of moral lectures which the understanding does not comprehend, or the heart feel ; of endless bodily constraint, intolerable to youthful vivacity, and injurious to the perfection of the human frame. — The cottage day may not present so imposing a scene ; no decent uniform ; no well trimmed locks ; no glossy skin ; no united response of hundreds of conjoined voices; no lengthened procession, misnamed exercise ; but if it has 41 less to strike the eye, it has far more to engage the heart. A trifle in the way of cleanliness must suffice ; the prayer is not forgot ; it is per- haps imperfectly repeated, and confusedly un- derstood; but it is not muttered as a vain sound; it is an earthly parent that tells of a heavenly one ; duty, love, obedience, are not words without meaning, when repeated by a mother to her child : to God, the great unknown Being that made all things, all thanks, all praise, all adoration is due. The young religionist may be in some measure bewildered by all this; his notions may be obscure, but his feel- ings will be roused, and the foundation at least of true piety will be laid. " Of moral instruction, the child may be taught less at home than at school, but he will be taught better; that is, whatever he is taught he will feel : he will not have abstract proposi- tions of duty coldly presented to his mind ; but precept and practice will be conjoined; what he is told it is right to do will be instantly done. Sometimes the operative principle on the child's mind will be love, sometimes fear, sometimes habitual sense of obedience ; it is always some- thing that will impress, always something that will be remembered." There are two points which we consider as now admitted by all men of sense, — 1st, That the poor-laws must be abolished ; 2dly, That they must be very gradually abolished.* We hardly think it worth while to throw away pen and ink upon any one who is still inclined to dispute either of these propositions. With respect to the gradual abolition, it must be observed, that the present redundant popu- lation of the country has been entirely produced by the poor-laws: and nothing could be so grossly unjust as to encourage people to such a vicious multiplication, and then, when you happen to discover your folly, immediately to starve them into annihilation. You have been calling upon your population for two hundred years to beget more children — furnished them with clothes, food, and houses — taught ihem to lay up nothing for matrimony, nothing for children, nothing for age— but to depend upon justices of the peace for every human want. The folly is now detected; but the people, who are the fruit of it, remain. It was madness to call them in this manner into existence ; but it would be the height of cold-blooded cruelty to get rid of them by any other than the most gentle and gradual means ; and not only wouldg it be cruel, but extremely dangerous, to make the attempt. Insurrections of the most san- guinary and ferocious nature would be the immediate consequence of any very sudden change in the system of the poor-laws; not partial, like those which proceeded from an impeded or decaying state of manufactures, but as universal as the poor-laws themselves. * I am not quite so wrong in this as I seem to be, nor after all our experience am I satisfied that there has not been a good deal of rashness and precipitation in the conductof this admirable measure. Yon have not been able to carry the law into manufacturing countries. Parliament will compel you to soften some of the more severe clauses. It has been the nucleus of general in- surrection and chartism The Duke of Wellington wisely recommended that the experiment should be first tried in a few counties round the metropolis. 3^2 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. and as ferocious as insurrections always are which are led on by hunger and despair. These observations may serve as an answer to those angry and impatient gentlemen, who are always crying out, What has the committee of the House of Commons done 1 — What have they to show for their labours 1 — Are the rates lessened 1 — Are the evils removed 1 The com- mittee of the House of Commons would have shown themselves to be a set of the most con- temptible charlatans, if they had proceeded with any such indecent and perilous haste, or paid the slightest regard to the ignorant folly which required it at their hands. They have very properly begun, by collecting all possible information upon the subject ; by consulting speculative and practical men ; by leaving lime for the press to contribute whatever it could of thought or knowledge to the subject; and by introducing measures, the effects of which will be, and are intended to be, gradual. The lords seemed at first to have been surprised that the poor-laws were not abolished before the end of the first session of Parliament ; and accordingly set up a little rival committee of their own, which did little or nothing, and will not, we believe, be renewed. We are so much less sanguine than those noble legislators, that we shall think the improvement immense, and a subject of very general congratulation, if the poor-rates are perceptibly diminished, and if the system of pauperism is clearly going down in twenty or thirty years hence. We think, upon the whole, that government has been fortunate in the selection of the gen- tleman who is placed at the head of the com- mittee for the revision of the poor-laws ; or rather, we should say, (for he is a gentleman of very independent fortune) , who has consented that he should be placed there. Mr. Sturges Bourne is undoubtedly a man of business, and of very good sense : he has made some mis- takes ; but, upon the whole, sees the subject as a philosopher and a statesman ought to do. Above all, we are pleased with his good nature and good sense in adhering to his undertaking, after the Parliament has flung out two or three of his favourite bills. Many men would have surrendered so unthankful and laborious an undertaking in disgust ; but Mr. Bourne knows better what appertains to his honour and cha- racter, and, above all, what he owes to his country. It is a great subject ; and such as will secure to him the gratitude and favour of pos- terity, if he brings it to a successful issue. We have staled our opinion that all remedies, without gradual abolition, are of little impor- tance. With a foundation laid for such gradual abolition, every auxiliary improvement of the poor-laws (while they do remain) is worthy the attention of Parliament: and, in suggesting a few alterations as fit to be immediately adopted, we wish it to be understood, that we have in view the gradual destruciion of the system, as well as its amendment while it continues to operate. It seems to us, then, that one of the first and greatest improvements of this unhappy system would be a complete revision of the law of set- tlement. Since Mr. East's act for preventing the removal of the poor till they are actually chargeable, any man may live where he pleases, until he becomes a beggar, and asks alms of the place where he resides. To gain a settle- ment, then, is nothing more than to gain a right of begging : it is not, as it used to be before Mr. East's act, a power of residing where, in the judgment of the resident, his industry and exer- tion will be best rewarded; but a power of tax- ing the industry and exertions of other persons in the place where his settlement falls. This privilege produces all the evil complained of iu the poor-laws ; and instead, therefore, of being conferred with the liberality and profusion which it is at present, it should be made of very difiicult attainment, and liable to the fewest possible changes. The constant policy of our courts of justice has been, to make settlements easily obtained. Since the period we have be- fore alluded to, this has certainly been a very mistaken policy. It would be a far wiser course to abolish all other means of settlement than those of birth, parentage, and marriage — not for the limited reason stated in the com- mittee, that it would diminish the law expenses, (though that, too, is of importance,) but because it would invest fewer residents with the fatal privilege of turning beggars, exempt a greater number of labourers from the moral corruption of the poor-laws, and stimulate them to exertion and economy, by the fear of removal if they are extravagant and idle. Of ten men who leave the place of their birth, four, probably, get a settlement by yearly hiring, and four others by renting a small tenement ; while two or three • may return to the place of their nativity, and settle there. Now, under the present system, here are eight men settled where they have a right to beg without being removed. The pro- bability is, that they will all beg ; and that rtieir virtue will give way to the incessant temptation of the poor-laws : but if these men had felt from the very beginning, that removal from the place where they wished most to live would be the sure consequence of their idleness and extrava- gance, the probability is, that they would have escaped the contagion of pauperism, and been much more useful members of society than they now are. The best labourers in a village are commonly those who are living where they are legally settled, and have therefore no right to ask charity — for the plain reason, that they have nothing to depend upon but their own exertions: in short, for them the poor-laws hardly exist; and they are such as the great mass of English peasantry would be, if we had escaped the curse of these laws altogether. It is incorrect to say, that no labourer would settle out of the place of his birth, if the means of acquiring a settlement were so limited. Many men begin the world with strong hope and much confidence in their own fortune, and without any intention of subsisting by charily; but they see others subsisting in greater ease, without their toil — and their spirit gradually sinks to the meanness of mendicity. An affecting picture is sometimes drawn of a man falling into want in the decline of life, and compelled to remove from the place where he has spent the greatest part of his days. These things are certainly painful enough to him who has the misfortune to witness them. But they WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 323 must be taken upon a large scale; and the whole good and evil which they produce dili- gently weighed and considered. The question then will be, whether any thing can be more really humane, than to restrain a system which relaxes the sinews of industry, and places the dependence of laborious men upon any thing but themselves. We must not think only of the wretched sufferer who is removed, and, at the sight of his misfortunes, call out for fresh facilities to beg. We must remember the in- dustry, the vigour, and the care which the dread of removal has excited, and the number of per- sons who owe their happiness and their wealth to that salutary feeling. The very person, who, in the decline of life, is removed from the spot where he has spent so great a part of his time, would, perhaps, have been a pauper half a cen- tury before, if he had been afflicted with the right of asking alms in the place where he lived. It has been objected, that this plan of abolish- ing all settlements but those of birth, would send a man, the labour of whose youth had benefited some other parish, to pass the useless part of his life in a place for which he existed only as a burden. Supposing that this were the case, it would be quite sufficient to answer, that any given parish would probably send away as many useless old men as it received ; and, after all, little inequalities must be borne for the general good. But, in truth, it is rather ridiculous to talk of a parish not having bene- fited by the labour of the man who is returned upon their hands in his old age. If such parish resembles most of those in England, the absence of a man for thirty or forty years has been a great good instead of an evil ; they have had many more labourers than they could employ : and the very man whom they are complaining of supporting for his few last years, would, in all probability, have been a beggar forty years before, if he had remained among them ; or, by pushing him out of work, would have made some other man a beggar. Are the benefits de- rived from prosperous manufactures limited to the parishes which contain them 1 The indus- try of Halifax, Huddersfield, or Leeds, is felt across the kingdom as far as the Eastern Sea. The prices of meat and corn at the markets of York and Malton are instantly affected by any increase of demand and rise of wages in the manufacturing districts to the west. They have benefited these distant places, and found labour for their superfluous hands by the pros- perity of their manufactures. Where, then, would be the injustice, if the manufacturers, in the time of stagnation and poverty, were re- turned to their birth settlements 1 But as the law now stands, poptdation tumors, of the most dangerous nature, may spring up in a parish : — a manufacturer, concealing his intention, may settle there, take 200 or .300 apprentices, fail, and half ruin the parish which has been the scene of his operations. For these reasons, we strongly recommend to Mr. Bourne to nar- row as much as possible, in all his future bills, the means of acquiring settlements,* and to re- duce them ultimately to parentage, birth and * This has been done. marriage — convinced that, in so doing, he will, in furtherance of the great object of abolishing the poor-laws, be only limiting the right of beg- ging, and preventing the resident and almsman from being (as they now commonly are) one and the same person. But, before we dismiss this part of the subject, we must say a few words upon the methods by which settlements are now gained. In the settlement by hiring it is held, that a man has a claim upon the parish for support where he has laboured for a year; and yet another, who has laboured there for twenty years by short hirings, gains no settlement at all. When a man was not allowed to live where he was not settled, it was wise to lay hold of any plan for extending settlements. But the whole question is now completely changed ; and the only point which remains is, to find out what mode of conferring settlements produces the least possible mischief. We are convinced • it is by throwing every possible difficulty in the way of acquiring them. If a settlement here- after should not be obtained in that parish in which labourers have worked for many years, it will be because it contributes materially to their happiness that they should not gain a settlement there ; and this is a full answer to the apparent injustice. Then, upon what plea of common sense should a man gain a power of taxing a parish to keep him, because he has rented a tenement of ten pounds a year there ? or, because he has served the office of clerk, or sexton, or hog- ringer, or bought an estate of thirty pounds value] However good these various pleas might be for conferring settlements, if it was ' -^'^ desirable to increase the facility of obtaining them, they are totally inefficacious if it can be shown that the means of gaining new settle- ments should be confined to the limits of the strictest necessity. These observations (if they have the honour of attracting his attention) will show Mr. Bourne our opinion of his bill for giving the privilege of settlement only to a certain length of resi- dence. In the first place, such a bill would be the cause of endless vexation to the poor, from the certainty of their being turned out of their cottages, before they pushed their legal taproot into the parish ; and, secondly, it would rapidly extend all the evils of the poor laws, by identi- fying, much more than they are at present identified, the resident and the settled man — the very opposite of the policy which ought to be pursued. Let us suppose, then, that we have got rid of all the means of gaining a settlement, or right to become a beggar, except by birth, parentage, and marriage ; for the wife, of course, must fall into the settlement of the husband; and the children, till emancipated, must be removed, if their parents are removed. This point gained, the task of regulating the law expenses of the poor-laws would be nearly accomplished: for the most fertile causes of dispute would be removed. Every first settlement is an inex- haustible source of litigation and expense to the miserable rustics. Upon the simple fact, for example, of a farmer hiring a ploughman for a year, arise the following afflicting ques- 324 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tions : — Was it an expressed contract? Was it an implied contract? Was it an implied hiring of the ploughman, rebutted by circumstances 1 Was the ploughman's contract for a year's prospective service ? Was it a customary hir- ing of the ploughman? Was it a retrospective hiring of the ploughman ? Was it a condi- tional hiring ? Was it a general hiring ? Was it a special, or a special yearly hiring, or a special hiring with wages reserved weekly ? — Did the farmer make it a special conditional hiring with warning, or an exceptive hiring? Was the service of the ploughman actual or contructive ? Was there any dispensation ex- pressed or implied ? — en- was there a dissolution implied? — by new agreement? — or mutual con- sent? — or by justices ? — or by any other of the ten thousand means which the ingenuity of lawyers has created? Can any one be sur- prised, after this, to learn, that the amount of appeals for removals, in the four quarter ses- sions ending Mid-summer, 1817, were four thousand seven, hundred ?* Can any man doubt that it is necessary to reduce the hydra to as few heads as possible ? or can any other objec- tion be slated to such reduction, than the number of attorneys and provincial counsel, whom it will bring into the poor-house? Mr. Nicol says, that the greater number of modes of settlement do not increase litigation. He may just as well say, that the number of the streets in the Seven Dials does not increase the difficulty of finding the way. The modes of settlement we leave, are by far the simplest, and the evidence is assisted by registers. Under the head of law expenses, we are convinced a great deal may be done, by making some slight alteration in the law of removals. At present, removals are made without any warning to the parties to whom the pauper is removed; and the first intimation which the defendant parish receives of the projected in- crease of their population is, by the arrival of the father, mother, and eight or nine children at the overseer's door — where they are tumbled out, with the justice's order about their necks, and left as a spectacle to the assembled and indignant parishioners. No sooner have the poor wretches become a little familiarized to their new parish, than the order is appealed against, and they are recarted with the same precipitate indecency — Quo fata trahunt, retra- No removal should ever take place without due notice to the parish to which the pauper is to be removed, nor till the time in which it may be appealed against is passed by. Notice to be according to the distance — either by letter, or personally; and the decision should be made by the justices at iheir petty sessions, with as much care and attention as if there were no appeal from their decision. An absurd notion prevails among magistrates, that they need not take much trouble in the investigation of re- movals, because their errors may be corrected by a superior court; whereas, it is an object of great importance, by a fair and diligent inves- tigation in the nearest and cheapest court, to convince the countr}' people which party is * Commons' Report, 1817 right and which is wrong : and in this manner to prevent them from becoming the prey of law 1 vermin. We are convinced that this subject I of the removal of poor is well worthy a short and separate bill. Mr. Bourne thinks it would be very difficult to draw up such a bill. We are quite satisfied we could draw up one in ten minutes that would completely answer the end proposed, and cure the evil complained of. We proceed to a number of small details, which are well worth the attention of the legis- lature. Overseers' accounts should be given in quarterly, and passed by the justices, as they now are, annually. The office of overseer should be triennial. The accounts which have nothing to do with the poor, such as the con- stable's account, should be kept and passed separately from them ; and the vestry should have the power of ordering a certain portion of the superfluous poor upon the roads. But we beseech all speculators in poor-laws to re- member, that the machinery they must work with is of a very coarse description. An over- seer must always be a limited, uneducated person, but little interested in what he is about, and with much business of his own on his hands. The extensive interference of gentle- men with those matters is quite visionary and impossible. If gentlemen were tide-waiters, the custom-house would be better served ; if gen- tlemen would become petty constables, the police would be improved; if bridges were made of gold, instead of iron, they would not rust. But there are not enough of these arti- cles for such purposes. A great part of the evils of the poor-laws, has been occasioned by the large powers in- trusted to individual justices. Every body is full of humanity and good-nature when he can relieve misfortune by putting his hand — in his neighbour's pocket. Who can bear to see a , fellow-creature suffering pain and poverty, when ^ he can order other fellow-creatures to relieve him ? Is it in human nature, that A should see B in tears and misery, and not order C to assist him ? Such a power must, of course, be liable to every degree of abuse ; and the sooner the power of ordering relief can be taken out of the hands of magistrates, the sooner shall we begin to experience some mitigation of the evils of the poor-laws. The special-vestry bill is good for this purpose, as far as it goes ; but it goes a very little way ; and we much doubt if it will operate as any sort of abridgment to the power of magistrates granting relief. A single magistrate must not act under this bill but in cases of special emergency. But every case of distress is a case of special emergen- cy: and the double magistrates, holding their petty sessions at some little alehouse, and over- whelmed with all the monthly business of the hundred, cannot possibly give to the pleadings of the overseer and pauper half the attention they would be able to afl!brd them at their own houses. The common people have been so much accustomed to resort to magistrates for relief, that it is certainly a delicate business to wean them from this bad habit; but it is essential to the great objects which the poor-committee have in view, that the power of magistrates of WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 325 ordering relief should be gradually taken away. When this is once done, half the difficulties of the abolition are accomplished. We will sug- gest a few hints as to the means by which this desirable end may be promoted. A poor man now comes to a magistrate any day in the week, and any hour in any day, to complain of the overseers, or of the select committee. Suppose he were to be made to wait a little, and to feel for a short time the bit- terness of that poverty which, by idleness, ex- travagance, and hasty marriage, he has proba- bly brought upon himself. To elTect this object, we would prohibit all orders for relief, by jus- tices, between the 1st and 10th of the month ; and leave the poor entirely in the hands of the overseers, or of the select vestry, for that period. Here is a beginning — a gradual aboli- tion of one of the first features of the poor- laws. And it is without risk of tumult ; for no one will run the risk of breaking the laws for an evil to which he anticipates so speedy a termination. This Decameron of overseers' despotism, and paupers' suffering, is the very thing wanted. It will teach the parishes to administer their own charity responsibly, and to depend upon their own judgment. It will teach the poor the miseries of pauperism and dependence ; and will be a warning to unmar- ried young men not hastily and rashly to place themselves, their wives and children, in the same miserable situation ; and it will effect all these objects gradually, and without danger. It would of course be the same thing on prin- ciple, if relief were confined to three days be- tween the 1st and the 10th of each month; three between the lOlh and the 20lh ; three between the 20th and the end of the month ; — or in any other manner that would gradually* crumble away the power, and check the gratui- tous munificence of justices, — give authority over their own affairs to the heads of the parish, and teach the poor, by little and little, that they must suSer if they are imprudent. It is under- stood in all these observations, that the over- seers are bound to support their poor without any order of justices ; and that death arising from absolute want should expose those officers to very severe punishments, if it could be traced to their inhumanity and neglect. The time must come when we must do without this ; but we are not got so far yet — and are at present only getting rid of justices, not of overseers. Mr. Davison seems to think that the plea of old age stands upon a different footing, with respect to the poor-laws, from all oiher pleas. But why should this plea be more favoured than that of sickness 1 why more than losses in trade, incurred by no imprudence 1 In reality, this plea is less entitled to indulgence. Every man knows he is exposed to the help- lessness of age ; but sickness and sudden ruin are very often escaped — comparatively seldom happen. Why is a man exclusively to be pro- tected against that evil which he must have foreseen longer than any other, and has had the longest time to guard against 1 Mr. Davi- son's objections to a limited expenditure are * All gradation and caution have been banished since the reform liill — rapid high-pressure wisdom is the only agent in public affairs. much more satisfactory. These we shall lay before our readers ; and we recommend them to the attention of the committee. " I shall advert next to the plan of a limitation upon the amount of rates to be assessed in fu- ture. This limitation, as it is a pledge of some protection to the property now subjected to the maintenance of the poor against the indefinite encroachment which otherwise threatens it, is, in that light, certainly a benefit ; and supposing it were rigorously adhered to, the very know- ledge, among the parish expectants, that there was some limit to their range of expectation, some barrier which they could not pass, might incline them to turn their thoughts homeward again to the care of themselves. But it is an expedient, at the best, far from being satisfac- tory. In the first place, there is much reason to fear that such a limitation would not eventu- ally be maintained, after the example of a simi- lar one having failed before, and considering that the urgency of the applicants as long as they retain the principle of dependence upon the parish unqualified in any one of its main articles, would probably overbear a mere bar- rier of figures in the parish account. Then there would be much real difficulty in the pro- ceedings, to be governed by such a limiting rule. For the use of the limitation would be chiefly, or solely, in cases where there is some struggle between the ordinary supplies of the parish rates, and the exigencies of the poor, or a kind of run and pressure upon the parish by a mass of indigence : and in circumstances of this kind, it would be hard to know how to dis- tribute the supplies under a fair proportion to the applicants, known or expected; hard to know how much might be granted for the pre- sent, and how much should be kept in reserve for the remainder of the year's service. The real intricacy in such a distribution of account would show itself in disproportions and ine- qualities of allowance, impossible to be avoid- ed; and the applicants would have one pretext more for discontent. " The limitation itself in many places would be only in words and figures. It would be set, I presume, by an average of certain preceding years. But the average taken upon the preced- ing years might be a sum exceeding in its real value the highest amount of the assessments of any of the averaged years, under the great change which has taken place in the value of money itself. A given rate, or assessment nominally the same, or lower, might in this way be a greater real money value than it was some time before. In many of the most distressed districts, where the parochial rates have nearly equalled the rents, a nominal average would, therefore, be no effectual benefit; and yet it is in those districts that the alleviation of the bur- then is the most wanted. "It is manifest also that a peremptory re- striction of the whole amount of money appli- cable to the parochial service, though abun- dantly justified in many districts by their par- ticular condition being so impoverished as to make the measure, for them, almost a measure of necessity, if nothing can be substituted for it ; and where the same extreme necessity does not exist, still justified by the prudence of pre- 2E 826 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. venting, in some way the interminable increase of the parochial burthens ; still, that such a re- striction is an ill-adjusted measure in itself, and would, in many instances, operate very inequi- tably. It would fall unfairly in some parishes, where the relative state of the poor and the parish might render an increase of the relief as just and reasonable as it is possible for any thing to be under the poor-laws at all. It would deny to many possible fair claimants the whole, or a part, of that degree of relief commonly granted elsewhere to persons in their condition, on this or that account of claim. Leaving the reason of the present demands wholly unim- peached, and unexplained ; directing no distinct warning or remonstrance to the parties, in the line of their affairs, by putting a check to their expectations upon positive matters implicated in their conduct ; which would be speaking to them in a definite sense, and a sense applicable to all : this plan of limitation would nurture the whole mass of the claim in its origin, and deny the allowance of it to thousands, on account of reasons properly affecting a distant quarter, of which they know nothing. The want of a clear method, and of a good principle at the bottom of it, in this direct compulsory restriction, ren- ders it, I think, wholly unacceptable, unless it be the only possible plan thai can be devised for accomplishing the same end. If a parish had to keep its account with a single dependant, the plan would be much more useful in that case. For the ascertained fact of the total amount of his expectations might set his mind to rest, and put him on a decided course of pro- viding for himself. But, in the limitation pro- posed to be made, the ascertained fact is of a general amount only, not of each man's share in it. Consequently, each man has his indefi- nite expectations left to him, and every separate specific ground of expectation remaining as before." Mr. Davison talks of the propriety of refusing to find labour for able labourers after the lapse of ten years, as if it was some ordinary bill he was proposing, unaccompanied by the slightest risk. It is very easy to make such laws, and to propose them; but it would be of immense difficulty to carry them into execution. Done it must be, every body knows that ; but the real merit will consist in discovering the gradual and gentle means by which the difficulties of getting parish labour may be increased, and the life of a parish pauper be rendered a life of salutary and deterring hardship. A law that rendered such request for labour perfectly law- ful for ten years longer, and then suddenly abolished it, would merely bespeak a certain, general, and violent insurrection for the year 1830. The legislator, thank God, is in his nature a more cunning and gradual animal. Before we drop Mr. Davison, who writes like a very sensible man, we wish to say a few words about his style. If he would think less about it, he would write much better. It is always as plethoric and full-dressed as if he were writing a treatise de finibus bmiorum et ma- lorum. He is sometimes obscure ; and is occa- sionally apt to dress up common-sized thoughts in big clothes, and to dwell a little too long in proving what every man of sense knows and admits. We hope we shall not offend Mr. Da- vison by these remarks ; and we have really no intention of doing so. His views upon the poor-laws are, generally speaking, verj^ correct and philosophical; he writes like a gentleman, a scholar, and a man capable of eloquence; and we hope he will be a bishop. If his mitred productions are as enlightened and liberal as this, we are sure he will confer as much honour on the bench as he receives from it. There is a good deal, however, in Mr. Davison's book about the " virtuous marriages of the poor." To have really the charge of a family as a hus- band and father, we are told — to have the privi- lege of laying out his life in their service, is the poor man's boast, — " his home is the school of his sentiments," &c. &c. This is viewing human life through a Claude Lorraine glass, and decorating it with colours which do not belong to it. A ploughman marries a plough- woman because she is plump ; generally uses her ill ; thinks his children an incumbrance ; very often flogs them; and, for sentiment, has nothing more nearly approaching to it, than the ideas of broiled bacon and mashed potatoes. This is the state of the lower orders of mankind — deplorable, but true — and yet rendered much worse by the poor-laws. The system of roundsmen is much com- plained of; as well as that by which the labour of paupers is paid, partly by the rate, partly by the master — and a long string of Sussex jus- tices send up a petition on the subject. But the evil we are suffering under is an excess of population. There are ten men applying for work, when five only are wanted ; of course, such a redundance of labouring persons must depress the rate of their labour far beyond what is sufficient for the support of their fami- lies. And how is that deficiency to be made up but from the parish rates, unless it is meant suddenly and immediately to abolish the whole system of the poor-laws 1 To state that the rate of labour is lower than a man can live by, is merely to state that we have had, and have, poor-laws — of which this practice is at length the inevitable consequence ; and nothing could be more absurd than to attempt to prevent, by acts of Parliament, the natural depreciation of an article which exists in much greater abun- dance than it is wanted. Nor can any thing be more unjust than the complaint, that roimds- men are paid by their employers at an inferior rate, and that the difference is made up by the parish funds. A roundsman is commonly an inferior description of labourer who cannot get regularly hired ; — he comes upon his parish for labour commonly at those periods when there is the least to do ; — he is not a servant of the farmer's choice, and probably does not suit him ; — he goes off to any other labour at a mo- ment's warning, when he finds it more profit- able ; — and the farmer is forced to keep nearly the same number of labourers as if there were no roundsmen at all. Is it just, then, that a labourer, combining every species of imper- fection, should receive the same wages as a chosen, regular, stationary person, who is always ready at hand, and whom the farmer has selected for his dexterity and character! Those persons who do not, and cannot em- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 327 ploy Jabourers, have no kind of right to com- plain of the third or fourth part of the wages being paid by the rates ; for if the farmers did not agree among themselves to take such occa- sional labourers, the whole of their support must be paid by the rates, instead of one-third. The order is, that the pauper shall be paid such a sum as will support himself and family; and if this agreement to take roundsmen was not enter- ed into by the farmers, they must be paid, by the rates, the whole of the amount of the order, for doing nothing. If a circulating labourer, there- fore, with, three children, to whom the justices would order 12s. per week, receives 8s. from his employer, and 4s. from the rates, the parish is not burdened by this system to the amount of 4«., but relieved to the amount of 8s. A parish manufacture, conducted by overseers, is infinitely more burdensome to the rates than any system of roundsmen. There are undoubt- edly a few instances to the contrary. Zeal and talents will cure the original defects of any system ; but to suppose that average men can do what extraordinary men have done, is the cause of many silly projects and extravagant blunders. Mr. Owen may give his whole heart and soul to the improvement of one of his parochial parallelograms ; but who is to suc- ceed to Mr. Owen's enthusiasm'! Before we have quite done with the subject of roundsmen, we cannot help noticing a strange assertion of Mr. Nicol, that the low rate of wages paid by the master is an injustice to the pauper — that he is cheated, forsooth, out of 8s. or 10s. per week by this arrangement. Nothing, however, can possibly be more absurd than such an alle- gation. The whole country is open to him. Cart he gain more anywhere else ? If not, this is the market price of his labour ; and what right has he to complain 1 or how can he say he is defrauded 1 A combination among far- mers to lower the price of labour would be impossible, if labour did not exist in much greater quantities than was wanted. All such things, whether labour, or worsted stocking, or broadcloth, are, of course, always regulated by the proportion between the supply and demand. Mr. Nicol cites an instance of a parish in Suf- folk, where the labourer receives sixpence from the farmers, and the rest is made up by the rates; and for this he reprobates the conduct of the farmers. But why are they not to take labour as cheap as they can get it 1 Why are they not to avail themselves of the market price of this, as of any other commodity 1 The rates are a separate consideration ; let them supply what is wanting ; but the farmer is right to get his iron, his wood, and his labour, as cheap as he can. It would, we admit, come nearly to the same thing, if 100?. were paid in wages rather than 25Z. in wages, and 75/. by rate ; but then, if the farmers were to agree to give wages above the market price, and suffi- cient for the support of the labourers without any rate, such an agreement could never be adhered to. The base and the crafty would make their labourers take less, and fling hea- vier rates upon those who adhered to the con- tract; whereas, the agreement, founded upon giving as little as can be given, is pretty sure of being adhered to ; and he who breaks it, lessens .the rate to his neighbour, and does not increase it. The problem to be solved is this : If you have ten or twenty labourers who say they can get no work, and you cannot dispute this, and the poor-laws remain, what better scheme can be devised, than that the farmers of the parish should employ them in their turns 1 — and what more absurd than to sup- pose that farmers so employing them should give one farthing more than the market price for their labour 1 It is contended, that the statute of Elizabeth, rightly interpreted, only compels the overseer to assist the sick and old, and not to find labour for strong and healthy men. This is true enough ; and it would have been eminently useful to have attended to it a century past: but to find employment for all who apply, is now, by long use, become a practical part of the poor-laws, and will require the same care and dexterity for its abolition as any other part of that pernicious system. It would not be altogether prudent suddenly to tell a million of stout men, with spades and hoes in their hands, that the 43d of Elizabeth had been miscon- strued, and that no more employment would be found for them. It requires twenty or thirty years to state such truths to such numbers. We think, then, that the diminution of the claims of settlement, and of the authority of justices, coupled with the other subordinate improvements we have stated, will be the best steps for beginning the abolition of the poor- laws. When these have been taken, the de- scription of persons entitled to relief may be narrowed by degrees. But let no man hope to get rid of these laws, even in the gentlest and wisest method, without a great deal of misery, and some risk of tumult. If Mr. Bourne thinks' only of avoiding risk, he will do nothing. Some risk must be incurred : but the secret is gra- dation ; and the true reason for abolishing these laws is, not that they make the rich poor, but that they make the poor poorer.* * The boldness of modern legislation has thrown all my caution into the background. Was it wise to en- counter such a risk' Is the danger overl Can the vital parts of the bill be maintained? 328 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. PUBLIC CHAEACTERS 05 1801, 1801.* [Edinbuegh Review, 1802.] The design of this book appeared to us so extremely reprehensible, and so capable, even in the hands of a blockhead, of giving pain to families and individuals, that we considered it as a fair object of literary police, and had pre- pared for it a very severe chastisement. Upon the perusal of the book, however, we were en- tirely disarmed. It appears to be written by some very innocent scribbler, who feels him- self under the necessity of dining, and who preserves, throughout the whole of the work, that degree of good humour, which the terror of indictment by our lord the king is so well calculated to inspire. It is of some import- ance, too, that grown-up country gentlemen should be habituated to read printed books ; and such may read a story book about their living friends, who would read nothing else. ♦ Public CharaeUrs of 1801—1802. Richard Phillipa, St. Paul's. 1 vol. 8vo. We suppose the booksellers have authors at two different prices. Those who do write grammatically, and those who do not; and that they have not thought fit to put any. of their best hands upon this work. Whether or not there may be any improvement on this point in the next volume, we request the biographer will at least give us some means of ascertain- ing when he is comical, and when serious. In the life of Dr. Rennell, we find this pas- sage : — " Dr. Rennell might well look forward to the highest dignities in the establishment; but, if our information be right, and we have no rea- son to question it, this is what he by no means either expects or courts. There is a primitive simplicity in this excellent man, which much resembles that of the first prelates of the Chris- tian church, who were with great difl&culty pre- vailed upon to undertake the episcopal oflace." WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 329 ANASTASIUS/ [EriNBrKGii Review, 1821.] Anastasitjs is a sort of oriental Gil Bias, ■who is tossed about from one state of life to another, — sometimes a beggar in the streets of Constantinople, and, at others, an officer of the highest distinction under an Egyptian Bey, — .with that mixture of good and evil, of loose principles and popular qualities, which, against our moral feelings and better judgment, ren- der a novel pleasing, and an hero popular. Anastasius is a greater villain than Gil Bias, merely because he acts in a Avorse country, and under a worse government. Turkey is a country in the last stage of Casllereagh-ery and VaHsiUarthm ; it is in that condition to which we are steadily approaching — a political /nis/i; — the sure result of just and necessary wars, interminable burthens upon affectionate peo- ple, green bags, strangled sultanas, and mur- dered mobs. There are, in the world, all shades and gradations of tyranny. The Turk- ish, or last, puts the pistol and stiletto in ac- tion. Anastasius, therefore, among his other pranks, makes nothing of two or thi'ee mur- ders ; but tiiey ai-e committed in character, and are suitable enough to the temper and •disposition of a lawless Turkish soldier; and this is the justification of the book, which is called wicked but for no other reason than be- cause it accurately paints the manners of a people become wicked from the long and un- corrected abuses of their government. One cardinal fault which pervades this work is, that it is too long; — in spite of the numerous fine passages with which it abounds, there is too much of it; — and it is a relief, not a disappointment, to get to the end. Mr. Hope, too, should avoid humour, in which he certain- ly does not excel. His attempts of that nature are among the most serious parts of the book. With all these objections, (and we only men- tion them in case Mr. Hope writes again,) there are few books in the English language which contain passages of greater power, feel- ing, and eloquence than this novel, — which de- lineate frailty and vice with more energy and acuteness, or describe historical scenes with such bold imagery, and such glowing language. Mr. Hope will excuse us, — but we could not help exclaiming, in reading it, Is this Mr. Thomas Hope 1 — Is this the man of chairs and tables — the gentleman of sphinxes — the CEdipus of coal-boxes — he who meditated on muffineers and planned pokers ? — Where has he hidden all this eloquence and poetry up to this hour 1 — How is it that he has, all of a sudden, burst out into descriptions which would not disgrace the pen of Tacitus — and displayed a depth of feeling and a vigour of imagination which Lord Byron could not * Anastasius ; or. Memoirs of a Greek, written in the il8tA Century. London. Murray. 3 vols. 8vo. 42 excel ? We do not shrink from one syllable of this eulogium. The work now before us places him at once in the highest list of elo- quent writers, and of superior men. Anastasius, the hero of the tale, is a native of Chios, the son of the drogueman to the French consul. The drogueman, instead of bringing him up to make Latin verses, sufter- ed him to run wild about the streets of Chios, where he lives for some time a lubberly boy, and then a profligate youth. His first exploit is to debaiich the daughter of his acquaintance, from whom (leaving her in a state of preg- nancy) he runs away, and enters as a cabin boy in a Venetian brig. The brig is taken by Maynote pirates : the pirates by a Turkish frigate, by which he is landed at Nauplia, and marched away to Argos, Avhere the captain, Hassan Pacha, was encamped with his army. "I had never seen an encampment: and the novel and striking sight absorbed all my fa- culties in astonishment and awe. There seemed to me to be forces sufficient to subdue the whole world : and I knew not which most to admire, the endless clusters of tents, the enormous piles of armour, and the rows of threatening cannon, which I met at every step, or the troops of well mounted spahees, who, like dazzling meteors, darted by us on every side, amid clouds of stifling dust. The very dirt with which the nearer horsemen bespat- tered our humble troop, was, as I thought, im- posing; and every thing upon which I cast my eyes gave me a feeling of nothingness, which made me shrink within myself like a snail in its cell. I envied not only those who were destined to share in all the glory and success of the expedition, but even the meanest fol- lower of the camp, as a being of a superior order to myself; and, when suddenly there arose A loud flourish of trumpets, which, end- ing a concert of cymbals and other warlike instruments, re-echoed in long peals from all the surrounding mountains, the clank shook every nerve in my body, thrilled me to the very soul, and infused in all my veins a species of martial ardour so resistless, that it made me struggle with my fetters, and try to tear them asunder. Proud' as I was by nature, I M^ould have knelt to whoever had offered to liberate my limbs, and to arm ray hands with a sword or a battleaxe."