" THE STORY OF OUR LIVES FROM YEAR TO YEAR."—SHAKESPEARE. ALL THE YEAR ROUND. A WEEKLY JOURNAL. CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

N*'- 109.] SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1861. [PB,ICE 2d.

experienced the first moment of relief I had GREAT EXPECTATION'S. hnown since the night of his arrival. BY CHAHLES DICKENS. Never quite free from an uneasy remembrance • of the mail on the stairs, I had always looked about me in taking my guest out after dark, and CHAPTER XLI. in bringing him back; and I looked about me IN vain should I attempt to describe the now. Difficult as it is in a large city to avoid astonishment and disquiet of Herbert, when he the suspicion of being watched, when the mind and I and Provis sat down before the fire, and I is conscious of danger in that regard, I could recounted the whole of the secret. Enough that not persuade myself that any of the people I saw my own feelings reflected in Herbert's within sight cared about my movements. The face, and, not least among them, my repugnance few who were passing, passed on their several towards the man who had done so much for ways, and the street was empty when I turned me. back into the Temple. Nobody had come out What would alone have set a division between at the gate with us, nobody went in at the gate that man and us, if there had been no other with me. As I crossed by the fountain, I saw dividing circumstance, Avas his triumph in my his lighted back windows looking bright and story. Saving his troublesome sense of having quiet, and when I stood for a few moments in been "low" on one occasion since his return— the doorway of the building where I lived, be­ on which point he began to hold forth to Her­ fore going up the stairs. Garden-court was as bert, the moment my revelation was finished— still and lifeless as the staircase Avas when I he had no perception of the possibility of my ascended it. finding any fault with my good fortune. His Herbert received me with open arms, and I boast that he had made me a gentleman, and had never felt before, so blessedly, what it is to that he had come to see me support the cliarac- have a friend. When he had spoken some sound ter on his ample resources, was made for me words of sympathy and encouragement, we sat quite as much as for himself; and that it was a down to consider the question. What was to be highly agreeable boast to both of us, and that done ? we must both be very proud of it, was a conclu­ The chair that Provis had occupied stiU re sion quite established in his OAVU mind. maining Avhere it had stood—for he had a bar­ " Though, look'ee here, Pip's comrade," he said rack way with him of hanging about one spot, to Herbert, after having discoursed for some time, in one unsettled manner, and going through one " I know very well that once since I come back round of observances with his pipe and his negro- —for Jialf a minute—I've been low, I said to head and his jack-knife and his pack of cards, Pip, I knowed as I had been low. But don't and what not, as if it were aU put down for him you fret yourself on that score. I ain't made on a slate—1 say, his chair remaining where it Pip a gentleman, and Pip ain't agoing to make had stood, Herbert unconsciously took it, but you a gentleman, not fur me not to know what's next moment started out of it, pushed it away, due to ye both. Dear boy, and Pip's comrade, and took another. He had no occasion to say you two may count upon me always having a after that, that he had conceived an aversion for gen-teel muzzle on. Muzzled I have been my patron, neither had I occasion to confess my since that half a minute Avlien I was betrayed own. We interchanged that confidence without into lowness, muzzled I am at the present time, shaping a syllable. and muzzled I ever wiU be." " What," said I to Herbert, when he was safe Herbert said, " Certainly," but looked as if in another chair, " what is to be done ?" there were no specific consolation in this, and "My poor dear Handel," he repUed, holding remained perplexed and dismayed. We were his head, "I am too stunned to think," anxious for the time when he would go to his " So Avas T, Herbert, when the blow first fell. lodging, and leave us together, but he was evi­ StiU, something must be done. He is intent dently jealous of leaving us together, and sat upon various new expenses—horses, and car­ late. It was midnight before I took him round riages, and lavish appearances of all kinds. He to Essex-street, and saw him safely in at his must be stopped, somehow.** own dark door. When it closed upon him, I fC You mean that you can't accept ?"

VOL. V. 109 194 [May 25,1801.] ALL THE Y^EAR ROUND. [Conducted by

"Howcan I?" I interposed, as Herbert paused, himself, I should be wretched as the cause, hoAv- " Think of him! Look at himr!" ever innocently. Yes; even though I was so An involuntary shudder passed over both of us. wretched in havMig him at large and near me, "Yet I am afraid the dreadful truth is, Her­ and- even though I would far far rather have bert, that he is attached to me, strongly attached worked at the forge all the days of my life, than to me. Was there ever such a fate !" I Avould have ever come to this ! " My poor dear Handel," Herbert repeated. But there was no raving off the question. "Then," said I, "after all, stopping short What was to be done ? here, never taking another penny from him, " The first and the .main thing to be done," think Avhat I owe him already! 'Then again: said Herbert, " is to get him out di England. I am heavily in debt—very heavily for me, Avho You will have to go with Mm, and then he may haA^e now no expectations at all—and I have be induced to go," been bred to no calling, and I am fit for nothing," " But get him where I wiU, could I prevent "Well, well, Avell!" Herbert remonstrated. 'his coming back?" "Don't say fit for nothing.** "My good Handel, is it not obvious that with " What am I fit for ? I knOAv only one thing Newgate in the next street, there must be far that I am fit for, and that is, to go for a soldier. greater hazard in your breaking your mind to And I might have gone, my dear Herbert, but him and making him reckless, here, than else- for the prospect of taking counsel with your Avhere, If a pretext to get him away could be friendship and affection." made out of that other convict, or out of any­ Of course I broke doAvn there; and of course thing else in his life, now," Herbert, beyond seizing aAvarmgrip of myhand^ " There, again!" said I, stopping before Her­ pretended not to know it. bert, Avith my open hands hela out as if they " Anyhow, my dear Handel," said he presently, contained the desperation of the case. " I know " soldiering won't do. If you Avere to renounce nothing of his life. It has almost made nie this patronage and these favours, I suppose you mad to sit here of a night and see him before would do so with some faint hope of one day re­ me, so bound up with my fortunes and misfor­ paying Avhat you have already had. Not very tunes, and yet so unknown to me, except as the strong, that hope, if you went soldiering! Be­ miserable wretch who terrified me two days iu sides, it's absurd. You^would-be infinitely better my childhood!" in Clarriker's house, small as it is. I am work­ Herbert got up, and linked his arm in mine, ing up towards a partnership, you know." and we slowly walked to and fro together, study­ Poor feUow ! He Uttle suspected with whose ing the carpet, money. " Handel," said Herbert, stopping, "you feel " But there is another question," said Her­ convinced that you can take no further benefits bert. "This is an ignorant determined man, from him; do you ?" A\-ho has long had one fixed idea. More than "PuUy. Surely you would, too, if you were that, he seems to me (I may misjudge him) to in my place ?" be a mau of a desperate and fierce character." "And you feel convinced that you must break "IknoAvhe is," I returned, "Let me tell with him ?" you what evidence I have seen of it." And I " Herbert, can you ask me ?" told him what I had not mentioned in my narra­ " And you have, and are bound to have, that tive ; of that encounter with the other convict. tenderness for the life he has risked on your " See, then !" said Herbert; "think of this ! account, that you must save him, if possible, He comes here at the peril of his life, for the from throwing, it away. Then you must get realisation of his fixed idea. In the moment of him out of England before you stir a finger to realisation, after all his toil andAvaitiug, you cut extricate yourself. That done, extricate your­ the ground from under his feet, destroy his idea, self, in Heaven's name, and we'U see it out and make his gains worthless to him. Do you together, dear old boy." see nothing that he might do, under the disap­ It was a comfort to shake hands upon it, aud pointment ?" Avalk up and down agam, Avith only that done, "I have seen it, Herbert, and dreamed of it " NOAV, Herbert," said I, " with reference to ever since the fatal night of his arrival. No­ gaining some knowledge of his history. There thing has been in my thoughts so distinctly, as is but one way that I know of. I must ask him his putting himself in the way of being taken." point-blank." " Then you may rely upon it,'* said Herbert, "Yes. Ask him," said Herbert, "when we "that there would be great danger of his doing sit at breakfast in the morning." Por he had it. That is his power over you as long as he said, on taking leave of Herbert, that he would remains in England, and that would be his reck­ come to breakfast with us. less course if you forsook him," With this project formed, we went to bed. I I was so struck by the horror of this idea, had the AvUdest dreams concerning him, and which had Aveighed upon me from the first, and woke unrefreshed; I Avoke, too, to recover the the Avorking out of Avhich would make me regard fear which I had lost in the night, of his being myself, in some sort, as his murderer, that I found out as a returned transport. Waking, 1 could not rest in my chair but began pacing to never lost that fear. and fro, I said to Herbert, meanwhUe, that even He came round at the appointed time, took if Provis were recognised and taken in spite of I out his jack-knife, and sat doAvn to Ins meal. ^m

CfaATles Dickena.] GREAT EXPECTATIONS. [May 25, 19G1.I 195

He Avas fuU of plans "for his gentleman's thought it was all lies together, only as the coming out strong, and like a gentleman," and birds' names come out true, I supposed mine urged me to begin speedily upon the pocket- did. book, which he had left in my possession. He "So fur as I could find, there warn't a soul considered the chambers and his OAvn lodging as that see young Abel Magwitch, with as little on temporary residences, and advised me to look him as in him, but wot caught fright at him, out at once for " a fashionable crib" in which he and either drove him off, or took him up. I could have " a shake-down/' near Hyde Park. Avas took up, took up, took up, to that extent Whence had made an end of his breakfast, and that I reg'larly grow'd up took up. was wiping his knife on his leg, I said to him, " This is the way it was, that Avhen I was a without a word of preface ; ragged little creetur as much to be pitied as ever "After you were gone last night, I told my I see (not that I looked in the glass, for there friend of the struggle that the soldiers found warn't many insides of furnished houses known you engaged in on the marshes, when we came to me), I got the name of being hardened. ' This up. You remember ?" is a terrible hardened one,* they says to prison " Remember !" said he. " I think so!" wisitors, picking out me. ' May be said to live "Wewant to know something about that in jails, this boy.* Then they looked at me, and man—and about you. It is strange to know no I looked at them, and they measured my head, more about either, and particularly you, than I some on 'em—they had better a measured my was able to tell last night. Is not this as good stomach—and others on 'emgiv me tracts what a time as another for our knowing more ?'* I couldn't read, and made me speeches what I "Well !'* he said, after consideration. "You're couldn't unnerstand. They always went on on your oath, you know, Pip's comrade ?" agen me about the DevU, But Avhat the Devil "Assuredly,** repUed Herbert. was I to do ? I must put something into my "As to anything I say, you know," he in­ stomach, mustn't I?—Howsomever, l*m a get­ sisted. "The oath applies to all." ting low, and I know what's due. Dear boy and " I understand it to do so," Pip's comrade, don't you be afeerd of me being' "And look'ee here! Whatever I done, is low. worked out and paid for,** he insisted again, "Tramping, begging, thieving, working " So be it," sometimes when I could—though that warn't He took out his black pipe and was going to as often as you may think, till you put the fill it with negro-head, when, looking at the question Avhether you would ha' been over tangle of tobacco in his hand, he seemed to ready to give me work yourselves—a bit of a think it might perplex the thread of his nar­ poacher, a bit of a labourer, a bit of a wag­ rative. He put it back again, stuck his pipe in goner, a bit of a haymaker, a bit of a hawker, a a button-hole of his coat, spread a hand on each bit of most things that don*t pay and lead to knee, and, after turning an angry eye on the trouble, I got to be a man. A deserting sol­ fire for a few silent moments, looked round at dier in a TraveUers' Rest, wot lay hid up to the us and said what follows. chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read; and a travelling Giant wot signed his name at a penny a time learnt me to write, I warn't CHAPTEE XLII. locked up as often now as formerly, but I wore " DEAR boy and Pip's comrade. I am not a out my good share of key-metal stiU. going fur to tell you my life, like a song or a "At Epsom races, a matter of over twenty year story-book. But to give it you short and handy, ago, I got acquainted wi' a man whose skull I'd I'll put it at once into a mouthful of English. crack wi' this poker, like the claw of a lobster, In jail and out of jaU, in jail and out of jail, if I'd got it on this hob. His right name was in jail and out of jail. There, you've got it. Compeyson; and that's the man, dear boy, AAot That's my life pretty much, down to such you see me pounding in the ditch, according to times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my wot you truly told your comrade arter I was friend, gone last night. "I've been done everything to, pretty weU— " He set up fur a gentleman, this Compeyson, except hanged. I've been locked up, as much and he'd been to a public boarding-school and as a sUver tea-kettle, I've been carted here had learning. He Avas a smooth one to talk, and and carted there, and put out of this town and w^as a dab at the ways of gentlefolks. He Avas put out of that town,, and stuck in the stocks, good-looking too.. It was the night afore the and whipped and worried and drove. I've no great race, when I found him ou the heath in a more notion where I was born than you have— booth that I know'd on. Him and some more if so much. I first become aware of myself, was a sitting among the tables when I Avent in, down in Essex, a thieving turnips for my living. and the landlord (which had a knowledge of me, Summuu had run away from me—a man—a and was a sporting one) called him out, and tiidcer—and he'd took the fire with him, and left said, ' I think this is a man that might suit you* me wery cold. —meaning I Avas. "I know'd my name to beMagwitch,. chris- "Compeyson, he looks at me very noticing, and en'd Abel. How did I know it ? Much as I I look at him. He has a watch and a chain and know'd the birds* names iu the hedges,to be a ring aud a breast-pin and a handsome suit of chaffinch, sparrer, thrush., I might have clothes. 196 [May 25, 1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