— (L 36, 37.) From his captive state he passes into the service of Mavroyeni, Hassan's drogueman, with whom he ingratiates himself, and becomes a person of consequence. In the service of this person, he receives from old Demo, a brother domestic, the following admirable lecture on masters : — "' Listen, young man,' said he, 'whether you like it or not. For my own part, I have always 2 E 2 330 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. had too miich indolence, not to make it my study throughout life rather to secure ease than to labour for distinction. It has, there- fore, been my rule to avoid cherishing in my patron any outrageous admiration of my capa- city, which would have increased my depend- ence while it lasted, and expose me to perse- cution on wearing out: — but you, I see, are of a different mettle : I therefore may point out to you the surest way to that more perilous height, short of which your ambition, I doubt, will not rest satisfied. When you have com- passed it, you may remember old Demo, if you please. " ' Know first that all masters, even the least lovable, like to be loved. AU wish to be served from affection rather than duty. It flatters their pride, and it gratifies their selfishness. They expect from this personal motive a greater devotion to their interest, and a more unlimited obedience to their commands. A master looks upon mere fidelity in his servant as his due — as a thing scarce worth his thanks : but at- tachment he considers as a compliment to his merit, and if at all generous, he will reward it with liberality. Mavroyeni is more open than any body to this species of flattery. Spare it not, therefore. If he speak to you kindly, let your face brighten up. If he talk to you of his own affairs, though it should only be to dispel the tedium of conveying all day long other men's thoughts, listen with the greatest eager- ness. A single yawn, and you are undone ! Yet let not curiosity appear your motive, but the delight only of being honoured with his confidence. The more you appear grateful for the least kindness, the oftener you will re- ceive important favours. Our ostentatious drogueman will feel a pleasure in raising your astonishment. His vanity knows no bounds. Give it scope, therefore. When he comes home choking with its suppressed ebullitions, be their ready and patient receptacle : — do more ; discreetly help him on in venting his conceit ; provide him with a cue ; hint what you heard certain people, not knowing you to be so near, say of his capacity, his merit, and his influence. He wishes to persuade the world that he completely rules the pasha. Tell him not flatly he does, but assume it as a thing of general notoriety. Be neither too candid in your remarks, nor too fulsome in your flat- tery. Too palpable deviations from fact might appear a satire on your master's understand- ing. Should some disappointment evidently rufile his temper, appear not to conceive the possibility of his vanity having received a mortification. Preserve the exact medium between too cold a respect, and too presump- tuous a forwardness. However much Ma- vroyeni may caress you in private, never seem quite at ease with him in public. A master still likes to remain master, or, at least, to appear so to others. Should you get into some scrape, wait not to confess your impru- dence, until concealment becomes impossible; nor try to excuse the offence. Rather than that you should, by so doing, appear to make light of your guilt, exaggerate your self-up- biaidings, and throw yourself entirely upon the drogueman's n^ercy. On all occasions take care how you appear cleverer than your lord, even in the splitting of a pen ; or, if you cannot avoid excelling him in some trifle, give his own tuition all the credit of your profi- ciency. Many things he will dislike, only because they come not from himself. Vindi- cate not your innocence when unjustly re- buked: rather submit for the moment; and trust that, though Mavroyeni never will ex- pressly acknowledge his error, he will in due time pay you for your forbearance.' " — (I. 43 —45.) In the course of his service with Mavroyeni,. he bears arms against the Arnoots, under the Captain Hassan Pacha ; and a very animated description is given of his first combat. " I undressed the dead man completely. — When, however, the business which engaged all my attention was entirely achieved, and that human body, of which, in the eagerness for its spoil, I had only thus far noticed the separate limbs one by one, as I stripped them, all at once struck my sight in its full dimen- sions, as it lay naked before me ; — when I con- templated that fine athletic frame, but a moment before full of life and vigour unto its fingers' ends, now rendered an insensible corpse by the random shot of a raw youth whom in close combat its little finger might have crushed, I could not help feeling, mixed with my exulta- tion, a sort of shame, as if for a cowardly ad-^ vantage obtained over a superior being; and, in order to make a kind of atonement to the shade of an Epirote — of a kinsman — I ex- claimed with outstretched hands, 'Cursed be the paltry dust which turns the warrior's arm into a mere engine, and, striking from afar an invisible blow, carries death no one knows whence to no one knows whom ; levels the strong with the weak, the brave with the das- tardly ; and, enabling the feeblest hand to wield its fatal lightning, makes the conqueror slay without anger, and the conqueror die without glory.' "—(I. 54, 55.) The campaign ended, he proceeds to Constan- tinople with the drogueman, where his many intrigues and debaucheries end with the drogue- man's turning him out of doors. He lives for some time at Constantinople in great misery; and is driven, among other expedients, to the trade of quack-doctor. " One evening, as we were returning from the Blacquernes, an old woman threw herself in our way, and, taking hold of my master's garments, dragged him almost by main force after her into a mean-looking habitation just' by, where lay on a couch, apparently at the last gasp, a man of foreign features. ' I have brought a physician,' said the female to the patient, ' who, perhaps, may relieve you.' ' Why will you' — answered he faintly — ' still persist to feed idle hopes ! I have lived an outcast: suffer me at least to die in peace ; nor disturb ray last moments by vain illusions. My soul panls to rejoin the Supreme Spirit; arrest not its flight ; it would only be delaying my eternal bliss !' "As the stranger spoke these words — which struck even Yacoob sufficiently to make him suspend his professional grimace — the last WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 331 beams of the setting sun darted across the casement of the window upon his pale yet swarthy features. Thus visited, he seemed for a moment to revive. 'I have always,' said he, ' considered my fate as connected with the great luminary that rules the creation. I have always paid it due worship, and firmly believed I could not breathe my last while its rays shone upon me. Carry me, therefore, out, that I may take my last farewell of the heavenly ruler of my earthly destinies !' "We all rushed forward to obey the man- date; but the stairs being too narrow, the woman only opened the window, and placed the dying man before it, so as to enjoy the full view of the glorious orb, just in the act of dropping beneath the horizon. He remained a few moments in silent adoration; and me- chanically we all joined him in fixing our eyes on the object of his worship. It set in all its splendour; and when its golden disk had en- tirely disappeared, we looked round at the Parsee. He, too, had sunk into everlasting rest."— (I. 103, 104.) From the dispensation of chalk and water, he is then ushered into a Turkish jail, the de- scription of which, and of the plague with which it is visited, are very finely written ; and we strongly recommend them to the attention of our readers. " Every day a capital, fertile in crimes, pours new offenders into this dread receptacle ; and its high walls and deep recesses resound every instant with imprecations and curses, uttered in all the various idioms of the Ottoman empire. Deep moans and dismal yells leave not its frightful echoes a moment's repose. From morning till night, and from night till morning, the ear is stunned with the clang of chains, which the galley-slaves wear while confined in their cells, and which they still drag about when toiling at their tasks. Linked together two and two for life, should they sink under their sufferings, they still continue un- severed after death ; and the man doomed to live on, drags after him the corpse of his dead companion. In no direction can the eye es- cape the spectacle of atrocious punishments and of indescribable agonies. Here, perhaps, you see a wretch whose stiffened limbs refuse their office, stop suddenly short in the midst of his labour, and as if already impassible, defy the stripes that lay open his flesh, and wait in total immobility the last merciful blow that is to end his misery; while there, you view his companion foaming with rage and madness, turn against, his own person his desperate hands, tear his clotted hair, rend his bleeding bosom, and strike his skull, until it burst, against the wall of his dungeon." — (I. 110, 111.) A few survived. "I was among these scanty relics. Iwho, indifferent to life, had never stooped to avoid the shafts of death, even when they flew thickest around me, had more than once laid my finger on the livid wound they inflicted, had probed it as it festered ; I yet remained un- hurt: for sometimes the plague is a magnani- mous enemy, and, while it seldom spares the pusillanimous victim, whose blood, running cold ere it is tainted, lacks the energy neces- sary to repel the infection when at hand, it will pass him by who dares its utmost fury, and advances undaunted to meet its raised dart." — (I. 121.) In this miserable receptacle of guilty and unhappy beings, Anastasius forms and cements the strongest friendship with a young Greek, of the name of Anagnosti. On leaving the prison, he vows to make every exertion for the liberation of his friend — vows that are for- gotten as soon as he is clear from the prison walls. After being nearly perished with hunger, and after being saved by the charity of an hospital, he gets into an intrigue with a rich Jewess — is detected— pursued — and, to save his life, turns Mussulman. This exploit performed, he suddenly meets his friend Anag- nosti — treats him with disdain — and, in a quar- rel which ensues between them, stabs him to the heart. " ' Life,' says the dying Anagnosti, ' has long been bitterness : death is a welcome guest : I rejoin those that love me, and in a better place. Already, methinks, watching my flight, they stretch out their arms from heaven to their dying Anagnosti. Thou, — if there be in thy breast one spark of pity left for him thou once namedst thy brother ; for him to whom a holy tie, a sacred vow Ah! suffer not the starv- ing hounds in the street .... See a little hal- lowed earth thrown over my wretched corpse.' These words were his last." — (I. 209.) The description of the murderer's remorse is among the finest passages in the work. " From an obscure aisle in the church I beheld the solemn service ; saw on the field of death the pale stiff corpse lowered into its narrow cell, and hoping to exhaust sorrow's bitter cup, at night, when all mankind hushed its griefs, went back to my friend's final rest- ing-place, lay down upon his silent grave, and watered with my tears the fresh-raised hollow mound. " In vain ! Nor my tears nor my sorrows could avail. No offerings nor penance could purchase me repose. Wherever I went, the beginning of our friendship and its issue still alike rose in view; the fatal spot of blood still danced before my steps, and the reeking dagger hovered before my aching eyes. In the silent darkness of the night I saw the pale phantom of my friend stalk round my watchful couch, covered with gore and dust: and even during the unavailing riots of the day, I still beheld the spectre rise over the festive board, glare on me with piteous look, and hand me whatever I attempted to reach. But whatever it presented seemed blasted by its touch. To my wine it gave the taste of blood, and to my bread the rank flavour of death !"— (L 212, 213.) We question whether there is in the English language a finer description than this. We request our readers to look at the very beauti- ful and affecting picture of remorse, pp. 214, 215, vol. i. Equally good, but in another way, is the de- scription of the opium coffee-house. "In this tchartchee might be seen any day a numerous collection of those whom private 332 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. sorrows have driven to a public exhibition of insanity. There each reeling idiot might take his neighbour by the hand, and say, 'Brother, and what ailed thee, to seek so dire a cure V There did I, with the rest of its familiars, now take my habitual station in my solitary niche, like an insensible, motionless idol, sitting with sightless eyeballs staring on vacuity. "One day, as I lay in less entire absence than usual under the purple vines of the porch, admiring the gold-tipped domes of the majestic Sulimanye, the appearance of an old man with a snow-white beard, reclining on the couch beside me, caught my attention. Half plunged in stupor, he every now and then burst out into a wild laugh, occasioned by the grotesque phantasms which the ample dose of madjoon he had just swallowed was sending up to his brain. I sat contemplating him with mixed curiosity and dismay, when, as if for a moment roused from his torpor, he took me by the hand, and fixing on my countenance his dim, vacant eyes, said, in an impressive tone, 'Young man, thy days are yet few; take the advice of one who, alas ! has counted many. Lose no time ; hie thee hence, nor cast behind one lingering look : but if thou hast not the strength, why tarry even here ? Thy journey is but half achieved. At once go on to that large mansion before thee. It is thy ultimate destination : and by thus beginning where thou must end at last, thou mayest at least save both thy time and thy money.'" — (I. 215, 216.) Lingering in the streets of Constantinople, Anastasius hears that his mother is dead, and proceeds to claim that heritage which, by the Turkish law in favour of proselytes, had de- volved upon him. "How often," he exclaims (after seeing his father in the extremity of old age) — " how often does it happen in life, that the most blissful moments of our return to a long-left home are those only that just precede the instant of our arrival; those during which the imagination still is allowed to paint in its own unblended colours the promised sweets of our reception ! How often, after this glowing picture of the phantasy, does the reality which follows appear cold and dreary ! How often do even those who grieved to see us depart, grieve more to see us return ! and how often do we ourselves encounter nothing but sorrow, on again behold- ing the once happy, joyous promoters of our own hilarity, now mournful, disappointed, and themselves needing what consolation we may bring!"— (L 239, 240.) During his visit to Chios, he traces and de- scribes the dying misery of Helena, whom he had deserted, and then debauches her friend Agnes. From thence he sails to Rhodes, the remnants of which produce a great deal of eloquence and admirable description. — (pp. 275, 276, vol. i.) From Rhodes he sails to Egypt; and chap. 16 contains a short and very well written history of the origin and progress of the Mameluke government. The flight of Mourad, and the pursuit of this chief in the streets of Crtiro (p. 325, vol. i.), would be considered as very fine passages in the best histories of antiquity. Our limits prevent us from quoting them. Anastasius then becomes a Mameluke ; marries his master's daughter, and is made a kiashef. In the numerous skirmishes into which he falls in his new military life, it falls to his lot to shoot, from an ambush, Assad, his inveterate enemy. " Assad, though weltering in his blood, was still alive : but already the angel of death flapped his dark wings over the traitor's brow. Hearing footsteps advance, he made an effort to raise his head, probably in hopes of ap- proaching succour : but beholding, but recog- nising only me, he felt that no hopes remained, and gave a groan of despair. Life was flow- ing out so fast, that I had only to stand still — my arms folded in each other, — and with a steadfast eye to watch its departure. One in- stant I saw ray vanquished foe, agitated by a convulsive tremor, open his eyes and dart at me a glance of impotent rage ; but soon he averted them again, then gnashed his teeth, clenched his fist, and expired." — (11. 92.) We quote this, and such passages as these, to show the great power of description which Mr. Hope possesses. The vindictive man standing with his arms folded, and watching the blood flowing from the wound of his enemy, is very new and very striking. Aftei' the death of his wife, he collects his property, quits Egypt, and visits Mekkah, and acquires the title and prerogatives of an Hadjee. After this he returns to the Turkish capital, renews his acquaintance with Spiri- dion, the friend of his youth, who in vain labours to reclaim him, and whom he at last drives away, disgusted with the vices and passions of Anastasius. We then find our oriental profligate fighting as a Turkish cap- tain in Egypt, against his old friends the Mamelukes ; and afterwards employed in Wallachia, under his old friend Mavroyeni, against the Russians and Austrians. In this part of the work, we strongly recommend to our readers to look at the Mussulmans in a pastry-cook's shop duriiig the Rhamadam, vol- ii. p. 164 ; the village of beggars, vol. ii. p. 266 ; the death of the Hungarian officer, vol. ii. p. 327 ; and, in the last days of Mavroyeni, vol. ii. p. 356 ; — not forgetting the walk over a field of battle, vol. ii. p. 252. The character of Mavroyeni is extremely well kept up through the whole of the book; and his decline and death are drawn in a very spirited and masterly manner. The Spiridion part of the novel we are not so much struck Avith ; we entirely ap- prove of Spiridion, and ought to take more interest in him; but we cannot disguise the melancholy truth that he is occasionally a little long and tiresome. The next characters as- sumed by Anastasius are, a Smyrna debauchee, a robber of the desert, and a Wahabee. After serving some time with these sectaries, he re- turns to Smyrna, — finds his child missing whom he had left there, — traces the little boy to Egypt, — recovers him, — then loses him by sickness, — and wearied of life, retires to end his days in a cottage in Carinthia. For strik- ing passages in this part of the novel, we refer our readers to the description of the burial- places near Constantinople, vol. iii. 11 — 13; WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 333- the account of Djezzar Pacha's retirement to his harem during the revolt, — equal to any thing in Tacitus ; and, above all, to the land- ing of Anastasius with his sick child, and the death of the infant. It is impossible not to see that this last picture is faithfully drawn from a sad and cruel reality. The account of the Wahabees is ver}r interesting, vol. iii. 128; and nothing is more so than the story of Eu- phrosyne. Anastasius had gained the afiec- tions of Euphrosyne, and ruined her reputa- tion; he then wishes to cast her oli', and to remove her from his house. "'Ah no!' now cried Euphrosyne, convul- sively clasping my knees, ' be not so barba- rous ! Shut not your own door against her against whom you have barred every once friendly door. Do not deny her whom you have dishonoured the only asylum she has left. If I cannot be your wife, let me be your slave, your drudge. No service, however mean, shall I recoil from when you command. At least before you I shall not have to blush. In your eyes I shall not be what I must seem in those of others ; I shall not from you in- cur the contempt which I must expect from my former companions; and my diligence to execute the lowest ofRces you may require, will earn for me, not only as a bare alms at your hands, that support which, however scanty, I can elsewhere only receive as an unmerited indulgence. Since I did a few daj^s please your eye, I may still please it a few days longer : — perhaps a few days longer, therefore, I may still wish to live ; and when that last blessing, your love, is gone by, — when my cheek, faded with grief, has lost the last attraction that could arrest your favour, then speak, then tell me so, that, burthening you no longer, I may retire — and die !'" — (III. 64, 65.) Her silent despa,ir, and patient misery, when she finds that she has not only ruined herself with the world, but lost his affections also, have the beauty of the deepest tragedy. " Nothing but the most unremitting tender- ness on my part could in some degree have revived her drooping spirits. — But when, after my excursion, and the act of justice on Sophia, m which it ended, I reappeared before the still trembling Euphrosyne, she saw too soon that that cordial of the heart must not be ex- pected. One look she cast upon my counte- nance, as I sat down in silence, sufficed to inform her of my total change of sentiments ; — and the responsive look by which it was met, tore for ever from her breast the last seeds of hope and confidence. Like the wounded snail, she shrunk within herself, and thenceforth, cloaked in unceasing sadness, never more ex- panded to the sunshine of joy. With her buoyancy of spirits she seemed even to lose all her quickness of intellect, nay, all her readiness of speech: so that, not only fearing to embark with her in serious conversation, but even finding no response in her mind to lighter topics, I at last began to nauseate her seeming torpor and dulness, and to roam abroad even more frequently than before a partner of my fate remained at home, to count the tedious hours of my absence ; while she, poor, miserable creature, dreading the sneers of an unfeeling world, passed her time under my roof in dismal and heart-breaking s'->litude. — Had the most patient endurance of the most intemperate sallies been able to soothe my disappointment and to soften my hardiness, Euphrosyne'!^ angelic sweetness must at last have conquered : but, in my jaundiced eye, her resignation only tended to strengthen the conviction of her shame ; and I saw in her forbearance nothing but the consequence of her debasement, and the consciousness of her guilt. ' Did her heart,' thought I, ' bear wit- ness to a purity on which my audacity dared first to cast a blemish, she could not remain thus tame, thus spiritless, under such an ag- gravation of my wrongs ; and either she would be the first to quit my merciless roof, or, at least, she would not so fearfully avoid giving me even the most unfovmded pretence for denying her its shelter. — She must merit her sufferings, to bear them so meekly !' — Hence, even when moved to real pity by gentleness so enduring, I seldom relented in my apparent sternness." — (III. 72 — 74.) With this, we end our extracts from Anasta- sius. We consider it as a work in which great and extraordinary talent is evinced. It abounds in eloquent and sublime passages, — in sense, — in knowledge of history, — and in knowledge of human character; — but not in wit. It is too long ; and if this novel perishes, and is forgotten, it will be solely on that account. If it is the picture of vice, so is Clarissa Har- lowe, and so is Tom Jones. There are no sensual and glowing descriptions in Anasta- sius, — nothing which corrupts the morals by inflaming the imagination of youth ; and we are quite certain that every reader ends this novel with a greater disgust at vice, and a more thorough conviction of the necessity of subjugating passion, than he feels from read- ing either of the celebrated works we have just mentioned. The sum of our eulogium is, that Mr. Hope, without being very successful in his story, or remarkably skilful in the delineation of character, has written a novel, which all clever people of a certain age should read, because it is full of marvellously fine things. 334 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. SCARLETrS POOR BILL/ [Edinburgh Review, 1821.] We are friendly to the main principle of Mr. Scarlett's bill ; but are rather surprised at the unworkmanlike manner in which he has set about it. To fix a maximum for the poor-rates, we should conceive to be an operation of suffi- cient difficulty and novelty for any one bill. There was no need to provoke more prejudice, to rouse more hostility, and create more alarm, than such a bill would naturally do. But Mr. Scarlett is a very strong man ; and before he works his battering-ram, he chooses to have the wall made of a thickness worthy of his blow — capable of evincing, by the enormity of its ruins, the superfluity of his vigour, and the certainty of his aim. Accordingly, he has in- troduced into his bill a number of provisions, which have no necessary, and, indeed, no near connection with his great and main object ; but which are sure to draw upon his back all the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases in the House of Commons. It may be right, or it may be wrong, that the chargeable poor should be re- moved; but why introduce such a controverted point into a bill framed for a much more im- portant object, and of itself calculated to pro- duce so much difference of opinion ! Mr. Scarlett appears to us to have been not only indiscreet in the introduction of such hetero- geneous matter, but very much mistaken in the enactments which that matter contains. " And be it further enacted, that from and after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any justice of peace or other per- son to remove, or cause to be removed, any poor person or persons from any parish, township or place, to any other, by reason of such person or persons being chargeable to such parish, town ship or place, or being unable to maintain him or themselves, or under colour of such person or persons being settled in any other parish, township or place, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding : Pro- vided always, that nothing in this act shall in any wise be deemed to alter any law now in force for the punishment of vagrants, or for removing poor persons to Scotland, Ireland, or the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man. — And be it further enacted, that in all cases where any poor person, at the time of the passing of this act, shall be resident in any parish, town- ship or place, where he is not legally settled, * 1. Letter to James Scarlett, Esq., M. P., on his Bill relating- to the Poor-Laws. By a Surrey Magistrate. London, 1821. 2. An Address to the Lnpenal Parliament, upon the Prartieal Means of gradually Abolishing the Poor-Laws, and Educating the Poor Systematicalhi. llhistrated by nn Account of the Colonies of Fredericks- Oord in Hollc.nd, and of the Common Mountain in the South of Ireland. With Oenernl Observations. Third Edition. By Wil- liam Herbert Saunders, Esq. London, 1821. 3. On Pauperism and the Poor-Lava. With a Supple- ment. London, 1821. and shall be receiving relief from the over- seers, guardians, or directors of the poor of the place of his legal settlement, the said over- seers, guardians, or directors, are hereby required to continue such relief, in the same manner, and by the same means, as the same is now administered, until one of his majesty's justices of the peace, in or near the place of residence of such poor person, shall, upon ap- plication to him, either by such poor person, or any other person on his behalf, for the con- tinuance thereof, or by the said overseers, guardians, or directors of the poor, paying such relief, for the discharge thereof, certify that the same is no longer necessary." — BiU, pp. 3, 4.) Now, here is a gentleman, so thoroughly and so justly sensible of the evils of the poor- laws, that he introduces into the House of Commons a very plain, and very bold measure to restrain them ; and yet, in the very same bill, he abrogates the few impediments that remain to universal mendicity. The present law says, " Before you can turn beggar in the place of your residence, you must have been born there, or you must have rented a farm there, or served an office ;" but Mr. Scarlett says, " You may beg anywhere where you happen to be. I will have no obstacles to your turning beggar ; I will give every facility and every allurement to the destruction of your independence." We are quite confident that the direct tendency of Mr. Scarlett's en- actments is to produce these effects. Labourers living in one place, and settled in another, are uniformly the best and most independeiit cha- racters in the place. Alarmed at the idea of being removed from the situation of their choice, and knowing they have nothing to de- pend upon but themselves, they are alone exempted from the degrading influence of the poor-laws, and frequently arrive at independ- ence by their exclusion from that baneful pri- vilege which is offered to them by the incon- sistent benevolence of this bill. If some are removed, after long residence in parishes where they are not settled, these examples onl3^ insure the beneficial effects of which we have been speaking. Others see them, dread the same fate, quit the mug, and grasp the flail. Our policy, as we have explained in a previous article, is directly the reverse of that of Mr. Scarlett. Considering that a poor man, since Mr. East's bill, if he asks no charity, has a right to live where he pleases, and that a settlement is now nothing more than a beggar's ticket, we would gradually abolish all means of gaining a settlement, but those of birth, parentage, or marriage ; and this method would destroy litigation as effectually as the method proposed by Mr. Scarlett.* * This has since been done. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 335 Mr. Scarlett's plan, too, we are firmly per- •suaded, would completely defeat his own intentions; and would inflict a greater injury ■ upon the poor than this very bill, intended to ■^prevent their capricious removal. If his bill • had passed, he could not have passed. His post-chaise on the northern circuit would have been impeded by the crowds of houseless vil- lagers, driven from their cottages by landlords rendered merciless by the bill. In the mud — all in the mud (for such cases made and pro- vided) would they have rolled this most excel- lent counsellor. Instigated by the devil and their own malicious purposes, his wig they would have polluted, and tossed to a thousand winds the parchment bickerings of Doe and Roe. Mr. Scarlett's bill is so powerful a mo- tive to proprietors for the depopulation of a village — for preventing the poor from living where they wish to live, — that nothing but the conviction that such a bill would never be suffered to pass, has prevented those effects from already taking place. Landlords would, in the contemplation of such a bill, pull down all the cottages of persons not belonging to the parish, and eject the tenants ; tne most vigor- ous measures would be taken to prevent any one from remaining or coming who was not absolutely necessary to the lord of the soil. At present, cottages are let to anybody: be- cause, if they are burthensome to the parish, the tenants can be removed. But the impos- sibility of doing this would cause the imme- diate demolition of cottages ; prevent the erection of fresh ones where they are really wanted ; and chain a poor man for ever to the place of his birth, without the possibility of moving. If everybody who passed over Mr. Scarlett's threshold were to gain a settlement for life in his house, he would take good care never to be at home. We all boldly let our friends in, because we know we can easily get them out. So it is with the residence of the poor. Their present power of living where they please, and going where they please, entirely depends upon the possibility of their removal when they become chargeable. If any mistaken friend were to take from them this protection, the whole power and jealousy of property would be turned against their locomotive liberty ; they would become ad- scripli glebce, no more capable of going out of the parish than a tree is of proceeding, with its roots and branches, to a neighbouring wood. The remedy here proposed for these evils is really one of the most extraordinary we ever remember to have been introduced into any act of Parliament. " And whereas it may happen, that in seve- ral parishes or townships now burdened with the maintenance of the poor settled and re- siding therein, the owners of lands or inha- bitants may, in order to remove the residence of the labouring poor from such parishes or places, destroy the cottages and habitations therein, now occupied by the labourers and their families : And whereas, also, it may happen, that certain towns and villages, maintaining their own poor, may, by the residence therein of labourers employed and working in other parishes or townships lying near the said towns and villages, be charged with the burden of maintaining those who do not work, and before the passing of this act were not settled therein : For remedy thereof, be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that, in either of the above cases, it shall be lawful for the justices, at any quarter-sessions of the peace held for the county in which such places shall be, upon the complaint of the overseers of the poor of any parish, town or place, that by reason of either of the causes aforesaid, the rates for the relief of the poor of such parish, town, or place, have been materially increased, whilst those of any other parish or place have been diminished, to hear and fully to inquire into the matter of such complaint ; and in case they shall be satisfied of the truth thereof, then to make an order upon the overseers of the poor of the parish or township, whose rates have been diminished by the causes aforesaid, to pay to the complainants such sum or sums, from time to time, as the said justices shall adjudge reasonable, not exceeding, in any case, together with the existing rates, the amount limited by this act, as a contribution towards the relief of the poor of the parish, town, or place, whose rates have been in- creased by the causes aforesaid ; which order shall continue in force until the same shall be discharged by some future order of ses- sions, upon the application of the over.-^eers paying the same, and proof that the occasion for it no longer exists : Provided, always, that no such order shall be made, without proof of notice in writing of such intended application, and of the grounds thereof, having been served upon the overseers of the poor of the parish or place, upon whom such order is prayed, four- teen days at the least before the first day of the quarter-sessions, nor unless the justices making such order shall be satisfied that no money has been improperly or unnecessarily expended by the overseers of the poor praying for such order ; and that a separate and distinct account has been kept by them of the addi- tional burden which has been thrown upon their rates by the causes alleged." — (Bill, pp. 4, 5.) Now this clause, we cannot help saying, ap- pears to us to be a receipt for universal and interminable litigation all over England — a perfect law-hurricane — a conversion of all flesh into plaintiffs and defendants. The parish A. has pulled down houses, and burlhened the parish B.; B. has demolished to the misery of C; which has again misbehaved itself in the same manner to the oppression of other letters of the alphabet. All run into parchment, and pant for revenge and exoneration. Though the fact may be certain enough, the causes which gave rise to it may be very uncertain ; and assuredly will not be admitted to have been those against which the statute has de- nounced these penalties. It will be alleged, therefore, that the houees were not pulled down to get rid of the poor, but because they were not worth repair — because they obstruct- ed the squire's view— because rent was not paid. All these motives must go before the sessions, the last resource of legislators— the unhappy quarter-sessions pushed to the ex- 336 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tremity of their wit by the plump contradictions of parish perjury. Another of the many sources of litigation, in this clause, is as follows : — A certain number of workmen live in a parish M., not being settled in it, and not working in it before the passing of this act. After the passing of this act, they become chargeable to M., whose poor- rates are increased. M. is to find out the parishes relieved from the burthen of these men, and to prosecute at the quarter-sessions for relief. But suppose the burthened parish to be in Yorkshire, and the relieved parish in Cornwall, are the quarter-sessions in Yorkshire to make an order of annual payment upon a parish in Cornwall 1 and Cornwall, in turn, ■upon Yorkshire 1 How is the money to be transmitted"? What is the easy and cheap remedy, if neglected to be paid 1 And if all this could be effected, what is it, after all, but the present system of removal rendered ten times more intricate, confused and expensive! Perhaps Mr. Scarlett means, that the parishes ■where these men worked, and which may hap- pen to be within the jurisdiction of the justices, are to be taxed in aid of the parish M., in pro- portion to the benefit they have received from the labour of men whose distresses they do not relieve. We must have, then, a detailed ac- count of how much a certain carpenter work- ed in one parish, how much in another; and enter into a species of evidence absolutely interminable. We hope Mr. Scarlett will not be angry with us : we entertain for his abilities and character the highest possible respect ; but great lawyers have not leisure for these trifling details. It is very fortunate that a clause so erroneous in its view should be so inaccurate in its construction. If it were easy to comprehend it, and possible to execute it, it would be necessary to repeal it. The shortest way, however, of mending all this, will be entirely to omit this part of the bill. We earnestly, but with very little hopes of success, exhort Mr. Scarlett not to endanger the really important part of his project, by the introduction of a measure which has little to do with it, and which any quarter-session country squire can do as well or better than himself The real question introduced by his bill is, whether or not a limit shall be put to the poor- laws ; and not only this, but whether their amount shall be gradually diminished. To this better and higher part of the law, we shall now address ourselves. In this, however, as well as in the former part of his bill, Mr. Scarlett becomes frighten- ed at his own enactments, and repeals himself. Parishes are first to relieve every person ac- tually resident within them. This is no sooner enacted than a provision is introduced to relieve them from this expense, tenfold more burthensome and expensive than the present system of removal. In the same manner, a maximum is very wisely and bravely enacted; and in the following clause is immediately repealed. "Provided, also, and be it further enacted, that if, by reason of any unusual scarcity of provisions, epidemic disease, or any other cause of a temporary or local nature, it- shall be deemed expedient by the overseers of the poor, or other persons having, by virtue of any local act of Parliament, the authority of over- seers of the poor of any parish, township, or place, to make' any addition to the sum assessed for the relief of the poor, beyond the amount limited by this act, it shall be lawful for the said overseers, or such other persons, to give public notice in the several churches, and other places of worship, within the same pa- rish, township, or place, and if there be no church or chapel within such place, then in the parish church or chapel next adjoining the same, of the place and time of a general meet- ing to be held by the inhabitants paying to the relief of the poor within such parish, town- ship, or place, for the purpose of considering the occasion and the amount of the proposed addition ; and, if it shall appear to the majority of the persons assembled at such meeting, that such addition shall be necessary, then it shall be lawful to the overseers, or other persons having power to make assessments, to increase the assessment by the additional sum proposed and allowed, at such meeting, and for the jus- tices, by whom such rate is to be allowed, upon due proof upon oath to be made before them, of the resolution of such meeting, and that the same was held after sufficient public notice to allow such rate with the proposed addition, specifying the exact amount thereof, with the reasons for allowing the same, upon the face of the rate." — (Bill, p. 3.) It would really seem^ from these and other qualifying provisions, as if Mr. Scarlett had never reflected upon the consequences of his leadingenactments till he had penned them; and that he then set about finding how he could prevent himself from doing what he meant to do. To what purpose enact a maximum, if that maximum may at any time be repealed by the majority of the parishioners 1 How will the compassion and charity which the poor-laws have set to sleep be awakened, when such a remedy is at hand as the repeal of the maxi- mum by a vote of the parish ? Will ardent and amiable men form themselves into volun- tary associations to meet any sudden exigency of famine and epidemic disease, when this sleepy and sluggish method of overcoming the evil can be had recourse to? As soon as it becomes really impossible to increase the poor fund by law — when there is but little, and there can be no more, that little will be administered with the utmost caution ; claims will be mi- nutely inspected ; idle manhood will not receive the scraps and crumbs which belong to failing old age ; distress will make the poor provident and cautious ; and all the good expected from the abolition of the poor-laws will begin to appear. But these expectations will be entirely frustrated, and every advantage of Mr. Scar- lett's bill destroyed, by this fatal facility of eluding and repealing it. The danger of insurrection is a circumstance worthy of the most serious consideration, in discussing the propriety of a maximum. Mr» Scarlett's bill is an infallible receipt for tumult and agitation, whenever corn is a little dearer WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 837 than common. " Repeal the maximum," will be the clamour in every village ; and woe be to those members of the village vestry who should oppose the measure. Whether it was really a year of scarcity, and whether it was a proper season for expanding the bounty of the law, would be a question constantly and fierce- ly agitated between the farmers and the poor. lif the maximum is to be quietly submitted to, its repeal must be rendered impossible but to the legislature. " Burn your ships, Mr. Scar- lett. You are doing a wise and necessary thing ; don't be afraid of yourself. Respect your own nest. Don't let clause A repeal clause B. Be stout. Take care that the rat lawyers on the treasury bench do not take the oysters out of your bill, and leave you the shell. Do not yield one particle of the wisdom and philosophy of your measure to the country gentlemen of the earth." We object to a maximum which is not ren- dered a decreasing maximum. If definite sums were fixed for each village, which they could not exceed, that sum would, in a very few years, become a minimum, and an esta- blished claim. If 80s. were the sum allotted for a particular hamlet, the poor would very soon come to imagme that they were entitled to that precise sum, and the farmers that they were compelled to give it. Any maximum established should be a decreasing, but a very slowly decreasing maximum, — perhaps it should not decrease at a greater rate than 10s. per cent, per annum. It may be doubtful also, whether the first bill should aim at repealing more than 20 per cent, of the present amount of the poor-rates. This would be eff'ected in forty years. Long before that time, the good or bad effects of the measure would be fairly estimated ; if it is ■wise that it should proceed, let posterity do the rest. It is by no means necessary to destroy, in one moment, upon paper, a payment which cannot, without violating every principle of justice, and every consideration of safety and humanity, be extinguished in less than two centuries. It is important for Mr. Scarlett to consider whether he will make the operation of his bill immediate, or interpose two or three years between its enactment and first operation. We entirely object to the following clause ; the whole of which ought to be expunged : — "And be it further enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any churchwarden, overseer, or guardian of the poor, or any other person having authority to administer relief to the poor, to allow or give, or for any justice of the peace to order, any relief to any person whatsoever, who shall be married after the passing of this act, for himself, herself, or any part of his or her family, unless such poor person shall be actually, at the time of asking such relief, by reason of age, sickness, or bodily infirmity, unable to obtain a livelihood, and to support his or her family by work: Provided, always, that nothing in this clause contained shall be construed so as to authorize the granting relief, or making any order for relief, in cases ■where the same was not lawful before the passing of this act." 43 Nothing in the whole bill will occasion so much abuse and misrepresentation as this clause. It is upon this that the radicals will first fasten. It will, of course, be explained into a prohibition of marriage to the poor ; and will, in fact, create a marked distinction be- tween two classes of paupers, and become a rallying point for insurrection. In fact, it is wholly unnecessary. As the funds for the re- lief of pauperism decrpase, under the opera- tion of a diminishing maximum, the first to whom relief is refused will be the young and the strong; in other words, the most absurd and extravagant consequences of the present poor-laws will be the first cured. Such, then, is our conception of the bill which ought to be brought into Parliament — a maximum regulated by the greatest amount of poor-rates ever paid, and annually diminishing at the rate of lOs. per cent, till they are reduced 20 per cent, of their present value ; with such a preamble to the bill as will make it fair and consistent for any future Parliament to con- tinue the reduction. If Mr. Scarlett will bring in a short and simple bill to this efiect, and not mingle with it any other parochial improve- ments, and will persevere in such a bill for two or three years, we believe he wdll carry it ; and we are certain he will confer, by such a measure, a lasting benefit upon his country — • and upon none more than upon its labouring poor. We presume there are very few persons who will imagine such a measure to be deficient in vigour. That the poor-laws should be stopped in their fatal encroachment upon property, and unhappy multiplication of the human species, — and not only this, but that the evil should be put in a state of diminution, would be an improvement of our condition almost beyond hope. The tendency of fears and objections will all lie the other way; and a bill of this nature will not be accused of inertness, but of rashness, cruelty, and innovation. We can- not now enter into the question of the poor- laws, of all others that which has undergone the most frequent and earnest discussion. Our whole reasoning is founded upon the assump- tion, that no system of laws was ever so com- pletely calculated to destroy industry, foresight, and economy in the poor ; to extinguish com- passion in the rich ; and, by destroying the balance between the demand for, and supply of, labour, to spread a degraded population over a ruined land. Not to attempt the cure of this evil, would be criminal indolence ; not to cure it gradually and compassionately, would be very wicked. To Mr. Scarlett belongs the real merit of introducing the bill. He will forgive us the freedom, perhaps the severity, of some of our remarks. We are sometimes not quite so smooth as we ought to be; but we hold Mr. Scarlett in very high honour and estimation. He is the greatest advocate, perhaps, of his time; and without the slightest symptom of tail or whiskers — decorations, it is reported, now as character- istic of the English bar as wigs and gowns in days of old — he has never carried his soul to the treasury, and said, What will you give me for this 1 — he has never sold the warm feelings. 2F -338 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. ''-:and honourable motives of his youth and man- hood for an annual sum of money and an office — he has never taken a price for public liberty and public happiness — he has never touched the political Aceldama, and signed the devil's bond for cursing to-morrow what he has blessed to-day. Living in the midst of men who have disgraced it, he has cast honour upon his honourable profession; and has sought dignity, not from the ermine and the mace, but from a straight path and a spotless life. MEMOIUS OF CAPTAIN ROCK/ [Edinburgh Review, 1824.] This agreeable and witty book is generally supposed to have been written by Mr. Thomas , Moore, a gentleman of small stature, but full of genius, and a steady friend of all that is honourable and just. He has here borrowed the name of a celebrated Irish leader, to typify that spirit of violence and insurrection which •is necessarily generated by systematic oppres- sion, and rudely avenges its crimes ; and the picture he has drawn of its prevalence in that unhappy country is at once piteous and fright- ful. Its effect in exciting our horror and in- dignation is in the long run increased, we think, — though at first it may seem counter- acted, by the tone of levity, and even jocularity, under which he has chosen to veil the deep sarcasm and substantial terrors of his story. We smile at first, and are amused — and won- der, as we proceed, that the humorous narra- tive should produce conviction and pity — shame, abhorrence, and despair! England seems to have treated Ireland much in the same way as Mrs. Brownrigg treated her apprentice — for which Mrs. Brownrigg is hanged in the first volume of the Newgate Calendar. Upon the whole, we think the ap- prentice is better off than the Irishman : as Mrs. Brownrigg merely starves and beats her, without any attempt to prohibit her from going to any shop, or praying at any church, appren- tice might select; and once or twice, if we remember rightly, Brownrigg appears to have felt some compassion. Not so Old England, who indulges rather in a steady baseness, uni- form brutality, and unrelenting oppression. Let us select from this entertaining little book a short history of dear Ireland, such as even some profligate idle member of the House of Commons, voting as his master bids him, may perchance throw his eye upon, and reflect for a moment upon the iniquity to which he lends his support. For some centuries after the reign of Henry IT. the Irish were killed like game, by persons qualified or unqualified. Whether dogs were used does not appear quite certain, though it is probable thej' were, spaniels as well as pointers ; and that, after a regular point by Basto, well backed by Ponto and CEesar, Mr. O'Donnel or Mr. O'Le-iry bolted from the thicket, and were bagged by the English sports- * Memoirs of Captain Rock, the celebrated Irish Chief- tain; with some .Account of his Jlucestors, Written by bimself. Fourth Edition. 12mo. London, 1824. man. With Henry II. came in tithes, to which, in all probability, about one million of lives may have been sacrificed in Ireland. In the reign of Edward I., the Irish who were settled near the English requested that the benefit of the English laws might be extended to them ; but the remonstrance of the barons with the hesitating king was in substance this: — "You have made us a present of these wild gentle- men, and we particularly request that no mea- sures may be adopted to check us in that full range of tyranny and oppression in which we consider the value of such a gift to consist. You might as well give us sheep, and prevent us from shearing the wool, or roasting the meat." This reasoning prevailed, and the Iiish were kept to their barbarism, and the barons preserved their live-stock. " Read ' Orange faction' (says Captain Rock) here, and you have the wisdom of our rulers, at the end of near six centuries, in statu quo.