" *To judge from appearances, you're out of "' I don't know how she's there,' sajs luck,* says Compeyson to me. Arthur, shivering dreadful with the horrors, " ' Yes, master, and I've never been in it ' but she's standing in the corner at the foot much.' (I come out of Kingston Jail last on a of the bed, aAvful mad. And over Avhere her vagrancy committal. Not but wot it might have heart's broke—you broke it!—there's drops of been for something else ; but it warn't.) blood.* " *Luck changes,* says Compeyson; ^perhaps " Compeyson spoke hardy, but he was always a yours is going to change.* coward. 'Go up alonger this drivelling sick "I says, 'I hope it may be so. There's man/ he says to his wife, 'and Magwitch, lend room.' her a hand, AviU you ?' But he never come nigh " 'What can you do?' says Compeyson. himself, " 'Eat and drink,* I says; *if you'll find the . " Compeyson's Mafe and me took him up to bed materials.* agen, and he raved most dreadfid. ' Why look " Compeyson laughed, looked at me again very at her!' he cries out, * She's a shaking the noticing, giv me five shilUngs, and appointed shroud at me! Don't you see her? Look at me for next night. Same place. her eyes! Ain't it awful to see her so mad?' " I went to Compeyson, next night, same Next, he cries, ' She'll put it on me, and then place, and Compeyson took me on to be his I'm done for 1 Take it away from her, take it man and pardner. And what was Compey- aw^ay !' And then he catched hold of us, and son's business in which we was to go pardners ? kep on a talking to her, and answering of her, Compeyson's business was the swindling, hand­ till I half believed I see her myself, writing forging, stolen bank-note passing, and " Compeyson's wife, being used to him, giv such-like. All sorts of traps as Compeyson him some liquor to get the horrors off, aud could set with his head, and keep his own legs by-and-by he quieted, * Oh, she's gone! Has out of and get the profits from and let another her keeper been for her?' he says. 'Yes,' man in for, was Compeyson's business. He'd says Compeyson's wife. 'Did you tell him to no more heart than a iron file, he was as cold lock her and bar her in?' 'Yes.' 'And to as death, and he had the head of the Devil afore take that ugly thing away from her ?' ' Yes, mentioned. yes, all right.' 'You're a good creetur,' he " There was another in with Compeyson, as says, ' don't leave me, Avhatever you do, and was caUed Arthur—not as being so clirisen'd, thank you!' but as a surname. He was in a Decline, and " He rested pretty quiet till it might want a was a shadow to look at. Him and Compeyson few minutes of five, and then he starts up with had been in a bad thing with a rich lady a scream, and screams out, ' Here she is ! She's some years afore, and they'd made a pot of got the sliroud again. She's unfolding it. She's money by it; but Compeyson betted and gamed, coming out of the corner. She's coming to tlie and he'd have run through the king's taxes. bed. Hold me both on you—one of each side So Arthur Avas a dying, and a dying poor and —don't let her touch me with it. Hali! she Avitli the horrors on him, and Compeyson's missed me that time. Don't let her throw it wife (which Compeyson kicked mostly) was over my shoulders. Don't let her Uft me up to a having pity on him when she could, and get it round me. She's lifting me up. Keep Compeyson was a having pity on nothing and me down!' Then he Ufted himself up hard, and nobody. was dead. " I might a took warning by Arthur, but I "Compeyson took it easy as a good rid­ didn't; and I won't pretend I wos partick'ler— dance for both sides. Him and me was soon for where 'ud be the good on it, dear boy and busy, and first he swore me (being ever artful) ou comrade ? So I begun Avi' Compeyson, and a poor my own book—this here Uttle black book, aear tool I was in his hands. Arthur lived at the boy, what I swore your comrade on. top of Compeyson's house (over nigh Brentford it "Not to go into the things that Compeyson was), and Compeyson kept a careful account agen planned, and I done—which 'ud take a week— him for board and lodging, in case he should I'll simply say to you, dear boy, and Pip's com­ ever get better to work it out. But Arthur rade, that that man got me into such nets as made soon settled the account. The second or third me his black slave. I was always in debt to time as ever I see him, he come a tearing down him, always under his thumb, always a working, into Compeyson's parlour late at night, in only a always a getting into danger. He Avas younger flannel gown, with his hair all in a sweat, and than me, but he'd got craft, and he'd got learn­ he says to Compeyson's Avife, ' Sally, she really ing, and he overmatched me five huudred times is up-stairs alonger me now, and I can't get told and no mercy. My Missis as I had the rid of her. She's all in white,* he says, ' Avi' hard time wi' Stop though! I ain't brought white flowers in her hair, and she's aw^ful mad, her in " and she's got a shroud hanging over her arm, He looked about him in a confused way, as if and she says she'U put it on me at five in the he had lost his place in the book of his remem­ morning." brance; and he turned his face to the fire, and " Says Compeyson: ' Why, you fool, don't you spread his hands broader on his knees, and lifted know she's got a living body ? And how should them off and put them on again. she be up there, without coming through the "There ain't no need to go into it," he said, door, or in at the window, and up the staUs ?' looking round once more. "The time wi' ^

Charles Dickena.] GREAT EXPECTATIONS. CMay25.18(il.] 197

Compeyson was a'most as hard a time as ever I we're sentenced, ain't it him as gets seven year had; that said, all's said. Did I tell you as I and me fourteen, and ain't it him as the Judge is Avas tried, alone, for misdemeanour, while with sorry for, because he might a done so Avell, Compeyson ?" and ain't it me as the Judge perceives to be a I answered, No. old offender of wiolent passion, likely to come ^' WeU!" he said, '* T was, and got convicted. to worse ?" As to took up on suspicion, that was twice or He had worked himself into a state of great three times in the four or five year that it excitement, but he checked it, took two or three lasted; but evidence was Av^anting. At last, me short breaths, swallowed as often, and stretch­ and Compeyson was both committed for felony— ing out his hand towards me said, in a re­ on a charge of putting stolen notes in circu­ assuring manner, "I ain't a going to be low, lation—and there was other charnres behind. dear boy!" Compeyson says to me, ' Separate defences, no He had so heated himself that he took out communication,' and that was all. And I was so his handkerchief and wiped his face and head miserable poor, that I sold all the clothes I had, and neck and hands, before he could go on. except Avhat hung gn my back, afore I could get "I had said to Compeyson that I'd smash that Jaggers. face of his, and I swore Lord smash mine! to do " When we was put in the dock, I noticed it. We Avas in the same prison-ship, but I first of all what a gentleman Compeyson looked, couldn't get at him for long, though I tried. wi' his curly hair and his black clothes and his At last I come behind him and liit him on the white pocket-handkercher, and what a common cheek to turn him round and get a smashing sort of wretch I looked. When the prosecution one at him, Avhen I was seen and seized. The opened and the evidence Avas put short, afore- black-hole of that ship warn't a strong one, to hand, I noticed how heavy it all bore on me, a judge of black-holes that could swim and and how lidit on him. When the evidence Avas dive. I escaped to the shore, and I was a ^iv in the box, I noticed how it was always me hiding among the graves there, envying them that had come for'ard, and could be swore to, as was in 'em and all over, when first I see my how it was always me that the money had been boy!" paid to, how it was always me that had seemed He regarded me Avith a look of affection that to work the thing and get the profit. But, when made him almost abhorrent to me again, though the defence come on, then I see the plan plainer; I had felt great pity for him. for, says the counsellor for Compeyson, 'My "By my boy, I was giv to understand as Com­ lord and gentlemen, here you has afore you, peyson was out on them marshes too. Upon my -side by side, two persons as your eyes can se­ soul, I half believe he escaped in his terror, to parate wide; one, the younger, well brought get quit of me, not knoAving it was me as had up, who will be spoke to as such; one, the got ashore. I hunted him down, I smashed elder, ill brought up, Avho will be - spoke to his face, ' And now,' says I, ' as the Avorst as such; one, the younger, seldom if ever thing I can do, caring nothing for myself, I'll .seen in these here transactions, and only sus­ drag you back,* And I'd have sAvum off, tow­ pected ; t'other, the elder, always seen in ing him by the hair, if it had come to that, and 'em and ahvays wi* his guilt brought home. I'd a got him aboard without the soldiers, Can you doubt, if there is but one in it, which "Of course he'd much the best of it to the is the one, and, if there is two in it, Avhich is last—his character was so good. He had escaped much the worst one ?' And such-like. And when wdien he Avas made half wild by me and my it come to character, warn't it Compeyson as had murderous intentions; and his punishment was been to the school, and warn't it his school­ light. I was put in irons, brought to trial again, fellows as Avas in this position and in that, and and sent for life. I didn't stop for life, dear boy warn't it him as had been know'd by Avitnesses and Pip's comrade, being here." in such clubs and societies, and nowt to his He wiped himself again, as he had done be­ disadvantage ? And Avarn't it me as had been fore, and then slowly took his tangle of tobacco tried afore, and as had been know'd up hill and from his pocket, and plucked his pipe from his down dale in BridcAvells and Lock-Ups ? And button-hole, and slowly filled it, and began to when it come to speech-making, Avarn't it Com­ smoke. peyson as could speak to 'em wi' lus face drop­ " Is he dead ?" I asked, after a silence. ping every now and then into his Avhite pocket- "Is wdio dead, dear boy ?'* handkercher—ah ! and wi' verses in his speech, "Compeyson." too—and w^arn't it me as could oiUy say, 'Gentle­ "He hopes/am, if he's alive, you may be men, this mau at my side is a most precious sure," with a fierce look. "I never heerd no rascal ?' And Avhen the verdict come, Avarn't it more of him." Compeyson as was recommended to mercy on ac­ Herbert had been writing with his pencil in count of good character and bad company, and the cover of a book. He softly pushed the book giving up all the information he could agen me, over to me, as Provis stood smoking Avith his and warn't it me as got never a word but GuUty ? eyes on the fire, and I read in it: Aud when I says to Compeyson, 'Once out of this court, I'U smash that face of yourn ?' ain't it Com­ " Young Havisham's name was Arthur. Compey­ son is the man who professed to be Miss Havisham's peyson as prays the Judge to be protected, and lover." gets two turnkeys stood betwixt us ? And when I shut the book and nodded slightly to Her- 198. [May 25,1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by bert, and put the book by; but we neither of us sometimes to produce results on minerals rather said anything, and both looked at Provis as he startling in their magnitude. stood smoking by the fire. There is one fact with regard to specimens of quartz—or crystals, as they are often caUed— THE TREASURES OP THE EARTH. whicli is very curious and interesting. Small cavities not unfrequently occur within them, IN TWO CHAPTEUS, CHAPTER II. sometimes empty, but often fiUed with fluid. IT is a curious fact, that while most of the By exposure to cold this fluid may be frozen, stones called "precious" were worn in former and very often a slight increase of tempera­ times as amulets, to ward off danger and mis­ ture converts it mto transparent vapour, while chief, and were valued greatly for such pur­ by optical methods of examination employed poses, and while almost all the varieties of under the microscope, the properties of the agate had special uses, the onyx was con­ fluid can occasionally be detected. Indeed, sidered to excite spleen, melancholy, and mental the cavities have been so large that the fluid disturbance in the wearer, especially when used could be extracted in sufficient quantity for ex­ as a neck ornament. As, however, the ordi­ amination. It might be expected that some new nary agate was worn to calm pain and sooth element or compound would be thus obtained— the mind, and the mere scent of some varieties some secret of nature's laboratory—some sub­ —a pecrdiarity and difficult thing to ascertain stance from the interior of the earth, only thus the existence of—would turn away tempests, brought within our knowledge, locked up in one even arresting the impetuosity of torrents, the of the hard crystaUine minerals elaborated far line of distinction must have been very nicely beneath, out of our sight. No such result is draw^n. So active were stones of this kind sup­ obtained, and no such mystery laid bare, for \pe posed to be, that the celebrated Milo of Crotona find almost all the cavities in question to be oc­ is said to have been indebted to a certain chalce­ cupied by water mixed only with some common donyx that he wore, for the execution of his salt or acid, held in solution. Vapour of water, feats of wonderful strength. Of the other then, must be contained in rocks during the stones, the beautiful heliotrope, or blood-stone, whole period of their formation in the earth, was thought to render the wearer invisible, much in the same state of admixture in which whUe jasper would stop any excess of bleeding we know that it is present in the atmosphere arising from natural causes. to form clouds. Thus these wonders of nature All the minerals here mentioned consist of and treasures of art are the result of some pro­ quartz or siUca, combined, when coloured, with cess only the more wonderful because it is so a small quantity of metallic oxides and earthy extremely simple, being one by whose agency minerals. Thus the amethyst and other violet ordinary familiar substances are worked up, to­ and blue colours are produced by manganese, gether with water, under certain conditions of and the rose tint is owing to the same metal. heat, bringing about in this way the magic of Almost all the reds are due to iron, and the our most varied and beautiful gems. yellow and green to very minute quantities of Mixed with water in a different way—the minerals not very clearly determined. The water distributed in every part, and not coUected brown of cairngorm is the result of a little in cavities—the same mineral, quartz or silica, bitumen. becomes that very curious and fantastic stone, It is astonishing to consider how very small the opal. The proper colour of this gem is a a quantity of foreign material wiU sometimes peculiar pearl grey, showing a fluctuating pale alter the character and appearance of crystals. red, or wine yellow tint, when seen between Thus the cat's-eye is a gem of greenish tint, the eye and the Ught. With reflected Ught it milky and opal-Uke. When cut in a certain presents all the colours of the rainbow, show­ way, it presents a floating white band of Ught, ing a flame-red, violet, purple, blue, emerald and certain specimens emit one or more briUiant green, and golden yeUow. The rays of light rays, coloured or colourless, issuing apparently and colour shoot forth from a fine opal (noble from one point, and extending to the extremity opal, in technical language) with the most vivid of the stone. Compared with one of those baUs effulgence, and the more flaws it contains the of crystals sometimes cut into the same form, or more does it reflect, and the greater value is with the lens of a pair of pebble spectacles, it is attached to it. In some rare cases, opals have hardly possible to imagine that there is so Uttle been found nearly black, but glowing like a fine difference as reaUy exists between the two ruby. Other opals are spangled, and sometimes minerals in their chemical composition. In not more than one colour is seen. In aU cases, point of fact, the presence within the crystal of however, the foundation of the stone indepen­ a few delicate threads of white asbestos, seems dent of the colour, which is entirely an optical to produce all the modifications, except that of effect, consists of a pecuUar mUky translucent colour, and the cause of the colour itself is owing mass, which at once marks the gem. to some substance, the quantity of which is too _ Opals are very rarely found of large size, the small to enable chemists to determine its nature. dimensions of a hazel-nut or wahaut being sel­ Certainly the method of small doses, as advo­ dom exceeded. They are never cut in facets, cated by homoeopathists, is not without a certain and are generally set surrounded by brilliants, analogy in nature, and doses too small to be whose bright dazzUng reflections contrast well appreciated by mortal chemistry are sufficient with the calm moon-like beauty and rich soft ^ja mx^^^Bh^