-^ The grand periodic year of the stoics, at the close of which every thing was to begin again, and the same events to be all reacted in the same order, is, on a miniature scale, repre- sented in the history of the English govern- ment in Ireland — every succeeding century being but a renewed revolution of the saihe follies, the same crimes, and the same turbu- lence that disgraced the former. But ' Vive I'ennemi !' say I : whoever may suff'er by such measures. Captain Rock, at least, will prosper. " And such was the result at the period of which I am speaking. The rejection of a pe- tition, so humble and so reasonable, was fpl- lowed, as a matter of course, by one of thoSe daring rebellions into which the revenge of an insulted people naturally breaks forth. The M'Cartys, the O'Briens, and all the other Macs and O's, who have been kept on the alert by similar causes ever since, flew to arms under the command of a chieftain of my family ; and, as the proffered handle of the sword had been rejected, made their inexorable masters at least feel its crfge."— (pp. 23—25.) Fifty years afterwards the same request was renewed and refused. Up again rose Mac and 0, — a just and neceasnry war ensued; and after the usual murders, the usual chains were replaced upon the Irishry. All Irishmen wei;e excluded from every species of office. It was high treason to marry with the Irish blood, and highly penal to receive the Irish into religious houses. War was waged also against their WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 339 Thomas Moores, Samuel Rogerses, and Walter Scotts, who went about the country harping and singing against English oppression. No such turbulent guests were to be received. The plan of making them poets-laureate, or converting them to loyalty by pensions of 100/. per annum, had not then been thought of. They debarred the Irish even from the plea- sure of running away, and fixed them to the soil like negroes. "I have thus selected," says the historian of Rock, " cursorily and at random a few fea- tures of the reigns preceding the Reformation, in order to show what good use was made of those three or four hundred years in attaching the Irish people to their English governors ; and by what a gentle course of alternatives they were prepared for the inoculation of a new religion, which was now about to be at- tempted upon them by the same skilful and friendly hands. " Henry the Seventh appears to have been the first monarch to whom it occurred, that matters were not managed exactly as they ought in this part of his dominions ; and we find him — with a simplicity which is still fresh and youthful among our rulers — expressing his surprise that ' his subjects of this land should be so prone to faction and rebellion, and that so little advantage had been hitherto derived from the acquisitions of his predeces- sors, notwithstanding the fruitfulness and na- tural advantages of Ireland.' — Surprising, in- deed, that a policy, such as we have been describing, should not have converted the whole country into a perfect Atalantis of hap- piness — should not have made it like the ima- ginary island of Sir Thomas More, \vhere ' tola insula velut una familia est /' — most stub- born, truly, and ungrateful must that people be, upon whom, up to the very hour in which I write, such a long and unvarying course of penal laws, confiscations, and insurrection acts has been tried, without making them in the least degree in love with their rulers. " Heloise tells her tutor Abelard, that the correction which he inflicted upon her only served to increase the ardour of her affection for him ; but bayonets and hemp are no such * amoris stimuli.' — One more characteristic anecdote of those times, and I have done. At the battle of Knocktow, in the reign of Henry VII., when that remarkable man, the Earl of Kildare, assisted by the great O'Neal and other Irish chiefs, gained a victory over Clan- ricard of Connaught, most important to the English government, Lord Gormanstown, after the battle, in the first insolence of success, said, turning to the Earl of Kildare, ' We have now slaughtered our enemies, but to complete the good deed, we must proceed yet further, and — cut the throats of those Irish of our own party !'* Who can wonder that the Rock family were active in those times 1" — (pp. 33 — 35.) Henry VIII. persisted in all these outrages, and aggravated them by insultingthe prejudices of the people. England is almost the only country in the world (even at present), where * Leland gives this anecdote on tlie authority of an Englishman. there is not some favourite religious spot, where absurd lies, little bits of cloth, feathers, rusty nails, splinters, and other invaluable relics, are treasured up, and in defence of which the whole population are willing to turn out and perish as one man. Such was the shrine of St. Kieran, the whole treasures of which the satellites of that corpulent tyrant turned out into the street, pillaged the sacred church of Clonmacnoise, scattered the holy nonsense of the priests to the winds, and burnt the real and venerable crosier of St. Patrick, fresh from the silversmith's shop, and formed of the most costly materials. Modern princes change the uniform of regiments ; Hen- ry changed the religion of kingdoms, and was determined that the belief of the Irish should undergo a radical and Protestant conversion. With what success this attempt was made, the present state of Ireland is sufficient evi- dence. " Be not dismayed," said Elizabeth, on hear- ing that O'Neal meditated some designs against her government ; " tell my friends, if he arise, it will turn to their advantage — there will be estates for those who want." Soon after this pro- phetic speech, Munster was destroyed by fa- mine and the sword, and near 600,000 acres forfeited to the crown, and distributed among Englishmen. Sir Walter Raleigh (the vir- tuous and good) butchered the garrison of Limerick in cold blood, after Lord Deputy Gray had selected 700 to be hanged. There were, during the reign of Elizabeth, three in- vasions of Ireland by the Spaniards, produced principally by the absurd measures of this princess for the reformation of its religion. The Catholic clergy, in consequence of these measures, abandoned their cures, the churches fell to ruin, and the people were left without any means of instruction. Add to these cir- cumstances the murder of M'Mahon, the im- prisonment of M'Toole* and O'Dogherty, and the kidnapping of O'Donnel — all truly Anglo- Hibernian proceedings. The execution of the laws was rendered detestable and intolerable by the queen's officers of justice. The spirit raised by these transactions, besides innume- rable smaller insurrections, gave rise to the great wars of Desmond and Hugh O'Neal ; which, after they had worn out the ablest generals, discomfited the choicest troops, ex- hausted the treasure, and embarrassed the operations of Elizabeth, were terminated by the destruction of these two ancient families, and by the confiscation of more than half the territorial surface of the island. The two last years of O'Neal's wars cost Elizabeth 140,000/. per annum, though the whole revenue of England at that period fell considerably short of 500,000/. Essex, after the destruction of Norris, led into Ireland an army of above 20,000 men, which was totally battled and de- * There are not a few of the best and most humane Englishmen of the present dav, who, when under the influence nf fear or anger, would think it no great crime to put to death people whose names begin with O or Mac The violent death of Smith, Green, or Thomson, would throw the neisrhbourhood into convulsions, and the regu- lar forms would be adhered to— but little would he really thought of the death of any body called O'Dogherty or O'Toole. 340 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. stroyed by Tyrone, within two years of their landing. Such was the importance of Irish rebellions two centuries before the time in which we live. Sir G. Carew attempted to assassinate the Lugan earl — Mountjoy com- pelled the Irish rebels to massacre each other. In the course of a few months, 3000 men were starved to death in Tyrone. Sir Arthur Chi- chester, Sir Richard Manson, and other com- manders, saw three childrer; feeding on the flesh of their dead mother. Such were the golden days of good queen Bess ! By the rebellions of Dogherty in the reign of James I., six northern counties were con- fiscated, amounting to 500,000 acres. In the same manner, 64,000 acres were confiscated in Athlone. The whole of his confiscations amount to nearly a million of acres ; and if Leland means plantation acres, they consti- tute a twelfth of the whole kingdom according to Newenham, and a tenth according to Sir W. Petty. The most shocking and scanda- lous action in the reign of James, was his at- tack upon the whole property of the province of Connaught, which he would have effected, if he had not been bought off by a sum greater than he hoped to gain by his iniquity, besides the luxury of confiscation. The Irish, during the reign of James I., suffered under the double evils of a licentious soldiery, and a religious persecution. Charles the First took a bribe of 120,000/. from his Irish subjects, to grant them what in those days were called graces, but in these days would be denominated the elements of justice. The money was paid, but the graces were never granted. One of these graces is curious enough: "That the clergy were not to be permitted to keep henceforward any private prisons of their own, but delinquents were to be committed to the public jails." The idea of a rector, with his own private jail full of dissenters, is the most ludicrous piece of ty- ranny we ever heard of. The troops in the beginning of Charles's reign were supported by the weekly fines levied upon the Catholics for non-attendance upon established worship. The Archbishop of Dublin went himself, at the head of a file of musketeers, to disperse a Catholic congregation in Dublin, — which ob- ject he effected, after a considerable skirmish with the priests. " The favourite object" (says Dr. Leland, a Protestant clergyman, and dignitary of the Irish church) " of the Irish government and the English Parliament, was the utter extermination of all the Catholic inha- bitants of Ireland." The great rebellion took place in this reign, and Ireland was one scene of blood and cruelty and confiscation. Cromwell began his career in Ireland by massacreing for five days the garrison of Dro- gheda, to whom quarter had been promised. Two millions and a half of acres were confis- cated. Whole towns were put up in lots, and sold. The Catholics were banished from three-fourths of the kingdom, and confined to Connaught. After a certain day, every Catho- lic found out of Connaught was to be punished with death. Fleetwood complains peevishly " that the people do not transport readily" — but adds, " it is doubtless a work in which the Lord will appear." Ten thousand Irish were sent as re- cruits to the Spanish army. " Such was CromweWs way of settKng the affairs of Ireland — and if a nation is to be ruined, this method is, perhaps, as good as any. It is, at least, more humane than the slow lin- gering process of exclusion, disappointment, and degradation, by which their hearts are worn out under more specious forms of tyranny^; and that talent of despatch which Moliere at- tributes to one of his physicians, is no ordi- nary merit in a practitioner like Cromwell : — ' C'est un homme expeditif, qui aime a depS- cher ses malades ; et quand on a a mourir, cela se fait avec lui le plus vite du monde.' A certain military duke, who complains that Ire- land is but half conquered, would, no doubt, upon an emergency, trv his hand in the same line of practice, and, like that 'stern hero,' Mirmillo, in the Dispensary, ' While others meanly take whole months to slay, Despatch the grateful patient in a day !' " Among other amiable enactments against the Catholics at this period, the price of five pounds was s'et on the head of a Romish priest — being exactly the same sum offered by the same legislators for the head of a wolf. The Athenians, we are told, encouraged the destruc- tion of wolves by a similar reward (five drachmas) ; but it does not appear that these heathens bought up the heads of priests at the same rate — such zeal in the cause of religion being reserved for times of Christianity and Protestantism." — (pp. 97 — 99.) Nothing can show more strongly the light in which the Irish were held by Cromwell, than the correspondence with Henry Cromwell, respecting the peopling of Jamaica from Ire- land. Secretary Thurloe sends to Henry, the lord-deputy in Ireland, to inform him, that " a stock of Irish girls, and Irish young men, are wanting for the peopling of Jamaica." The answer of Henry Cromwell is as follows; — " Concerning the supply of young men, al- though we must use force in taking them up, yet it being so much for their own good, and likely to be of so great advantage to the public, it is not the least doubted but that you may have such a number of them as you may think fit to make use of on this account. " I shall not need repeat any thing respect- ing the girls, not doubting to answer your ex- pectations to the full in that ■ and I think it might be of like advantage to your affJairs there, and ours here, if you should think fit to send 1500 or 2000 boys to the place above men- tioned. We can well spare them: and who knows that it may be the means of making them Englishmen, I mean rather Christians. As for the girls, I suppose you will make pro- visions of clothes, and other accommodations for them." Upon this, Thurloe informs Henry Cromwell, that the council have voted 400O girls, and as many boys, to go to Jamaica. Every Catholic priest found in Ireland was hanged, and five pounds paid to the informer. •'About the year 1652 and 1653," says Colonel Lawrence in his Interests of Ireland, " the plague and famine had so swept away whole counties, that a man might travel twenty WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 341 or thirty miles and not see a living creature, either man, or beast, or bird, — they being all dead, or had quitted those desolate places. Our soldiers would tell stories of the places where they saw smoke — it was so rare to see either smoke by day, or fire or candle by night." In this manner did the Irish live and die under Cromwell, suffering by the sword, famine, pesti- lence, and persecution, beholding the confisca- tion of a kingdom and the banishment of a race. •' So that there perished (says S. W. Petry) in the year 1641, 650,000 human beings, whose blood somebody must atone for to God and the king ! l" In the reign of Charles II., by the Act of Set- tlement, four millions and a half of acres were for ever taken from the Irish. "This country," says the Earl of Essex, lord-lieutenant in 1675, "has been perpetually rent and torn, since his majesty's restoration. I can compare it to nothing better than the flinging the reward on the death of a deer among the packs of hounds — where every one pulls and tears where he can for himself." All wool grown in Ireland was, by act of Parliament, compelled to be sold to England ; and Irish cattle were excluded from England. The English, however, were pleased to accept 30,000 head of cattle, sent as a gift from Ireland to the sufferers in the great fire ! — and the first day of the sessions, after this act of munificence, the Parliament passed fresh acts of exclusion against the productions of that country. "Among the many anomalous situations in which the Irish have been placed, by those * marriage vows, false as dicers' oaths,' which bind their country to England, the dilemma in which they found themselves at the Revolution was not the least perplexing or cruel.* If they were loyal to the king de jure, they were hanged by the king, de facto ; and if they escaped with life from the king de facto, it was but to be plundered and proscribed by the king de jure afterwards. « "Hac gener atque socer coeant mercede suorum." — Virgil. "In a manner so summary, prompt, and high-mettled, 'Twixt father and son-in-law matters were settled." " In fact, most of the outlawries in Ireland "were for treason committed the very day on which the Prince and Princess of Orange ac- cepted the crown in the banqueting-house ; though the news of this event could not possi- bly have reached the other side of the Chan- nel on the same day, and the lord-lieutenant of King James, with an army to enforce obedi- ence, was at that time in actual possession of the government, — so little was common sense consulted, or the mere decency of forms ob- served by that rapacious spirit, which nothing less than the confiscation of the whole island could satisfy ; and which having, in the reign * " Among the persons most puzzled and perplexed by the two opposite royal claims on their allegiance, were the clergymen of the established church; who, having first prayed for King James as their lawful sovereign, as soon as William was proclaimed, took to praying for him; but again, on the success of the Jacobite forces in the north, very prudently prayed for King James once more, tin the arrival of Schomberg, when, as far as his quar- ters reached, they returned to praying for King William again." of James I. and at the restoration, despoiled the natives of no less than ten millions six hundred and thirty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven acres, now added to its plunder one million sixty thousand seven hundred and ninety-two acres more, being the am.ount, alto- gether, (according to Lord Clare's calculation), of the whole superficial contents of the island. "Thus not only had all Ireland suffered con- fiscation in the course of this century, but no inconsiderable portion of it had been twice and even thrice confiscated. Well might Lord Clare say, ' that the situation of the Irish na- tion, at the revolution, stands unparalleled in the history of the inhabited world.'" — Cpp. IH —113.) By the articles of Limerick, the Irish were promised the free exercise of their religion ; but from that period till the year 1788, every year produced some fresh penalty against that religion — some liberty was abridged, some right impaired, or some suffering increased. By acts in King William's reign, they were prevented from being solicitors. No Catholic was allowed to marry a Protestant ; and any Catholic who sent a son to Catholic countries for education was to forfeit all his lands. In the reign of Queen Anne, any son of a Catho- lic who chose to turn Protestant got possession of his father's estate. No Papist was allowed to purchase freehold property, or to take a lease for more than thirty years. If a Protest- ant dies intestate, the estate is to go to the next Protestant heir, though all to the tenth generation should be Catholic. In the same manner, if a Catholic dies intestate, his estate is to go to the next Protestant. No Papist is to dwell in Limerick or Galway. No Papist is to take an annuity for life. The widow of a Papist turning Protestant to have a portion of the chattels of deceased, in spite of any will. Every Papist teaching schools to be presented as a regular Popish convict. Prices of catch- ing Catholic priests from 50s. to 10/., accord- ing to rank. Papists are to answer all ques- tions respecting other Papists, or to be com- mitted to jail for twelve months. No trust to be undertaken for Papists. No Papist to be on grand juries. Some notion may be formed of the spirit of those times, from an order of the House of Commons, " that the sergeant-at- arms should take into custody all Papists that should presume to come into the gallery .'" {Commons' Journal, vol. iii. fol. 976.) During this reign, the English Parliament legislated as absolutely for Ireland as they do now for Rutlandshire — an evil not to be complained of, if they had done it as justly. In the reign of George I. the horses of Papists were seized for the militia, and rode by Protestants; towards which the Catholics paid double, and Avere compelled to find Protestant substitutes. They were prohibited from voting at vestries, or being high or petty constables. An act of the English Parliament in this reign opens as follows : — " Whereas attempts have been lately made to shake off the subjection of Ireland to the imperial crown of these realms, be it en- acted," &c. «&c. In the reign of George IL four-sixths of the population were cut off from the rights of voting at elections, by the neces- 2f2 342 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. sity under which ihey were placed of taking the oath of supremacy. Ban-isters and soli- citors marr}'ing Catholics are exposed to all the pena.lties of Catholics. Persons robbed by privateers during a war wi^ a Catholic state, are to be indemnified by a levy on th^ Catholic inhabitants of the neighbourhood. All mar- riages between Catholics and Protestants are annulled. All Popish priests celebrating them are to be hanged. "This system" (says Ar- thur Young) " has no other tendency than that of driving out of the kingdom all the personal wealth of the Catholics, and extinguishing their industry within it ! and the face of the country, every object which presents itself to travellers, tell him how effectually this has been done." — Fowng's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii. p. 48. Such is the history of Ireland — for we are now at our own times ; and the only remain- ing question is, whether the system of improve- ment and conciliation begun in the reign of George IH. shall be pursued, and the remain- ing incapacities of the Catholics removed, or all these concessions be made insignificant by an adherence to that spirit of proscription which they professed to abolish ? Looking to the sense and reason of the thing, and to the ordinary working of humanity and justice, when assisted, as they are here, by self-interest and worldly policy, it might seem absurd to doubt of the result. But looking to the facts and the persons by which we are now sur- rounded, we are constrained to say that we greatly fear that these incapacities never will be removed, till they are removed by fear. What else, indeed, can we expect when we see them opposed by such enlightened men as Mr. Peel — faintly assisted by men of such admira- ole genius as Mr. Canning — when royal dukes consider it as a compliment to the memory of their fathers to continue this miserable system of bigotry and exclusion, — when men act igno- miniously and contemptibly on this question, who do so on no other question, — when al- most the only persons zealously opposed to this general baseness and fatuity are a few whigs and reviewers, or here and there a vir- tuous poet, liks Mr. Moore 1 We repeat again, that the measure never will be effected but by fear. In the midst of one of our just and necessary wars, the Irish Catholics will com- pel this country to grant them a great deal more than they at present require, or even contemplate. We regret most severely the protraction of the disease, and the. danger of the remedy ; — but in this way it is that human affairs are carried on ! We are sorry we have nothing for which to praise the administration on the subject of the Catholic question — but, it is but justice to say, that they have been very zealous and active in detecting fiscal abuses in Ireland, in improving mercantile regulations, and in detecting Irish jobs. The commission on which Mr. Wallace presided has been of the greatest possible utility, and does infinite credit to the govern- ment. The name of Mr. Wallace, in any com- mission, has now become a pledge to the pub- lic that there is a real intention to investigate and correct abuse. He stands in the singular^ predicament of being equally trusted by the- rulers and the ruled. It is a new era in go- vernment, when such men are called into action ; and, if there were not proclaimed and fatal limits to that ministerial liberality — which, so far as it- goes, we welcome without a grudge, and praise without a sneer — we might yet hope that, for the sake of mere consistency, they might be led to falsify our forebodings.; But alas ! there are motives more immediate,, and therefore irresistible; and the time is not yet come, when it will be believed easier to- govern Ireland by the love of the many than by the power of the few — when the paltry and dangerous machinery of bigoted faction and prostituted patronage maybe dispensed with,, and the vessel of the state be propelled by the natural current of popular interests and the breath of popular applause. In the mean time, we cannot resist the temptation of gracing; our conclusion with the following beautiful passage, in which the author alludes to thc;- hopes that were raised at another great era of partial concession and liberality — that of the revolution of 1782, — when, also, benefits were conferred which proved abortive because they were incomplete — and balm poured into the wound, where the envenomed shaft was yet left to rankle. " And here," says the gallant Captain Rock, — "as the free confession of weaknesses consti- tutes the chief charm and use of biography — I will candidly own that the dawn of prosperity and concord, which I now saw breaking over the fortunes of my country, so dazzled and de- ceived my youthful eyes, and so unsettled every hereditary notion of what I owed to my name and family, that — shall I confess it"? — I even hailed with pleasure the prospects of peace and freedom that seemed opening around me ;, nay, was ready, in the boyish enthusiasm of the moment, to sacrifice all my own personal interest in all future riots and rebellions, to the one bright, seducing object of my country's liberty and repose. " When I contemplated such a man as the venerable Charlemont, whose nobility was to the people like a fort over a valley — elevated above them solely for their defence ; who in- troduced the polish of the courtier into the camp of the freeman, and served his country with all that pure, Platonic devotion, which a true knight in the times of chivalry proffered to his mistress ; — when I listened to the elo- quence of Grattan, the very music of freedom — her first, fresh matin song, after a long night of slavery, degradation, and sorrow ; — when I saw the bright offerings which he brought to the shrine of his country, — wisdom, genius, courage, and patience, invigorated and embel- lished by all those social and domestic virtues, without which the loftiest talents stand isolated in the moral waste around them, like the pillars of Palmyra towering in a wilderness ! — when I reflected on all this, it not only disheartened me for the mission of discord which I had un- dertaken, but made me secretly hope that it might be rendered unnecessary; and that a country, which could produce such men and WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. BiS achieve such a revolution, might yet — in spite of the joint eflForts of the government and my family — take her rank in the scale of nations, and be happy ! " My father, however, who saw the momen- tary dazzle by which I was affected, soon drew me out of this false light of hope in which I lay basking, and set the truth before me in a way but too convincing and ominous. ' Be not deceived, boy,' he would say, ' by the fal- lacious appearances before you. Eminently great and good as is the man to whom Ireland owes this short era of glory, our work, believe me, will last longer than his. We have a power on our side that 'will not willingly let us die ;' and, long after Grattan shall have disappeared from earth, — like that arrow shot into the clouds by Alcestes, effecting nothing, but leaving a long train of light behind him, — the family of the Rocks will continue to flourish in all their native glory, upheld by the ever- watchful care of the legislature, and foster- ed by that 'nursing-mother of Liberty,' the Church.' " GHANBY.* [Edinburgh Review, 1826.] There is nothing more amusing in the spec- tacles of the present day, than to see the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases of the House of Com- mons struck aghast by the useful science and wise novelties of Mr. Huskisson and the chan- cellor of the exchequer. Treason, Disaffection, Atheism, Republicanism, and Socinianism — the great guns in the Noodle's park of artillery — they cannot bring to bear upon these gentle- men. Even to charge with a regiment of an- cestors is not quite so efficacious as it used to be ; and all that remains, therefore, is to rail against Peter M-CuUoch and political econo- my ! In the mean time, day after day, down goes one piece of nonsense or another. The most approved trash, and the most trusty cla- mours, are found to be utterly powerless. Two- penny taunts and trumpery truisms have lost their destructive omnipotence ; and the ex- hausted commonplace-man, and the afiiicted fool, moan over the ashes of imbecility, and strew flowers on the urn of ignorance ! Gene- ral Elliot found the London tailors in a state of mutiny, and he raised from them a regiment of light cavalry, which distinguished itself in a very striking manner at the battle of Minden. In humble imitation of this example, we shall avail ourselves of the present political disaf- fection and unsatisfactory idleness of many men of rank and consequence, to request their attention to the Novel of Granby — written, as we have heard, by a young gentleman of the name of Lister,f and from which we have de- rived a considerable deal of pleasure and en- tertainment. The main question as to a novel is — did it amuse 1 were you surprised at dinner coming so soon 1 did you mistake eleven for ten, and twelve for eleven 7 were you too late to dress 1 and did you sit up bej'ond the usual hour ] If a novel produces these effects, it is good ; if it does not — story, language, love, scandal itself, cannot save it. It is only meant to please ; and it must do that, or it does nothing. Now * Oranby. A JVooeZ in Three Volumes. London, Col- burn, 1826. + This is the gentleman who now keeps the keys of Life and Death, the Janitor of the world. Granby seems to us to answer this test ex- tremely well ; it produces unpunctuality, makes the reader too late for dinner, impatient of con- tradiction, and inattentive,^-even if a bishop is making an observation, or a gentleman lately from the Pyramids, or the Upper Cata- racts, is let loose upon the drav/ing-room. The objection, indeed, to these compositions, when they are well done, is, that it is impossible to do any thing, or perform any human duty, while we are engaged in them. Who can read Mr. Hallam's Middle Ages, or extract the root of an impossible quantity, or draw up a bond, when he is in the middle of Mr. Trebeck and Lady Charlotte Duncan 1 How can the boy's lesson be heard, about the Jove-nourished Achilles, or his six miserable verses upon Dido be corrected, when Henry Granby and Mr. Courtenay are both making love to Miss Jer- myn T Common life palls in the middle of these artificial scenes. All is emotion when the book is open — all dull, flat, and feeble when it is shut. Granby, a young man of no profession, living with an old uncle in the country, falls in love with Miss Jermyn, and Miss Jermyn with him; but Sir Thomas and Lady Jermyn, as the young gentleman is not rich, having discover- ed, by long living in the world and patient observation of its ways, that young people are commonly Malthus-proof and have children, and that young and old must eat, very naturally do what they can to discourage the union. The young people, however, both go to town — meet at balls — flutter, blush, look and cannot speak — speak and cannot look, — suspect, misinter- 4 pret, are sad and mad, peevish and jealous, fond and foolish ; but the passion, after all, ¥ seems less near to its accomplishment at the end of the season than the beginning. The uncle of Granby, however, dies, and leaves to his nephew a statement accompanied with the requisite proofs — that Mr. Tyrrel, the supposed son of Lord Malton, is illegitimate, and that he, Granby, is the heir to Lord Malton's for- tune. The second volume is now far advanced, and it is time for Lord Malton to die. Accord- ingly Mr. Lister very judiciously despatches »i4 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. liim; Granby inherits the estate — his virtues (for what shows off virtue like land?) are discovered by the Jermyns — and they marry in the last act. Upon this slender story, the author has suc- ceeded in making a very agreeable and inte- resting novel ; and he has succeeded, we think, chiefly, by the very easy and natural picture of manners, as they really exist among the upper classes ; by the description of new cha- racters judiciously drawn and faithfully pre- served ; and by the introduction of many strik- ing and well-managed incidents ; and we are particularly struck throughout the whole with the discretion and good sense of the author. He is never nimious ; there is nothing in ex- cess ; there is a good deal of fancy and a great deal of spirit at work, but a directing and superintending judgment rarely quits him. We would instance, as a proof of his tact and talent, the visit at Lord Daventry's, and the description of characters of which the party is composed. There are absolutely no events ; nobody runs away, goes mad, or dies. There is little of love, or of hatred ; no great passion comes into play ; but nothing can be farther removed from dulness and insipidity. Who has ever lived in the world without often meeting the Miss Cliftons ? " The Miss Cliftons were good-humoured girls ; not handsome, but of pleasing manners, and sufficiently clever to keep up the ball of conversation very agreeably for an occasional half hour. They were always au courant du jour, and knew and saw the first of every thing — were in the earliest confidence of many a bride elect, and could frequently tell that a marriage was ' off"' long after it had been an- nounced as 'on the tapis' in the morning papers — always knew something of the new- opera, or the new Scotch novel, before any body else did — were the first who made fizgigs, or acted charades — contrived to have private views of most exhibitions, and were supposed to have led the fashionable throng to the Caledonian Chapel, Cross Street, Hatton Gar- den. Their emplcry-ments were like those of most other girls; they sang, played, drew, rode, read occasionally, spoiled much muslin, manufactured purses, handscreens, and reti- cules for a repository, and transcribed a con- siderable quantity of music out of large fair print into diminutive manuscript " Miss Clifton was clever and accomplished; rather cold, but very conversable ; collected seals, franks, and anecdotes of the day; and was a greater retailer of the latter. Anne was odd and entertaining; was a formidable quiz- zer, and no mean caricaturist; liked fun in most shapes; and next to making people laugh, had rather they stared at what she said. Maria was the echo of the other two : vouched for all Miss Clifton's anecdotes, and led the laugh at Anne's repartees. They were plain, and they knew it ; and cared less about it than young ladies usually do. Their plainness, however, would have been less striking, but for that hard, pale, par-boiled town look, — that stamp of fashion, with which late hours and hoi rooms generally endow the female face." —(pp. 103—105.) I Having introduced our reader to the Miss Cliftons, we must make him acquainted with Mr. Trebeck, one of those universally appear- ing gentlemen and tremendous table tyrants, by whom London society is so frequently go- verned : — " Mr. Trebeck had great powers of enter- tainment, and a keen and lively turn for satire; and could talk down his superiors, whether in rank or talent, with very imposing confidence. He saw the advantages of being formidable, and observed with derision how those whose malignity he pampered with ridicule of others, vainly thought to purchase by subserviency exemption for themselves. He had sounded the gullibility of the world ; knew the precise current value of pretension ; and soon found himself the acknowledged umpire, the last appeal, of many conteuted followers. "He seldom committed himself by praise or recommendation, but rather left his example and adoption to work its way. As for censure he had both ample and witty store ; but here too he often husbanded his remarks, and where • it was needless or dangerous to define a fault, could check admiration by an incredulous smile, and depress pretensions of a season's standing by the raising of an eyebrow. He bad a quick perception of the foibles of others, and a keen relish for bantering and exposing them. No keeper of a menagerie could better show off" a monkey than he could an ' original.' He could ingeniously cause the unconscious subject to place his own absurdities in the best point of view, and would cloak his deri- sion under the blandest cajolery. Lnitators he loved much; but to bafile them — more. He loved to turn upon the luckless adopters of his last folly, and see them precipitately back out of the scrape into which himself had led them. " In the art of cutting he shone unrivalled : he knew the ' when,' the ' where,' and the ' how.' Without aff"ecting useless short-sight- edness, he could assume that calm but wan- dering gaze which veers, as if unconsciously, round the proscribed individual ; neither fix- ing, nor to be fixed; not looking on vacancy, nor on anyone object; neither occupied nor abstracted ; a look which perhaps excuses you to the person cut, and, at any rate, prevents him from accosting you. Originality was his idol. He wished to astonish, even if he did not amuse ; and had rather say a silly thing than a commonplace one. He was led by this sometimes even to approach the verge of rudeness and vulgarity; but he had consider- able tact, and a happy hardihood, which gene- rally carried him through the difficulties into which his fearless love of originality brought him. Indeed, he well knew that what would, in the present condition of his reputation, be scouted in any body else, would pass current with the world in him. Such was the far- famed and redoubtable Mr. Trebeck." — (pp. 109—112.) This sketch we think exceedingly clever. But we are not sure that its merit is fully sus- tained by the actual presentment of its subject. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 345 He makes his debut at dinner very character- istically, by gliding in quietly after it is half over; but in the dialogue which follows with Miss Jermyn, he seems to us a little too reso- lutely witty, and- somewhat affectedly odd — though the whole scene is executed with spirit and talent. " The duke had been discoursing on cookery, when Mr. Trebeck turned to her, and asked in •a low tone if she had ever met the duke before — ' I assure you,' said he, ' that upon that sub- ject he is well worth attending to. He is sup- posed to possess more true science than any amateur of his day. By the bye, what is the dish before you ■? It looks well, and I see you are eating some of it. Let me recommend it to him upon your authority ; I dare not upon my own.' — ' Then pray do not use mine.' — ' Yes, I will, with your permission ; I'll tell him you thought, by what dropped from him in conversation, that it would exactly suit the genius of his taste. Shall I ? Yes. — Duke,' (raising his voice a little, and speaking across the table,) — ' Oh, no ! how can youV — 'Why not? — Duke,' (with a glance at Caroline,) ' will you allow me to take wine with you V — ' I thought,' said she, relieved from her trepida- tion, and laughing slightly, ' you would never say any thing so veiy strange.' — ' You have too good an opinion of me ; I blush for my un- worthiness. But confess, that in fact you were rather alanned at the idea of being held up to such a critic as the recommender of a bad dish.' — ' Oh, no, I was not thinking of that ; but I hardly know the duke : and it would have seemed so odd; and perhaps he might have thought that I had really told you to say something of that kind.' — ' Of course he would; but you must not suppose that he would have been at all surprised at it. I'm afraid you are not aware of the full extent of your privileges, and are not conscious how many things young ladies can, and may, and will do.' — ' Indeed I am not — perhaps you will instruct me.' — 'Ah, I never do that for any body. I like to see young ladies instruct themselves. It is better for them, and much more amusing to me. But, however, for once I will venture *to tell you, that a very competent knowledge of the duties of women may, with proper attention, be picked up in a ball room.' — ' Then I hope,' said she, laughing, ' you will attribute my defi- ciency to my little experience of ball. I have only been at two.' — ' Only two ! and one of them I suppose a race ball. Then you have not yet experienced any of the pleasures of a London season? Never had the dear delight of seeing and being seen, in a well of tall people at a rout, or passed a pleasant hour at a ball upon a staircase 1 I envy you. You have much to enjoy.' — ' You do not mean that I really have V — ' Yes — really. But let me give you a caution or two. Never dance with any man without first knowing his character and condition, on the word of two credible chaperons. At balls, too, consider what you come for — to dance of course, and not to con- verse ; therefore, never talk yourself, nor encourage it in others.' — ' I'm afraid I can only answer for myself.' — ' Why, if foolish, w-ell- . meaning people will choose to be entertaining, 44 I question if you have the power of frowning them down in a very forbidden manner : but I would give them no countenance neverthe- less.' — ' Your advice seems a little ironical.' — ' Oh, you may either follow it or reverse it — that is its chief beauty. It is equally good ' taken either way.' — After a slight pause, be continued — ' I hope you do not sing, or play, or draw, or do any thing that every body else does.' — ' I am obliged to confess that I do a little — very little — in each.' — 'I understand ^ your " very little :" I'm afraid you are accom- plished.' — ' You need have no fear of that. * But why are you an enemy to all accomplish- ments V — ' All accomplishments 1 Nay, surely, you do not think me an enemy to all? What can )'^ou possibly take me for V — ' I do not know,' said she, laughing slightly. — 'Yes, I see you do not know exactly what to make of me — and you are not without your apprehensions. I can perceive that, though you try to conceal them. — But never mind. I am a safe person to sit near — sometimes. I am to-day. This is ■ one of my lucid intervals. I'm much better, thanks to my keeper. There he is, on the other side of the table — the tall man in black,' (pointing out Mr. Bennet,) 'a highly respect- able kind of person. I came with him here for change of air. How do you think I look at present?' — Caroline could not answer him for laughing. — ' Nay,' said he, 'it is cruel to laugh on such a subject. It is very hard that you should do that, and misrepresent my meaning too.' — 'Well then,' said Caroline, resuming a respectable portion of gravity; ' that I may not be guilty of that again, what accomplishments do you allow to be tolerable?' — ' Let me see,' said he, with a look of consi- deration ; ' you may play a waltz with one hand, and dance as little as you think conve- nient. You may draw caricatures of your intimate friends. You may not sing a note of Rossini; nor sketch gateposts and donkeys after nature. You may sit to a harp, but you need not play it. You must not paint minia- tures nor copy Swiss costumes. But you may manufacture any thing — from a cap down to a pair of shoes — always remembering that the less useful your work the better. Can you remember all this ?' — ' I do not know,' said she, ' it comprehends so much ; and I am rather puzzled between the "mays" and "must nots." However, it seems, according to your code, that very little is to be required of me ; for you have not mentioned any thing that I positively must do' — ' Ah, well, I can reduce all to a very small compass. You must be an archeress in the summer, and a skater in the winter, and play well at billiards all the year ; and if you do these extremely well, my admira- tion will have no bounds.' — ' I believe I must forfeit all claim to your admiration then, for unfortunately I am not so gifted.' — ' Then you must place it to the account of your other gifts.' — ' Certainly — when it comes.' — ' Oh it is sure to come, as you well know : but, never- theless, I like that incredulous look extremely.' —He then turned away, thinking probably that he had -paid her the compliment of suffi- cient attention, and began a conversation with the duchess, which was carried on in such a 346 WORKS OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH. Avell-regulated under tone, as to be perfectly inaudible to any but themselves." — (pp. 92 — 99.) The bustling importance of Sir Thomas Jermyn, the fat duke and his right hand man, the blunt toad-eater, Mr. Charlecote, a loud noisy sportsman, and Lady Jermyn's worldly prudence, are all displayed and managed with considerable skill and great power of amusing. One little sin against good taste, our author sometimes commits — an error from Avhich Sir Walter Scott is not exempt. We mean the humour of giving characteristic names to per- sons and places; for instance. Sir Thomas Jermyn is Member of Parliament for the town of Rottenborough. This very easy and appel- lative jocularity seems to us, we confess, to savour a little of vulgarity; and is therefore quite as unworthy of Mr. Lister, as Dr. Dryas- dust is of Sir Walter Scott. The plainest names which can be found (Smith, Thomson, Johnson, and Simson, always excepted) are the best for novels. Lord Chesterton we have often met with ; and suffered a good deal from his lordship : a heavy, pompous, meddling peer, occupying a great share of the conversa- tion — saying things in ten words which re- quired only two, and evidently convinced that he is making a great impression ; a large man, with a large head, and very landed manner; knowing enough to torment his fellow-crea- tures, not to instruct them — the ridicule of young ladies, and the natural butt and target of wit. It is easy to talk of carnivorous ani- mals and beasts of prey ; but does such a man, who lays waste a whole party of civilized beings by prosing, reflect upon the joy he spoils, and the misery he creates, in the course of his life'? and that any one who listens to him through politeness, would prefer tooth- ache or earache to his conversation T Does he consider the extreme uneasiness which ensues, when the company have discovered a man to be an extremely absurd person, at the same time that it is absolutely impossible to convey, by words or manner, the most distant suspicion of the discovery 1 And then, who punishes this bore 1 What sessions and what assizes for him 1 What bill is found against him? Who indicts him? When the judges have gone their vernal and autumnal rounds — the sheep-stealer disappears — the swindler gets ready for the Bay — the solid parts of the murderer are preserved in anatomical collec- tions. But, after twenty years of crime, the bore is discovered in the same house, in the same attitude, eating the same soup, — unpu- nished, untried, undissected — no scaffold, no skeleton — no mob of gentlemen and ladies to gape over his last dying speech and confes- sion. The scene of quizzing the country neigh- bours is well imagined, and not ill executed ; though there are many more fortunate pas- sages in the book. The elderly widows of the metropolis beg, through us, to return their thanks to Mr. Lister for the following agree- able portrait of Mrs. Dormer. " It would be difhcult to find a more pleasing example than Mrs. Dormer, of that much libelled class of elderly ladies of the world. who are presumed to be happy only at the card table ; to grow in bitterness as they advanced in years, and to haunt, like restless ghosts, those busy circles which they no longer either enliven or adorn. Such there may be ; but of these she was not one. She was the frequenter of sooiety, but not its slave. She had great natural benevolence of disposi- tion ; a friendly vivacity of manners, which endeared her to the young, and a steady good sense, which commanded the respect of her contemporaries ; and many, who did not agree with her on particular points, were willing to allow that there was a good deal of reason in Mrs. Dormer's prejudices. She was, perhaps, a little blind to the faults of her friends ; a defect of which the world could not cure her; but she was very kind to their virtues. She ^vas fond of young people, and had an unimpaired gaiety about her, which seemed to expand in the contact with them ; and she was anxious to promote, for their sake, even those amuse- ments for which she had lost all taste herself. She was — but after all, she will be best de- scribed by negatives. She was not a match- maker, or mischief-maker; nor did she plume herself upon her charity, in implicitly believ- ing only just half of what the world says. She was no retailer of scandalous 'on dits.' She did not combat wrinkles with rouge ; nor did she labour to render years less respected by a miserable affectation of girlish fashions. She did not stickle for the inviolable exclusive- ness of certain sects ; nor was she afraid of being known to visit a friend in an unfashion- able quarter of the town. She was no wor- shipper of mere rank. She did not patronize oddities; hor sanction those who delight in braving the rules of common decency. She did not evince her sense of propriety, by shaking hands with the recent defendant in a crim. con. cause ; nor exhale her devotion in Sunday routs."— (pp. 243, 244.) Mrs. Clotworthy, we are afraid, will not be quite so well pleased with the description of her rout. Mrs. Clotworthy is one of those ladies who have ices, fiddlers, and fine rooms, but no fine friends. But fine friends may always be had, where there are ices, fiddlers, and fine rooms : and so, with ten or a dozen stars and an Oonalaska chief; and, followed by all vicious and salient London, Mrs. Clot- worthy takes the field. " The poor woman seemed half dead with fatigue already ; and we cannot venture to say whether the prospect of five hours more of this high-wrought enjoyment tended much to- brace her to the task. It was a brilliant sight, and an interesting one, if it could have been viewed from some fair vantage ground, with ample space, in coolness and in quiet. Rank, beauty, and splendour, were richly blended. The gay attire ; the glittering jewels ; the more resplendent features they adorned, and too frequently the rouged cheek of the sexage- narian ; the vigilant chaperon ; the fair but languid form which she conducted ; well curled heads, well propped with starch ; well whis- kered guardsmen; and here and there fat, good- humoured, elderly gentlemen, with stars upon WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 347 their coats ; — all these united in one close medley — a ctirious piece of living mosaic. Most of them came to see and be seen ; some of the most youthful professedly to dance ; yet how could they 1 at any rate they tried. — They stood, if they could, with their vis-a-vis facing them,^ — and sidled across — and back again, and made one step — or two if there was room, to the right or left, and joined hands, and set — perhaps, and turned their partners, or dispensed with it if necessary — and so on to the end of ' La Finale ;' and then comes a waltz for the few who choose it — and then another squeezy quadrille — and so on — and on, till the weary many 'leave ample room and verge enough' for the persevering few to figure ■ in with greater freedom. " But then they talk ; oh ! ay ! true, we must not forget the charms of conversation. And what passes between nine-tenths of them ! Remarks on the heat of the room ; the state of the crowd; the impossibility of dancing, and the propriety nevertheless of attempting it ; that on last Wednesday was a bad Almack's, and on Thursday a worse Opera ; that the new ballet is supposed to be good ; mutual inquiries how they like Pasta, or Catalani, or whoever the syren of the day may be ; whether they have been at Lady A.'s, and whether they are going to Mrs. B.'s ; whether they think Miss Such-a-one handsome ! and what is the name of the gentleman talking to her ; whether Ros- sini's music makes the best quadrilles, and whether Collinet's band are the best to play them. There are many who pay in better coin; but the small change is much of this description."— (L 249—251.) We consider the following description of London, as it appears to a person walking home after a rout, at four or five o'clock in the morning, to be as poetical as any thing written on the forests of Guiana, or the falls of Niagara: — " Granby followed them with his eyes ; and now, too full of happiness to be accessible to any feelings of jealousy or repining, after a short reverie of the purest satisfaction, he left the ball, and sallied out into the fresh cool air of a summer morning — suddenly passing from the red glare of lamp-light, to the clear sober brightness of returning day. He walked cheer- fully onward, refreshed and exhilarated by the air of morning, and interested with the scene around him. It was broad day-light, and he viewed the town under an aspect in which it is alike presented to the late retiring votary of pleasure, and to the early rising sons of husiness. He stopped .on the 'pavement of Oxford street, to contemplate the effect. The whole extent of that long vista, unclouded by the mid-day smoke, was distinctly visible to his eye at once. The houses shrunk to half their span, while the few visible spires of the adjacent churches seemed to rise less distant than before, gaily tipped with early sunshine, and much diminished in apparent size, but heightened in distinctness and in beauty. Had it not been for the cool gray tint which slightly mingled with every object, the brightness was almost that of noon. But the life, the bustle the busy din, the flowing tide of human exist- ence, were all wanting to complete the simili- tude. All was hushed and silent; and this mighty receptacle of human beings, which a few short hours would wake into active energy and motion, seemed like a city of the dead. " There was little to break this solemn illu- sion. Around were the monuments of human exertion, but the hands which formed them were no longer there. Few, if any, were the ^~ symptoms of life. No sounds were heard but the heavy creaking of a solitary wagon ; the twittering of an occasional sparrow ; the mo- notonous tone of the drowsy watchman ; and the distant rattle of the retiring carriage, fading on the ear till it melted into silence : and the eye that searched for living objects fell on nothing but the grim great-coated guardian of the night, muffled up into an appearance of doubtful character between bear and man, and scarcely distinguishable, by the colour of his dress, from the brown flags along which he sauntered."— (pp. 297—299.) One of the most prominent characters of the book, and the best drawn, is that of Tyrrel, son of Lord Malton, a noble blackleg, a titled gamester, and a profound plotting villain — a man, in comparison of whom, nine-tenths of the persons hung in Newgate are pure and per- fect. The profound dissimulation and wicked artifices of this diabolical person are painted with great energy and power of description. The party at whist made to take in Granby is very good, and that part of the story where Granby compels Tyrrel to refund what he has won of Courtenay is of first-rate dramatic ex- cellence; and if any one wishes for a short and convincing proof of the powers of the writer of this novel — to that scene we refer him. It shall be the taster of the cheese, and we are convinced it will sell the whole article. We are so much struck with it, that we advise the author to consider seriously whether he could not write a good play. It is many years since a good play has been written. It is about time, judging from the common economy of nature, that a good dramatic writer should ap- pear. We promise Mr. Lister sincerely, that the Edinburgh Review shall rapidly undeceive him if he mistakes his talents ; and that his delusion shall not last beyond the first tragedy or comedy. The picture at the exhibition is extremely well managed, and all the various love-tricks of attempting to appear indifferent, are, as well as we can remember, from the life. But it is thirty or forty years since we have been in love. The horror of an affectionate and dexterous mamma is a handsome young man without money : and the following lecture deserves to be committed to memory by all managing mothers, and repeated at proper intervals to the female progeny. " ' True, my love, but understand me. I don't wish you positively to avoid him. I would not go away, for instance, if I saw him coming, or even turn my head that I might not see him as he passed. That would be too broad and marked. People might notice it. It would , 348 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. look particular. We should never do any thing that looks particular. No, I would answer him civilly and composedly whenever he spoke to me, and then pass on, just as you might in the case of any body else. But I leave all this to your own tact and discretion, of which nobody has more for her age. I am sure you can enter into all these niceties, and that m)^ obser- vations will not be lost upon you. And now, my love, let me mention another thing. You must get over that little embarrassment which I see you show whenever you meet him. It was very natural and excusable the first time, consideringourlongacquaintance with him and the General: but we must make our conduct conform to circumstances ; so try to get the bet- ter of this little flutter : it does not look well, and might be observed. There is no quality more valuable in a young person than self-posses- sion. So you must keep down these blushes,' said she, patting her on the cheek, ' or I believe I must rouge you: — though it would be a thousand pities, with the pretty natural colour you have. But you must remember what I have been saying. Be more composed in your behaviour. Try to adopt the manner which I do. It may be difficult ; but you see I con- trive it, and I have known Mr. Granby a great deal longer than you have, Caroline.' " — (pp. 21, 22.) These principles are of the highest practical importance in an age when the art of manying daughters is carried to the highest pitch of excellence, when love must be made to the young men of fortune, not only by the young lady, who must appear to be dying for him, but by the father, mother, aunts, cousins, tutor, gamekeeper, and stable-boy — assisted by the parson of the parish, and the churchwardens. If any of these fail, Dives pouts, and the match is off. The merit of this writer is, that he catches delicate portraits, which a less skilful artist would pass over, from not thinking the fea- tures sufficiently marked. We are struck, however, with the resemblance, and are pleased with the conquest of difficulties — we remem- ber to have seen such faces, and are sensible that they form an agreeable variety to the ex- pression of more marked and decided cha- racter. Nobody, for instance, can deny that he is acquainted with Miss Darrell. " Miss Darrell was not strictly a beauty. She had not, as was frequently observed by her female friends, and unwillingly admitted by her male admirers, a single truly good feature in her face. But who could quarrel with the tout ensemble? who but must be dazzled with the graceful animation with which those fea- tures were lighted up 1 Let critics hesitate to pronounce her beautiful ; at any rate thej' must allow her to be fascinating. Place a perfect stranger in a crowded assembly, and she would first attract his eye ; correcter beau- ties would pass unnoticed, and his first atten- tion would be riveted by her. She was all brilliancy and eflfect ; but it were hard to say she studied it; so little did her spontaneous, airy graces convey the impression of premedi- tated practice. She was a sparkling tissue of little affectations, which, however, appeared so interwoven with herself, that their seeming artlessness disarmed one's censure. Strip them away, and you destroyed at once the brilliant being that so much attracted you ; and it thus became difficult to condemn what yea felt unable, and, indeed, unwilling, to remove. With positive affectation, malevolence itself could rarely charge her ; and prudish censure seldom exceeded the guarded limits of a dry remark, that Miss Darrell had ' a good deal of manner.' " Eclat she sought and gained. Indeed, she was both formed to gain it, and disposed to desire it. But she required an extensive sphere. A ball-room was her true arena; for she waltz- ed ' a ravir,' and could talk enchantingly about nothing. ■ She was devoted to fashion, and all its fickleness, and went to the extreme when- ever she could do so consistently with grace. But she aspired to be a leader as well as a fol- lower ; seldom, if ever, adopted a mode that was unbecoming to herself, and dressed to suit the genius of her face." — (pp. 28, 29.) Tremendous is the power of a novelist ! If four or five men are in a room, and show a disposition to break the peace, no human ma- gistrate (not even Mr. Justice Bayley) could do more than bind them over to keep the peace, and commit them if they refused. But the writer of the novel stands with a pen in his hand, and can run any of them through the body, — can knock down any one individual, and keep the others upon their legs ; or, like the last scene in the first tragedy written by a young man of genius, can put them all to death. Now, an author possessing such ex- traordinary privileges, should not have allowed Mr. Tyrrel to strike Granby. This is ill-ma- naged ; particularly as Granby does not return the blow, or turn him out of the house. Nobody should suffer his hero to have a black eye, or to be pulled by the nose. The Iliad would never have come down to these times if Aga- memnon had given Achilles a box on the ear. We should have trembled for the ^neid, if any Tyrian nobleman had kicked the pious ^neas in the 4th book, ^neas may have de- served it ; but he could not have founded the Roman empire after so distressing an accident. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 349 ISLAND OF CEYLON; [Edinburgh Review, 1803.] It is now little more than half a century since the Englishfirst began to establish them- selves in any force upon the peninsula of India; and we at present possess in that coun- try a more extensive territory, and a more nu- merous population, than any European power can boast of at home. In no instance has the gen*ius of the English, and their courage, shone forth more conspicuously than in their contest with the French for the empire of India. The numbers on both sides were always inconsider- able ; but the two nations were fairly matched against each other, in the cabinet and in the field ; the struggle was long and obstinate ; and, at the conclusion, the French remained mas- ters of a dismantled town, and the English of the grandest and most extensive colony that the world has ever seen. To attribute this success to the superior genius of Clive, is not to diminish the reputation it confers on his harbour. For it is a very singular fact, that, in the whole peninsula of India, Bombay is alone capable of affording a safe retreat to ships during the period of the monsoons. The geographical figure of our possessions in Ceylon is whimsical enough : we possess the whole of the sea-coast, and enclose in a pe- riphery the unfortunate King of Candia, whose rugged and mountainous dominions may be compared to a coarse mass of iron, set in a circle of silver. The Popilian ring, in which this votary of Buddha has been so long held by the Portriguese and Dutch, has infused the most vigilant jealousy into the government, and rendered it as difficult to enter the king- dom of Candia, as if it were Paradise or China ; and yet, once there, always there ; for the dif- ficulty of departing is just as great as the diffi- culty of arriving; and his Can dian excellency, who has used every device in his power to country, which reputation must of course be i keep them out, is seized with such an affection elevated by the number of great men to which it gives birth. But the French were b)'' no means deficient in casualties of genius at that period, unless Bussy is to be considered as a man of common stature of mind, or Dupleix to be classed with the vulgar herd of politicians. Neither was Clive (though he clearly stands forward as the most prominent figure in the for those who baffle his defensive artifices, that he can on no account suffer them to de- part. He has been known to detain a string of four or five Dutch embassies, till various members of the legation died of old age at his court, while they were expecting an answer to their questions, and a return to their presents :* and his majesty once exasperated a little rroup) without the aid of some military men French ambassador to such a degree, by the of very considerable talents. Clive extended 1 various pretences under which he kept him at our Indian empire ; but General Lawrence I his court, that this lively member of the corps preserved it to be extended; and the former caught, perhaps, from the latter, that military spirit by which he soon became a greater soldier than him, without whom he never would have been a soldier at all. Gratifying as these reflections upon our prowess in India are to national pride, they brinsT Avith them the painful reflection, that so diplomatique, one day, in a furious passion, attacked six or seven of his majesty's largest elephants sword in hand, and would, in all probability, have reduced them to mince-meat, if the poor beasts had not been saved from the unequal combat. The best and most ample account of Ceylon is contained in the narrative of Robert Knox, considerable a portion of our strength and ] Avho, in the middle of the 17th century, was wealth is vested upon such precarious founda- taken prisoner there (while refitting his ship) tions, and at such an immense distance from at the age of nineteen, and remained nineteen the parent country. The glittering fragments i years on the island, in slavery to the King of of the Portuguese empire, scattered up and down the East, should teach us the instability of such dominion. We are (it is true) better capable of preserving what we have obtained, than any other nation which has ever colonized in Southern Asia : but the object of ambition is so tempting, and the perils to which it is exposed so numerous, that no calculating mind can found any durable conclusions upon this branch of our commerce, and this source of oirt- strength. In the acquisition of Ceylon, we have ob- tained the greatest of all our wants — a good * jJn Account of the Island of Ceylon. By Robert Percival. Esq., of his Majesty's Nineteenth Regiment of Foot. London, C. and R. Baldwin. Candia. During this period, he learnt the language, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the people. The account he has given of them is extremely entertaining, and written in ' a veiy simple and unaffected style ; so much so, indeed, that he presents his reader with a very grave account of the noise the devil makes in the woods of Candia, and of the fre- quent opportunities he has had of hearing him. Mr. Percival does not pretend to deal with the devil ; but appears to have used the fair and natural resources of observation and good sense, to put together an interesting description of Ceylon. There is nothing in the book very animated, or very profound, but it is without * Knox's Ceylon. 2G 350 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. pretensions ; and if it does not excite attention by any unusual powers of description, it never disgusts by credulity, wearies by prolixity, or offends by affectation. It is such an account as a plain military man of diligence and com- mon sense might be expected to compose ; and narratives like these we must not despise. To military men we have been, and must be, in- debted for our first acquaintance with the inte- rior of many countries. Conquest has explored more than ever curiosity has done ; and the path for science has been commonly opened by the sword. We shall proceed to give a very summary abstract of the principal contents of Mr. Per- cival's book. The immense accessions of territory which the English have acquired in the East Indies since the American war, rendered it absolutely necessary, that some effort should be made to obtain possession of a station where ships might remain in safety during the violent storms in- cidental to that climate. As the whole of that large tract which we possess along the Coro- mandel coast presents nothing but open roads, all vessels are obliged, on the approach of the monsoons, to stand out in the open seas ; and there are many parts of the coast that can be approached only during a "few months of the year. As the harbour of Trincomalee, which is equally secure at all seasons, afforded the means of obviating these disadvantages, it is evident that, on the first rupture with the Dutch, our countrymen would attempt to gain posses- sion of it. A body of troops was, in conse- quence, detached in the year 1795, for the conquest of Ceylon, which (in consequence of the indiscipline which political dissension had introduced among the Dutch troops) was effected almost without opposition. Ceylon is now inhabited by the English ; the remains of the Dutch, and Portuguese, the Cinglese or natives, subject to the dominion of the Europeans ; the Candians, subject to the king of their own name ; and the Vaddahs, or "wild men, subject to no power. A Ceylonese Dutchman is a course, grotesque species of animal, whose native apathy and phlegm is animated only by the insolence of a colonial tyrant; his principal amusement appears to consist in smoking; but his pipe, according to Mr. Percival's account, is so seldom out of his mouth, that his smoking appears to be almost as much a necessary function of animal life as his breathing. His day is eked out with gin, ceremonious visits, and prodigious quantities of gross food, dripping with oil and butter; his mind, just able to reach from one meal to another, is incapableof farther exertion ; and, after the pant- ing and deglutition of a long protracted dinner, reposes on the sweet expeciation that, in a few hours, the carnivorous toil will be renewed. He lives only to digest, and, while the organs of gluttony perform their office, he has not a wish beyond ; and is the happy man which Horace describes: — in scipso iotus, teres, atque rotuudiis. The descendants of the Portuguese differ materially from the Moors, Malabars, and other Mahometans. Their great object is to show the world they are Europeans and Christians. Unfortunately, their ideas of Christianity are so imperfect, that the only mode they can hit upon of displaying their faith, is by wearing hats and breeches, and by these habiliments they con- sider themselves as showing a proper degree of contempt, on various parts of the body, to- wards Mahomet and Buddha. They are lazy, treacherous, effeminate, and passionate to ex- cess ; and are, in fact, a locomotive and ani- mated farrago of the bad qualities of all tongues, people, and nations,* on the face of the earth. The Malays, whom we forgot before to enu- merate, form a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of Ceylon. Their original em- pire lies in the peninsula of Malacca, from whence they have extended themselves ovfer Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, and a vast num- ber of other islands in the peninsula of India. It has been many years customary for the Dutch to bring them to Ceylon, for the purpose of carrying on various branches of trade and manufacture, and in order also to employ them as soldiers and servants. The Malays are the most vindictive and ferocious of living beings. They set little or no value on their own exist- ence, in the prosecution of their odious pas- sions ; and having thus broken the great tie which renders man a being capable of being governed, and fit for society, they are a constant source of terror to all those who have any kind of connection or relation with them. A Malay servant, from the apprehension excited by his vindictive disposition, often becomes the master of his master. It is as dangerous to dismiss him as to punish him; and the rightful despot, in order to avoid assassination, is almost compelled to exchange characters with his slave. It is singular, however, that the Malay, incapable of submission on any other occasion, and ever ready to avenge in- sult with death, submits to the severest military discipline with the utmost resignation and meekness. The truth is, obedience to his offi- cers forms part of his religious creed ; and the same man who would repay the most in- significant insult with death, will submit to be lacerated at the halbert with the patience of a martyr. This is truly a tremendous people ! When assassins and blood-hounds will fall into rank and file, and the most furious savages submit (with no diminution of their ferocity) to the science and discipline of war, they only want a Malay Bonaparte to lead them to the conquest of the world. Our curiosity has al- ways been very highly excited by the accounts of this singular people; and we cannot help thinking, that, one day or another, when they are more full of opium than usual, they tnii run a muck from Cape Comorin to the Caspian. Mr. Percival does not consider the Ceylonese as descended from the continentals of the peninsula, but rather from the inhabitants of the Maldive Islands, whom they very much resemble in complexion, features, language, and manners. ''The Ceylonese (says Mr. Percival) are courteous and polite in their demeanour, even to a degree far exceeding their civilization. In several qualities they are greatly superior to WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 351 all other Indians who have fallen within the sphere of my observation. I have already ex- empted them from the censure of stealing and lying, which seem to be almost inherent in the nature of an Indian. They are mild, and by no means captious or passionate in their in- tercourse with each other; though, when once their anger is roused, it is proportionably fu- rious and lasting. Their hatred is indeed mortal, and they will frequently destroy them- selves to obtain the destruction of the detested object. One instance will serve to show the extent to which this passion is carried. If a Ceylonese cannot obtain money due to him by another, he goes to his debtor, and threatens to kill himself if he is not instantly paid. This threat, which is sometimes put in execution, reduces the debtor, if it be in his power, to immediate compliance with the demand: as, by their law, if any man causes the loss of another man's life, his own is the forfeit. ' An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' is a pro- verbial expression continually in their mouths. This is, on other occasions, a very common mode of revenge among them ; and a Cey- lonese has often been known to contrive to kill himself in the company of his enemy, that the latter might sutler for it. " This dreadful spirit of revenge, so incon- sistent wifh the usually mild and humane sen- timents of the Ceylonese, and much more con- genial to the bloody temper of a Malay, still continues to be fostered by the sacred cus- toms of the Candians. Among the Cinglese, however, it has been greatly mitigated by their intercourse with Europeans. The despe- rate mode of obtaining revenge which I have just described, has been given up, from having been disappointed of its object ; as, in all those parts under our dominion, the European modes of investigating and punishing crimes are en- forced. A case of this nature occurred at Caltura in 1799. A Cinglese peasant hap- pening to have a suit or controversy with an- other, watched an opportunity of going to bathe in company with him, and drowned himself, with the view of having his adversary put to death. The latter was upon this taken up, and sent to Columbo -to take his trial for making away with the deceased, upon the principle of having been the last seen in his company. There was, however, nothing more than pre- sumptive proof against the culprit, and he was of course acquitted. This decision, however, did not by any means tally with the sentiments of the Cinglese, who are as much inclined to continue their ancient barbarous practice, as their brethren the Candians, although they are deprived of the power." — (pp. 70 — 72.) The warlike habits of the Candians make them look with contempt on the Cinglese, who are almost entirely unacquainted with the management of arms. They have the habit and character of mountaineers — Avarlike, hardy, enterprising, and obstinate. They have, at various times, proved themselves very formi- dable enemies to the Dutch; and in that kind of desultory warfare, which is the only one their rugged country will admit of, have cut off large parties of the troops of both these nations. The King of Candia, as we have be- fore mentioned, possesses only the middle of the island, which nature, and his Candian ma- jesty, have rendered as inaccessible as possi- ble. It is traversable only by narrow wood- paths, known to nobody but the ''natives, strictly watched in peace and war, and where the best troops in the world might be shot in any quantities by the Candian marksmen, without the smallest possibility of resisting their enemies ; because there would not be the smallest possibility of finding them. The King of Candia is of course despotic ; and the his- tory of his life and reign presents the same monotonous ostentation, and baby-like caprice, which characterize oriental governments. In public audiences he appears like a great fool, squatting on his hams ; far surpassing ginger- bread in splendour ; and, after asking some such idiotical question, as whether Europe is in Asia or Africa, retires with a flourish of trumpets very much out of tune. For his pri- vate amusements, he rides on the nose of an elephant, plays with his jewels, sprinkles his courtiers with rose-water, and feeds his gold and silver fish. If his tea is not sweet enough, he impales his footman ; and smites off the heads of half a dozen of his noblemen, if he has a pain in his own. — iLa-TTsg yctg (says Aristotle) Ts^a^flsi' /Ssxt/o-tov tw ^ii^ia-Tov TTsLvrmv. Polit. The only exportable articles of any import- ance which Ceylon produces, are pearls, cinna- mon, and elephants. Mr. Percival has pre- sented us with an extremely interesting account of the pearl fishery, held in Condatchy Bite, near the island of Manaar, in the straits which separate Ceylon from the main land. " There is perhaps no spectacle which the island of Ceylon affords more striking to an European, than the bay of Condatchy, during the season of the pearl fishery. This desert and barren spot is at that time converted into a scene, which exceeds, in novelty and vai-iety, almost any thing I ever witnessed. Several thousands of people of different colours, coun- tries, castes, and occupations, continually pass- ing 3,nd repassing in a busy crowd ; the vast number of small tents and huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or market-place before each ; the multitude of boats returning in the afternoon from the pearl banks, some of them laden with riches ; the anxious expecting coun- tenances of the boat-owners, while the boats are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with which they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich cargo ; the vast numbers of jewellers, brokers, merchants of all colours and all descriptions, both natives and foreigners, who are occupied in some way or other with the pearls, some separating and assorting them, others weighing and ascer- taining their niimber and value, u'hile others are hawking them about, or drilling and boring them for future use ; — all these circumstances tend to impress the mind with the value and importance of that object, which can of itself create this scene. "The bay of Condatchy is the most central rendezvous for the boats employed in, the 353 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDIVEY SMITH. fishery. The banks where it is carried on ex- tend several miles along the coast from Manaar southward off Arippo, Condatchy, and Pompa- ripo. The principal bank is opposite to Con- datchy, and lies out at sea about twenty miles. The first step, previous to the commencement of the fishery, is to have the different oyster banks surveyed, the state of the oysters ascer- tained, and a report made on the subject to government. If it has been found that the quantity is sufficient, and that they are arrived at a proper degree of maturity, the particular banks to be fished that year are put up for sale to the highest bidder, and are usually pur- chased by a black merchant. This, however, is not always the course pursued : government sometimes judges it more advantageous to fish the banks on its own account, and to dispose of the pearls afterwards to the merchants. When this plan is adopted, boats are hired for the season on account of government, from different quarters ; the price varies considera- bly according to circumstances, but is usually from five to eight hundred pagodas for each boat. There are, however, no stated prices, and the best bargain possible is made for each boat separately. The Dutch generally followed this last system ; the banks were fished on government account, and the pearls disposed of in different parts of India or sent to Europe. When this plan was pursued, the governor and council of Ceylon claimed a certain per cent- age on the value of the pearls ; or, if the fishing of the banks was disposed of by public sale, they bargained for a stipulated sum to themselves over and above what was paid on account of government. The pretence on which they founded their claims for this per- quisite, was their trouble in surveying and valuing the banks." — (pp. 59 — 61.) The banks are divided into six or seven por- tions, in order to give the oysters time to grow, which are supposed to attain their maturity in about seven years. The period allowed to the merchant to complete his fishery is about six weeks, during which period all the boats go out and return together, and are subject to very rigorous laws. The dexterity of the di- vers is very striking ; they are as adroit in the use of their feet as their hands ; and can pick up the smallest object under water with their toes. Their descent is aided by a great stone, which they slip from their feet when they ar- rive at the bottom, where they can remain about two minutes. There are instances, how- ever, of divers, who have so much of the. aquatic in their nature, as to remain under water for five or six minutes. Their great enemy is the ground-shark ; for the rule of eat and be eaten, which Dr. Darwin called the great law of nature, obtains in as much force fathoms deep beneath the waves as above them : this animal is as fond of the legs of Hindoos, as Hindoos are of the pearls of oys- ters ; and as one appetite appears to him much more natural, and less capricious than the other, he never fails to indulge it. Where for- tune has so much to do with peril and profit, of course there is no deficiency of conjurers, who, by divers enigmatical grimaces, endea- vour \p ostracise this submarine invader. If they are successful they are well paid in pearls ; and when a shark indulges himself with the leg of a Hindoo, there is a witch who lives at Colang, on the Malabar coast, who always bears the blame. A common mode of theft practised by the common people engaged in the pearl fishery, is by swallowing the pearls. Whenever any one is suspected of having swallowed these pre- cious pills of Cleopatra, the police apotheca- ries are instantly sent for ; a brisk cathartic is immediately despatched after the truant pearl, with the strictest orders to apprehend it, in whatever corner of the viscera it may be found lurking. Oyster lotteries are carried on here to a great extent. They consist in purchasing a quantity of the oysters unopened, and running the chance of either finding or not finding pearls in them. The European gentlemen and oflicers who attend the pearl fishery, through duty or curiosity, are particularly fond of these lotteries, and frequently make purchases of this sort. The whole of this ac- count is very well written, and has afforded us a great degree of amusement. By what curious links, and fantastical relations, are mankind connected together ! At the distance of half the globe, a Hindoo gains his support by groping* at the bottom of the sea, for the mor- bid concretion of shell-fish, to decorate the throat of a London alderman's wife. It is said that the great Linnaeus had discovered the secret of infecting oysters with this perligenous disease : what is become of the secret we do not know, as the only interest we take in oysters is of a much more vulgar, though, per' haps, a more humane nature. The principal woods of cinnamon lie in the neighbourhood of Columbo. They reach to within half a mile of the fort, and fill the whole surrounding prospect. The grand gar- den near the town is so extensive, as to occu- py a tract of countrj' from 10 to 15 miles in length. " Nature has here concentrated both the beauty and the riches of the island. Nothing can be more delightful to the eye than the prospect which stretches around Columbo. The low cinnamon trees which cover the plain, allow the view to reach the groves of ever- greens, interspersed with tall clumps, and bounded everywhere with extensive ranges of cocoa-nut and other large trees. The whole is diversified with small lakes and green marshes, skirted all round with rice and pas- ture. fields. In one part, the intertwining cin- namon trees appear completely to clothe the face of the plain ; in another, the openings made by the intersecting footpaths just serve to show that the thick underwood has been penetrated. One large road, which goes out at the west gate of the fort, and returns by the gate on the south, makes a winding circuit of seven miles among the woods. It is here that the officers and gentlemen belonging to the garrison of Columbo take their morning ride, and enjov one of the finest scenes in nature." — (pp. 336,' 337.) As this spice constitutes the wealth of Cey- lon, great pains are teiken to ascertain its WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 353 qualities, and propagate its choicest kinds. The prime sort is obtained from the Laurus Cinnamonum. The leaf resembles the laurel in shape, but is not of so deep a green. When chewed it has the smell and taste of cloves. There are several diffei-ent species of cinna- mon trees on the island ; but four sorts only are cultivated and barked. The picture which we have just quoted from Mr. Percival, of a morning ride in a cinnamon wood, is so en- chanting, that we are extremely sorry the addition of aromatic odours cannot with ve- racity be made to it. The cinnamon has, un- fortunately, no smell at all but to the nostrils of the poet. Mr. Percival gives us a very inte- resting account of the process of making up cinnamon for the market, in which we are sorry our limits will not permit us to follow him. The diiferent qualities of the cinnamon bundles can only be estimated by the taste ; an office which devolves upon the medical men of the settlement, who are employed for several days together in chetving cinnamon, the acrid juice of which excoriates the mouth, and puts them to the most dreadful tortures. The island of Ceylon is completely divided into two parts by a very high range of moun- tains, on the two sides of which the climate and the seasons are entirely different. These mountains also terminate completely the effect of the monsoons, which set in periodically from opposite sides of them. On the west side, the rains prevail in the months of May, June, and July, the season when they are felt on the Malabar coast. This monsoon is usual- ly extremely violent during its continuance. The northern parts of the island are very little affected. In the months of October and No- vember, when the opposite monsoon sets in on the Coromandel coast, the north of the island is attacked ; and scarcely any impres- sion reaches the southern parts. The heat during the day is nearly the same throughout the year : the rainy season renders the nights much cooler. The climate, upon the v/hole, is much more temperate than on the continent of India. The temperate and healthy climate of Ceylon is, however, confined to the sea- coast. In the interior of the country, the ob- structions which the thick woods oppose to the free circulation of air, render the heat al- most insupportable, and genei'ate a low and malignant fever, known to Europeans by the name of the Jungle fever. The chief harbours of Ceylon are Trincomalee, Point de Galle, and, at certain seasons of the year, Columbo. The former of these, from its nature and situa- tion, is that which stamps Ceylon one of our most valuable acquisitions in the East Indies. As soon as the monsoons commence, every vessel caught by them in any other part of the Bay of Bengal is obliged to put to sea imme- diately, in order to avoid destruction. At these seasons, Trincomalee alone, of all the parts on this side of the peninsula, is capable of affording to vessels a safe retreat; which a vessel from Madras may reach in two days. These circumstances render the value of Ti-incomalee much greater than that of the whole island; the revenue of which Avill cer- tainly be hardly sufficient to defray the expense 45 of the establishments kept up there. The agriculture of Ceylon is, in fact, in such an imperfect state, and the natives have so little availed themselves of its natural fertility, that great part of the provisions necessary for its support are imported from Bengal. Ceylon produces the elephant, the buffalo, tiger, elk, wild-hog, rabbit, hare, flying-fox, and musk-rat. Many articles are rendered entirely useless by the smell of musk, which this latter animal communicates in merely running over them. Mr. Percival asserts (and the fact has been confirmed to us by the most respectable authority), that if it even pass over a bottle of wine, however well corked and sealed up, the wine becomes so strongly tainted with musk, that it cannot be jised ; and a whole cask may be rendered useless in the same manner. Among the great variety of birds, we were struck with Mr. Percival's account of the honey-bird, into whose body the soul of a com- mon informer appears to have migrated. It makes a loud and shrill noise, to attract the notice of anybody whom it may perceive; and thus inducing him to follow the course it points out, leads him to the tree where the bees have concealed their treasure ; after the apiary has been robbed, this feathered scoundrel gleans his reward from the hive. The list of Ceylonese snakes is hideous ; and we become reconciled to the crude and cloudy land in which we live, from reflecting, that the indis- criminate activity of the sun generates what is loathsome, as well as what is lovely; that the asp reposes under the rose ; and the scorpion crawls under the fragrant flower and the lus- cious fruit. The usual stories are repeated here, of the immense size and voracious appetite of a cer- tain species of serpent. The best history of this kind we ever remember to have read, was of a serpent killed near one of our settlements, in the East Indies ; in whose body they found the chaplain of the garrison, all in black, the Rev. Mr. (somebody or other, whose name we have forgotten), and who, after having been missing for above a week, was discovered in this very inconvenient situation. The domi- nions of the King of Candia are partly defended by leeches, which abound in the woods, and from which our soldiers suffered in the most dreadful manner. The Ceylonese, in compen- sation for their animated plagues, are endowed with two vegetable blessings, the cocoa-nut tree and the talipot tree. The latter ^ords a prodigious leaf, impenetrable to sun or rain, and large enough to shelter ten men. It is a natural umbrella, and is of as eminent service in that country as a great-coat tree would be in this. A leaf of the talipot tree is a tent to the soldier, a parasol to the traveller, and a book to the scholar.* The cocoa tree affords bread, milk, oil, wine, spirits, vinegar, yeast, sugar, cloth, paper, huts, and ships. ■ We could with great pleasure proceed to give a farther abstract of this very agreeable and interesting publication, which we very strongly recommend to the public. It is writ- ten with great modesty, entirely without pre- * All books are written upon it in Ceylon 2g 2 354 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tensions, and abounds with curious and import- ant information. Mr. Percival will accept our best thanks for the amusement he has afforded us. When we can praise with such justice, we are always happy to do it; and regret that the rigid and independent honesty which we have made the very basis of our literary un- dertaking, should so frequently compel us to speak of the authors who come before us, in a style so different from that in which we have vindicated the merits of Mr. Percival. DELPHINE. [Edinbur&h Review, 1803.] This dismal trash, which has nearly dislo- cated the jaws of every critic among us with gaping, has so alarmed Bonaparte, that he has seized the whole impression, sent Madame de Stael out of Paris, and, for aught we know, sleeps in a night-cap of steel, and dagger- proof blankets. To us it appears rather an attack upon the Ten Commandments than the government of Bonaparte, and calculated not so much to enforce the rights of the Bourbons, as the benefits of adultery, murder, and a great number of other vices, which have been some- how or other strangely neglected in this coun- try, and too much so (according to the ap- parent opinion of Madame de Stael) even in France. It happens, however, fortunately enough, that her book is as dull as it could have been if her intentions had been good; for wit, dex- terity, and the pleasant energies of the mind, seldom rank themselves on the side of virtue and social order; while vice is spiritual, elo- quent, and alert, ever choice in expression, happy in allusion, and judicious in arrange- ment. The story is simply this. — Delphine, a rich young widow, presents her cousin Matilda de Vernon with a considerable estate, in order to enable her to marry Leonce Mondeville. To this action she is excited by the arts and the intrigues of Madame de A'^ernon, an hackneyed Parisian lady, who hopes, by this marriage, to be able to discharge her numerous and pressing debts. Leonce, who, like all other heroes of novels, has fine limbs, and fine qualities, comes to Paris— dislikes Matilda — falls in love with Delphine, Delphine with him ; and they are upon the eve of jilting poor Matilda, when, from some false reports spread abroad respect- ing the character of Delphine (which are ag- gravated by her own imprudences, and by the artifices of Madame Vernon), Leonce, not in a fit of honesty, but of revenge, marries the lady whom he came to marry. Soon after, Madame de Vernon dies — discovers the artifices by which she had prevented the union of Leonce and Delphine — and then, after this catastrophe, which ought to have terminated the novel, come two long volumes of complaint and despair. Delphine becomes a nun — runs * Delphine. By Madame de Stael Holstein. don, Mawman. '6 vols. 12mo. Lon- away from the nunnery with Leonce, who is taken by some French soldiers, upon the sup- position that he has been serving in the French emigrant army against his country — is shot, and upon his dead body falls Delphine as dead as he. Making every allowance for reading this book in a translation, and in a very bad trans- lation, we cannot but deem it a heavy per- formance. The incidents are vulgar; the cha- racters vulgar, too, except those of Delphine and Madame de Vernon. Madame de Stael has not the artifice to hide what is coming. In travelling through a flat country, or a flat book, ve see our road before us for half the distance we are going. There are no agree- able sinuosities, and no speculations whether we are to ascend next, or descend ; what new sight we are to enjoy, or to which side we are to bend. Leonce is robbed and half murdered; the apothecary of the place is certain he will not live ; we were absolutely certain that he would live, and could predict to an hour the time of his recovery. In the same manner we could have prophesied every event of the book a whole volume before its occurrence. This novel is a perfect Alexandrian. The two last volumes are redundant, and drag their wounded length: it should certainly have ter- minated where the interest ceases, at the death of Madame de Vernon ; but, instead of this, the scene-shifters come and pick up the dead bodies, wash the stage, sweep it, and do every thing which the timely fall of the curtain should have excluded from the sight, and left to the imagination of the audience. We hum- bly apprehend, that young gentlemen do not in general make their tutors the confidants of their passion ; at least we can find no rule of that kind laid down either by Miss Hamilton or Miss Edgeworth, in their treatises on educa- tion. The tutor of Leonce is Mr. Barton, a grave old gentleman, in a peruke and snuff- coloured clothes. Instead of writing to this solemn personage about second causes, the ten categories, and the eternal fitness of things, the young lover raves to him, for whole pages, about the white neck and auburn hair of his Delphine; and, shame to tell! the liquorish old pedagogue seems to think these amorous ebullitions the pleasantest sort of writing in usum Delpluni that he has yet met with. By altering one word, and making only one WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 365 false quantity,* we shall change the rule of Horace to " Nee febris intersjt nisi dignus vlndice nodus Inciderit." Delphine and Leonce have eight very bad ty- phus fevers between them, besides hamoptoe, hemorrhage, deliquiu/ni animi, singtdtus, hysteria, and faminei ululatus, or screams innumerable. Now, that there should be a reasonable allow- ance of sickness in every novel, we are will- ing to admit, and will cheerfully permit the heroine to be once given over, and at the point of death; but we cannot consent, that the in- terest Avhich ought to be excited by the feel- ings of the mind should be transferred to the sufferings of the body, and a crisis of perspi- ration be substituted for a crisis of passion. Let us see difficulties overcome, if our appro- bation is required; we cannot grant it to such cheap and sterile artifices as these. The characters in this novel are all said to be drawn from real life ; and the persons for whom they are intended are loudly whispered at Paris. Most of them we have forgotten; but Delphine is said to be jntended for the au- thoress, and Madame de Vernon (by a slight sexual metamorphosis) for Talleyrand, minis- ter of the French republic for foreign affairs. As this lady (once the friend of the authoress) may probably exercise a considerable influ- ence over the destinies of this country, we shall endeavour to make our readers a little better acquainted with her ; but we must first remind them that she was once a bishop, a higher dignity in the church than was ever at- tained by any of her sex since the days of Pope Joan ; and that though she swindles Delphine out of her estate with a considerable degree of address, her dexterity sometimes fails her, as in the memorable instance of the American commissioners. Madame de Stael gives the following description of this pasto- ral metropolitan female : " Though she is at least forty, she still ap- pears charming even among the young and beautiful of her own sex. The paleness of her complexion, the slight relaxation of her features, indicate the languor of indisposition, and not the decay of years ; the easy negli- gence of her dress accords with this impres- sion. Every one concludes, that when her health is recovered, and she dresses with more care, she must be completely beautiful : this change, however, never happens, but it is al- ways expected; and that is sufficient to make the imagination still add something more to the natural effect of her charms." — (Vol. I. p. 21.) Nothing can be more execrable than the manner in which this book is translated. The bookseller has employed one of our country- men for that purpose, who appears to have been very lately caught. The contrast between the passionate exclamations of Madame de Stael, and the barbarous vulgarities of poor Sawney, produces a mighty ludicrous effect. One of the heroes, a man of high fastidious temper, exclaims in a letter to Delphine, "I * Perhaps a fault of all others which the English are least disposed to pardon. A young man, who, on a pub- lic occasion, makes a false quantity at the outset of life, earn seldom or never get over it. cannot endure this Paris ; I have met urith ever so many people whom my soul abhors." And the accomplished and enraptured Leonce termi- nates one of his letters thus: "Adieu! Adieu, my dearest Delphine ! I will give you a call to- morrow." We doubt if Grub street ever im- ported from Caledonia a more abominable translator. We admit the character of Madame de Ver- non to be drawn with considerable skill. There are occasional traits of eloquence and pathos in this novel, and very many of those obser- vations upon manners and character, which* are totally out of the reach of all who have lived not long in the world, and observed it well. The immorality of any book (in our estima- tion) is to be determined by the general im- pression it leaves on those minds, whose prin- ciples, not yet ossified, are capable of affording a less powerful defence to its influence. The most dangerous effect that any fictitious cha- racter can produce, is when two or three of its popular vices are varnished over with every thing that is captivating and gracious in the exterior, and ennobled by association with splendid virtues : this apology will be more sure of its effect, if the faults are not against nature, but against society. The aversion to murder and cruelty could not perhaps be so overcome ; but a regard to the sanctity of mar- riage vows, to the sacred and sensitive delicacy of the female character, and to numberless re- strictions important to the well-being of our species, may easily be relaxed by this subtle and voluptuous confusion of good and evil. It is in vain to say the fable evinces, in the last act, that vice is productive of misery. We may decorate a villain with graces and felicities for nine volumes, and hang him in the last page. This is not teaching virtue, but gilding the gallows, and raising up splendid associa- tions in favour of being hanged. In such an union of the amiable and the vicious, (espe- cially if the vices are such, to the commission of which there is no want of natural disposi- tion,) the vice will not degrade the man, but the man will ennoble the vice. We shall wish to be him we admire, in spite of his vices, and, if the novel be well written, even in con- sequence of his vice. There exists, through the whole of this novel, a show of exquisite sen- sibility to the evils which individuals suffer by the inflexible rules of virtue prescribed by so- ciety, and an eager disposition to apologize for particular transgressions. Such doctrine is not confined to Madame de Stael; an Arca- dian cant is gaining fast upon Spartan gravity; and the happiness diffused, and the beautiful order established in society, by this unbending discipline, are wholly swallowed up in com- passion for the unfortunate and interesting in- dividual. Either the exceptions or the rule must be given up : eveiy highwayman who thrusts his pistol into a chaise window has va.etw\t\i unforeseen misfortunes: and every loose matron who flies into the arms of her Greville was compelled to marry an old man whom she detested, by an avaricious and unfeeling fa- ther. The passions want not accelerating, but retarding machinery. This fatal and foolish 356 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. sophistry has power enough over every heart, not to need the aid of fine composition, and well-contrived incident — auxiliaries which Ma- dame de Stael intended to bring forward in the cause, though she has fortunately not suc- ceeded. M. de Serbellone is received as a guest into the house of M. d'Ervins, whose wife he de- bauches as a recompense for his hospitality. Is it possible to be disgusted with ingratitude and injustice, when united to such an assem- blage of talents and virtues as this man of pa- per possesses 1 Was there ever a more de- lightful, fascinating adulteress than Madame d'Ervins is intended to be"? or apovero comuto less capable of exciting compassion than her husband ] The morality of all this is the old morality of Farquhar, Vanburgh, and Con- greve — that every witty man may transgress the seventh commandment, which was never meant for the protection of husbands who la- bour under the incapacity of making repartees. In Matilda, religion is always as unamiable as dissimulation is graceful in Madame de Ver- non, and imprudence generous in Delphine. This said Delphine, with her fine auburn hair, and her beautiful blue or green eyes (we forget which), cheats her cousin Matilda out of her lover, alienates the affections of her husband, and keeps a sort of assignation house for Ser- bellone and his rhere amie, justifying herself by the most touching complaints against the rigour of the world, and using the customary phrases, nmon of souls, married in the eye of hea- ven, &c. &c. &c., and such like diction, the types of which Mr. Lane, of the Minerva Press, very prudently keeps ready composed, in order to facilitate the printing of the Adventures of Captain C and Miss F , and other in- teresting stories, of which he, the said inimi- table Mr. Lane, of the Minerva Press, well knows these sentiments must make a part. Another perilous absurdity which this useful production tends to cherish, is the common no- tion, that contempt of rule and order is a proof of greatness of mind. Delphine is everywhere a great spirit struggling with the shackles im- posed upon her in common with the little world around her; and it is managed so that her contempt of restrictions shall always ap- pear to flow from the extent, variety, and splen- dour of her talents. The vulgarity of this he- roism ought in some degree to diminish its value. Mr. Colquhoun, in his Police of the Metropolis, reckons up above 40,000 heroines of this species, most of whom, we dare to say, have at one time or another reasoned like the sentimental Delphine about the judgments of the world. To conclude — Our general opinion of this book is, that it is calculated to shed a mild lustre over adultery ; by gentle and convenient gradation, to destroy the modesty and the cau- tion of women ; to facilitate the acquisition of easy vices, and encumber the difficulty of vir- tue. What a wretched qualification of this censure to add, that the badness of the princi- ple is alone corrected by the badness of the style, and that this celebrated lady would have been very guilty, if she had not been very dull J MISSION TO ASHANTEE.