Charles Bickens.] THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH. [May 25, 1861.] 199 tints of the central stone. Fine opals are of balmed Avithin it remains of insects and even the great value, being considered only next to the most deUcate parts of flowers. Its exquisite diamond. They are softer than crystal, and re­ yellow colour and beautiful transparency, toge­ quire extreme care in cutting. They generally ther with its deUcate perfume and some other consist of about ninety per cent sUica, and ten properties, have caused it to be regarded as a per cent water, and are very irregular in tex­ gem. It is found in nodules or lumps on the ture and hardness. There are many varieties of sea-shore, chiefly in Northern Europe, or in clay- value, inferior to the noble opal, knoAvn by pits at various depths, with Ugnite and gravel. various names. Fire opal, hydrophane, cacho- The specimens containing insects, &c., are highly long, may be mentioned as among these. valued as curiosities, but not as precious stones. TURQUOISE is a mineral of great beauty, taking Amber was formerly much more in use as a rank as a gem, though not crystalline, and always gem than it is now, and in the form of beads, nearly opaque. It is of a fine azure blue or bracelets, and necklaces, it was a common orna­ bluish-green colour, slightly transparent at the ment of the person in England iu the time of edges, and hard enough to admit of a good Shakespeare. It is not UOAV altogether out of polish. It is found in the East, and (of late fashion, and its lightness and elegant simplicity years at least) chiefly in Arabia and Persia, are worthy of some attention. Medicinal pro­ whence considerable numbers have been ob­ perties were at one time attributed to it, and it tained. It owes its colour to the presence of is stUl used for perfumes and some medical copper; and was formerly more commonly used, compounds, but there is no difficulty in manu­ and more valued than at present. A supersti­ facturing it artificiaUy. tion was connected with it as Avitli so many CORAL, if not a gem, ranlcs with the class of gems, and the possession of this stone, if given ornamental minerals AVC are now considering. to the wearer—not purchased—was believed to It is not, however, like the pearl, an extraneous ward off any threatening danger. Thus, we secretion, unnecessary and useless to the animal read in Donne— that constructs it, but the skeleton, or stony As a compassionate turkois that doth tell, framework of the animal itself. The only kind By looking pale, the wearer is not well. of coral of important value is that beautiful red variety, fished up in the Mediterranean. This And again, iu the play of Sejanus, by Ben has been regarded as a talisman against enchant­ Jonson— ments, witchcraft, venom, the assaults of the Observe him as his watch observes his clock, devil, thunder, and marine tempests. Ten grains And true as turkois in the dear lord's ring of it, we are told, if given to an infant in its Look well or ill with him. mother's mUk, provided it be a first child, and This stone was also believed to prevent and this its first food, wUl preserve it from epileptic relieve headaches, and appease hatred. and other fits for the whole of its life. Another There are some other substances regarded as great authority, in matters of this kind, believes gems, which, though originating Avith the animal that coral worn by a healthy man Avill be of a strictly belong to the mineral kingdom; and handsomer and more lively red than if worn bv others again, Avhich have the same relation to a woman, and that it becomes pale and livid if the vegetable world. Pearls are among the worn by one who is iU and in danger of death. former, and amber is an example of the latter. We can only say with regard to this that we Coral is a more decided animal product, have not ourselves tried the experiment, and PEAKLS, as aU know, are ootained from the that perhaps, like many other experiments, it insides of certain sea-shells, and they appear would succeed only in the hands of the faithful. to be the result of an effort of the animal in­ There are many curious superstitions and habitant and constructor of the shell, either to fancies concerning precious stones, besides tliose repair an injury or to cover up a foreign body we have referred to, and one of them, which, as which has been introduced. They are, however, it is elegant and fanciful in its absurdity, is per­ mmeral secretions, and once deposited, the con­ haps worthy of mention in this place, as includ­ structor Avould seem to have nothing more to ing the whole group of gems used for ornament. do with them, as they play no part in the organi­ It is a PoUsh idea that every human being is sation of the healthy animal They are obtained born under the influence of some destiny, that both from the Eastern and Western hemispheres, the month of his nativity has a mysterious con­ and from shells varying a good deal in their nexion with this, and that Avhen it is desired to form and structure; always, however, in those make a present to one greatly valued and loved, having two valves. The number of smaU pearls a ring should be offered, containing a gem ex­ obtained and sent into the market is exceedingly pressing some such quality as the destiny Avould great, but specimens of any considerable dimen­ indicate. Each precious stone thus has refer­ sions are as rare as they are valuable. Those of ence to some particular month, and the follow­ good round form and pure clear colour are the ing Ust is copied from a memorandum drawn up best; the pear-shaped the largest. Pearls do by a Pole many years ago : not bear exposure to damp, nor to animal exha­ lations. They should thus be kept dry, and only worn on special occasions. January. Hyacinth or garnet. Constancy and fidelity in every engagement. AMBER is a fossil resin originally the secreted February, Amethyst. Preserves the wearer juice of some pine, and often containing em­ from strong passions, and ensures peace of mind. T

200 C^Iay25,l861,] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

March. Blood-stone. Courage and success m the earth, distributed only sparingly and in dangers and hazardous enterprises. found only when looked for properly —can April. Sapphire or diamond. Repentance it be that these Avere meant to be neglected and innocence. and despised? Surely SRch an assumption is May, Emerald. Success in love. contrary to the Avhole course of nature and the June. Agate. Long life and health., spirit and sentiment of creation. July, Carnelian and Ruby. Porgetfulness, or cure of evils springing from friendship or love. KISSING, Augzist. Sardonyx. Conjugal fidelity. September. Chrysolite. Preserves irom or MAK is the only animal that knows how to euros folly. kiss. Dogs lick their masters and bears their October, Aqua-marine or Opal. Misfortune ragged cubs, cats their kittens in place of nur­ -and hope. sery baths and Turkish towels, donkeys rub November, Topaz, Fidelity in friendship. noses, coAvs and horses fondle each other's heads December. Turquoise or Malachite, Brilliant and necks, love-birds nestling close on the same success and happiness in every circumstance of perch dive rosy bills into fluffy heaps of bril­ life. liant down, or chirrup them together in very sweet and loving guise; so do pigeons and JET can hardly be called a gem or precious stock doves, and perhaps some others; but none •stone, but Avith malachite, lapis lazuli, jade, and of these creatures kiss. Even low-class savages some other stony minerals, it hovers on the con­ do not kiss like civilised men ; so that we may fines of this costly series of natural treasures. take this habit and function to be actual evi­ Many highly ornamental and beautiful varieties dence of intellect and civiUsation; which is a ef stones, common enough in other forms, might pleasant idea at any rate. readily be quoted as coming under the same Kisses have generally been made matters of •category, but Ave must not detain the reader ceremony and state symbol, as well as those longer by a mere enumeration. dearer expressions of feelings which require no We have now gone through the list of gems settled ceremonial. To kiss the forehead is the or precious stones, elaborated and lying buried instinctive sign of elderly good will: and when­ in various parts of the earth, and from time to ever fathers give any blessing at all, they seal time extracted for the use of man. With few it with a kiss upon the forehead of the chUd. exceptions, all tliese numerous and varied sub­ Kissing the shoulder is, in some places, the sign stances are objects of beauty and luxury, and of inferiority: not always, though, when the cannot be regarded in any sense as objects of shoulders are fair and round: necessity, or even of great use. We could Enough white certainly do Avithout any one of them, and if Ave For Venus pearly bite, had them not we should hardly feel the want. as Keats says. What lesson ought we to draw from this lavish Kissing the foot is a sign of inferiority; so of and elaborate ornamentation, even of those stones the hand, but most of all the ground, whicli is even that are mixed up with the dust under our feet ? baser than the foot, and gets its special hallowing Whence and Avhy this marvellous beauty in from the mere passage of the adored. The Poles, things that under ordinary circumstances are Bohemians, and Russians, catching the ugly not seen by mortal eye or come within mortal trick from the Asiatics, kiss the ground before ken ? It is only when by accident or design the stick and the superior, and are sufficiently some one having wealth—the result of spare honoured in the permission so to abase them­ and accumulated labour—is enabled to bestow selves. Is it too much to say that they will a part of it in rcAvarding those who discover or never come to good whUe that debasing trick render available these hidden treasures, that remains as an institution among them ? their beauty is seen and their value recognised, It is curious to trace the gradual change of and this notwithstanding that they possess pro­ certain customs, which, beginning in simple perties of some importance distinguishing them manly respect, and end in slavish self-abase­ from other minerals. ment. The habit of kissing the ground, or foot, It is no more a right thing puritanically to is one of them. Among the early Romans the despise and neglect these gems than it is to higher magistrates gave their hands to be kissed; refuse to admire flowers, to profess to despise and, under the first emperors, the monarch did the beauty, or to shut our eyes to other clear pur­ same. But this Avas soon thought too familiar poses of nature and nature's God everywhere to be an act of true homage; so, only the supe­ expressed. We live in a Avorld of beauty; the rior officers kissed the hands, whUe the inferior green carpet of verdure is beautiful, the flower were to be content with touching the royal brightening the verdure is beautiful, the butter­ robe, or their own hands, as not worthy to be fly sipping the nectar of the flower is beautiful, admitted to nearer participation. Sometimes the the bird pursuing the insect is beautiful, and the emperor kissed the mouth and eyes of those Avhom blue sky and gorgeous clouds in the lieavensare he Avished to gladden with most signal honour; also beautiful. All these are for our use and but this was a very rare privilege ; and persons enjoyment, and it is our duty to study them in whom he Avished to disgrace he kissed with order that Ave may enjoy them. And can it be marked coldness. Agricola complained that that those other more durable treasures buried when he returned from overcoming the stub- ^JKAAi'.

Charles Dickens.] KISSING. [May 25, 1861 ] 201

born Saxons, Domitian gave him a " cold kiss," "And Joseph fell upon his father's face, andAvept and left him standing iu the crowd unnoticed. over him, and kissed him.'* The cold kiss has long since passed away, but Kissing, which means in the Hebrew simply the complaint remains, and one Avould have adoration, or "touching Avith the mouth," was liked Agricola better if he had never made it. always one of the essential parts of heathen In process of time the Roman emperors, not religion, without which was no possibility of content with having their hands kissed by men either piety or virtue, and people were branded kneeling, demanded to be treated like the gods, as atheists who neglected to kiss their hands, or and to be kissed on the feet; later, to have even the statues of the gods, when they entered a the ground kissed before them, Diocletian Avas temple. Indeed, the feet and knees of the gods the first to command this manner of salutation, were quite Avorn away by the constant touch of aud his successors were not slow to follow his worshipping lips: as is the case now with certain example, Christianity, too, did not disdain to saints and shrines abroad. This custom stood borrow of heathendom—even such things as the brave Demosthenes in good stead; for, Avhen were opposed to its inner spirit and intention. he was the prisoner of Antipater and was taken Thus, it seemed to the popes a fine thing to by the soldiers into the temple, he raised his require the baser laity to kiss their feet; and in hand to his mouth, as if in Avorship. The sol­ 710, Pope Constantine the First, on entering diers thought it was an act of adoration; but it Constantinople, caused the Emperor Justinian was an act of despair instead. He did not mean to kiss his foot. Valentine the Pirst made the to salute the gods, but to take the poison which custom permanent; and, ever since 827, the he had long ago prepared for such an emergency. laity has crouched and crawled up the steps And did not the people of Cos, Avhenthey found of St. Peter's chair to kiss the toes of the Psyche sleeping among the butterflies and roses, great fetish enshrined thereon. But, as the pope treat her as Venus "by kissing her right hand?" Avears a slipper with an embroidered cross upon So at least says Apuleius, that most original the upper leathers, by a pleasant fiction saving and delightful of story-tellers. Even at this to pride, men assume that they kiss the sacred present day the Mahometans kiss the ground in symbol and not the human toe: thus adding the direction of Mecca. self-deception to degradation, and committing The early Christians had their religious kiss, one unnianliness the more, Protestants are not like all the rest. As the initiated into theEleu- required to go through this ceremony. Enough sinian mysteries kissed each outlier in token of for us if we bend slightly on entering the pre­ brotherhood and equal knowledge, so did the sence, as one would to any other reigning power; first disciples in their Agapes, or Love Feasts. and even the stiffer necked of the Catholic princes But, in 397, the Council of Carthage thought get off with an adequate genuflexion. But the fit to forbid all religious kissing betw^een the late King of Spain kissed the pope's foot, not­ sexes, notwithstanding Saint Peter's exhortation, withstanding his blue blood. "Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity." Kissing the pastoral ring has the same mean­ It also forbad all lying on couches at mixed ing. The bishops, as Avell as the popes, had meals; and finaUy broke up the agapes alto­ their feet kissed in early times. This Avas after­ gether, as of a somewhat too dangerous ten­ Avards commuted for the hand—kneeling. Now, dency for ordinary humanity. Several later however, only the symbol, the ring—not kneel­ sects have, at various times, sought to bring ing, but slightly bending the knee. This is found back the institution of the kiss of peace; but to be the lowest to which modern pride can fall. though very pleasant to the feelings, and doubt­ Kissiuir the sovereign s hands at court less exceedingly edifying to the young, it presentations is also only a compromise, be­ has generally been found necessary to prohibit ginning from the same foundations. Even the use and continuance of the same, and Charlemagne and his sons required this de­ to go back to less godly forms of salutation. It grading service from their courtiers, and had still lingers both in the Greek and Romish their feet kissed and knelt to, like so many popes Churches. In Russia, and wherever the Greek or gods. With us the ceremony has evaporated Church prevails, all persons kiss each other on into a bow or a name ; in Prussia it is of exceed- Easter day; that being their great festival and iui:^ rare occurrence to kiss hands at court at all; day of rejoicing; as Christmas is with us, and while in Spain, the kisses are as exactly ruled the Jour de I'An with the Prench, " Christ as the depth of the visiting-card in China, or the is risen," they say, as they kiss each other on manner of giving oneself "happy despatch" the cheek—great hairy moujiks, fiat-faced pea­ in Japan. When the Czar dies, his corpse is sant women, slim nobles, and high-bred ladies affectionately kissed; and the same custom is indiscriminately. Formerly the women kissed obseiwed Avith the Jews, When a Jew is dying, each other at table immediately after the pre- his nearest relative kisses him to receive his last fatial glass of brandy or vodki had been served ; breath; he is kissed when dead, as a fareweU; but that pretty custom has now gone out. Just and agam, when carried to the grave; even before the celebration of the Communion, too, though seven or eight days may have passed. in the Romish Church, some kissing is done. Thus AVC read: The officiating priest kisses the altar, then em­ braces the deacon, saying, " Pax tibi, frater, et " When Jacob had made an end of commandinc: ecclesiae sanctas Dei" (Peace to thee, brother, his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and and to the Holy Church of God). The deacon yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