* [Edinburgh Review, 1819.] Cape Coast Castle, or Cape Corso, is a factory of Africa, on the Gold Coast. The Portuguese settled here in 1610, and built the citadel ; from which, in a few years after- wards, they were dislodged by the Dutch. In 1661, it was demolished by the English under Admiral Holmes ; and by the treat}^ of Breda, it was made over to our government. The latitude of Cape Coast Castle is 5° 6' north ; the longitude 1° 51' west. The capital of the kingdom of' Ashantee is Coomassie, the lati- tude of which is about 6° 30' 20" north, and the longitude 2° 6' 30" west. The mission quitted Cape Coast Castle on the 22d of April, and arrived at Coomassie about the 16th of May — halting two or three days on the route, and walking the whole distance, or carried by hammock-bearers at a foot-pace. The dis- tance between the fort and the capital is not more than 150 miles, or about as far as from * Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Statistical Mccouvt of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of other Parts of the Interior of Africa. By T. Edward Bowdich, Esq., Conductor. London, Mur- ray, 1819. Durham to Edinburgh ; and yet the kingdom of Ashantee was, before the mission of Mr. Bowdich, almost as much unknoA^Ti to us as if it had been situated in some other planet. The country which surrounds Cape Coast Castle belongs to the Fantees ; and, about the year 1807, an Ashantee army reached the coast for the first time. They invaded Fantee again in 1811, and, for the third time, in 1816. To put a stop to the horrible cruelties com- mitted by the stronger on the weaker nation ; to secure their own safety, endangered by the Ashantees ; and to enlarge our knowledge of Africa — the government of Cape Coast Castle persuaded the African committee to send a deputation to the kingdom of Ashantee ; and of this embassy the publication now before us is the narrative. The embassy walked through a beautiful country, laid waste by the recent wars, and arrived in the time we have men- tioned, and without meeting with any remark- able accident at Coomassie, the capital. The account of their first reception there we shall lay before our readers. " We entered Coomassie at two o'clock, pass- WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 357 ing under a fetish, or sacrifice of a dead sheep, ■wrapped up in red silk, and suspended be- tween two lofty poles. Upwards of 5000 peo- ple, the greater part warriors, met us with awful bursts of martial music, discordant only in its mixture ; for horns, drums, rattles, and gong-gongs, were all exerted ^vith a zeal bor- dering on frenzy, to subdue us by the first im- pression. The smoke which encircled us from the incessant discharges of musketry, confined our glimpses to the foreground ; and we were halted whilst the captains performed their Pyrrhic dance, in the centre of a circle formed by their warriors ; where a confusion of flags, English, Dutch, and Danish, were waved and flourished in all directions ; the bearers plung- ing and springing from side to side, with a passion of enthusiasm only equalled by the captains, who followed them, discharging their shining blunderbusses so close, that the flags now and then were in a blaze ; and emerging from the smoke with all the gesture and dis- tortion of maniacs. Their followers kept up the firing around us in the rear. The dress of the captains was a war cap, with gilded rams' honis projecting in front, the sides ex- tended beyond all proportion by immense plumes of eagles' feathers, and fastened under the chin with bands of cowries. Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies in gold and silver ; and embroidered cases of almost every coloui", which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed ■with small brass bells, the horns and tails of animals, shells, and knives ; long leopards' tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes. They wore loose cot- ton trowsers, with immense boots of a dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belt ; these were also ornamented with bells, horses' tails, strings of amulets, and in- numerable shreds of leather ; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it. A small spear was in their left hands, covered with red cloth and silk tassels ; their black countenances height- ened the effect of this attire and completed a figure scarcely human. "This exhibition continued about half an hour, when we were allowed to proceed, en- circled by the warriors, whose numbers, with the crowds of people, made our movement as gradual as if it had taken place in Cheapside ; the several streets branching off to the right presented long vistas crammed with people ; and those on the left hand being on an accli- vity, innumerable rows of heads rose one above another : the large open porches of the houses, like the fronts of stages in small thea- tres, were filled with the better sort of females and children, all impatient to behold white men for the first time ; their exclamations were drowned in the firing and music, but their ges- tures were in character with the scene. When we reached the palace, about half a mile from the place where we entered, we were again halted, and an open file was made, through which the bearers were passed, to deposit the presents and baggage in the house assigned to us. Here we were gratified by observing seve- ral of the caboceers (chiefs) pass by with their trains, the novel splendour of which astonished us. The bands, principally composed of horns and flutes, trained to play in concert, seemed to soothe our hearing into its natural tone again by their wild melodies ; whilst the immense umbrellas, made to sink and rise from the jerkings of the bearers, and the large fans waving around, refreshed us with small currents of air, under a burning sun, clouds of dust, and a density of atmosphere almost suffocating. We were then squeezed, at the same funeral pace, up a long street, to an open-fronted house, where we were desired by a royal messenger to wait a further invita- tion from the king." — (pp.31 — 33.) The embassy remained about four months, leaving one of their members behind as a permanent resident. Their treatment, though subjected to the fluctuating passions of bar- barians, was, upon the -whole, not bad ; and a foundation appears to have been laid for fu- ture intercourse with the Ashantees, and a mean opened, through them, of becoming bet- ter acquainted with the interior of Africa. The Moors, who seem (barbarians as they are) to be the civilizers of internal Africa, have penetrated to the capital of the Ashan- tees : they are bigoted and intolerant to Chris- tians, but not sacrificers of human victims in their religious ceremonies ; — nor averse to commerce; and civilized in comparison to most of the idolatrous natives of Africa. From their merchants who resorted from various parts of the interior, Mr. Bowdich employed himself in procuring all the geographical details which their travels enabled them to afford. Timbuctoo they described as inferior to Houssa, and not at all comparable to Boornoo. The Moorish influence was stated to be power- ful in it, but not predominant. A small river goes nearly round the town, overflowing in the rains, and obliging the people of the suburbs to move to an eminence in the centre of the town where the king lives. The king, a Moorish negro called Billabahada, had a few double-barrelled guns, which were fired on great occasions ; and gunpowder was as dear as gold. Mr. Bowdich calculates Houssa to be N. E. from the Niger 20 days' journey of 18 miles each day; and the latitude and lon- gitude to be 18° 59' N. and 3° 59' E. Boornoo was spoken of as the first empire in Africa. The Mahometans of Sennaar reckon it among the four powerful empires of the world; the other three being Turkey, Persia, and Abyssinia. The Niger is only known to the Moors by the name of the Quolla, pronounced as Quorra by the negroes, who, from whatever countries they come, all spoke of this as the largest river ■with which they were acquainted; and it was the grand feature in all the routes to Ashantee, whether from Houssa, Boornoo, or the interme- diate countries. The Niger, after leaving the lake Dibbri, was invariably described as divid- ing into two large streams ; the Quolla, or the greater division, pursuing its course south- eastward, till it joined the Bahr Abiad; and 358 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. the other branch running northward of east, near to Timbuctoo, and dividing again soon af- terwards — the smaller division running north- wards by Yahoodee, a place of great trade, and the larger running directly eastward, and en- tering the lake Caudi under the name of Gam- baroo. "The variety of this concurrent evi- dence respecting the Gambaroo, made an im- pression on my mind," says Mr. Bowdich, "al- most amounting to conviction." The same author adds, that he found the Moors very cau- tious in their accounts ; declining to speak un- less they were positive — and frequently refer- ring doubtful points to others whom they knew to be better acquainted with them. The character of the present king is, upon the whole, respectable; but he is ambitious, has conquered a great deal, and is conquering still. He has a love of knowledge ; and was always displeased when the European objects which attracted his attention were presented to him as gifts. His motives, he said, ought to be better understood, and more respect paid to his dignity and friendship. He is acute, capricious, and severe, but not devoid of hu- manity; and has incurred unpopularity on some occasions, by limiting the number of human sacrifices more than was compatible with strict orthodoxy. His general subjects of discourse with the mission were war, legis- lation, and mechanics. He seemed very de- sirous of standing well in the estimation of his European friends ; and put off a conversation once because he was a little tipsy, and at another time because he felt himself cross and out of temper. The king, four aristocratical assessors, and the assembly of captains, are the three estates of the Ashantee government. The noble quar- tumvirate, in all matters of foreign policy, have a veto on the king's decisions. They watch, rather than share, the domestic admi- nistration ; generally influencing it by their opinion, rather than controlling it by their au- thority. In exercising his judicial functions, the king always retires in private with the aristocracy, to hear their opinions. The course of succession in Ashantee is the brother, the sister's son, the son, and the chief slave. The king's sisters may marry, or intrigue with any person they please, provided he is very strong and handsome ; and these elevated and excellent women are always ready to set an example of submission to the laws of their country. The interest of money is about 300 per cent. A man may kill his own slave ; or an inferior, for the price of seven slaves. Tri- fling thefts are punished by exposure. The property of the wife is distinct from that of the husband— though the king is heir to it. Those accused of witchcraft are tortured to death. Slaves, if ill treated, are allowed the liberty of transferring themselves to other masters. The Ashantees believe that an higher sort of god takes care of the whites, and that they ^re left to the care of an inferior species of 'deities. Still the black kings and black nobi- lity are to go to the upper gods after death, where they are to enjoy eternally the state and luxury which was their portion on earth. For this reason a certain number of cooks, butlers, and domestics of every description, are sacri- ficed on their tombs. They have two sets of priests: the one dwell in the temples, and communicate with the idols ; the other species do business as conjurors and cunning men, tell fortunes, and detect small thefts. Half the offerings to the idols are (as the priests say) thrown into the river, the other half they claim as their own. The doors Of the temples are, from motives of the highest humanity, open to runaway slaves; but shut, upon a fee paid by the master to the priest. Every per- son has a small set of household gods, bought of the Fetishmen. They please their gods by avoiding particular sorts of meat; but the prohibited viand is not always the same. Some curry favour by eating no veal ; some seek protection by avoiding pork ; others say, that the real monopoly Avhich the celestials wish to establish, is that of beef— and so they piously and prudently rush into a course of mutton. They have the customary nonsense of lucky days, trial by ordeal, and libations and relics. The most horrid and detestable of their customs is their sacrifice of human victims, and the tortures preparatory to it. This takes place at all their great festivals, or customs, as they are called.— Some of these occur every twenty-one days; and there are not fewer than a hundred victims immolated at each. Besides these, there are sacrifices at the death of every person of rank, more or less bloody according to their dignity. On the death of his mother, the king butchered no less than three thousand victims; and on his own death this number would probably he doubled. The funeral rites of a great captain were repeated weekly for three months ; and ' 200 persons, it is said, were slaughtered each time, or 2400 in all. The author gives an ac- count of the manner of these abominations, in one instance of which he was an unwilling spectator. On the funeral of the mother of Quatchie Quofie, which was by no means a great one, — " A dash of sheep and rum was exchanged between the king and Quatchie Quofie, and the drums announced the sacrifice of the vic- tims. All the chiefs first visited them in turn ; I was not near enough to distinguish where- fore. The executioners wrangled and struggled for the office : and the indifference with which the first poor creature looked on, in the torture he was from the knife passed through his cheeks, was remarkable. The nearest execu- tioner snatched the sword from the others, the right hand of the victim was then lopped off, he was thrown down, and his head was sawed rather than cut off: it was cruelly prolonged, will not say wilfully. Twelve more were dragged forward, but we forced our way through the crowd, and retired to our quarters. Other sacrifices, principally female, were made in the bush where the body was buried. It is usual to ' wet the grave' with the blood of a freeman of respectability.- All the retainers of the family being present, an'd the heads of all the victims deposited in the bottom of the grave, several are unsuspectingly called on in a hurry to assist in placing the coffin or bas- ket ; and just as it rests on the head or skulls. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 359 a slave from behind stuns one of these free- men by a violent blow, followed by a deep gash in the back part of the neck, and he is rolled in on the top of the body, and the grave instantly filled up."— (pp. 287, 288.) " About a hundred persons, mostly culprits reserved, are generally sacrificed, in different quarters of the town, at this custom (that is, at the feast for the new year). Several slaves were also sacrificed at Bantama, over the large brass pan, their blood mingling with the vari- ous vegetable and animal matter within (fresh and putrefied), to complete the charm, and produce invincible fetish. All the chiefs kill several slaves, that their blood may flow into the hole from whence the new yam is taken. Those who cannot afford to kill slaves, take the head of one already sacrificed, and place it on the hole."— (p. 279.) The Ashantees are very superior in disci- pline and courage to the water-side Africans : they never pursue when it is near sunset ; the general is always in the rear, and the fugi- tives are instantly put to death. The army is prohibited, during the active part of the cam- paign, from all food but meal, which each man carries in a small bag by his side, and mixes in his hands with the first water he comes to ; no fires are allowed, lest their position should be betrayed ; they eat little select bits of the first enemy's heart whom they kill; and all wear ornaments of his teeth and b()nes. In their buildings, a mould is made for re- ceiving the clay, by two rows of stakes placed at a distance equal to the intended thickness of the wall: the interval is then filled with gravelly clay mixed with water, which, with the outward surface of the frame-work, is plas- tered so as to exhibit the appearance of a thick mud wall. The captains have pillars which assist to support the roof, and form a prosce- nium, or open front. The steps and raised floors of the rooms are clay and stone, with a thick layer of red earth, washed and painted daily. " While the walls are still soft, they formed moulds or frame-works of the patterns in deli- cate slips of cane, connected by grass. The two first slips (one end of each being inserted in the soft wall) projected the relief, com- monly mezzo: the interstices were then filled up with the plaster, and assumed the appear- ance depicted. The poles or pillars were sometimes encircled by twists of cane, inter- secting each other, which, being filled up with thin plaster, resembled the lozenge and cable ornaments of the Anglo-Norman order; the quatre-foil was very common, and by no means rude, from the symmetrical bend of the cane which formed it. I saw a few pillars (after they had been squared with the plaster), with numerous slips of cane pressed perpendicular- ly on to the wet surface, which, being covered again with a very thin coat of plaster, closely resembled fluting. When they formed a large arch, they inserted one end of a thick piece of cane in the wet clay of the floor or base, and, bending the other over, inserted it in the same manner; the entablature was filled up with wattle-work plastered over. Arcades and piazzas were common. A white wash, very frequently renewed, was made from a clay in the neighbourhood. Of course the plastering is very frail, and in the relief frequently dis- closes the edges of the cane, giving, however, a piquant effect, auxiliary to the ornament. The doors were an entire piece of cotton wood, cut with great labour out of the stems or but- tresses of that tree ; battens variously cut and painted were afterwards nailed across. So disproportionate was the price of labour, to that of provision, that I gave but two tokoos for a slab of cotton wood, five feet by three. The locks they use are from Houssa, and quite original : one will be sent to the British Mu- seum. Where they raised a first floor, the under room was divided into two by an inter- secting wall, to support the rafters for the upper room, which were generally covered with a frame-work thickly plastered over with red ochre. I saw but one attempt at flooring with plank ; it was cotton wood shaped en- tirely with an adze, and looked like a ship's deck. The windows were open wood-work, carved in fanciful figures and intricate pat- terns, and painted red ; the frames were fre- quently cased in gold, about as thick as cartridge paper. What surprised me most, and is not the least of the many circumstances deciding their great superiority over the gene- rality of negroes, was the discovery that every house had its cloacae, besides the common ones for the lower orders without the town." —(pp. 305, 306.) The rubbish and offal of each house are burnt every morning at the back of the street ; and they are as nice in their dwellings as in their persons. The Ashantee loom is precisely on the same principles as the English : the firmness, variety, brilliancy, and size of their cloths are astonishing. They paint white cloths, not inelegantly, as fast as an European can write. They excel in pottery, and are good goldsmiths. Their weights are very neat brass casts of almost every animal, fruit, and vegetable, known in the country. The king's scales, blow-pan, boxes, weights, and pipe-tongs Avere neatly made of the purest gold. They Avork finely in iron, tan leather, and are excellent carpenters. Mr. BoAvdich computes the number of men capable of bearing arms to be 204,000. The disposable force is 150,000; the population a million ; the number of square miles 14,000. Polygamy is tolerated to the greatest extent; the king's alloAvance is 3333 wives ; and the full complement is always kept up. Four of the principal streets in Coomassie are half a mile long, and from 50 to 100 yards wide. The streets were all named, and a superior captain in charge of each. The street where the mission was lodged was called Apperemsoo, or Cannon Street; another street was called Daebrim, or Gh-eat Market Street ; another, Pri- son Street, and so on. A plan of the town is given. The Ashantees persisted in saying that the population of Coomassie was above 100,000 ; but this is thought, by the gentlemen of the mission, to allude rather to the popula- tion collected on great occasions, than the permanent residents, not computed by them at 360 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. more than 15,000. The markets were daily; and the articles for sale, beef, mutton, wild- hog, deer, monkeys' flesh, fowls, yams, plan- tains, corn, sugarcane, rice, peppers, vegetable butter, oranges, papans, pine-apples, bananas, salt and dried fish, large snails smoke-dried ; palm wine, rum, pipes, beads, looking-glasses ; sandals, silk, cotton cloth, powder, small pil- lars, white and blue thread, and calabashes. The cattle in Ashantee are as large as English cattle ; their sheep are hairy. They have no implement but the hoe ; have two crops of corn in the year ; plant their yams at Christ- mas, and dig them up in September. Their plantations, extensive and orderly, have the appearance of hop gardens well fenced in, and regularly planted in lines, with a broad walk around, and a hut at each wicker-gate, where a slave and his family reside to protect the plantation. All the fruits mentioned a:s sold in the market grew in spontaneous abundance, as did the sugarcane. The oranges were of a large size and exquisite flavour. There were no cocoa trees. The berry which gives to acids the flavour of sweets, making limes taste like honey, is common here. .The castor- oil plant rises to a large tree. The cotton tree sometimes rises to the height of 150 feet. The great obstacle to the improvement of commerce with the Ashantee people (besides the jealousy natural to barbarians) is our re- jection of the slave trade, and the continuance of that detestable traffic by the Spaniards. While the mission was in that country, one thousand slaves left Ashantee for two Spanish schooners on the coast. — How is an African monarch to be taught that he has not a right to turn human creatures into rum and tobacco 1 or that the nation which prohibits such an in- tercourse are not his enemies 1 To have free access to Ashantee, would command Dag- wumba. The people of Inta and Dagwumba being commercial, rather than warlike, an in- tercourse with them would be an intercourse with the interior, as far as Timbuctoo and Houssa northwards, and Cassina, if not Boor- noo, eastwards. After the observations of Mr. Bowdich, se- nior officer of the mission, follows the narra- tive of Mr. Hutchinson, left as charge d'af- faires, upon the departure of the other gentle- men. Mr. Hutchinson mentions some white men residing at Yenne, whom he supposes to have been companions of Park ; and Ali Baba, a man of good character and consideration, itpon the eve of departure from these regions, assured him, that there were two Europeans then resident at Timbuctoo. — In his observa- tions on the river Gaboon, Mr. Bowdich has the following information on the present state of the slave trade : — " Three Portuguese, one French, and two large Spanish ships, visited the river for slaves during our stay; and the master of a Liver- pool vessel assured me that he had fallen in with twenty-two between Gaboon and the Con- go. Their grand rendezvous is Maynmba. The Portuguese of St. Thomas's and Prince's Islands send small schooner boats to Gaboon for slaves, which are kept, after they are trans- ported this short distance, until the coast is clear for shipping them to America. A third large Spanish ship, well armed, entered the river the night before we quitted it, and hurried our exit, for one of that character was commit- ting piracy in the neighbouring rivers. Having suffered from falling into their hands before, I felicitated myself on the escape. We were afterwards chased and boarded by a Spanish armed schooner, with three hundred slaves on hoard ; they only desired provisions." > These are the most important extracts from this publication, which is certainly of conside- rable importance, from the account it gives us of a people hitherto almost entirely unknown ; and from the light which the very diligent and laborious inquiries of Mr. Bowdich have thrown upon the geography of Africa, and the probability held out to us of approaching the great kingdoms on the Niger, by means of an intercourse by no means difficult to be esta- blished -with the kingdoms of Inta and Dag- wumba. The river Volta flows into the Gulf of Guinea, in latitude 7° north. It is naviga- ble, and by the natives navigated for ten days, to Odentee. Now, from Odentee to Sallagha, the capital of the kingdom of Inta, is but four days' journey; and seven days' journey from Sallagha, through the Inta Jam of Zengoo, is Yahndi, the capital of Dagwumba. Yahndi is ■ described to be beyond comparison larger than ^ Coomassie, the houses much better built and ornamented. The Ashantees who had visited it, told Mr. Bowdich they had frequently lost then^selves in the streets. The king has been converted by, the Moors, who have settled themselves there in great numbers. Mr. Lucas calls it the Mahometan kingdom of Degomba ; and it was represented to him as peculiarly wealthy and civilized. The markets of Yahndi are described as animated scenes of commerce, constantly croM^ded with merchants from al- most all the countries of the interior. It seems to us, that the best way of becoming acquainted with Africa, is not to plan such sweeping ex- peditions as have been lately sent out by go- vernment, but to submit to become acquainted with it by degrees, and to acquire by little and little a knowledge of the best methods of arrang- ing expeditions. The kingdom of Dagwumba, for instance, is not 200 miles from a well-known and regular water carriage, on the Volta. Perhaps it is nearer, but the distance is not greater than this. It is one of the most com- mercial nations in Africa, and one of the most civilized ; and yet it is utterly unknown, ex- cept by report, to Europeans. Then why not , plan an expedition to Dagwumba 7 The ex- '* pense of which would be very trifling, and the issue known in three or four months. The in- formation procured from such a wise and moderate undertaking, would enable any future mission to proceed with much greater ease and safety into the interior ; or prevent them from proceeding, as they hitherto have done, to their own destruction. We strongly be- lieve, with Mr. Bowdich, that this is the right road to the Niger. Nothing in this world is created in vain : lions, tigers, conquerors, have their use. Am- bitious monarchs, who are the curse of civi- lized nations, are the civilizers of savage people. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 361 With a number of little independent hordes, civilization is impossible. They must have a common interest before there can be peace ; and be directed by one will before there can be order. Wben mankind are prevented from daily quarrelling and fighting, they first begin to improve; and all this, we are afraid, is only to be accomplished, in the first instance. by some great conqueror. We sympathize, therefore, with the victories of the King of Ashantee — and feel ourselves, for the first time, in love with military glory. The ex- emperor of the French would, at Coomassie, Dagwumba, or lata, be an eminent benefactor to the human race. WITTMAN'S travels; [Edinburgh Review, 1803.] Db. Wittman was sent abroad with the military mission to Turkey, towards the spring of 1799, and remained attached to it during its residence in the neighbourhood of Con- stantinople, its march through the desert, and its short operations in Egypt. The military mission, consisting of General Koehler, and some officers and privates of the artillery and engineers, amounting on the whole to seventy, were assembled at Constantinople, June, 1799, which they left in the same month of the fol- lowing year, joined the grand vizier at Jaffa in July, and entered Egypt with the Turks in April, 1801. After the military operatiohs were concluded there. Dr. Wittman returned home by Constantinople, Vienna, &c. The travels are written in the shape of a journal, which begins and concludes with the events which we have just mentioned. It is obvious that the route described by Dr. Wittman is not new : he could make no cursory and superficial observations upon the people whom he saw, or the countries through which he passed, with which the public are not already familiar. If his travels were to possess any merit at all, they were to derive that merit from accurate physical researches, from copi- ous information on the state of medicine, sur- gery, and disease in Turkey; and above all, perhaps, from gratifying the rational curiosity which all inquiring minds must feel upon the nature of the plague, and the indications of cure. Dr. Wittman, too, was passing over the same ground trodden by Bonaparte in his Syrian expedition, and had an ample opportunity of inquiring its probable object, and the probable success which (but for the heroic defence of Acre) might have attended it ; he was on the theatre of Bonaparte's im- puted crimes, as well as his notorious defeat ; 'and might have brought us back, not anile conjecture, but sound evidence of events which must determine his character, who may determine our fate. We should have been happy also to have found in the travels of Dr. Wittman a full account of the tactics and manoeuvres of the Turkish army; and this it would not have been difficult to have obtained through the medium of his military com- * Travels in Turkey, Jlsia Minor, and Syria, ^c, and into Egypt. By William Wittman, M. D. 1803. Lon- don. PbillipE. 46 panions. Such appear to us to be the sub- jects, fi-om an able discussion of which, Dr. Wittman might have derived considerable reputation, by gratifying the ardour of tempo- rary curiosity, and adding to the stock of per- manent knowledge. Upon opening Dr. Wittman's book, we turned, with a considerable degree of interest, to the subject of Jafia ; and to do justice to the doctor, we shall quote all that he has said upon the subject of Bonaparte's conduct at this place. " After a breach had been efl^ected, the French troops stormed and carried the place. It was probably owing to the obstinate defence made by the Turks, that the French commander-in- chief was induced to give orders for the horrid massacre which succeeded. Four thousand of the wretched inhabitants who had sur- rendered, and who had in vain implored the mercy of their conquerors, Avere, together with a part of the late Turkish garrison of El-Arish (amounting, it has been said, to five or six hundred), dragged out in cold blood, four days after the French had obtained possession of Jaffa, to the sand hills, about a league dis- tant, in the way to Gaza, and there most inhumanly put to death. I have seen the skeletons of these unfortunate victims, which lie scattered over the hills ; a modern Golgotha, which remains a lasting disgrace to a nation calling itself civilized. It would give pleasure to the author of this work, as well as to every liberal mind, to hear these facts contradicted on substantial evidence. Indeed, I am sorry to add, that the charge of cruelty against the French general does not rest here. It having been reported, that, previously to the retreat of the French army from Syria, their com- mander-in-chief had ordered all the French sick at Jaffa to be poisoned, I was led to make the inquiry to which every one who should have visited the spot would naturally have been directed, respecting an act of such sin- gular, and, it should seem, wanton inhumanity. It concerns me to have to state, not only that such a circumstance was positively asserted to have happened, but that, while in Egypt, an individual was pointed out to us, as having been the executioner of these diabolical com- mands."— (p. 128.) Now, in this passage, Dr. Wittman oflfers no 2H 362 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. other evidence whatever of the massacre, than that he had seen the skeletons scattered over the hills, and that the fact was universally believed. But how does Dr. Wittman know what skeletons those were which he sawl An oriental camp, affected by the plague, leaves as many skeletons behind it as a mas- sacre. And though the Turks bury their dead, the doctor complains of the very little depth at which tRey are interred; so that jackals, high winds, and a sandy soil, might, with great facility, undo the work of Turkish sextons. Let any one read Dr. Wittman's account of the camp near Jaffa, where the Turks remained so long in company with the military mission, and he will immediately perceive that, a year after their departure, it might have been mis- taken, with great ease, for the scene of a massacre. The spot which Dr. Wittman saw might have been the spot where a battle had been fought. In the turbulent state of Syria, and amidst the variety of its barbarous inhabit- ants, can it be imagined that every bloody battle, with its precise limits and circumscrip- tion, is accurately committed to tradition, and faithfully reported to inquirers 1 Besides, why scattered among hills ? If 5000 men were marched out to a convenient spot and mas- sacred, their remains would be heaped up in a small space, a mountain of the murdered, a vast bridge of bones and rottenness. As the doctor has described the bone scenery, it has much more the appearance of a battle and pursuit than of a massacre. After all, this gentleman lay eight months under the walls of Jaffa; whence comes it he has given us no better evidence 1 Were 5000 men mur- dered in cold blood by a division of the French army, a year before, and did no man remain in Jaffa, who said, I saw it done — I was pre- sent when they were marched out — I went the next day, and saw the scarcely dead bodies of the victims'? If Dr. Wittman received any such evidence, why did he not bring it forward? If he never inquired for such evidence, how is he qualified to write upon the subject 1 If he inquired for it and could not find it, how is the fact credible 1 This author cannot make the same excuse as Sir Robert Wilson, for the suppression of his evidence, as there could be no probability that Bonaparte would wreak his vengeance upon Soliman Aga, Mustapha Cawn, Sidi Mahomet, or any given Turks, upon whose positive evidence Dr. Wittman might have rested his accusation. Two such wicked acts as the poisoning and the massacre, have not been committed within the memory of man ; — within the same memory, no such extraordinary person has appeared, as he who is said to have committed them ; and yet, though their com- mission must have been public, no one has yet said, Vicli ego. The accusation still rests upon hearsay. At the same time, widely disseminated as this accusation has been over Europe, it is extraordinary that it has not been contradicted in print: and, though Sir Robert Wilson's book must have been read in France, that no officer of the division of Bon has come for- ward in vindication of a criminal who could repay incredulity so well. General Andreossi, who was with the First Consul in Syria, treats the accusations as contemptible falsehoods. But though we are convinced he is a man of character, his evidence has certainly less weight, as he may have been speaking in the mask of diplomacy. As to the general circu- lation of the report, he must think much higher of the sagacity of multitudes than we do, who would convert this into a reason of belief. Whoever thinks it so easy to get at truth in the midst of passion, should read the various histories of the recent rebellion in Ireland; or he may, if he chooses, believe, with thousands of worthy Frenchmen, that the infernale was planned by Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. As for us, we will state what appears to us to be the truth, should it even chance to justify a man in whose lifetime Europe can know neither happiness nor peace. The story of the poisoning is given by Dr. Wittman precisely in the same desultory man- ner as that of the massacre. "An individual was pointed out to us as the executioner of these diabolical commands." By how many persons was he pointed out as the executioner 1 by persons of what authority ? and of what credibility 1 Was it asserted from personal knowledge, or merely from rumour T Whence comes it that such an agent, after the flight of his employer, was not driven away by the general indignation of the army? If Dr. Wittman had combined this species of infor- mation with his stories, his conduct would have been more just, and his accusations would have carried greater weight. At pre- sent, when he, who had the opportunity of tell- ing us so much, has told us so little, we are rather less inclined to believe than we were before. We do not say these accusations are not true, but that Dr. Wittman has not proved them to be true. Dr. Wittman did not see more than two cases of plague : he has given both of them at full length. The symptoms were, thirst, headache, vertigo, pains in the limbs, bilious vomitings, and painful tumours in the groins. The means of cure adopted were, to evacuate the primae viae ; to give diluting and refreshing drinks ; to expel the redundant bile by emetics ; and to assuage the pain in the groin by fomenta- tions and anodynes; both cases proved fatal. In one of the cases, the friction with warm oil was tried in vain ; but it was thought useful in the prevention of plague : the immediate effect produced was, to throw the person rubbed into a very copious perspiration. A patient in typhus, M-ho was given over, re- covered after this discipline was administered. The boldness and enterprise of medical men are quite as striking as the courage displayed in battle, and evinces how niuch the power of encountering danger depends upon habit. — Many a military veteran would tremble to feed upon pvs; to sleep in sheets running with water ; or to draw up the breath of feverish patients. Dr. White might not, perhaps, have marched up to a battery with great alacrity; but Dr. White, in the year 1801, inoculated himself in the arms, with recent matter taken from the bubo of a pestiferous patient, and WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 363 rubbed the same matter upon different parts of his body. With somewhat less of courage, and more of injustice, he wrapt his Arab ser- vant in the bed of a person just dead of the plague. The doctor died; and the doctor's man (perhaps to prove his masters theory, that the plague was not contagious) ran away. The bravery of our naval officers never pro- duced any thing superior to this therapeutic heroism of the doctor's. Dr. Wittman has a chapter which he calls An Historical Journal of the Plague; but the in- formation which it contains amounts to nothing at all. He confesses that he has had no expe- rience in the complaint ; that he has no remedy to offer for its cure, and no theory for its cause.* The treatment of the minor plague of Egypt, ophthalmia, was precisely the me- thod common in this country ; and was gene- rally attended with success, where the remedies were applied in time. Nothing can be conceived more dreadful than was the situation of the military mission in the Turkish camp ; exposed to a mutinous Turkish soldier}^ to infection, famine, and a scene of the most abominable filth and putre- faction ; and this they endured for a year and a half, with the patience of apostles of peace, rather than war. Their occupation was to teach diseased barbarians, who despised them, and thought it no small favour that they should be permitted to exist in their neighbourhood. They had to witness the cruelties of despotism, and the passions of armed and ignorant multi- tudes ; and all this embellished with the fair probability of being swept off, in some grand engagement, by the superior tactics and ac- tivity of the enemy to whom the Turks were opposed. To the filth, irregularity, and tumult of a Turkish camp, as it appeared to the British officers in 1800, it is curious to oppose the picture of one drawn by Busbequius in the middle of the sixteenth century: "Turcse in proximis campis tendebant; cum vero in eo loco tribus mensibus vixerim,fuit mihi facultas videndorum ipsorum castrorum, et cognos- cendas aliqua ex parte disciplinas ; qua de re nisi panca attingam, habeas fortasse quod me accuses. Sumpto habitu Christianis homini- bus in illis locis usitato, cum uno aut altero comite quacunque vagabar ignotus : primum videbabi summo ordine cujusque corporis milites suis locis distributos, et, quod vix cre- dat, qui nostratis militiffi consuetudinem novit, summum eratubique silentium, summa quies, rixa nulla, nullum cujusquam insolens factum: sed ne nox quidem aut vitulatio per lasciviam aut ebrietatem emissa. Ad hcec summa mundi- ties, nulla sterquilinia, nulla purgamenta, nihil quod oculos aut nares oflenderet. Quicquid est hujusmodi, aut defodiunt Turcae, aut procul a conspectu submovent. Sed nee uUas com- potationes aut convivia, nullum alege genus, magnum nostratis militiee flagitium, videre erat: nulla lusoriarum chartarum, neque tes- serarum damna norunt Turcce." — Jlugeri Bus- bequii,Epist. 3, :p. 187. Hanoviee. 1622. There * One fart mentioned by Dr. Wittman appuars to be curious ;— that Constantinople was nearly free from plague during the interruption of its communication with Egypt. is at present, in the Turkish army, a curiouq mixture of the severest despotism in the com- mander, and the most rebellious insolence in the soldier. When the soldier misbehaves, the vizier cuts his head off, and places it un» der his arm. When the soldier is dissatisfied with his vizier, he fires his ball through his tent, and admonishes him, by these messen- gers, to a more pleasant exercise of his au- thority. That such severe punishments should not confer a more powerful authority, and give birth to abetter discipline, is less extraordinary, if we reflect, that we hear only that the punish- ments are severe, not that they are steady, and that they are just ; for, if the Turkish soldiers were always punished with the same severity when they were in fault, and never but then, it is not in human nature to suppose, that the Turk- ish army would long remain in as contemptible a state as it now is. But the governed soon learn to distinguish between systematic energy, and the excesses of casual and capricious cru- elty; the one awes them into submission, the other rouses them to revenge. Dr. Wittman, in his chapter on the Turkish army, attributes much of its degradation to the altered state of the corps of Janissaries ; the original constitution of which corps was cer- tainly both curious and wise. The children of Christians made prisoners in the predatory incursions of the Turks, or procured in any other manner, were exposed in the public markets of Constantinople. Any farmer or artificer was at liberty to take one into his service, contracting with government to pro- duce him again when he should be wanted : and in the mean time to feed and clothe him, and to educate him to such works of labour as are calculated to strengthen the body. As the Janissaries were killed off, the government drew upon this stock of hardy orphans for its levies; who, instead of hanging upon weeping parents at their departure, came eagerly to the camp, as the situation which they had always been taught to look upon as the theatre of their future glory, and towards which all their passions and affections had been bent, from their earliest years. Arrived at the camp, they received at first low pay, and performed me- nial offices for the little division of Janissaries to which they were attached: "Ad Gianizaros rescriptus primo meret menstruo stipendio, paulo plus minus, unius ducati cum dimidio. Id enim militi novitio, et rudi satis esse cen- sent. Sed tamen ne quid victus necessitati desit, cum ea decuria, in cujus contuernium adscitus est, gratis cibum capit, eS conditione, ut in culina reliquoque ministerio ei decurias serviat; usura annorum adeptus tyro, cnedum tamen suis contubernalibus honore neque sti- pendio par unam in sola virtute, se illis cequan- di, spem habet: utpote si militigg quEE prima se obtulerit, tale specimen sui dederit, ut dignus judicetur, qui tyrocinio exemptus, honoris gradu et stipendii magnitudine, reliquis Gian- izaris par habeatur. Qua quidem spe plerique tyrones impulsi, multa prfeclare audent, et fortitudine cum veteranis certant." — Busbequi- us, De Re Mil. cant. Tiirc. Inslit. Consilium,* The * This is a very spirited appeal to his countrymen on the tremendous power of the Turks ; and, with the sub- 364 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMTH. same authof observes, that there was no rank or dignity in the Turkish army, to which a common Janissary might not arrive, by his courage or his capacity. This last is a most powerful motive to exertion, and is, perhaps, one leading cause of the superiority of the French arms. Ancient governments promote, from numberless causes which ought to have no concern with promotion : revolutionary go- vernments, and military despotisms, can make generals of persons who are fit for generals : to enable them to be unjust in all other in- stances, they are forced to be just in this. What, in fact, are the sultans and pashas of Paris, but Janissaries raised from the ranks 1 At present, the Janissaries are procured from the lowest of the people, and the spirit of the corps is evaporated. The low state of their armies is in some degree imputable to this ; but the principal reason why the Turks are no longer as powerful as they were, is, that they are no longer enthusiasts, and that war is now become more a business of science than of personal courage. The person of the greatest abilities in the Turkish empire is the capitan pasha; he has disciplined some ships and regiments in the European fashion, and would, if he were well seconded, bring about some important reforms in the Turkish empire. But what is become of all the reforms of the famous Gazi Hassan? The blaze of partial talents is soon extin- guished. Never was there so great a prospect stittition of France for Turkey, is so applicable to the present times that it might be spoken in Parliament with great effect. of improvement as that afforded by the exer- tions of this celebrated man, who, in spite of the ridicule thrown upon him by Baron de Tott, was such a man as the Turks cannot expect to see again once in a century. He had the whole power of the Turkish empire at his disposal for fifteen years; and, after re- peated efl^orts to improve the army, abandoned the scheme as totally impracticable. The cele- brated Bonneval, in his time, and De Tott since, made the same attempt with the same success. They are not to be taught ; and six months after his death, every thing the present capitan pasha has done will be immediately pulled to pieces. The present grand vizier is a man of no ability. There are some very entertaining instances of his gross ignorance cited in the 133d page of the Travels. Upon the news being communicated to him that the earth was round, he observed that this could not be the case : for the people and the objects on the other side would in that case fall off; and that the earth could not move round the sun ; for if so, a ship bound from Jaffa to Con- stantinople, instead of proceeding to the capital, would be carried to London, or elsewhere. We cannot end this article without confessing with great pleasure the entertainment we have re- ceived from the work which occasions it. It is an excellent lounging-book, full of pleasant details, never wearying by prolixity, or offend- ing by presumption, and is apparently the pro- duction of a respectable, worthy man. So far we can conscientiously recommend it to the public ; for any thing else, Non cuivia homini contingit adire, &c. &c. Sec. SPEECHES. CATHOLIC CLAIMS. A Speech at a Meeting of the Clergy of the Archdeacon? y of the East Riding of Yorkshire, held at Be- verley, in that Riding, on Monday, April 11, 1825, /or the Purpose of Petitioning Parliament, ^c* Mb. Akchdeacon, — It is very disagreeable to 33ie to diifer from so many worthy and respect- able clergymen here assembled, and not only to differ from them, but, I am afraid, to stand alone among them. I would much rather vote in majorities, and join in this, or any other po- litical chorus, than to stand unassisted and alone, as I am now doing. I dislike such meet- ings for such purposes — I wish I could recon- cile it to my conscience to stay away from them, and to my temperament to be silent at them ; but if they are called by others, I deem it right to attend — if I attend I must say what I think. If it is unwise in us to meet in taverns to discuss political subjects, the fault is not mine, for I should never think of calling such a meeting. If the subject is trite, no blame is imputable to me : it is as dull to me to handle such subjects, as it is to you to hear them. The customary promise on the threshold of an inn is good entertainment for man and horse. — If there is any truth in any part of this sen- tence at the Tiger, at Beverley, our horses at this moment must certainly be in a state of much greater enjoyment than the masters who rode them. It will be some amusement, however, to this meeting, to observe the schism ' which this question has occasioned in my own parish of Londesborough. My excellent and respecta- ble curate, Mr. Milestones, alarmed at the effect of the pope upon the East Riding, has come here to oppose me, and there he stands, breath- ing war and vengeance on the Vatican. We had some previous conversation on this sub- ject, and, in imitation of our superiors, we agreed not to make it a cabinet question. — Mr. Milestones, indeed, with that delicacy and pro- priety which belong to his character, expressed some scruples upon the propriety of voting against his rector, but I insisted he should come and vote against me. I assured him nothing would give me more pain than to think I had prevented, in any man, the free assertion of honest opinions. That such conduct, on his part, instead of causing jealousy and animosi- ty between us, could not, and would not fail to increase my regard and respect for him. I beg leave, sir, before I proceed on this sub- ject, to state what I mean by Catholic emanci- pation. I mean eligibility of Catholics to all civil offices, with the usual exceptions intro- * I was left at this meeting in a minority of one. A poor clergyman whispered to me, that he was quite of my way of thinking, but had nine children. I begged he would remain a Protestant. duced into all bills — jealous safeguards for the preservation of the Protestant church, and for the regulation of the intercourse with Rome — and, lastly, provision for the Catholic clergy. I object, sir, to the law as it stands at pre- sent, because it is impolitic, and because it is unjust. It is impolitic, because it exposes this country to the greatest danger in time of war. Can you believe, sir, can any man of the most ordinary turn for observation, believe, that the monarchs of Europe mean to leave this coun- try in the quiet possession of the high station which it at present holds 1 Is it not obvious that a war is coming on between the govern- ments of law and the governments of despot- ism 1 — that the weak and tottering race of the Bourbons will (whatever our wishes may be) be compelled to gratify the wounded vanity of the French, by plunging them into a war with England. Already they are pitying the Irish people, as you pity the West Indian slaves — already they are opening colleges for the recep- tion of Irish priests. Will they wait for your tardy wisdom and reluctant liberality 1 Is not the present state of Ireland a premium upon early invasion 1 Does it not hold out the most alluring invitation to your enemies to begin 1 And if the tlag of any hostile power in Europe is unfurled in that unhappy country, is there one Irish peasant who will not hasten to join it 1 — and not only the peasantry, sir ; the peas- antry begin these things, but the peasantry do not end them — they are soon joined by an |^ order a little above them — and then, after a trifling success, a still superior class think it worth while to try the risk: men are hurried into a rebellion, as the oxen are pulled into the cave of Cacus — tail foremost. The mob first, who have nothing to lose but their lives, of which every Irishman has nine — then comes the shopkeeper — then the parish priest — then the vicar-general — then Dr. Doyle, and, lastly, Daniel O'Connell. But if the French were to make the same blunders respecting Ireland as Napoleon committed, if wind and weather pre- . served Ireland for you a second time, still all your resources would be crippled by watching Ireland. The force employed for this might liberate Spain and Portugal, protect India, or accomplish any great ptirpose of offence or defence. War, sir, seems to be almost as natural a state to mankind as peace ; but if you could hope to escape war, is there a more powerful receipt for destroying the prosperity of any country than these eternal jealousies and dis- 2 II 2 365 366 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tinctions between the two religions ? What man will carry his industry and his capital into a country where his yard measure is a sword, his pounce-box a powder-flask, and his ledger a return of killed and wounded ? Where a cat will get, there I know a cotton-spinner ■will penetrate ; but let these gentlemen wait till a few of their factories have been burnt down, till one or two respectable merchants of Man- chester have been carded, and till they have seen the cravatists hanging the shanavists in cotton twist. In the present fervour for spin- ning, ourang-outangs, sir, would be employed to spin, if they could be found in sufficient quantities ; but miserably will those reasoners be disappointed who repose upon cotton — not upon justice^and who imagine this great question can be put aside, because a few hun- dred Irish spinners are gaining a morsel of bread by the overflowing industry of the Eng- lish market. But what right have you to continue, these rules, sir, these laws of exclusion? What ne- cessity can you show for it "! Is the reigning monarch a concealed Catholici — Is his suc- cessor an open one ] — Is there a disputed suc- cession !— Is there a Catholic pretender 1 If some of these circumstances are said to have justified the introduction, and others the con- tinuation of these measures, why does not the disappearance of all these circumstances jus- tify the repeal of the restrictions 1 If you must be unjust — if it is a luxury you cannot live without — reserve your injustice for the weak, and not for the strong — persecute the Unitari- ans, muzzle the Ranters, be unjust to a few thousand sectaries, not to six millions — gal- vanize a frog, don't galvanize a tiger. If you go into a parsonage house in the country, Mr. Archdeacon, you see sometimes a style and fashion of furniture which does very well for us, but which has had its day in Lon- don. It is seen in London no more ; it is ban- ished to the provinces ; from the gentlemen's houses of the provinces these pieces of furni- ture, as soon as they are discovered to be un- fashionable, descend to the farm-houses, then to cottages, then to the faggot-heap, then to the dunghill. As it is with furniture, so is it with arguments. I hear at country meetings many arguments against the Catholics which are never heard in London ; their London ex- istence is over — they are only to be met with in the provinces, and there they are fast hastening down, with clumsy chairs and ill-fashioned sofas, to another order of men. But, sir, as they are not yet gone where I am sure they are going, I shall endeavour to point out their de- fects, and to accelerate their descent. Many gentlemen now assembled at the Tiger Inn, at Beverley, believe that the Catholics do not keep faith with heretics; these gentlemen ought to know that Mr. Pitt put this very ques- tion to six of the leading Catholic universities in Europe. He inquired of them whether this tenet did or did not constitute any part of the Catholic faith. The question received from these universities the most decided negative; they denied that such doctrine formed any part of the creed of Catholics. Such doctrine, sir, is denied upon oath, in the bill now pending in Parliament, a copy of which I hold in my hand. The denial of such a doctrine upon oath is the only means by which a Catholic can relieve himself from his present incapacities. If a Catholic, therefore, sir, will not take the oath, he is not relieved, and remains where you wish him to remain ; if he does take the oath, you are safe froin his peril : if he has no scruple about oaths, of what consequence is it whether this bill passes, the very object of which is to relieve him from oaths 1 Look at the fact, sir. Do the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, living under the same state with the Catholic cantons, complain that no faith is kept with heretics? Do not the Catholics and Protestants in the kingdom of the Netherlands meet in one com- mon Parliament ? Could they pursue a com- mon purpose, have common friends, and com- mon enemies, if there was a shadow of truth in this doctrine imputed to the Catholics 1 The religious afiairs of this last kingdom are man- aged with the strictest impartiality to both sects? ten Catholics and ten Protestants (gentlemen need not look so much surprised to hear it), positively meet together, sir, in the same room. They constitute what is called the religious committee for the kingdom of the Netherlands, and so extremely desirous are they of preserving the strictest impartiality, that they have chosen a Jew for their secretary. Their conduct has been unimpeachable and unimpeached; the two sects are at peace with each other ; and the doctrine, that no faith is kept with heretics, would, I assure you, be very little credited at Amsterdam or the Hague, cities as essentially Protestant as the town of Beverley. Wretched is our condition, and still more wretched the condition of Ireland, if the Catho- lic does not respect his oath. He serves on grand and petty juries in both countries ; we trust our lives, our liberties, and our properties, to his conscientious reverence of an oath, and yet, when it suits the purposes of party to bring forth this argument, we say he has no respect for oaths. The right to a landed estate of 3000/. per annum was decided last week, in York, by a jury, the foreman of which was a Catholic ; does any human being; harbour a thought, that this gentleman, whom we all know and respect, would, under any circum- stances, have thought more lightly of the obli- gation of an oath, than his Protestant brethren of the box 1 We all disbelieve these arguments of Mr. A. the Catholic, and of Mr. B. the Catho- lic : but we believe them of Catholics in gen- eral, of the abstract Catholics, of the Catholic of the Tiger Inn, at Beverley, the formidable un- known Catholic, that is so apt to haunt our clerical meetings. I observe that some gentlemen who argue this question, are very bold about other offices, but very jealous lest Catholic gentlemen should become justices of the peace. If this jealousy is justifiable anywhere, it is justifiable in Ire- land, where some of the best and most respect- able magistrates are Catholics. It is not true that the Roman Catholic reli- gion is what it was. I meet that assertion with a plump denial. The pope does not dethrone kings, nor give away kingdoms, does not ex- tort money, has given up, in some instances. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 367 the nomination of bishops to Catholic princes, in some, I believe, to Protestant princes; Pro- testant worship is now carried on at Rome. In the Low Countries, the seat of the Duke of Alva's cruelties, the Catholic tolerates the Pro- testant, and sits with him in the same Parlia- ment — the same in Hungary — the same in France. The iirst use which even the Spanish people made of their ephemeral liberty, was to destroy the Inquisition. It was destroyed also by the mob of Portugal. I am so far from thinking the Catholic not to be more tolerant than he was, that I am much afraid the English, who gave the first lesson of toleration to man- kind, will very soon have a great deal to learn from their pupils. Some men quarrel with the Catholics, be- cause their language was violent in the Asso- elation; but a groan or two, sir, after two hun- dred years of incessant tyranny, may surely be forgiven. A few warm phrases to compensate the legal massacre of a million of Irishmen are not unworthy of our pardon. All this hardly deserves the eternal incapacity of holding civil ofBces. Then they quarrel with the Bible Soci- ety; in other words they vindicate that ancient tenet of their church, that the Scriptures are not to be left to the unguided judgment of the laity. The objection to Catholics is, that they did what Catholics ought to do — and do not many pre- lates of our church object to the Bible Society, and contend that the Scriptures ought not to be circulated without the comment of the Prayer Book and the Articles ? If they are right, the Catholics are not wrong; and if the Catholics are wrong, they are in such good company, that we ought to respect their errors. Why not pay their clergy 1 the Presbyterian clergy in the north of Ireland are paid by the state : the Catholic clergy of Canada are pro- vided for: the priests of the Hindoos are, I believe, in some of their temples, paid by the Company. You must surely admit that the Catholic religion (the religion of two-thirds of Europe), is better than no religion. I do not regret that the Irish are under the dominion of the priests. I am glad that so savage a people as the lower orders of Irish are under the do- minion of their priests; for it is a step gained to place such beings under any influence, and the clergy are always the first civilizers of man- kind. The Irish are deserted by their natural aristocracy, and I should wish to make their priesthood respectable in their appearance, and easy in their circumstances. A government provision has produced the most important changes in the opinions of the Presbyterian clergy of the north of Ireland, and has changed them from levellers and Jacobins into reasona- ble men ; it would not fail to improve most materially the political opinions of the Catholic priests. This cannot, however, be done, with- out the emancipation of the laity. No priest would dare to accept a salary from government, unless this preliminary was settled. I am aware it would give to government a tremen- dous power in that country; but I must choose the least of two evils. The great point, as phy- sicians say, in some diseases, is to resist the tendency to death. The great object of our day as to prevent the loss of Ireland, aiid the con.se- quent ruin of England ; to obviate the tendency to death ; we will first keep the patient alive, and then dispute about his diet and his medi- cine. Suppose a law were passed, that no clergy- man who had ever held a living in the East Riding, could be made a bishop. Many gentle- men here (who have no hopes of ever being removed from their parishes) would feel the restriction of the law as a considerable degra- dation. We should soon be pointed at as a lower order of clergymen. It would not be long before the common people would find some fortunate epithet for us, and it would not be long either before we should observe in our brethren of the north and west an air of superiority, which would aggravate not a little the justice of the privation. Every man feels the insult thrown upon his caste ; the insulted party falls lower, every body else becomes higher. There are heart-burnings and recollections. Peace flies from that land. The volume of parlia- mentary evidence I have brought here is loaded with the testimony of witnesses of all ranks and occupations, stating to the House of Commons the undoubted effects produced upon the lower order of Catholics by these disqualifying laws, and the lively interest they take in their re- moval. I have seventeen quotations, sir, from this evidence, and am ready to give any gen- tleman my references ; but I forbear to read them, from compassion to my reverend breth- ren, who have trotted many miles to vote against the pope, and who will trot back in the dark, if I attempt to throw additional light upon the subject. I have also, sir, a high-spirited class of gen- tlemen to deal with, who will do nothing from fear, who admit the danger, but think it dis- graceful to act as if they feared it. There is a degree of fear, which destroys a man's faculties, renders him incapable of acting, and makes him ridiculous. There is another sort of fear, which enables a man to foresee a coming evil, to measure it, to examine his powers of resist- ance, to balance the evil of submission against the evils of opposition or defeat, and if he thinks he must be ultimately overpowered, leads him to find a good escape in a good time. I can see no possible disgrace in feeling this sort of fear, and in listening to its suggestions. But it is mere cant to say, that men will not be actuated by fear in such questions as these. Those who pretend not to fear now, would be the first to fear upon the approach of danger ; it is always the case with this distant valour. Most of the concessions which have been given to the Irish have been given to fear. Ireland would have been lost to this country, if the British legisla- ture had not, with all the rapidity and precipi- tation of the truest panic, passed those acts which Ireland did not ask, but demanded in the ^ time of her armed associations. I should not think a man brave, but mad, who did not fear the treasons and rebellions of Ireland in time of war. I should think him not dastardly, but consummately wise, who provided against them in time of peace. The Catholic question has made a greater progress since the opening of this Parliament than I ever remember it to have made, and it has made that progress froija fear 368 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. alone. The House of Commons were aston- ished by the union of ihe Irish Catholics. They saw that Catholic Ireland had discovered her strength, and stretched out her limbs, and felt manly powers, and called for manly treatment ; and the House of Commons wisely and practi- cally yielded to the innovations of time, and the shifting attitude of human affairs. I admit the church, sir, to be in great danger. I am sure the state is so also. My remedy for these evils is, to enter into an alliance with the Irish people — to conciliate the clergy, by giving them pensions — to loyalize the laity, by putting them on a footing with the Protestant. My remedy is the old one, approved of from the beginning of the world, to lessen dangers, by increasing friends, and appeasing enemies. I think it most probable, that under this system of crown patronage, the clergy will be quiet. A Catholic layman, who finds all the honours of the state open to him, will not, I think, run into treason and rebellion — will not live with a rope about his neck, in order to turn our bishops out, and put his own in ; he may not, too, be of opinion that the utility of his bishop will be four times as great, because his income is four times as large ; but whether he is or not, he will never endanger his sweet acres (large mea- sure) for such questions as these. Anti-Trini- tarian Dissenters sit in the House of Com- mons, whom we believe to be condemned to the punishments of another world. There is no limit to the introduction of Dissenters into both houses — Dissenting Lords or Dissenting Commons. What mischief have Dissenters for this last century and a half plotted against the Church of England? The Catholic lord and the Catholic gentleman (restored to their fair rights) will never join with levellers and Ico- noclasts. You will find them defending you hereafter against your Protestant enemies. — The crosier in any hand, the mitre on any head, are more tolerable in the eyes of a Catholic than do;Eological Barebones and tonsured Crom- well. We preach to our congregations, sir, that a tree is known by its fruits. By the fruits it produces I will judge your system. What has it done for Ireland ] New Zealand is emerg- ing — Otaheite is emerging — Ireland is not enierging — she is still veiled in darkness — her children, safe under no law, live in the very shadow of death. Has your system of exclu- sion made Ireland rich 1 Has it made Ireland loyal 1 Has it made Ireland free? Has it made Ireland happy 1 How is the wealth of Ireland proved? Is it by the naked, idle, suf- fering savages, who are slumbering on the mud floor of their cabins ? In what does the loyalty of Ireland consist ? Is it in the eagerness with which they would range themselves under the hostile banner of any invader, for your destruc- tion and for your distress ? Is it liberty when men breathe and move among the bayonets of English soldiers ? Is their happiness and their history any thing but such a tissue of murders, burnings,hanging,famine, and disease, as never existed before in the annals of the world ? — This is the system which, I am sure, with very different intentions, and different views of its effects; you are met this day to uphold. These are the dreadful consequences, which those- laws your petition prays may be continued, have produced upon Ireland. From the prin- ciples of that system, from the cruelty of those laws, I turn, and turn with the homage of my whole heart, to that memorable proclamation which the head of our church — the present mo- narch of these realms — has lately made to his hereditary dominions of Hanover — That no man should be subjected to civil incapacities on account of religious opinions. Sir, there have been many- memorable things done in this reign. Hostile armies have been destroyed ; fleets have been captured ; formidable combinations have been broken to pieces — but this sentiment, in the mouth of a king, deserves more than all glories and victories the notice of that historian who is des- tined to tell to future ages the deeds of the Eng- lish people. I hope he will lavish upon it every gem which glitters in the cabinet of genius, and so uphold it to the world that it will be re- membered when Waterloo is forgotten, and when the fall of Paris is blotted out from the memory of man. Great as it is, sir, this is not the only pleasure I have received in these lat- ter days. I have seen, within these few weeks, a degree of wisdom in our mercantile laws, such superiority to vulgar prejudice, views so just and so profound, that it seemed to me as if I was reading the works of a speculative econo- mist, rather than the improvement of a practical politician, agreed to by a legislative assembly, and upon the eve of being carried into execu- tion, for the benefit of a great people. Let who will be their master, I honour and praise the ministers who have learnt such a lesson. I re- joice that I have lived >o see such an improve- ment in English affairs— that the stubborn resis- tance to all improvement — the contempt of all scientific reasoning, and the rigid adhesion to every stupid error which so long characterized the proceedings of this country, are fast giving away to better things, under better men, placed in better circumstances. I confess it is not without severe pain that, in the midst of all this expansion and improve- ment, I perceive that in our profession we are still calling for the same exclusion — still ask- ing that the same fetters may be riveted on our fellow-creatures — still mistaking what consti- tutes the weakness and misfortune of the church, for that which contributes to its glory, its dignity, and its strength. Sir, there are two petitions at this moment in this house, against two of the wisest and best measures which ever came into the British Parliament, against the impending corn law and against the Catholic emancipation — the one bill intended to increase the comforts, and the other to allay the bad pas- sions of man. — Sir, I am not in a situation of life to do much good, but I will take care that I will not willingly do any evil. — The wealth of the Riding should not tempt me to petition against either of those bills. With the corn bill, I have nothing to do at this time. Of the Catholic emancipation bill, I shall say, that it will be the foundation stone of a lasting religious peace; that it will give to Ireland not all that it wants, but what it most wants, and without which no other boon will be of any avail. When this bill passes, it will be a signal to WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 369 all'the religious sects of that unhappy country I other flag will fly in the land of Erin than that to lay aside their mutual hatred, and to live in flag which blends the lion with the harp — that peace, as equal men should live under equal flag which, wherever it does fly, is the sign of law — when this bill passes, the Orange flag freedom and of joy — the only banner in Europe •will fall — when this bill passes, the Green flag which floats over a limited king and a free of the rebel will fall— when this bill passes, no I people. SPEECH AT THE TAUNTON REFOEM MEETING. Mk. Bailiff, — This is the greatest measure which has ever been before Parliament in my time, and the most pregnant with good or evil to the country ; and though I seldom meddle with political meetings, I could not reconcile it to my conscience to be absent from this. Every year, for this half century, the ques- tion of reform has been pressing upon us, till it has swelled up at last into this great and awful combination ; so that almost every city and every borough in England are at this mo- ment assembled for the same purpose, and are doing the same thing we are doing. It damps the ostentation of argument and mitigates the pain of doubt, to believe (as I believe) that the ineasure is inevitable ; the consequences may be good or bad, but done it must be ; I defy the most determined enemy of popular influence, either now or a little time from now, to prevent a reform in Parliament. Some years ago, by timely concession, it might have been prevent- ed. If members had been granted to Birming- ham, Leeds, and Manchester, and other great towns, as opportunities occurred, a spirit of conciliation would have been evinced, and the people might have been satisfied with a reform, which though remote would have been gi'adual ; but with the customary blindness and insolence of human beings, the day of adversity was for- gotten, the rapid improvement of the people was hot noticed; the object of a certain class * 1 was a sincere friend to reform ; I am so still. It was a great deal too violent — but the only justiiication is, that you cannot reform as you wish, by degrees ; you must avail yourself of the few opportunities that present themselves. The reform carried, it became the business of every honest man to turn it to good, and to see that the people (drunk with their new power) did not ruin our ancient institutions. We have been in considerable danger, and that danger is not over. What alarms me most is the large price paid by both parties for popular favour. The yeomanry were put down : nottiing could be more grossly absurd — the people were rising up against the poor-laws, and such an excellent and permanent force was abolished because they were not deemed a proper force to deal with popular insur- rections. You may just as well object to put out a fire with pond water because pump water is better for the purpose : I say, put out the fire with the first water you can get ; but the truth is, radicals don't like armed yeo- men : they have an ugly homicide appearance. Again, — a million of revenue is given up in the nonsensical penny-post scheme, to please my old, excellent, and universally dissentient friend. Noah Warburton. I ad- mirethe whig ministry, and think they have done more good things tlian all the ministries since the Revolu- tion ; but these concessions are sad and unworthy marks of weakness, and fill reasonable men with just alarm. All this folly has taken place since they have become ministers upon principles of chivalry and gal- lantry ; and the tories, too, for fear of the people, have been much too quiet. There is only one principle of public conduct — Do what you think ri^ht, and take place and power as an accident. Upon any other plan, office is ehabbiness, labour, and sorrow. 47 of politicians was to please the court and to gratify their own arrogance by treating every attempt to expand the representation, and to increase the popular influence, with every spe- cies. of contempt and obloquy: the golden op- portunity was lost ; and now proud lips must swallow bitter potions. The arguments and the practices (as I fe- member to have heard Mr. Huskisson say), ^ which did very well twenty years ago, will not * do now. The people read too much, think too much, see too many newspapers, hear too many speeches, have their eyes too intensely fixed upon political events. But if it was pos- sible to put off" parliamentary reform a week ago, is it possible nowl When a monarch (whose amiable and popular manners have, I verily believe, saved us from a revolution) ap- proves the measure — when a minister of exalt- ed character plans and fashions it — when a cabinet of such varied talent and disposition protects it — when such a body of the aristocra- cy vote for it — when the h'^ndred-horse power of the press is labouring lor it ; — who does not know, after this, (whatever be the decision of the present Parliament,) that the measure is virtually carried — and that all the struggle between such annunciation of such a plan, and its completion, is tumult, disorder, disaf- fection, and (it may be) political ruin 1 An honourable member of the honourable house, much connected with this town, and once its representative, seems to be amazingly surprised, and equally dissatisfied, at this com- bination of king, ministers, nobles, and people, .> against his opinion: — like the gentleman who came home from serving on a jury very much disconcerted, and complaining he had met with eleven of the most obstinate people he had ever seen in his life, whom he found it absolutely impossible by the strongest arguments to bring over to his way of thinking. They tell you, gentlemen, that you have grown rich and powerful with these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with them, or to alter a constitution which had pro- duced such happy efiects. There happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a labour- ing man, of very superior character and under- standing to his fellow-labourers ; and who has made such good use of that superiority, that he has saved what is (for his station in life) a very considerable sum of money, and if his existence is extended to the common period, he will die rich. It happens, however, that he is (and long has been) troubled with violent stomachic pains, for which he has hitherto ob- ^70 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. tained no relief, and which really are the bane and torment of his life. Now, if my excellent labourer were to send for a physician, and to consult him respecting this malady, would it not be very singular language if our doctor were to say to him, "My good friend, you sure. ly will not be so rash as to attempt to get rid of these pains in your stomach. Have you not grown rich with these pains in your stomach? have you not risen under them from poverty to prosperity ? has not your situation, since you were first attacked, been improving every year 1 You surely will not be so foolish and so indis- creet as to part with the pains in your sto- juachl" — Why, what would be the answer of the rustic to this nonsensical monition 1 " Mon- ster of rhubarb ! (he would say) I am not rich in consequence of the pains in my stomach, but in spite of the pains in my stomach ; and I should have been ten times richer, and fifty times happier, if I had never had any pains in my stomach at all." Gentlemen, these rotten boroughs are your pains in the stomach — and you would have been a much richer and greater people if you had never had them at all. Your wealth and your power have been owing, not to the debased and corrupted parts of the House of Commons, but to the many inde- pendent and honourable members whom it has always contained within its walls. If there had been a few more of these very valuable members for close boroughs, we should, I verily believe, have been by this time about as free as Denmark, Sweden, or the Germanized states of Italy. They tell you of the few men of name and character who have sat for boroughs ; but no- thing is said of those mean and menial men who are sent down every day by their aristo- cratic masters to continue unjust and unneces- sary wars, to prevent inquiring into profligate expenditure, to take money out of your pock- ets, or to do any other bad or base thing which the minister of the day may require at their unclean hands. What mischief, it is asked, have these boroughs done 1 I believe there is not a day of your lives in which you are not suffering in all the taxed commodities of life from the accumulation of bad votes of bad men. But, Mr. Bailiff, if this loere otherwise, if it really were a great political invention, that cities of 100,000 men should have no repre- sentatives, because those representatives were wanted for political ditches, political walls, and political parks ; that the people .should be bought and sold like any other commodity; Ihat a retired merchant should be able to go into the market and buy ten shares in the go- vernment of twenty millions of his fellow- subjects ; yet can such asseverations be made openly before the people? Wise men, men conversant with human affairs, may whisper ^ such theories to each other in retirement; but ■^ can the people ever be taught that it is right they should be bought and sold ? Can the ve- hemence of eloquent democrats be met with such arguments and theories ? Can the doubts of honest and limited men be met by such ar- guments and theories? The moment such a government is looked at by all the people it is lost. It is impossible to explain, defend, and recommend it to the mass of mankind. And true enough it is, that as often as misfortune threatens us at home, or imitation excites us from abroad, political reform is clamored for by the people — there it stands, and ever will stand, in the, apprehension of the multitude — reform, the cure of every evil — corruption, the source of every misfortune — famine, defeat, decayed trade, depressed agriculture, will all lapse into the question of reform. Till that question is set at rest (and it may be set at rest), all will be disaffection, tumult, and per- haps (which God avert!) destruction. But democrats and agitators (and democrats and agitators there are in the world), will not be contented with this reform. Perhaps not, sir; I never hope to content men whose game is never to be contented — but if they are not contented, I am sure their discontent will then comparatively be of little importance. I am afraid of them now; I have no arguments to answer them : but I shall not be afraid of them after this bill, and would tell them boldly, in the middle of their mobs, that there was no longer cause for agitation and excitement, and that they were intending wickedly to the peo- ple. You may depend upon it such a measure would destroy their trade, as the repeal of du- ties would destroy the trade of the smuggler; their functions would be carried on faintly, and with little profit; you would soon feel that your position was stablfe, solid, and safe. All would be well, it is urged, if they would but let the people alone. But what chance is there,-I demand, of these wise politicians, that the people will ever be let alone ; that the ora- tor will lay down his craft, and the demagogue forget his cunning ? If many things were let alone, which never will be let alone, the aspect of human affairs would be a little varied. If the winds would let the waves alone, there would be no storms. If gentlemen would let ladies alone, there would be no unhappy mar- riages, and deserted damsels. If persons who can reason no better than this, would leave speaking alone, the school of eloquence might be improved. I have little hopes, however, of witnessing any of these acts of forbearance, particularly the last, and so we must (however foolish it may appear), proceed to make laws for a people who, we are sure, will not be let alone. We might really imagine, from the objec- tions made to the plan of reform, that the great mass of Englishmen were madmen, robbers, and murderers. The kingly power is to be de- stroyed, the House of Lords is to be annihilat- ed, the church is to be ruined, estates are to be confiscated. I am quite at a loss to find in these perpetrators of crimes — in this mass of pillagers and lunatics — the steady and respect- able tradesmen and farmers, who will have votes to confer, and the steady and respectable country gentlemen, who will probably have votes to receive ; — it may be true of the trades- men of Mauritania, it may be just of the coun- try gentlemen of Fez — it is any thing but true of the English people. The English are a tranquil, phlegmatic, money-loving, money-get- ting people, who want to be quiet — and would be quiet if they were not surrounded by evils WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 371 of such magnitude, that it would be baseness | ment : and to put an end to these enormous abuses is called corporation robbery, and there are some persons wild enough to talk of com- pensation. This principle of compensation you will consider perhaps in the following in- stance to have been carried as far as sound discretion permits. When I was a young man, the place in England I remember as most no- torious for highwaymen and their exploits was Finchley Common, near the metropolis ; but Finchley Common, gentlemen, in the progress of improvement, came to be enclosed, and the highwaymen lost by these means the opportu- nity of exercising their gallant vocation. I remember a friend of mine proposed to draw- up for them a petition to the House of Com- mons for compensation, which ran in this man- ner— "We, your loyal highwaymen of Finch- ley Common, and its neighbourhood, having, at great expense, laid in a stock of blunder- busses, pistols, and othet instruments for plun- dering the public, and finding ourselves impeded in the exercise of our calling by the said en- closure of the said Common of Finchley, humbly petition your honourable house will be pleased to assign to us such compensation as your honourable house in its wisdom and jus- tice may think fit." Gentlemen, I must leave the application to you. An honourable baronet says, if Parliament and pusillanimity not to oppose to them the strongest constitutional resistance. Then it is said that there is to be a lack of talent in the new Parliament: it is to be com- . posed of ordinary and inferior persons, who will bring the government of the country into contempt. But the best of all talents, gentle- ■ men, is to conduct our affairs honestly, dili- gently, and economically — and this talent will, I am sure, abound as much in the new Parlia- ment as in many previous parliaments. Par- liament is not a school for rhetoric and decla- mation, where a stranger would go to hear a speech, as he would go to the opera to hear a song ; but if it were otherwise — if eloquence be a necessary ornament of, and an indispen- sable adj unct to, popular assemblies — can it ever be absent from popular assemblies ? I have always found that all things moral or physical grow in the soil best suited for them. Show me a deep and tenacious earth — and I am sure the oak will spring up in it. In a low and damp soil I am equally certain of the alder and the willow^ Gentlemen, the free Parliament of a free people is the native soil of eloquence — and in that soil will it ever flourish and abound — there it will produce those intellectual effects which drive before them whole tribes and na- tions of the human race, and settle the desti- nies of man. And, gentlemen, if a few persons is dissolved, I will go to my borough with the of a less elegant and aristocratic description were to become members of the House of Com- mons, where would be the evil 1 They would probably understand the common people a great deal better, and in this way the feelings and interests of all classes of people would be better represented. The House of Commons, thus organized, will express more faithfully the opinions of the people. The people are sometimes, it is urged, gross- ly mistaken ; but are kings never mistaken 1 Are the higher orders never mistaken 1 — never "wilfully corrupted by their own interests 1 The people have at least this superiority, that they always intend to do what is right. The argument of fear is very easily disposed of: he who is afraid of a knock on the head or a cut on the cheek is a coward ; he who is afraid of entailing greater evils on the country by refusing the remedy than by applying it, and who acts in pursuance of that conviction, is a wise and prudent man — nothing can be more different than personal and political fear ; it is the artifice of our opponents to confound them together. The right of disfranchisement, gentlemen, must exist somewhere, and where but in Par- liament 1 If not, how was the Scotch union, how was the Irish union, effected 1 The Duke of Wellington's administration disfranchised at one blow 200,000 Irish voters — for no fault of theirs, and for no other reason than the best of all reasons, that public expediency required it. These very same politicians are now look- ing in an agony of terror at the disfranchise- ment of corporations containing twenty or thirty persons, sold to their representatives, who are themselves perhaps sold to the govern- bill in my hand, and will say, "I know of no crime you have committed, I found nothing proved against you : I voted against the bill, and am come to fling myself upon your kind- ness, with the hope that my conduct will be approved, and that you will return me again to Parliament." That honourable baronet may, perhaps, receive from his borough an answer he little expects — "We are above being bribed by such a childish and unworthy artifice ; we do not choose to consult our own interest at the expense of the general peace and happi- ness of the country; we are thoroughly con- vinced a reform ought to take place; we are very willing to sacrifice a privilege we ought never to have possessed to the good of the community, and we will return no one to Par- liament who is not deeply impressed with the same feeling." This I hope is the answer that gentleman will receive, and this, I hope, will be the noble and generous feeling of every bo- rough in England. The greater part of human improvements, gentlemen, I am sorry to say, are made after war, tumult, bloodshed, and civil commotion: mankind seem to object to every species of gratuitous happiness, and to consider every advantage as too cheap, which is not purchased by some calamity. I shall esteem it as a sin- gular act of God's providence, if this great nation, guided by these warnings of history, not waiting till tumult for reform, nor trusting reform to the rude hands of the lowest of the people, shall amend their decayed institutions at a period when they are ruled by a popular monarch, guided by an upright minister, and blest with profound peace. 