il ^ 202 [Mfly25,18G1.] ALL THE l^EAR ROUND, [Conducted by embraces the sub-deacon, with "Pax tecum" " When they were at the great stone which is (Peace be Avith thee) only ; and the sub-deacon, in Gibeon, Ainasa Avent before them. And Joab's in his turn, kisses the inferior clergy, who thus garment that he had put on Avas girded unto him, are all bound in a mystic chain of love and and upon it a girdle -with a sword fastened upon his concord ; the first link of which lies in the kiss loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out. of the officiating priest laid on the altar. No "And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, religious ceremony in our ow^n Church is now my brother ? And Joab took Ainasa by the beard, specially consecrated by a kiss; except, per­ witj^ the right hand, to kiss him, haps, the wedding kiss, which old-fashioned " But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was clergymen yet contrive to get from bride and in Joab's hand; so he smote him therewith in the bridesmaids during that mysterious conference fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and in the vestry when the bride signs away her in­ struck him not again; and he died." dependence for life. Very beautiful is the kiss of peace which The Bible is full of sweet and tender kissing David gives to Absalom—that wayward favourite passages, with some terrible and treacherous who Avas for ever paying back his father's love intervening; for the old Jews, when they could and mercy with rebellion and violence, and who, not get their ends by fair bloAvs, did not four verses after that forgiving kiss, gets the scruple to employ lying kisses and false caresses. favour of Israel by an act of treacherous con­ How innocent and beautiful and pathetic is the descension, kiss which Jacob gives to Rachel by the weU, when, weary, weeping, and footsore, he finds " And it was so, that when any man came nigh unto him to do him an obeisance, he put forth his lumself among his mother's kindred, and kisses hand and took him, and kissed him," the young, girl who afterw^ards becomes his wife and the mother of his chosen son! The No wonder that he " stole l,he hearts of the Idss preceding this was eminently tragic—the men of Israel!" Who, indeed, could have been kiss with which he received his blind old proof against the seductions of a youn^ prince, father's blessing, and robbed Esau for the beautiful as a god and familiarly loving as a second time of his birthright. When Esau Avoman ? Had not Joab, the Avild, fierce captam, came in from his hunting, and "cried with a preferred his aUegiance to obedience, and loyalty great and exceeding bitter cry," Avhen he learnt to love, Absalom might have kissed his father's his brother's treachery, Ave find no kiss sealing kingdom away from him. We can understand his paler blessing, Tiiat had gone with the the extreme condescension of this familiar kiss, " dew of heaven, and the fatness of the by the different manners of even the private earth, and plenty of corn, and Avine," to the friends of the princes. Were not David and clever, crafty Jacob: to poor deprived Esau Avas Jonathan friends and brothers in affection ? left only the dew of heaven, and the doubtful " I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: living by the sword, with the future hope of very pleasant hast thou been unto, me; thy love to breaking his brother's hated yoke from off his me was wonderful, passing the love of woman." neck; but no kiss, and no blessing. Yet God Yet when David met Jonathan in the field had given to Esau the greater blessing of a ge­ whither his friend had come to save his life, he nerous nature: a nature Avhich knew neither did him the homage of an inferior, and such guile nor malice, which never *quaUed for fear, as a simple soldier might pay the king's son. and never lied for gain. Years after, when the two brothers meet, Jacob " bows himself to the " He fell on his face on the ground, and bowed ground seven times, until he came near his himself three times." brother:" he had cause for fear and humilia­ Afterwards comes the friend : tion enough; but Esau "ran to meet him, and " And they kissed one another, and wept Avith one embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed another, until David exceeded." him;" and that kiss showed what kind of heart was in the brave impetuous hunter. But sometimes the kiss may be Avhere there is least affection. In that matchless idyl, So, too, Joseph kisses his brethren when he Ruth, it is Orpali AA'IIO kisses her mother-in- makes himself known to them; and here again the kiss is one of generous forgiving and noble law, and leaves her; but Ruth, who does not self-suppression, not only of ordinary saluta­ kiss—at least not then—cleaves unto her. tion ; still it was the ordinary manner of salu­ "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from tation, for when Jethro brought Zipporah and following after thee; for Avhither thou goest I Avill her two sons back to Moses, "Moses went out go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance and shall be my people, and thy God my God: kissed him ; and they asked each other of their " Where thou diest will I die, and there will I he welfare, and they came into the tent." And many buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if years later we find David kissing the old prophet aught but death part thee and me," Barzillai, as he blessed him aud sent him away. No need there of the mere act of kissing Avlien The next kiss to this—of David's to Barzillai. each word was full of the tenderest caress, and —is of a very different class; and, excepting that every accent a kiss from heart to heart! Orpah's 0]!^E which has become the type of all treachery, kiss had not half the love of Ruth's yearning is the most treacherous and cold-blooded of any words; and sentiment, usually so prodigal of on record. symbols, contented itself there Avith simple I^^^l^^i^^

Charles Dickens.] KISSING. [^lay 25, 1S61.] 203 speech, whUe the colder love took on itself the And those eyes, the break of day. warmer utterance. Lights that do mislead the morn; There is one kiss in the New Testament fuU But my kisses bring again, Bring again, of pathos and divine meaning. This is the kiss Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, which Mary Magdalene gives when she washes Seal'd in vain! the loved feet with her tears, and wipes them But think of Titania's, Avhen she "kisses the Avith her hair. And here is that most terrible fair large ears of her gentle joy;" while, further kiss of all—the kiss in the garden of Gethsemane on, come the quaint kisses of Pyramus and which meant betrayal—the "Hail, Master!" Thisbe, given through the chinks of Tinker which meant death. But this was a kiss scarcely Snout's fingers—the fingers which w^ere made to to be spoken of in an article like the present. There are some things before which we must present a wall. And such a wall as I Avould have you think, simply veil our heads and pass on. That had in it a cranny'd hole or chink. Secular history has also its kisses of treachery. When the conspirators went towards Csesar to It would be lengthy work to pick out all the stab him, they made as if they would salute him " kissuig comfits" from Shakespeare, In his according to the custom; but the kiss they gave time, maidens A\^ere not shy nor wives reserved, him was a two-edged sword, and their homage, and things were done and talked of in the death, Csesar sank at the foot of Pompey's statue choicest company which it would be now im­ deceived, if not betrayed, by a caress. So Othello possible to allude to, English civUisation was kisses Desdemona before he smothers her : then far behind the old Roman times of nicety and refinement, when a man would as soon think •When I have pluck'd thy rose. of kissing his Avife in the presence of his daugh­ I cannot give it vital growth again, ters, as we should now think of performing the It needs must wither : I'll smell it on the tree. same grace in an open railAvay-carriage. The Ro­ But the " balmy breath" that almost did mans Avere very strict; and only near blood rela­ persuade tions might kiss the women of the family at aU. Justice to break her sword, And then, not for love or friendship, but to find out if they had been drinking wine in the master's failed j\ist to the extent of that "almost.'* absence. The Greeks did more than this; they Neither innocence nor love ; neither kisses nor made their Avives eat onions whenever they were regrets, could calm the furious nature all aflame going from home, so that they might be sure no with jealousy and hate; and Othello's farewell poachers Avould trench on their preserves. For kisses, tender and heartbroken as they were— who would kiss Aspasia herself with the flavour the straining grasp of a man who loves even of garlic clinging round her deUcate mouth ? while he slays—had no magic in them to redeem England in Shakespeare's time, therefore, had poor Desdemona's life. gone back sadly from these earlier days of reti­ Shakespeare has countless kisses of all com­ cence. Long after the custom had been aban­ plexions. There is the kiss of Petruchio, when doned abroad, it remained in full force here. he took the bride about the neck, In Notes and Queries of September 9; 1854, And kissed her lips Avith such a clamorous smack. will be found a curious extract from the Life That, at the parting, all the church did echo. of Wolsey by Cavendish. He says : And there is that grand kiss of Coriolanus, " I being in a fair great dining chamber" (in a Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge, castle belonging to M, Crequi, a French nobleman), " I attended my lady's coming; and after she came which contains such a world of character and hither out of her own chamber, she received me most passion, and intensity in its fierceness and love; gently, like one of noble estate, having a train of dwarfing into mere inanity Byron's celebrated twelve gentlewomen. And Avhen she, Avith her train, wish— came all out, she said to me, 'Forasmuch,' quoth she, ' as ye be an Englishman, whose custom is in That womanhood had but one rosy mouth, your country to kiss all ladies and gentlewomen, To kiss them all at once from North to South. Avithout offence, and although it be not so here in And there is Romeo's kiss in the vault; and this realm, yet will I be so bold as to kiss you, and Anthony's dying kissj so tender and so sad— so shall all my maids.' By means whereof I kissed Of so many thousand kisses, the poor last my lady and all her women," I lay upon thy lips. Bulstrode Whitelock, at the court of Chris­ tina of Sweden, was honoured in the same s Bassanio's, when the leaden casket is found to manner. It Avas May-day, and Whitelock had hold the golden prize, and the dull outside, made a fete for the queen, which she was gra­ which had no shadowing forth of the glory ciously pleased to attend; when, after the within, gave hun all that the more flattering had withheld. And there is Mariana's in that "little collation,** as he calls it, "she, being exquisite song which every one knows by inmost fuU of pleasantness and gaiety of spirits, among heart, but which the hand cannot be stayed from other frolics commanded him to teach her ladies writing, so bewitching is the marveUous music the English mode of salutation; w^hich, after aud grace of those Unes : some pretty defences, their Ups obeyed, and Whitelock most readily," Lucky feUow! Take, oh take those lips away. But if the English kept longer to the practice That so sweetly were forsAvorn; than the foreigner, they owed it to himori- m^ma^^m^mm «M