372 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. SPEECH AT TAUNTON. Mb. Chairmaw, — I am particularly happy to assist on this occasion, because I think that the accession of the present king is a marked and important era in English history. Another coronation has taken place since T have been in the world, but I never assisted at its celebra- tion. I saw in it a change of masters, not a change of system. I did not understand the joy which it occasioned. I did not feel it, and I did not counterfeit what I did not feel. I think very differently of the accession of his present majesty. I believe I see in that acces- sion a great probability of serious improvement, and a great increase of public happiness. The evils which have been long complained of by bold and intelligent men are now universally admitted. The public feeling, which has been so often appealed to, is now intensely excited. The remedies which have so often been called for are now at last vigorously, wisely and faith- fully applied. I admire, gentlemen, in the pre- sent king, his love of peace — I admire in him his disposition to economy, and I admire in him, above all, his faithful and honorable con- duct to those who happen to be his ministers. He was, I believe, quite as faithful to the Duke of Wellington as to Lord Grey, and would, I have no doubt, be quite as faithful to the politi- cal enemies of Lord Grey (if he thought fit to employ them), as he is to Lord Grey himself. There is in this reign, no secret influence, no double ministry — on whomsoever he confers the office, to him he gives that confidence with- out which the office cannot be holden with honour, nor executed with effect. He is not only a peaceful king, and an economical king, but he is an honest king. So far, I believe, every individual of this company will go with me. There is another topic of eulogium, on which, before I sit down, I should like to say a few words — I mean the willingness of our present king to investigate abuses and to re- form them. If this subject is not unpleasant, I will offer upon it a very few observations — a few, because the subject is exhausted, and be- cause, if it were not, I have no right, from my standing or my situation in this county, to de- tain you long upon that or any other subject. In criticising this great question of reform, I think there is some injustice done to its authors. Men seem to suppose that a minister can sit down and make a plan of reform with as much ease and as much exactness, and with as com- plete a gratification of his own will, as an architect can do in building or altering a house. But a minister of state (it should be in justice observed), works in the midst of hatred, injus- tice, violence, and the Avorst of human passions — his works are not the works of calm and unembarrassed wisdom — they are not the best that a dreamer of dreams can imagine. It is enough if they are the best plans which the passions, parties, and prejudices of the times in which he acts will permit. In passing are- form bill, the minister overthrows the long and deep interest which powerful men have in existing abuses — he subjects himself to the deepest hatred, and encounters the bitterest op- position. Auxiliaries he must have, and auxili- aries he can only find among the people^ — not the mob — but the great mass of those who have opinions worth hearing, and property worth de- fending — a greater mass, I am happy to say, in this country than exists in any other country on the face of the earth. Now, before the mid- dling orders will come forward with one great impulse, they must see that something is of- fered them worth the price of contention ; they must see that the object is great and the gain serious. If you call them in at all, it must not be to displace one faction at the expense of another, but to put down all factions — to sub- stitute puritj' and principle for corruption — to give to the many that political power which the few have unjustly taken to themselves — to get i-id of evils so ancient and so vast that any other arm than the public arm would be lifted- up against them in vain. This, then, I say, is one of the reasons why ministers have be«i compelled to make their measures a little more vigorous and decisive than a speculative phi- losoper, sitting in his closet, might approve of. They had a mass of opposition to contend with which could be encountered only by a general exertion of public spirit — they had a long-suf- fering and an often deceived public to appeal to, who were determined to suffer no longer, and to be deceived no more. The alternative was to continue the ancient abuses, or to do what they have done — and most firmly do I be- lieve that you and I, and the latest posterity of us all, will rejoice in the decision they have made. Gradation has been called for in re- form : we might, it is said, have taken thirty or forty years to have accomplished what we have done in one year. ' It is not so much the mag- nitude of what you are doing we object to, as the suddenness.' But was not gradation ten- dered ] Was it not said by the friends of re- form — 'Give us Birmingham and Manchester, and we will be satisfied?' and what was the answer 1 ' No Manchester, no Birmingham, no reform in any degree — all abuses as they are — all perversions as we found them — the corruptions which our fathers bequeathed us we will hand down unimpaired and unpurified to our children.' But I would say to the gra- duate philosopher,—' How often does a reform- ing minister occur V and if such are so com- mon that you can command them when you please, how often does a reforming monarch occur 1 and how often does the conjunction occur 1 Are you sure that a people, bursting into new knowledge, and speculating on every public event, will wait for your protracted re- form ? Strike while the iron is hot — up with the arm, and down with the hammer, and up again with the arm, and down again with the hammer. The iron is hot — the opportunity exists now — if you neglect it, it may not return for an hundred years to come. There is an argument I have often heard, and WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 37» that is this — Are we to be afraid ? — is this mea- sure to be carried by intimidation 1 — is the House of Lords to be overawed ? But this style of argument proceeds from confounding together two sets of feelings which are entirely distinct — personal fear and political fear. If I am afraid of voting against this bill, because a mob may gather about the house of Lords — because stones may be flung at my head — be- cause my house may be attacked by a mob, I am a poltroon, and unfit to meddle with public affairs ; but I may rationally be afraid of pro- ducing great public agitation — I may be honour- ably afraid of flinging people into secret clubs and conspiracies — I may be wisely afraid of making the aristocracy hateful to the great body of the people. This surely has no more to do with fear than a loose identity of name ; it is in fact prudence of the highest order; the delibe- rate reflection of a wise man who does not like what he is going to do, but likes still less the consequence of not doing it, and who, of two evils, chooses the least. There are some men much afraid of what is to happen : my lively hope of good is, I con- fess, mingled with very little apprehension, but of one thing I must be candid enough to say that I am much afraid, and that is of the opinion now increasing, that the people are become in- different to reform ; and of that opinion I am afraid, because I believe in an evil hour it may lead some misguided members of the upper house of Parliament to vote against the bill. As for the opinion itself, I hold it in the utmost I I contempt. The people are waiting in virtuous patience for the completion of the bill, because they know it is in the hands of men who do not mean to deceive them. 1 do not believe they have given up one atom of reform — I do not believe that a great people were ever before so firmly bent upon any one measure. I put it to any man. of common sense, whether he believes it possi- ble, after the king and Parliament have acted as they have done, that the people will ever be content with much less than the present bill contains. If a contrary principle is acted upon, and the bill attempted to be got rid of altogether, I confess I tremble for the consequences, which I believe will be of the worst and most painful description; and this I say deliberately, after the most diligent and extensive inquiry. — Upon that diligent inquiry I repeat again my firm conviction, that the desire of reform has increased, not diminished ; that the present re- pose is not indifference, but the calmness of victory, and the tranquillity of success. When I see all the wishes and appetites of created beings changed, when I see an eagle, that after long confinement, has escaped into the air, come back to his cage and his chains, — when I see the emancipated negro asking again for the hoe which has broken down his strength, and the lash which has tortured his body, I will then, and not till then, believe that the English people will return to their ancient degradation — that they will hold out their repentant hands for those manacles which at this moment lay broken into links at their feet. SPEECH AT TAUNTON. [From the " Taunton CotjEiER" of October 12th, 1831.] Thk Reverenb Stdnet Smith rose and said : — Mr. Bailiff, I have spoken so often on this subject, that I am sure both you and the gen- tlemen here present will be obliged to me for saying but little, and that favour I am as will- ing to confer, as you can be to receive it. I feel most deeply the event which has taken place, because, by putting the two houses of Parliament in collision with each other, it will impede the public business, and diminish the public prosperity. I feel it as a churchman, because I cannot but blush to see so many dig- nitaries of the church arrayed against the wishes and happiness of the people. I feel it more than all, because I believe it will sow the seeds of deadly hatred between the aristocracy and the great mass of the people. The loss of the bill I do not feel, and for the best of all possible reasons — because I have not the slightest idea that it is lost. I have no more doubt, before the expiration of the winter, that this bill will pass, than I have that the annual tax bills will pass, and greater certainty than this no man can have, for Franklin tells us, there are but two things certain in this world — death and taxes. As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing ere long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion that ever entered into human imagination. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the lords to stop the progress of reform, reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Part- ington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town — the tide rose to an incredible height — the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Part- ington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Part- ington's spirit was up ; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excel- lent at a slop, or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease — be quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington. They tell you, gentlemen, in the debates by which we have been lately occupied, that the bill is not justified by experience. I do not 2 I sm WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. think this true, but if it were true, nations are sometimes compelled to act without experience for their guide, and to trust to their own saga- city for the anticipation of consequences. The instances where this country has been compel- led thus to act have been so eminently success-: ful, that I see no cause for fear, even if we were acting in the manner imputed to us by our enemies. What precedents and what experi- ence were there at the Reformation, when the country, with one unanimous elfon, pushed out the pope, and his grasping and ambitious cler- gy 1 — What experience, when, at the Revolu- tion, we drove away our ancient race of kings, and chose another family more congenial to our free principles 1 — And yet to those two events, contrary to experience, and unguided by precedents, we owe all our domestic happi- ness, and civil and religious freedom — and having got rid of corrupt priests and despotic kings, by our sense and our courage, are we now to be intimidated by the awful danger of extinguishing boroughmongers, and shaking from our necks the ignominious yoke which their baseness has imposed upon us 1 Go on, they say, as you have done for these hundred years last past. I answer, it is impossible — five hundred people now write and read where one hundred wrote and read fifty years ago. The iniquities and enormities of the borough system are now known to the meanest of the people. You have a different sort of men to deal with — you must change because the beings whom you govern are changed. After all, and to be short, I must say that it has always ap- peared to me to be the most absolute nonsense that we cannot be a great, or a rich and happy nation, without suffering ourselves to be bought and sold every five years like a pack of negro slaves. I hope I am not a very rash man, but I would launch boldly into this experiment without any fear of consequences, and I believe there is not a man here present who would not cheerfully embark with me. As to the enemies of the bill, who pretend to be reformers, I know them, I believe, better than you do, and I ear- nestly caution you against them. You will have no more of reform than they are compelled to grant — you will have no reform at all, if they can avoid it — you will be hurried into a war ta turn your attention from reform. They do not understand you — they will not believe in the improvement you have made — they think the English of the present day are as the English of the times of Queen Anne or George the First, They know no more of the present state of their own country, than of the state o-f the Esquimaux Indians. Gentlemen, I view the ignorance of the present state of the country with the most serious concern, and I believe they will one day or another waken into conviction with horror and dismay. I will omit no means of rousing them to a sense of their danger ; for this object I cheerfully sign the petition proposed by Dr. Kinglake, which I consider to be the wisest and most moderate of the two. SPEECH BY THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Stick to the bill — it is your Magna Chafta, and your Runnymede. King John made a pre- sent to the barons. King William has made a similar present to you. Never mind, common qualities good in common times. If a man does not vote for the bill he is unclean — the plague-spot is upon him ; push him into the lazaretto of the last century, with Wetherell and Saddler ; purify the air before you approach him ; bathe your hands in chloride of lime, if you have been contaminated by his touch. So far from its being a merely theoretical improvement, I put it to any man, who is him- self embarked in a profession, or has sons in the same situation, if the unfair iniiuence of boroughmongers has not perpetually thwarted him in his lawful career of ambition, and pro- fessional emolument] "I have been in three general engagements at sea," said an old sailor — " have been twice wounded ; — I commanded the boats when the French frigate, the Astbo- LABE, was cut out SO gallantly." "Then you are made a post captain 1" " No. I was very near it ; but — Lieutenant Thomson cut me out, as I cut out the French frigate ; his father is town clerk of the borough of which Lord F is member, and there my chance was finished." In the same manner, all over England, you will find great scholars rotting on curacies — brave captains starving in garrets — profound lawyers decayed and mouldering in the inns of court, because the parsons, warriors, and advocates of boroughmongers must be crammed to saturation, before there is a morsel of bread for the man who does not sell his votes, and put his country up to auction ; and though this is of every day occurrence, the borough system, we are told, is no practical evil. Who can bear to walk through a slaughter- house 1 blood, garbage, stomachs, entrails, legs, tails, kidneys, horrors — I often walk a mile about to avoid it. What a scene of disgust and horror is an election — the base and infamous traffic of principles — a candidate of high cha- racter reduced to such means — the perjury and evasion of agents — the detestable rapacity of voters — the ten days' dominion of mammon and Belial. The bill lessens it — begins the destruction of such practices — affords some chance, and some means of turning public opinion against bribery, and of rendering it in- famous. But the thing I cannot, and will not bear, is this; — what right has this lord, or that marquis, to buy ten seats in Parliament, in the shape of boroughs, and then to make laws to govern me T And how are these masses of power re-distri- buted 1 The eldest son of my lord is just come from Eton — he knows a good deal about ^neas, and Dido, Apollo, and Daphne — and that is all; WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 375 and to this boy, his father gives a six hundredth part of the power of making laws, as he would give him a horse, or a double-barreled gun. Then Vellum, the steward, is put in — an admi- rable man; — he has raised the estates — watched the progress of the family road, and canal bills — ^and Vellum shall help to rule over the people of Israel. A neighbouring country gentleman, Mr. Plumpkin, hunts with my lord — opens him a gate or two, while the hounds are running — dines with my lord — agrees with my lord — wishes he could rival the Southdown sheep of my lord — and upon Plumpkin is conferred a portion of the government. Then there is a distant relation of the same name, in the coun- ty militia, with white teeth, who calls up the carriage at the opera, and is always wishing O'Connell was hanged, drawn, and quartered— then a barrister, who has written an article in the Quarterly, and is very likely to speak, and refute M'Culloch ; and these five people, in whose nomination I have no more agency than I have in the nomination of the toll-keepers of the Bosphorus, are to make laws for me and my family — to put their hands in my purse, and to sway the future destinies of this country ; and when the neighbours step in, and beg per- mission to say a few words before these persons are chosen, there is an universal cry of ruin, confusion, and destruction ; — we have become a great people under Vellum and Plumpkin — under Vellum and Plumpkin our ships have covered the ocean — under Vellum and Plump- kin our armies have secured the strength of the hills — to turn out Vellum and Plumpkin is not reform, but revolution. Was there ever such a ministry 1 Was there ever before a real ministry of the people 1 Look at the condition of the country when it was placed in their hands : the state of the house when the incoming tenant took possession : windows broken, cTiimneys on fire, mobs round the house threatening to pull it down, roof tum- bling, rain pouring in. Ii was courage to occu- py it; it was a miracle to save it; it will be the glory of glories to enlarge and expand it, and to make it the eternal palace of wise and temperate freedom. Proper examples have been made among the unhappy and misguided disciples of Swing : a rope had been carried round O'Connell's legs, and a ring inserted in Gobbett's nose. Then the game laws ! ! ! Was ever conduct so shabby as that of the two or three governments which preceded that of Lord Grey 1 The cruelties and enormities of this code had been thoroughly exposed ; and a general conviction existed of the necessity of a change. Bills were brought in by various gentlemen, containing some tri- fling alteration in this abominable code, and even these were sacrificed to the tricks and manoeuvres of some noble Nimrod, who availed himself of the emptiness of the town in July, and flung out the bill. Government never stirred a step. The fulness of the prisons, the wretchedness and demoralization of the poor, never came across them. The humane and considerate Peel never once offered to extend his aegis over them. It had nothing to do with the state of party; and some of their double- barreled voters might be oflended. In the mean time, for every ten pheasants which fluttered in the wood, one English peasant was rotting iu jail. No sooner is Lord Althorp chancellor of the exchequer, than he turns out of the house a trumpery and (perhaps) an insidious bill for the improvement of the game laws ; and in an instant offers the assistance of government for the abolition of the whole code. Then look at the gigantic Brougham, sworn in at 12 o'clock, and before 6, has a bill on the table abolishing the abuses of a court which has been the curse of the people of England for centuries. For twenty-five long years did Lord Eldon sit in that court, surrounded with misery and sorrow, which he never held up a finger to alleviate. The widow and the orphan cried to him as vainly as the town crier cries when he offers a small reward for a full purse ; the bankrupt of the court became the lunatic of the court ; estates mouldered away, and man- sions fell down ; but the fees came in, and all was well. But in an instant the iron mace of Brougham shivered to atoms this house of fraud and of delay ; and this is the man who will help to govern you ; who bottoms his repu- tation on doing good to you ; who knows, that to reform abuses is the safest basis of fame and the surest instrument of power; who uses the highest gifts of reason, and the most splendid efforts of genius, to rectify those abuses, which all the genius and talent of the profession* have hitherto been employed to justify, and to pro- tect. Look to Brougham, and turn you to that side where he waves his long and lean finger; and mark well that face which nature has mark- ed so forcibly — which dissolves pensions — turns jobbers into honest men — scares away the plunderer of the public— and is a terror to him who doeth evil to the people. But, above all, look to the northern earl, victim, before this honest and manly reign, of the spitefulness of the court. You may now, for the first time, learn to trust in the professions of a minister; you are directed by a man who prefers charac- ter to place, and who has given such unequivo- cal proofs of honesty and patriotism, that his 'f image ought to be amongst your household ^ gods, and his name- to be lisped by your chil- M dren ; two thousand years hence it will be a le- M gend like the fable of Perseus and Andromeda; 1| Britannia changed to a mountain — two hundred rotten animals menacing her destruction, till a tall earl, armed with schedule A., and followed by his page Russell, drives them into the deep, and delivers over Britannia in safety to crowds of ten-pound renters, who deafen the air with their acclamations. Forthwith, Latin verses upon this — school exercises — boys whipt, and all the usual absurdities of education. Don't part with an administration composed of Lord Grey and Lord Brougham; and not only these, but look at them all — the mild wisdom of Lans- downe — the genius and extensive knowledge of Holland, in whose bold and honest life there is no varying or shadow of change — the unexpect- ed and exemplary activity of Lord Melbourne — and the rising parliamentary talents of Stan- ley. You are ignorant of your best interests, * Lord Lyndliurst is an exception ; I firmly believe he had no wish to perpetuate the abuses of the Court of Chancery. an WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. if every vote you can bestow is not given to such a ministry as this. You will soon find an alteration of behaviour in the upper orders when elections become real. You will find that you are raised to the importance to which you ought to be raised. The merciless ejector, the rural tyrant, will be restrained within the limits of decency and hu- manity, and will improve their own characters, at the same time that they better your condition. It is not the power of aristocracy that will be destroyed by these measures, but the unfair power. If the Duke of Newcastle is kind and obliging to his neighbours, he will probably lead his neighbours ; if he is a man of sense, he will lead them more certainly, and to a better purpose. All this is as it should be ; but the ^ Duke of Newcastle, at present, by buying cer- tain old houses, could govern his neighbours, and legislate for them, even if he had not five grains of understanding, and if he were the most churlish and brutal man under heaven. The present slate of things renders unnecessary all those important virtues, which rich and well- born men, under a better system, would exer- cise for the public good. The Duke of New- castle (I mention him only as an instance,) Lord Exeter will do as well, but either of those noblemen, depending not upon walls, arches, and abutments, for their power— but upon mer- cy, charity, forbearance, indulgence, and exam- ple — would pay this price, and lead the people by their affections ; one would be the god of Stamford, and the other of Newark. This union of the great with the many is the real healthy state of a country; such a country is strong to invincibility — and this strength the borough system entirely destroys. Cant words creep in, and affect quarrels ; the changes are rung between revolution and re- form ; but, first settle whether a wise govern- ment ought to attempt the measure — whether any thing is wanted — whether less would do — and, having settled this, mere nomenclature becomes of very little consequence. But, after all, if it is revolution, and not reform, it will only induce me to receive an old political toast, in a twofold meaning, and with twofold pleasure. ^, When King William and the great and glorious 11^' '^ Revolution are given, I shall think not only of ■ -> escape from bigotry, but exemption from cor- ruption ; and I shall thank Providence, which has given us a second King William for the destruction of vice, as the other, of that name, was given us for the conservation of freedom. All formal political changes, proposed by these very men, it is said, were mild and gentle, compared to this ; true, but are you on Satur- day night to seize your apothecary by the throat, and to say to him, " Subtle compounder, frau- dulent posologist, did not you order me a drachm of this medicine on Monday morning, and now you declare that nothing short of an ounce can do me any good V " True enough," would he of the phials reply, " biol you did not take the drachm on Monday morning — that makes all the differ- ence, my dear sir ; if you had done as I advised you at first, the small quantity of medicine would have sufficed; and instead of being in a night-gown and slippers up stairs, you would have been walking vigorously in Piccadilly. Do as you please — and die if you please ; but don't blame me because you despised my advice, and by your own ignorance and obstinacy have ea- tailed upon yourself tenfold rhubarb, and unli- mited infusion of senna." Now see the consequences of having a manly leader, and a manly cabinet. Suppose ihey had come out with a little ill-fashoned seven months' reform ; what would have been the con- sequence 1 The same opposition from the to- nes — that would have been quite certain — and not a single reformer in England satisfied with the measure. You have now a real reform, and a fair share of power delegated to the people. The anti-reformers cite the increased power of the press — this is the very reason why I want an increased power in the House of Commons. The Times, Herald, Advertiser, Globe, Sun, Courier, and Chronicle, are an heptarchy, which govern this country, and govern it be- cause the people are so badly represented. I am perfectly satisfied, that with a fair and ho- nest House of Commons the power of the press would diminish — and that the greatest authority would centre in the highest place. Is it possible for a gentleman to get into Parliament, at present, without doing things he is utterly ashamed of — without mixing himself up with the lowest and basest of mankind? Hands, accustomed to the scented lubricity of soap, are defiled with pitch, and contaminated with filth. Is there not some inherent vice in a government, which cannot be carried on but with such abominable wickedness, in which no gentleman can mingle without moral degrada- tion ; and the practice of crimes, the very im- putation of which, on other occasions, he would repel at the hazard of his life 1 What signifies a small majority in the house 1 The miracle is, that there should have been any majority at all ; that there was not an im- mense majority on the other side. It was a very long period before the courts of justice in Jersey could put down smuggling; and why! The judges, counsel, attorneys, crier of the court, grand and petty jurymen, were all smug- glers, and the high sheriff and the constable were running goods every moonlight night. How are you to do without a government? And what other government, if this bill is ulti- mately lost, could possibly be found 1 How could any country defray the ruinous expense of protecting with troops and constables, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, who literally would not be able to walk from the Horse Guards to Grosvenor Square, without two or three regiments of foot to screen them from the mob ; and in these hollow squares the hero of Waterloo would have to spend his po- litical life. By the whole exercise of his splen- did military talents, by strong batteries at Bootle's, and White's, he might, on nights of great debate, reach the House of Lords ; but Sir Robert would probably be cut ofi", and nothing could save his Twist and Lewis. The great majority of persons returned by the new boroughs would either be men of high reputation for talents, or persons of fortune known in the neighborhood ; they have pro- perty and character to lose. Why are they to plunge into mad and revolutionary projects of WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 377 pillaging the public creditor! It is not the in- terest of any such man to do it ; he would lose more by the destruction of public credit thau what he would gain by a remission of what he paid for the interest of the public debt. And if it is not the interest of anyone to act in this manner, it is not the interest of the mass. How many, also, of these new legislators would there be, who were not themselves creditors of the stale 1 Is it the interest of such men to create a revolution, by destroying the constitutional power of the House of Lords, or of the king 1 Does there exist in persons of that class, any disposition for such changes 1 Are not all feelings, and opinions, and prejudices, on the opposite side ? The majority of the new mem-, bers will be landed gentlemen : their genus is utterly distinct from the revolutionary tribe; they have molar teeth ; they are destitute of the carnivorous and incisive jaws of political ad- venturers. There will be mistakes at first, as there are in all changes. All young ladies will imagine (as soon as this bill is carried) that they will be instantly married. Schoolboys believe that gerunds and supines will be abolished, and that currant tarts must ultimately come down in price ; the corporal and sergeant are sure of double pay ; bad poets will expect a demand for their epics ; fools will be disappointed, as they always are ; reasonable men, who know what to expect, will find that a very serious good has been obtained. What good to the hewer of wood and the drawer of water 1 How is he benefited, if Old Sarum is abolished, and Birmingham members created! But if you ask this question of reform, you must ask it of a great number of other mea- sures. How is he benefited by Catholic emanci- pation, by the repeal of the Corporation and Test Act, by the Revolution of 168S, by any great po- litical change 1 by a good government ? In the firstplace, if many are benefited, and the lower orders are not injured, this alone is reason enough for the change. But the hewer of wood and the drawer of water are benefited by reform. Reform will produce economy and investiga- tion ; there will be fewer jobs, and a less lavish expenditure ; wars will not be persevered in for years after the people are tired of them ; taxes will be taken off" the poor and laid upon the rich : democratic habits will be more common in a country where the rich are forced to court the poor for political power; cruel and oppressive punishments (such as those for night poaching), will be abolished. If you steal a pheasant, you will be punished as you ought to be, but not sent away from your wife and children for seven years. Tobaccowillbe2f/. per lb. cheaper. Can- dles will fall in price. These last results of an improved government will be felt. We do not pretend to abolish poverty or to prevent wretch- edness ; but if peace, economy, and justice are the results of reform, a number of small bene- fits, or rather of benefits which appear small to us but not to them, will accrue to millions of people ; and the connection between the exis- tence of John Russell, and ihe reduced price of bread and cheese, will be as clear as it has been the object of his honest, wise, and useful life to make it. 48 Don't be led away by such nonsense ; all things are dearer under a bad government, and cheaper under a good one. The real question they ask you is. What difierence can any change of government make to youl They want to keep the bees from buzzing and sting- ing, in order that they may rob the hive iu peace. Work well ! How does it work well, when every human being in doors and out (except the Duke of Wellington), says it must be made to work better, or it will soon cease to work at all 1 It is little short of absolute nonsense to call a government good, which the great mass of Englishmen would before twenty years were elapsed, if reform were denied, rise up and destroy. Of what use have all the cruel laws been of' Perceval, Eldon, and Casllereagh, to extinguish reform 1 Lord John Russell and his abettors, would have been committed to jail twenty years ago for half only of his present reform ; and now relays of the people would drag them from London to Edinburgh ; at which latter city we are told by Mr. Dumlas, that there is no eagerness for reform. Five minutes before Moses struck the rock, this gentleman would have said that there was no eagerness for water. There are two methods of making altera- tions : the one is to despise the applicants, to begin with refusing every concession, then to relax by making concessions which are always too late ; by offering in 1831 what is then tor. late, but would have been cheerfully accepted in 18.% — gradually to O'Connellize the country, till at last, after this process has gone on for some time, the alarm becomes too great, and every thing is conceded in hurry and confusion. In the mean time fresh conspiracies have been hatched by the long delay, and no gratitude is expressed for what has been extorted by fear. In this way, peace was concluded with America, and emancipation granted to the Catholics ; and in this way the war of complexion will be finished in the West Indies. The other method is, to see at a distance that the thing must be done, and to do it effectually, and at once ; to take it out of the hands of the common people, and to carry the measure in a manly liberal manner, so as to satisfy the great majority.— The merit of this belongs to the administration of Lord Grey. He is the only minister I know of who has begun a great measure in good time, conceded at the beginning of twenty years what would have been extorted at the end of it, and prevented that folly, violence, and ignorance, which emanate from a long de- nial and extorted concession of justice to great masses of human beings. I believe the question of reform, or any dangerous agitation of it, is set at rest for thirty or forty years ; and this is an eternity in politics. Boroughs are not the power proceeding from wealth. Many men, who have no boroughs, are • infinitely richer than those who have — but it is the artifice of wealth in seizing hold of certain localities. The boroughmonger is like rheuma- tism, which oM'es its power not so much to the' intensity of the pain as to its peculiar position ; a little higher up, or a little lower down, the same pain would be trifling ; but it fixes in the joints, and gets into the head-quarters of 2i2 378 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. motion and activit}'. The boroiighmonger knows the importance of arthritic positions; be disdains muscle, gets into the joints, and lords it over the whole machine by felicity of place. Other men are as rich — but those riches are not fixed in the critical spot. I live a good deal with all ranks and descrip- tions of people ; I am thoroughly convinced that the party of democrats and republicans is very small and contemptible ; that the English love their institutions — that they love not only this king, (who would not love him 1) but the kingly office — that they have no hatred to the aristocracy. I am not afraid of trusting Eng- lish happiness to English gentlemen. I believe that the half million of new voters will choose much better for the public than the twenty or thirty peers, to whose usurped power they suc- ceed. If any man doubts the power of reform, let him take these two memorable proofs of its omnipotence. First, but for the declaration against it, I believe the Duke of Wellington might this day have been in office ; and, se- condl}% in the whole course of the debates at county meetings, and in Parliament, there are not twenty men who have declared against re- form. Some advance an inch, some a foot, some a yard — but nobody stands still — nobody says. We ought to remain just where we were — every body discovers that he is a reformer, and has long been so — and appears infinitely delighted with this new view of himself No- body appears without the cockade — bigger or less — but always the cockade. An exact and elaborate census is called for — vast information should have been laid upon the table of the House — great time should have been given for deliberation. All these objec- tions, being turned into English, simply mean, that the chances of another year should have been given for defeating the bill. In that time the Poles maybe crushed, the Belgians organ- ized, Louis Philip dethroned ; war may rage all over Europe — the popular spirit may be diverted to other objects. It is certainly pro- voking that the ministry foresaw all these pos- sibilities, and determined to model the iron while it was red and glowing. It is not enough that a political institution works well practically : it must be defensible ; it must be such as will bear discussion, and not excite ridicule and contempt. It might work well for aught I know, if, like the savages of Onelashka, we sent out to catch a king : but 1 who could defend a coronation by chase 1 who I can defend tlie payment of 40,000/. for the three-hundredth part of the power of Parlia- ment, and the re-sale of this power to govern- ment for places to the Lord Williams, and Lord Charles's, and others of the Anglophagi 1 Teach a million of the common people to read — and such a government (work it ever so well) must perish in twenty years. It is im- possible to persuade the mass of mankind, that there are not other and better methods of go- verning a country. It is so complicated, so wicked, such envy and hatred accumulate against the gentlemen who have fixed them- selves on the joints, that it cannot fail to perish, and to be driven as it is driven from the coun- try, by a general burst of hatred and detesta- tion. I meant, gentlemen, to have spoken for another half-hour, but I am old and tired. Thank me for ending — but, gentlemen, bear with me for another moment ; one word before I end. I am old, but I thank God I have lived to see more than my observations on human nature taught me I had any right to expect. I have lived to see an honest king, in whose word his ministers can trust; who disdains to deceive those men whom he has called to the public service, but makes common cause with them for the common good ; and exercises the highest powers of a ruler for the dearest interests of the state. I have lived to see a king with a good heart, who, surrounded by nobles, thinks of common men ; who loves the great mass of English people, and wishes to be loved by them ; who knows that his real power, as he feels that his happiness, is found- ed on their afiection. I have lived to see a king, who, without pretending to the pomp of superior intellect, has the wisdom to see, that the decayed institutions of human policy require amendment ; and who, in spite of cla- mor, interest, prejudice, and fear, has the man- liness to carry these wise changes into imme- diate execution. Gentlemen, farewell: shout, for the king. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 379 BALLOT. It is possible, and perhaps not ven- difficult, f who exercises his right in a manner very in- to invent a machine, by the aid of which jurious to society. He may set up a religious electors may vote for a candidate, or for two or a political test for his tradesmen ; but ad- or three candidates, out of a greater number without its being discovered for whom they vole ; it is less easy than the rabid and foam- ing radical supposes ; but I have no doubt it may be accomplished. In Mr. Grote's dagger ballot box, Avhich has been carried round the country by eminent patriots, you stab the card of your favourite candidate with a dagger. I have seen another, called the mouse-trap ballot box, in which you poke your finger into the trap of the member a'ou prefer, and are j j mittmg his right, and deprecating all inter- ference of law, I must tell him he is making the aristocracy odious to the great mass, and that he is sowing the seeds of revolution. His purse may be full, and his fields may be wide ; but the moralist will still hold the rod of public opinion over his head, and tell the money- bloated blockhead that he is shaking those laws of property which it has taken ages to extort from the wretchedness and rapacit}- of mankind-; and that what he calls his own will caught and detained till the trap-clerk below , not long be his own, if he tramples too heavily (who knows by means of a wire when you are caught) marks your vote, pulls the liberator, and releases you. Which may be the most eligible of these two methods I do not pretend to determine, nor do I think my excellent friend Mr. Babbage has as yet made up his mind on the subject ; but, by some means or other, I have no doubt the thing may be done. Landed proprietors imagine they have a right to the votes of their tenants ; and in- stances, in every election, are numerous where tenants have been dismissed for voting con- trary to the wishes of their landlords. In the same manner strong combinations are made against tradesmen who have chosen to think and act for themselves in political matters, rather than yield their opinions to the solici- tations of their customers. There is a great deal of t)-ranny and injustice in all this. I should no more think of asking what the po- litical opinions of a shopkeeper were, than of asking whether he was tall or short, or large or small : for a difierence of 2i per cent., I would desert the most aristocratic butcher that ever existed, and deal with one who " Sbook tbe arsenal and fiilminedover Greece.'' upon human patience. Ail these practices are bad; but the facts and the consequences are exaggerated. In the first place, the plough is not a politi- cal machine : the loom and the steam-engine are furiously political, but the plough is not Nineteen tenants out of twenty care nothing about their votes, and pull ofi" their opinions as easily to their landlords as they do their hats. As far as the great majority of tenants are concerned, these histories of persecution are mere declamatory' nonsense ; they have no more predilection for whom they vote than the organ pipes have for what tunes they are to play. A tenant dismissed for a fair and just cause often attributes his dismissal to political motives, and endeavours to make himself a martyr with the public : a man who ploughs badly, or who pa3's badly, says he is dismissed for his vote. No candidate is willing to allow that he has lost his election by his demerits ; and he seizes hold of these stories, and circu- lates them with the greatest avidity : they are stated in the House of Commons ; John Rus- sel and Spring Rice fall a-cr}'ing : there is lamentation of liberals in the land ; and many groans for the territorial tyrants. A standing reason against the frequency of dismissal of tenants is, that it is alwa^'s inju- rious to the pecuniar)- interests of a landlord to dismiss a tenant ; the property always suf- fers in some decree by a going off tenant ; and it is therefore always the interest of a land- lord not to change when the tenant does his dut)'as an agriculturalist. To part with tenants for political reasons alwa5's makes a landlord unpopular. The Con- On the contrary, I would not adhere to the man who put me in uneasy habiliments, how- ever great his veneration for trial by jury, or however ardent his attachment to the liberty of the subject. A tenant I never had; but I firmly believe that if he had gone through cer- tain pecuniary formalities twice a year, I should have thought it a gross act of tyranny to have interfered either with his political or his religious opinions. I distinctly admit that every man has a right I stitutional, price 4efore they can be convittced. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 409 •■comfott of the parochial clergy. I -will mention •only a few : — the bill, as originally introduced, ^ave the bishop a power, when he considered the duties of the parish to be improperly per- formed, to suspend the clergyman and appoint a curate with a salary. Some impious per- sons thought it not impossible that occasionally such a power might be maliciously and vin- dictively exercised, and that some check to . it should be admitted into the bill ; accordingly, under the existing act, an ecclesiastical jury is to be summoned, and into that jury the de- fendant clergyman may introduce a friend of his own. If a clergyman, from illness or any other overwhelming necessity, was prevented from having two services, he was exposed to an information and penalty. In answering the bishop, he was subjected to two opposite sets of penalties — the one for saying yes ; the other for saying wo ; he was amenable to the need- less and impertinent scrutiny of a rural dean before he was exposed to the scrutiny of the bishop. Curates might be forced upon him by subscribing parishioners, and the certainty of a schism established in the parish ; a curate might have been forced upon present incum- bents by the bishop without any complaint made ; upon men who took, or, perhaps, bought their livings under very different laws; all these acts of injustice are done away with, but it is not to the credit of the framers of the bill that they were ever admitted, and they com- pletely justify the opposition with which the bill was received by me and by others. I add, however, with great pleasure, that when these and other objections were made, they were heard with candour, and promised to be reme- died by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London and Lord John Russell. I have spoken of the power to issue a com- mission to inquire into the well-being of any parish : a vindictive and malicious bishop might, it is true, convert this, which was in- tended for the protection, to the oppression of the clergy — afraid to dispossess a clergyman of his own authority, he might attempt to do the same thing under the cover of a jury of his ecclesiastical creatures. But I can hardly conceive such baseness in the prelate, or such infamous subserviency in the agents. An honest and respectable bishop will remember that the very issue of such a commission is a serious slur upon the character of a clergyman ; he will do all he can to prevent it by private monition and remonstrance ; and if driven to such an act of power, he will, of course, state to the accused clergyman the subjects of ac- cusation, the names of his accusers, and give him ample time for his defence. If, upon anonymous accusation, he subjects a clergy- man to such an investigation, or refuses to him any advantage which the law gives to every accused person, he is an infamous, de- graded, and scandalous tyrant : but I cannot believe there is such a man to be found upon the bench. There is in this new bill a very humane clause, (though not introduced by the commis- sion), enabling the widow of the deceased vclergyman to retain possession of the parson- 52 age-house for two months after the death of the incumbent. It ought, in fairness, to be extended to the heirs, executors, and adminis- trators of the incumbent. It is a great hard- ship that a family settled in a parish for fifty years, perhaps, should be torn up by the roots in eight or ten days ; and the interval of two months, allowing time for repairs, might put to rest many questions of dilapidation. Tq the bishop's power of intruding a curate, without any complaint on the part of the parish that the duty has been inadequately performed, I retain the same objections as before. It is a power which, without this condition, will be unfairly and partially exercised. The first object I admit is not the provision of the clergyman, but the care of the parish ; but one way of taking care of parishes is to take care that clergymen are not treated with tyranny, partiality, and injustice ; and the best way of effecting this is to remember that their supe- riors have the same human passions as other people, and not to trust them with a power which may be so grossly abused, and which (incredible as the Bishop of London may deem it) has been, in some instances, grossly abused. I cannot imagine what the bishop means by saying, that the members of cathedrals do not, in virtue of their oflice, bear any part in the parochial instruction of the people. This is a fine deceitful word, the word parochial, and eminently calculated to coax the public. If he means simply that cathedrals do not belong to parishes, that St. Paul's is not the parish church of Upper Puddicomb, and that the vicar of St. Fiddlefrid does not officiate in Westminster Abbey : all this is true enough, but do they not in the most material points instruct the people precisely in the same man- ner as the parochial clergy 1 Are not prayers and sermons the most important means of spiritual instruction? And are there not eighteen or twenty services in every cathedral for one which is heard in parish churches'? I have very often counted in the afternoon of week days in St. Paul's 150 people, and on Sundays it is full to suflTocation. Is all this to go for nothing ? and what right has the Bishop of London to suppose that there is not as much real piety in cathedrals, as in the most road- less, postless, melancholy, sequestered hamlet preached to by the most provincial, seques- tered, bucolic clergyman in the queen's domi- nions ? A number of little children, it is true, do not repeat a catechism of which they do not com- prehend a word; but it is rather rapid and M'holesale to say, that the parochial clergy are spiritual instructors of the people, and that the cathedral clergy are only so in a very restrict- ed sense. I say that in the most material points and acts of instruction, they are much more laborious and incessant than any paro- chial clergy. It might really be supposed, from the Bishop of London's reasoning, that some other methods of instruction took place in cathedrals than prayers and sermons can afford; that lectures were read on chemistry, or lessons given on dancing; or that it was a Mechanics' Institute, or a vast receptacle for 2M 410 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. hexameter and pentameter boys. His own most respectable chaplain, who is often there as a member of the body, will tell him that the prayers are strictly adhered to, according to the rubric, with the difference only that the service is beautifully chanted instead of being badly read ; that instead of the atrocious bawl- ing of parish churches, the anthems are sung with great taste and feeling : and if the preach- ing is not good, it is the fault of the Bishop of London, who has the whole range of London preachers from whom to make his selection. The real fact is, that, instead of being some- thing materially different from the parochial clergy, as the commissioners wish to make them, the cathedral clergy are fellow-labourers with the parochial clergy, outworking them ten to one ; but the commission having pro- vided snugly for the bishops, have, by the merest accident in the world, entangled themselves in this quarrel with cathedrals. "Had the question," says the bishop, "been proposed to the religious part of the commu- nity, whether, if no other means were to be found, the effective cure of souls should be provided for by the total suppression of those ecclesiastical corporations which have no cure of souls, nor bear any part in the paro- chial labours of the clergy ; that question, I verily believe, would have been carried in the affirmative by an immense majority of suf- frages." But suppose no other means could be found for the effective cure of souls than the suppression of bishops, does the Bishop of London imagine that the majority of suffrages ■would have been less immense 1 How idle to put such cases. A pious man leaves a large sum of money in Catholic times for some purposes which are superstitious, and for others, such as preaching and reading prayers, which are ap- plicable to all times ; the superstitious usages are abolished, the pious usages remain : now the bishop must admit, if you take half or any part of this money from clergymen to whom it was given, and divide it for similar purposes among clergy to whom it was not given, you deviate materially from the intentions of the founder. These foundations are made in loco; in many of them the locus was, perhaps, the original cause of the gift. A man who founds an almshouse at Edmonton does not mean that the poor of Tottenham should avail them- selves of it; and if he could have anticipated such a consequence, he would not have en- dowed any almshouse at all. Such is the respect for property, that the Court of Chan- cery, when it becomes impracticable to carry the will of the donor into execution, always attend to the cy pres, and apply the charitable fund to a purpose as germane as possible to the intention of the founder; but here, when men of Lincoln have left to Lincoln cathedral, and men of Hereford to Hereford, the com- missioners seize it all, melt it into a common mass, and disperse it over the kingdom. Surely the Bishop of London cannot contend that this is not a greater deviation from the will of the founder than if the same people, remaining in the same place, receiving all the founder gave them, and doing all things not forbidden by the law, which the founder order- ed, were to do something more than the founder ordered, were to become the guardians of education, the counsel to the bishop, and the curators of the diocese in his old age and decay. The public are greater robbers and plunder- ers than anyone in the public ; look at the whole transaction ; it is a mixture of meanness and violence. The country choose to have an established religion, and a resident parochial clergy, but they do not choose to build houses for their parochial clergy, or to pay them in many instances more than a butler or a coach- man receives. How is this deficiency to be supplied ■? The heads of the church propose to this public to seize upon estates which never belonged to the public, and which were left for another purpose ; and by the seizure of these estates to save that which ought to come out of the public purse. Suppose Parliament were to seize upon all the almshouses in England, and apply them to the diminution of the poor-rate, what a num- ber of ingenious arguments might be pressed into the service of this robbery: "Can any thing be more revolting than that the poor of Northumberland should be starving while the poor of the suburban hamlets are dividing the benefactions of the pious dead ? ' We want for these purposes all that ice can obtain from whatever sources derived.' " I do not deny the right of parliament to do this, or any thing else ; but I deny that it would be expedient, because I think it better to make any sacrifices, and to endure any evil, than to gratify this ra- pacious spirit of plunder and confiscation. Suppose these commissioner prelates firm and unmoved, when we were all alarmed, had told the public that the parochial clergy were badly provided for, and that it was the duty of that public to provide a proper support for their ministers ; — suppose the commission- ers, instead of leading them on to confisca- tions, had warned their fellow subjects against the base economy, and the perilous injustice of seizing on that which was not their own ; — suppose they had called for water and washed their hands, and said, " We call you all to wit- ness that we are innocent of this great ruin ;" — does the Bishop of London imagine that the prelates who made such a stand would have gone down to posterity less respected and less revered than those men upon whose tombs it must (after all the 6 ••lerations of their virtues) be written, thu.i r their au- spices and by their comisels the destruction of the English church began ? Pity that the Archbishop of Canterbury had not retained those feelings, when, at the first meeting of bishops, the Bishop of London proposed this holy innovation upon cathedrals, and the head of our church declared, with vehemence and indignation, that nothing in the earth would induce him to consent to it. Si mens non Ifeva fuiaset, Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alfa maneres. "But," says the Lord Bishop of London, "you admit the principle of confiscation by proposing the confiscation and partition of prebends in the possession of non-residents." WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 411 I am thinking of something else, and I see all of a sudden a great blaze of light ; I behold a great number of gentlemen in short aprons, neat purple coats, and gold buckles, rushing about with torches in their hands, calling each other "my lord," and setting fire to all the rooms in the house, and the people below de- lighted with the combustion ; finding it impos- sible to turn them from their purpose, and finding that they are all what they are, by di- vine permission ; I endeavour to direct their holy innovations into another channel; and I say to them, " my lords, had not you better set fire to the out of door offices, to the barns and stables, and spare this fine library and this noble drawing-room 1 Yonder are several cow-houses of which no use is made ; pray direct your fury against them, and leave this beautiful and venerable mansion as you found it." If I address the divinely permitted in this manner, has the Bishop of London any right to call me a brother incendiary 1 Our holy innovator, the Bishop of London, has drawn a very affecting picture of sheep having no shepherd, and of millions who have no spiritual food ; our wants, he says, are most imperious ; even if we were to tax large livings, we must still have the money of the cathedrals : no plea will exempt you, nothing can slop us, for the formation of benefices, and the endowment of new ones. We want (and he prints it in italics) for these purposes " all that we can obtain from whatever sources de- rived." r never remember to have been more alarmed in my life than by this passage. I said to myself, the necessities of the church have got such complete hold of the imagina- tion of this energetic prelate, who is so capti- vated by the holiness of his innovations, that all grades and orders of the church and all present and future interests will be sacrificed to it. I immediately rushed to the acts of Par- liament, which I always have under my pil- low, to see at once the worst of what had hap- pened. I found present revenues of the bishops all safe ; that is some comfort, I said to myself; Canterbury, 24,000Z. or 25,000/. per annum; London, 18,000L or 20,000/. I began to feel some comfort : " things are not so bad ; the bishops do not mean to sacrifice to sheep and shepherds' money their present revenues ; the Bishop of London is less violent and head- strong than I thought he would be." I looked a little further, and found that 15,000/. per an- num is ted to the future Archbishop of Canter ' 10,000/. to the Bishop of London, 8000/. to Durham, and 8000/. each to Winches- ter and Ely. "Nothing of sheep and shepherd in all this," I exclaimed, and felt still more comforted. It was not till after the bishops ■were taken care of, and the revenues of the cathedrals came into full view, that I saw the perfect development of the sheep and shepherd principle, the deep and heartfelt compassion for spiritual labourers, and that inward groan- ing for the destitute state of the church, and that firm purpose, printed in italics, of taking for these purposes all that could be obtained from what,:%Kr source derived ; and even in this deli- cious rummage of cathedral property, where all the fine church feelins-s of the bishop's heart could be indulged without costing the poor sufferer a penny, stalls for archdeacons in Lincoln and St. Paul's are, to the amount of 2000/. per annum, taken from the sheep and shepherd fund, and the patronage of them di- vided between two commissioners, the Bishop of London, and the Bishop of Lincoln, instead of being paid to additional labourers in the vine- yard. Has there been any difiiculty, I would ask, in procuring archdeacons upon the very mode- rate pay they now receive ] Can any clergy- man be more thoroughly respectable than the present archdeacons in the see of London ? but men bearing such an office in the church, it may be said, should be highly paid, and archbishops, who could very well keep up their dignity upon 7000/. per annum, are to be allowed 15,000/. I make no objection to all this ; but then what becomes of all these heart-rending phrases of sheep and shepherd, and drooping vineyards, and flocks unthout spiritual con- solation ? The bishop's argument is, that the superfluous must give way to the necessary; but in fighting, the bishop should take great care that his cannons are not seized, and turned against himself. He has awarded to the bishops of England a superfluity as great as that which he intends to take from the cathedrals ; and then, when he legislates for an order to which he does not belong, begins to remember the distresses of the lower clergy, paints them with all the colours of impassioned eloquence, and informs the cathedral institu- tions that he must have every farthing he can lay his hand upon. Is not this as if one, afl^ected powerfully by a charity sermon, were to put his hands into another man's pocket, and cast, from what he had extracted, a liberal contri- bution into the plate ? I beg not to be mistaken ; I am very far from considering the Bishop of London as a sordid and interested person ; but this is a complete instance of how the best of men de- ceive themselves, where their interests are concerned. I have no doubt the bishop firmly imagined he was doing his duty ; but there should have been men of all grades in the commission, some one to say a word for cathe- drals and against bishops. The bishop says " his antagonists have al- lowed three canons to be sufficient for St. Paul's, and, therefore, four must be sufficient for other cathedrals." Sufficient to read the prayers and preach the sermons, certainl)^ and- so would one be ; but not sufficient to excite, by the hope of increased rank and wealth, eleven thousand parochial clergy. The most important and cogent arguments against the dean and chapter confiscations are passed over in silence in the bishop's charge. This, in reasoning, is always the wisest and most convenient plan, and which all young bishops should imitate after the manner of this wary polemic. I object to the confiscation be- cause it will throw a great deal more of capital out of the parochial church than it will bring into it. I am very sorry to come forward with so homely an argument, which shocks so many clergymen, and particularly those with the largest incomes, and the best bishoprics ; but 412 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. the truth is, the greater number of clergymen go into the church in order that they may de- rive a comfortable income from the church. Such men intend to do their duty, and they do it; but the duty ivS, however, not the motive, but the adjunct. If I was writing in gala and parade, I would not hold this language; but we are in earnest, and on business ; and as very rash and hasty changes are founded upon contrary suppositions of the pure disinterested- ness and perfect inattention to temporals in the clergy, we must get down at once to the solid rock without heeding how we disturb the turf and the flowers above. The parochial clergy maintain their present decent appear- ance quite as much by their own capital as by the income they derive from the church. I will now state the income and capital of seven clergymen, taken promiscuously in this neighbourhood : — No. 1. Living 200L, capital 12,000?.; No. 2. Living 800/., capital 15,000/.; No. 3. Living 500/., capital 12,000/. ; No. 4. Liv- ing 150/., capital 10,000/.; No. 5. Living 800/., capital 12,000/.; No. 6. Living 150/., capital 1000/.; No. 7. Living 600/., capital 16,000/. I have diligently inquired into the circumstances of seven Unitarian and Wesleyan ministers, and I question much if the whole seven could make up 6000/. between them ; and the zeal of enthusiasm of this last division is certainly not inferior to that of the former. Now here is a capital of 72,000/. carried into the church, which the confiscations of the commissioners would force out of it, by taking away the good things which were the temptation to its intro- (Juction. So that, by the old plan of paying by lottery, instead of giving a proper compe- tence to each, not only do you obtain a paro- chial clergy upon much cheaper terms ; but, from the gambling propensities of human na- ture, and the irresistible tendency to hope that they shall gain the great prizes, you tempt men into your service who keep up their credit and yours, not by your allowance, but by their own capital; and to destroy this wise and well- working arrangement, a great number of bishops, marquises, and John Russells, are huddled into a chamber, and, after proposing a scheme which will turn the English church into a collection of consecrated beggars, we are informed by the Bishop of London that it is an holy innovation. I have no manner of doubt, that the imme- diate effect of passing the dean and chapter bill will be, that a great number of fathers and uncles, judging, and properly judging, that the church is a very altered and deterioriated pro- fession, will turn the industry and capital of their eUves into another channel. My friend, Robert Eden, says " this is o^the earth earthy:" be it so ; I cannot help it, I paint mankind as I find them, and am not answerable for their defects. When an argument, taken from real life, and the actual condition of the world, is brought among the shadowy discussions of ecclesiastics, it always occasions terror and dismay ; it is like J?3neas stepping into Cha- ron's boat, which carried only ghosts and spirits. Sutilis. Gemuit sub pondere cytuba The whole plan of the Bishop of London is a ptochogony — a generation of beggars. He purposes, out of the spoils of the cathedral, to create a thousand livings, and to give to the thousand clergymen 130/. per annum each; a Christian bishop proposing, in cold blood, to create a thousand livings of 130/. per annum each ; — to call into existence a thousand of the most unhappy men on the face of the earth, — the sons of the poor, without hope, without the assistance of private fortune, chained to the soil, ashamed to live with their inferiors, unfit for the society of the better classes, and drag- ging about the English curse of poverty, with- out the smallest hope that they can ever shake it ofi". At present, such livings are filled by young men who have better hopes — who have reason to expect good property — who look for- ward to a college or a family living — who are the sons of men of some substance, and hope so to pass on to something better — who exist under the delusion of being hereafter deans and prebendaries — who are paid once by money, and three times by hope. Will the Bishop of London promise to the progeny of any of these thousand victims of the holy in- novation that, if they behave well, one of them shall have his butler's place ; another take care of the cedars and hyssops of his garden? Will he take their daughters for his nursery- maids ? and may some of the sons oi these " labourers of the vineyard" hope one day to ride the leaders from St. James's to Fulham 1 Here is hope — here is room for ambition — a field for genius, and a ray of amelioration ! If these beautiful feelings of compassion are throbbing under the cassock of the bishop, he ought, in common justice to himself, to make them known. If it were a scheme for giving ease and in- dependence to any large bodies of clergymen, it might be listened to; but the revenues of the English church are such as to render this wholly and entirely out of the question. If you place a man in a village in the country, require that he should be of good manners and well educated ; that his habits and appearance should be above those of the farmers to whom he preaches, if he has nothing else to expect (as would be the case in a church of equal division) ; and if, upon his village income, he is to support a wife and educate a family, without any power of making himself known in a remote and solitary situation, such a per- son ought to receive 500/. per annum, and be furnished with a house. There are about 10,700 parishes in England and Wales, whose average income is 285/. per annum. Now, to provide these incumbents with decent houses, to keep them in repair, and to raise the income of the incumbent to 500/. per annum, would require (if all the incomes of the bishops, deans and chapters of separate dignitaries, of sine- cure rectories, were confiscated, and if the excess of all the livings in England above 500/. per annum were added to them,) a sum of two millions and a half in addition to the present income of the whole church ; and no power on earth could persuade the present Parliament of Great Britain to grant a single shilling for that purpose. Now, is it possible WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 413 to pay such a church upon any other principle than that of unequal division ? The proposed pillage of the cathedral and college churches (omitting all consideration of the separate estate of dignitaries) would amount, divided among all the benefices in England, to about 51. 12s. 6^d. per man : and this, which would not stop an hiatus in a cassock, and would drive out of the paro- chial church ten times as much as it brought into it, is the panacea for pauperism recom- mended by her majesty's commissioners. But if this plan were to drive men of capital out of the church, and to pauperize the English clergy, where would the harm be 1 Could not all the duties of religion be performed as well by poor clergymen as by men of good sub- stance ■? My great and serious apprehension is, that such would not be the case. There would be the greatest risk that your clergy would be fanatical, and ignorant; that their habits would be low and mean, and that they would be despised. Then a picture is drawn of a clergyman with 130/. per annum, who combines all moral, physical, and intellectual advantaiges, a learned man, dedicating himself intensely to the care of his parish — of charming manners and dig- nified deportment — six feet two inches high, beautifully proportioned, with a magnificent countenance, expressive of all the cardinal virtues and the Ten Commandments, — and it is asked, with an air of triumph, if such a man as this will fall into contempt on account of his poverty 1 But substitute for him an ave- rage, ordinary, uninteresting minister; obese, dumpy, neither ill-natured nor good-natured; neither learned nor ignorant, striding over the stiles to church, with a second-rate wife — dusty and deliquescent — and four parochial children, full of catechism and bread and butter; or let him be seen in one of those Shem-Ham-and- Japhet buggies — made on Mount Ararat soon after the subsidence of the waters, driving in the High Street of Edmonton ;* — among all his pe- cuniary, saponaceous, oleaginous parishioners. Can any man of common sense say that all these outward circumstances of the ministers of religion have no bearing on religion itself? I ask the Bishop of London, a man of honour and conscience as he is, if he thinks five years will elapse before a second attack is made upon deans and chapters'? Does he think, after reformers have tasted the flesh of the church, that the}/- will put up with any other diet 1 Does he forget that deans and chapters are but mock turtle — that more delicious delicacies re- main behind? Five years hence he will at- tempt to make a stand, and he will be laughed at and eaten up. In this very charge the bishop accuses the lay commissioners of an- other intended attack upon the property of the church, contrary to the clearest and most ex- plicit stipulations (as he says) with the heads of the establishment. Much is said of the conduct of the commis- sioners, but that is of the least possible conse- quence. They may have acted for the best, * A parish wliich the Bishop of London has the ereatest desire to divide into little hits ; hut which appears quite as fit to preserve its integrity as St. James's, St. George's, or Kensington, all in the patronage of the bishop. according to the then existing circumstances; they may seriously have intended to do their duty to the contrary ; and I am far from saying or thinking they did not ; but without the least reference to the commissioners, the question is. Is it wise to pass this bill, and to justify such an open and tremendous sacrifice of church property? Does public opinion now call for any such measure ? is it a wise distri- bution of the funds of an ill-paid church ? and will it not force more capital out of the paro- chial part of the church than it brings into it? If the bill is bad, it is surely not to pass out of compliment to the feelings of the Archbishop of Canterbury. If the project is hasty, it is not to be adopted to gratify the Bishop of Lon- don. The mischief to the church is surely a greater evil than the stultification of the com- missioners, &c. If the physician has pre- scribed hastily, is the medicine to be taken to the death or disease of the patient? If the judge has condemned improperly, is the crimi- nal to be hung, that the wisdom of the magis- trate may not be impugned?* But why are the commissioners to be stulti- fied by the rejection of the measure ? The measure may have been very good when it was recommended, and very objectionable now. I thought, and many men thought, that the church was going to pieces — that the affections of the common people were lost to the estfi- blishment; and that large sacrifices must be instantly made, to avert the effects of this tem- porary madness ; but those days are gone by — and with them ought to be put aside mea- sures, which might have been wise in those days, but. are wise no longer. After all, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London are good and placable men ; and will ere long forget and forgive the successful efforts of their enemies in defeating this mis-ecclesiastic law. Suppose the commission were now begin- ning to sit for the first time, will any man living say that they would make such reports as they have made ? and that they would seri- ously propose such a tremendous revolution in church property ? And if they would not, the inference is irresistible, that, to consult the feelings of two or three churchmen, we are complimenting away the safety of the church. Milton asked where the nymphs were Jwhen. Lycidas perished ? I ask where the bishops are when the remorseless deep is closing over the head of their beloved establishment ?-j- You must have read an attack upon me by the Bishop of Gloucester, in the course of which he says that I have not been appointed to my situation as canon of St. Paul's for my piety and learning, but because I am a scoffer and a jester. Is not this rather strong for a bishop, and does it not appear to you, Mr. Archdeacon, as rather too close an imitation of that language which is used in the apostolic * "After the trouble the commissioners have taken (says Sir Robert), after the obloquy they have incurred," &c. &c. &c. t What is the use of publishing separate charges, as the Bishops of Winchester, Oxford, and Rochester have done'! Why do not the dissentient l)ishops form into a firm phalanx to save the church and fling out the bill > 2 M 2 414 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. occupation of trafficking in fish 1 Whether I have been appointed for my piety or not, must depend upon what this poor man means by piety. He means by that word, of course, a defence of all the tyrannical and oppressive abuses of the church which have been swept away within the last fifteen or twenty years of my life ; the corporation and test acts ; the penal laws against the Catholics ; the com- pulsory marriages of dissenters, and all those disabling and disqualifying laws which were the disgrace of our church, and which he has always looked up to as the consummation of human wisdom. If piety consisted in the de- fence of these — if it was impious to struggle for their abrogation, I have, indeed, led an ungodly life. There is nothing pompous gentlemen are so much afraid of as a little humour. It is like the objection of certain cephalic animalculce to the use of small-tooth combs, — " Finger and thumb, precipitate powder, or any thing else you please ; but for Heaven's sake no small- tooth combs !" After all, I believe, Bishop Monk has been the cause of much more laughter than ever I have been ; I cannot ac- count for it, but I never see him enter a room without exciting a smile on every countenance within it. Dr. Monk is furious at my attacking the heads of the church; but how can I help it? If the heads of the church are at the head of the mob ; if I find the best of men doing that which has in all times drawn upon the worst enemies of the human race the biUerest curses of history, am I to stop because the motives of these men are pure, and their lives blame- less 1 I wish I could find a blot in their lives, or a vice in their motives. The whole power of the motion is in the character of the movers: feeble friends, false friends, and foolish friends, all cease to look upon the measure, and say, Would such a measure have been recom- mended by such men as the prelates of Can- terbury and London, if it were not for the public advantage 1 And in this way, the great good of a religious establishment, now ren- dered moderate and compatible with all men's liberties and rights, is sacrificed to names; and the church destroyed from good breeding and etiquette! the real truth is, that Canter- bury and London have been frightened — they have overlooked the effect of time and delay — they have been betrayed into a fearful and ruinous mistake. Painful as it is to teach men who ought to teach us, the legislature ought, while there is yet time, to awake and read them this lesson. It is dangerous for a prelate to write; and whoever does it ought to be a very wise one. He has speculated why I was made a canon of St. Paul's. Suppose I were to follow his example, and, going through the bench of bishops, were to ask for what rea,son each man had been made a bishop ; suppose I were to go into the county of Gloucester, &c. &c. &c.!!!! I was afraid the bishop would attribute my promotion to the Edinburgh Review ; but upon the subject of promotion by reviews, he pre- serves an impenetrable silence. If my excel- lent patron Earl Grey had any reasons of this kind, he may at least be sure that the reviews commonly attributed to me were really written by me. I should have considered myself as the lowest of created beings to have disguised myself in another man's wit, and to have received a reward to which I was not en- titled.* I presume that what has drawn upon me the indignation of this prelate, is the observations I have from time to time made on the conduct of the commissioners ; of which he positively asserts himself to have been a member; but whether he was, or was not a member, I utterly acquit him of all possible blame, and of every species of imputation which may attach to the conduct of the commissioner. In using that word, I have always meant the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Lon- don,and Lord John Russell ; and have, honestly speaking, given no more heed to the Bishop of Gloucester than if he had been sitting in a commission of Bonzes in the court of Pekin. To read, however, his lordship a lesson of good manners, I had prepared for him a chas- tisement which would have been echoed from the Seagrave, who banqueteth in the castle, to the idiot who spitteth over the bridge at Glou- cester; but the following appeal struck my eye, and stopped my pen : — " Since that time, my inadequate qualifications have sustained an appalling diminution, by the affection of my eyes, which have impaired my vision, and the progress of which threatens to consign me to darkness ; I beg the benefit of your prayers to the Father of all mercies, that he will restore me to better use of the visual organs, to be employed on his service ; or that he will in- wardly illumine the intellectual vision, with a particle of that divine ray, which his Holy Spirit can alone impart." It might have been better taste, perhaps, if a mitred invalid, in describing his bodily in- firmities before a church full of clergymen, whose prayers he asked, had been a little more sparing in the abuse of his enemies ; but a good deal must be forgiven to the sick. I wish that every Christian was as well aware as this poor bishop of what he needed from divine assistance ; and in the supplication for the restoration of his sight and the improve- ment of his understanding, I must fervently and cordially join. I was much amused with what old Her- mannf says of the Bishop of London's ^schy- lus. " We find," he says, "a great arbitranness of proceeding, and 7nuch boldness of innovation, guided by no sure principle;" here it is : qtiaJis ab incepto. He begins with iEschylus, and ends with the Church of England ; begins with pro- fane, and ends with holy innovations — scratch- * I understand that the bishop bursts into tears every now and then, and says that I have set him the name of Simon, and that all the bishops now call him Simon. Simon of GWmcester, however, after all, is a real writer, and how rould I know that Dr. Monlv's name was Si- mon'! When tutor in Lord Corrington's family, he was called by tho endearinj;, though somewhat unmajestic name of 7J;>;,- ; and if I had thought about his name at all, I should have called him Richard of Gloucester. + Ueber die behandlung der Grieehischen Dichter bei den Engliindern, Von Gottfried Hermann. Wiemar Jahrbacher, vol. liv. 1831. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 415 ing out old readings which every commentator had sanctioned, abolishing ecclesiastical dig- nities which every reformer had spared; thrusting an anapest into a verse which will not bear it ; and intruding a canon, into a cathedral which does not want it ; and this is the prelate by whom the proposed reform of the church has been principally planned, and to whose practical wisdom the legislature is called upon to defer. The Bishop of London is a man of »very great ability, humane, pla- cable, generous, munificent, very agreeable, but not to be trusted with great interests where calmness and judgment are required; unfor- tunately, my old and amiable school-fellow, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has melted away before him, and sacrificed that wisdom on which we all founded our security. Much writing and much talking are very tiresome ; and, above all, they are so to men who, living in the world, arrive at those rapid and just conclusions which are only to be made by living in the world. This bill passed, every man of sense acquainted with human afiairs must see, that, as far as the church is concerned, the thing is at an end. From Lord John Russell, the present improver of the church, we shall descend to Hume, from Hume to Roebuck, and after Roebuck we shall re- ceive our last improvements from Dr. Wade : plunder will follow after plunder, degradation after degradation. The church is gone, and what remains is not life, but sickness, spasm, and struggle. Whatever happens, I am not to blame; J, have fought my fight. — Farewell. Stdkzt Suite. 416 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. LETTER CHARACTER OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.- Mt sear Sib, You ask for some of your late father's letters : I am sorry to say I have none to send you. Upon principle, I keep no letters except those on business. I have not a single letter from him, nor from any human being in my posses- sion. The impression which the great talents and amiable qualities of your father made upon me, will remain as long as I remain. When I turn from living spectacles of stupidity, ignorance, and malice, and wish to think better of the world — I remember my great and benevolent friend Mackintosh. The first points of character which every body noticed in him were the total absence of envy, 'hatred, malice, and uncharitableness. He could not hate — he did not know how to set about it. The gall-bladder was omitted in his composition, and if he could have been per- suaded into any scheme of revenging himself upon an enemy, I am sure (unless he had been narrowly watched) it would have ended in pro- claiming the good qualities, and promoting the interests of his adversary. Truth had so much more power over him than anger, that (what- ever might be the provocation) he could not misrepresent, nor exaggerate. In questions of passion and party, he stated facts as they were, and reasoned fairly upon them, placing his happiness and pride in equitable discrimi- nation. Very fond of talking, he heard patient- ly, and, not averse to intellectual display, did not forget that others might have the same in- clination as himself. | Till subdued by age and illness, his conver- sation was more brilliant and instructive than that of any human being I ever had the good fortune to be acquainted with. His memory (vast and prodigious as it was) he so managed as to make it a source of pleasure and instruc- tion, rather than that dreadful engine of colloqui- al oppression into which it is sometimes erected. He remembered things, words, thoughts, dates, and . every thing that was wanted. His lan- guage was beautiful, and might have gone from the fireside to the press ; but though his ideas were always clothed in beautiful language, the clothes were sometimes too big for the body, and common thoughts were dressed in better and larger apparel than they deserved. He certainly had this fault, but it was not one of frequent commission. He had a method of putting things so mildly and interrogativel}^ that he always procured the readiest reception for his opinions. Ad- dicted to reasoning in the company of able men, he had two valuable habits, which are rarely met with in great reasoners — he never broke in upon his opponent, and always avoided strong and vehement assertions. His reasoning com- monly carried conviction, for he was cautious in his positions, accurate in his deductions, aimed only at truth. The ingenious side was commonly taken by some one else ; the inter- ests of truth were protected by Mackintosh. His good-nature and candour betrayed him into a morbid habit of eulogizing every body— • a habit which destroyed the value of commen- dations, that might have been to the young (if more sparingly distributed) a reward of virtue and a motive to exertion. Occasionally he took fits of an opposite nature ; and I have seen him abating and dissolving pompous gentlemen with the most successful ridicule. He certainly had a good deal of humour; and I remember, amongst many other examples of it, that he kept us for two or three hours in a roar of laughter, at a dinner-party at his own house, playing upon the simplicity of a Scotch cousin, who had mistaken me for my gallant synonym, the hero of Acre. I never saw a more perfect comedy, nor heard ridicule so long and so well sustained. Sir James had not only humour, but he had wit also ; at least, new and sudden relations of ideas flashed across his mind in reasoning, and produced the same effect as wit, and would have been called wit, if a sense of their utility and importance had not often over- powered the admiration of novelty, and entitled them to the higher name of wisdom. Then the great thoughts and fine sayings of the great men of all ages were intimately present to his recollection, and came out dazzling and delight- ing in his conversation. Justness of thinking was a strong feature in his understanding; he had a head in which nonsense and error could hardly vegetate: it was a soil utterly unfit for them. If his display in conversation had been only in maintaining splendid paradoxes, he would soon have wearied those he lived with ; but no man could live long and intimately with your father without finding that he was gaining upon doubt, correcting error, enlarging the boundaries, and strengthening the foundations of truth. It was worth while to listen to a master, whom not himself, but nature had ap- pointed to the office, and who taught what it was not easy to forget, by methods which it was not easy to resist. Curran, the master of the rolls, said to Mr. Grattan, " You would be the greatest man of your age, Grattan, if you would buy a few yards of red tape, and tie up your bills and papers." This was the fault or misfortune of your excel- lent father; he never knew the use of red tape,. WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 417 and was utterly unfit for the common business of life. That a guinea represented a quantity of shillings, and that it would barter for a quan- tity of cloth, he was well aware; but the accu- rate number of the baser coin, or the just mea- surement of the manufactured article, to which he was entitled for his gold, he could never learn, and it was impossible to teach him. Hence his life was often an example of the an- cient and melancholy struggle of genius, with the difficulties of existence. I have often heard Sir James Mackintosh say of himself, that he was bom to be the pro- fessor of an university. Happy, and for ages celebrated, would have been the university, which had so possessed him, but in this view he was unjust to himself. Still, however, his style of speaking in Parliament was certainly more academic than forensic ; it was not sufficiently short and quick for a busy and impatient as- sembly. He often spoke over the heads of his hearers — was too much in advance of feeling for their sympathies, and of reasoning for their comprehension. He began too much at the beginning, and went too much to the right and left of the question, making rather a lecture or a dissertation than a speech. His voice was bad and nasal ; and though nobody was in re- ality more sincere, he seemed not only not to feel, but hardly to think what he was saying. Your father had very little science, and no great knowledge of physics. His notions of his early pursuit — the study of medicine — were imperfect and antiquated, and he was but an indifferent classical scholar, for the Greek lan- guage has never crossed the Tweed in any great force. In history the whole stream of time was open before him ; he had looked into every moral and metaphysical question from Plato to Paley, and had waded through morasses of in- ternational law, where the step of no living man could follow him. Political economy is of modern invention ; I am old enough to recol- lect when every judge on the bench (Lord El- don and Serjeant Runnington excepted,) in their charges to the grand juries, attributed the then high prices of corn to the scandalous combina- tion of farmers. Sir James knew what is com- monly agreed upon by political economists, without taking much pleasure in the science, and with a disposition to blame the very specu- lative and metaphysical disquisitions into which it has wandered, but with a full conviction also (which many able men of his standing are without) of the immense importance of the sci- ence to the welfare of society. I think (though, perhaps, some of his friends may not agree with me in this opinion) that he was an acute judge of character, and of the good as well as evil in character. He was, in truth, with the appearance of distraction and of one occupied with other things, a very minute observer of human nature ; and I have seen him analyze, to the very springs of the heart, men who had not the most distant suspicion of the sharpness of his vision, nor a belief that he could read any thing but books. Sufficient justice has not been done to his po- litical integrity. He was not rich, was from the northern part of the island, possessed great fa- cility of temper, and had therefore every excuse 53 for political lubricity, which that vice (more common in those days than I hope it will ever be again) could possibly require. Invited by every party, upon his arrival from India, he re- mained steadfast to his old friends the whigs, whose admission to office, or enjoyment of po- litical power, would at that period have been considered as the most visionary of all human speculations ; yet, during his lifetime, every body seemed more ready to have forgiven the ter- giversation of which he was not guilty, than to admire the actual firmness he had displayed. With all this he never made the slightest efforts to advance his interests with his political friends, never mentioned his sacrifices nor his services, expressed no resentment at neglect, and was therefore pushed into such situations as fall to the lot of the feeble and delicate in a crowd. A high merit in Sir James Mackintosh was his real and unaffected philanthropy. He did not make the improvement of the great mass of mankind an engine of popularity, and a step- ping stone to power, but he had a genuine love of human happiness. Whatever might assuage the angry passions, and arrange the conflicting interests of nations; whatever could promote peace, increase knowledge, extend commerce, diminish crime, and encourage industry; what- ever could exalt human character, and could enlarge human understanding ; struck at once at the heart of your father, and roused all his faculties. I have seen him in a moment when this spirit came upon him — like a great ship of war — cut his cable, and spread his enormous canvass, and launch into a wide sea of reason- ing eloquence. But though easily warmed by great schemes of benevolence and human improvement, his manner was cold to individuals. There was an apparent want of heartiness and cordiality. It seemed as if he had more affection for the species than for the ingredients of which it was composed. He was in reality very hospitable, and so fond of company, that he was hardly happy out of it; but he did not receive his friends with that honest joy which warms more than dinner or wine. This is the good and evil of your father which comes uppermost. If he had been arro- gant and grasping ; if he had been faithless and false; if he had always been eager to strangle infant genius in its cradle ; always ready to be- tray and to blacken those with whom he sat at meat; he would have passed many men, who, in the course of his long life, have passed him ; but, without selling his soul for pottage, if he only had had a little more prudence for the pro- motion of his interests, and more of angry pas- sions for the punishment of those detractors who envied his fame and presumed upon his sweetness; if he had been more aware of his powers, and of that space which nature intended him to occupy: he would have acted a great part in life, and remained a character in his- tory. As it is, he has left, in many of the best men in England, and of the continent, the deep- est admiration of his talents, his wisdom, his knowledge and his benevolence. I remain, my dear Sir, Very truly yours, SYDNEY SMITH. i him upon religious subjects; it appears to bt ludicrous, but I am convinced it has done infi- nite mischief to the Catholics, and made a very serious impression upon the minds of many gentlemen of large landed property. In talking of the impossibility of Catholics and Protestants living together with equal pri- vilege under the same government, do you forget the cantons of Switzerland"? You might have seen there a Protestant congregation going into a church which had just been quitted by a Catholic congregation ; and I will venture to say that the Swiss Catholics were more bigoted to their feligion than any people in the whole world. Did the kings of Prussia ever refuse to employ a Catholic 1 Would Frede- rick the Great have rejected an able man on this account? We have seen Prince Czarto- rinski, a Catholic secretary of state in Russia; in former times, a Greek patriarch and an apostolic vicar acted together in the most per- fect harmony in Venice ; and we have seen the Emperor of Germany in modern times entrust- ing the care of his person and the command of his guard to a Protestant prince, Ferdinand of Wirtemberg. But what are all these things to Mr. Perceval? He has looked at human nature from the top of Hampstead Hill, and has not a thought beyond the little sphere of his own vision. " The snail," say the Hindoos, " sees nothing but its own shell, and thinks it the grandest palace in the universe." I now take a final leave of this subject of Ireland ; the only difficulty in discussing it is a want of resistance, a want of something difficult to unravel, and something dark to illumine ; to agitate such a question is to beat the air with a club, and cut down gnats with a scimitar ; it is a prostitution of industry, and a waste of strength. If a man says I have a good place, and I do not choose to lose it, this mode of arguing upon the Catholic question I can well understand ; but that any human be- ing with an understanding two degrees elevated above that of an Anabaptist preacher, should conscientiously contend for the expediency and propriety of leaving the Irish Catholics in their present state, and of subjecting us to such tremendous peril in the present condition of the world, it is utterly out of my power to con- ceive. Such a measure as the Catholic ques- tion is entirely beyond the common game of politics ; it is a measure in which all parties ought to acquiesce, in order to preserve the place where, and the stake for which they play. If Ireland is gone, where are jobs 1 where are reversions ? where is my brother. Lord Arden? where are my dear and near relations 1 The game is up, and the speaker of the House of Commons will be sent as a present to the menagerie at Paris. We talk of waiting from particular considerations, as if centuries of joy and prosperity were before us ; in the next ten years our fate must be decided ; we shall know, long before that period, whether we can * Fide Lord Bacon, Locke, and Descartes. *«^' 480 WORKS OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. bejf up against the miseries by which we are tweatened, or not; and yet, in the very midst /I our crisis, we are enjoined to abstain from /the most certain means of increasing our strength, and advised to wait for the remedy till the disease is removed by death or health. And now, instead of the plain and manly policy of increasing unanimity at home, by equalizing rights and privileges, what is the ignorant, arrogant, and M'icked system which has been pursued? Such a career of madness and of folly was, I believe, never run in so short a period. The vigour of the ministry is like the vigour of a grave-digger, — the tomb becomes more ready and more wide for everj' effort which they make. There is nothing which it is worth while either to take or to re- tain, and a constant train of ruinous expedi- tions has been kept up. Every Englishman felt proud of the integrity of his country ; the character of the country is lost for ever. It is of the utmost consequence to a commercial people at war with the greatest part of Europe, that there should be a free entry of neutrals into the enemy's ports ; the neutrals who car- ried our manufactures we have not only ex- cluded, but we have compelled them to declare war against us. It was our interest to make a good peace, or convince our own people that it could not be obtained; we have not made a peace, and we have convinced the people of nothing but of the arrogance of the foreign secretary ; and all this has taken place in the short space of a year, because a King's Bench barrister and a writer of epigrams, turned into ministers of state, were determined to show country gentlemen that the late administration had no vigour. In the mean time commerce stands still, manufactures perish, Ireland is more and more irritated, India is threatened, fresh taxes are accumulated upon the wretched people, the war is carried on without it being possible to conceive any one single object which a rational being can propose to himself by its continuation ; and in the midst of this unparalleled insanity we are told that the conti- nent is to be reconquered bjt the want of rhu- barb and plums.* A better spirit than exists in the English people never existed in any i people in the world ; it has been misdirected, 1 and squandered upon party purposes in the ; most degrading and scandalous manner; they * have been led to believe that they were bene- fiting the commerce of England by destroying the commerce of America, that they were de- fending their sovereign by perpetuating the bigoted oppression of their fellow-subject; their rulers and their guides have told them M that they would equal the vigour of France by equalling her atrocity ; and they have gone on wasting that opulence, patience, and courage, which, if husbanded by prudent and moderate counsels, might have proved the* salvation of mankind. The same policy of turning the good qualities of Englishmen to their own destruction, which made Mr. Pitt omnipotent, ^ continues his power to those who resemble him only in his vices ; advantage is taken of ' the loyalty of Englishmen, to make them meanly submissive ; their piety is turned into persecution, their courage into useless and obstinate contention ; they are plundered be- cause they are ready to pay, and soothed into asinine stupidity because they are full of vir- , tuous patience. If England must perish at last, so let it be ; that event is in the hands of God ; we must dry up our tears and submit But that England should perish swindling and stealing; that it should perish waging war against lazar-houses, and hospitals ; that it should perish persecuting xvith monastic bigot- ry ; that it should calmly give itself up to be ruined by the flashy arrogance of one man, and the narrow fanaticism of another ; these events are within the power of human beings, and I did not think that the magnanimity of Englishmen would ever stoop to such de- gradations. Longum vale ! PETER PLYMLEY. * Even Allen Park (accustomed as he has always been to be delighted by all administrations) says it is too bad ; and Hall and Morris are said to have actually blushed in one of the divisions. THE END. ^^L29i94$ PHILADELPHIA : STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON. i <; i LIBRARY