204 [May 25, 1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND, [Conducted by ginally, for Collet says—still the same authority dashed herself from the window into the castle —" The pleasant practice of kissing Avas utterly yard: and so died in great pain—but more unpractised and unknown in England tUl the happily than if she had Uved. And there was fair Princess Rouix (Rowena), the daughter of Francesca's kiss, so sweet and yet so sad, so King Hengist of Friezland, pressed the beaker guilty and so pure, when, "trembling all over," with her lipkens, and saluted the amorous Paolo kissed her — and they read no more Vortigern with a husjen" (little kiss). for that day. And there was the kiss wliich When James the First of Scotland met Anne Marie Stuart gave the sleeping poet, Alain of Denmark, he was going to kiss her after the Cliartier, and before all the court, too; and English fashion; but Anne did not approve of that other kiss—or rather, many kisses — such familiar doings, and repulsed him. Yet, given by Marguerite de Valois to Clement after he had had some private talk Avith her Marot, of which this poet makes such tender,, aside, she became more amenable, and suffered boastful account, prefiguring Leigh Hunt's him to kiss her in the presence of the whole assertion, that court. The proud and pompous Constable of Stolen sweets are always sweeter, Castile was glad to kiss her lovely maids of Stolen kisses much completer. honour, with Avhom there does not seem to have been any overAvhelming difficulty. The custom One of the strangest kisses on record is that Avas much reprobated by the Roundheads and (which I firmly beUeve in) told in the Arabian all the Puritan party. Hear what good old Nights, when the Lady of Bagdad, Avho goes to John .Bunyan says against it; and surely his purchase a rich stuff, is asked for only a kiss in Avords might have been quoted as full of sense return. No money will buy it; no honours; and justice, in such times as the old-fashioned nothing but a kiss on her fair cheek. So, hold­ canvassing for elections, when all the pretty ing her veil that the passers-by may see nothing, Avomen Avere kissed—or even now, Avhen under she offers her cheek to the young merchant's the mistletoe, the poor ugly ones are ?wt kissed: kiss ; and the wretch bites it savagely through instead. But all the Arabian Nights kisses are " The common salutation of women I abhor ; it is as strange and wild and fetterless as the emo­ odious to me in whomsoeA^er I see it. When I haA'e seen good men salute those Avomen that they have tions they express. We, in this colder North, visited, and that have visited them, I have made my can hardly understand the state of mind and objections against it: aud when they have answered manners detailed therein. that it Avas but a piece of civility, I have told them Sweet and lovely is the maiden's kiss in Para­ that it was not a comely sight. Some, indeed, have dise and the Peri,—" the last long kiss which she urged the holy kiss; but then I haA'e asked them why expires in giving;" full of beauty and poetic they have made balks ? Avhy they did salute the fancy Diana's kiss, when she stole down from most handsome and let the ill-favoured ones go," heaven to the sleeping shepherd-boy lying like a Why, indeed? That is just Avhat the Mor­ lily on the summit of Mount Ida; mournful the mons, more generous than Bunyan's friends, do kisses of Hero and Leander; heroic those not do: they make no balks of even the ill- "kisses thrie" given by the knight to the laidly favoured. •'> t -*• beast who starts up a comely maiden; revolting Beautiful and sad are many of the kisses the kisses given by the devil to the witches in scattered about literature and history. There the sabbaths; very pleasant the sugar kisses Avas the kiss of the Troubadour GauH're Rudel, wliich young boys and girls delight in giving to- Prince of Blaye, who fell in love with the each other Avith a " crack," But of all the plea­ Countess of Tripoli only by report, and pined sant, tender, quaint, perplexing kisses, give me away so sorely for love and yearning that his that strange salute which the Norw^egian maidens- heart went from him, and his life was dead bestow uponyouafter they have put you to bed, Avithin him. He took ship and sailed over the and tucked you up well between the sweet- waves to see her: and she, touched by his smeUing sheets; for then, bending their fresh, fair devotion, went down into the ship as it lay faces, do they not kiss you honestly upon your in the bay of Tripoli with Gauffre nigh unto beard, with no thought of shame or doubt ? death on board. As she went to him, and What other kisses are there? There is "kiss took his hand, and kissed him, the poet's love in the ring," the favourite Sunday game on leapt up into its last flame: he gave her one Hampstead Heath, when the young men and long look, blessed her, and then died—with her women arc tired of donkey-riding; and there lips upon his. The lady went into a convent. is kissing under the mistletoe, Avhich unhap­ Then there was the precious kiss which Mar- pily is fast dying out from genteel society. garida, wife of Raimon de Roussillon, gave her There is the kiss blown away from the tips of lover the Troubadour Guillem de Cabestanth, all four fingers crumpled up into a point, into when "she stretched out her arms, and sweetly Avhich the old act of homage has sunk; and there embraced him in the lone chamber." Ah! that is the Frenchman's kiss, which brushes your kiss was dearly purchased ! for Raimon, coming cheeks Avith tufts of hair; and the ItaUan's kiss, to the knoAvledge of all it meant, gave Marga- which, if you are a woman, is pressed lightly on rida her lover's heart to eat, disguised as a your hand in the most gracious manner possible; savoury morsel. When he told her Avliat she and there is the baby's wet, open-moutlied kiss, had done, she, saying that "if she had eaten so infinitely precious to Avomen, and so terrible so s\veet a morsel, would eat nothing more," to men; aud our pretty little pouting sister's Charloa Dickens.] TWO FRIENDS FROIM TEXAS. [May23. 18CI.] 205

kiss, on the day when we first parted; and minister " the incalculable periods of time before our dear old father's; aud handsome Harry's, the granite gave Avay to the slate," and with flushed and half-tearful, off to his first school; "aU I can say is, that Moses," sounding in my and Well, no matter whose ! ears, to go back to my wild friends and find Ichabod, trying from his upper berth to lasso TWO FRIENDS FROM TEXAS, Amos as he sat grave at cards below, with his back to his playful brother, shouting iu a fine I HAD scarcely been tAv^o hours on board that full voice as he curved the rope-noose, Ins magnificent ship, the Sea Serpent, bound to New favourite song of the "Texan Ranger," Avith York from Liverpool, before I made acquaintance the invariable refrain—• Avith Amos and Ichabod Allen, two brothers, from Chapel-hiU, Washington—County, Texas. On the banks of the Rio Grande, They were perfect specimens of the American which seems to stir all Texans as the Ranz des frontier settler, with all the backAvoodsman's Vaches does a Swiss. bravery, heartiness, ^nd roughness. They con­ My Texan friends had selected comrades (they trasted exquisitely with the demure Presbyterian thinking me rather too quiet and grave) from clergyman from PhUadelphia, the three lean the richer emigrants. There was an Irish wharf- Swedenborgian sisters from Boston, the con­ keeper from Memphis, and there Avas a goldsmith ceited little sarcastic merchant from Milwaukee, from Birmingham, who was going to start a shop the slow grave sugar-planter from Louisiana, the in New York; the chief merit of our new com­ Californian sea captain, and the thin engineer panions being that they played well at "poker," from the Pittsburg iron works. They were not, and sang a good song; for instance, "The old in the general sense, gentlemen, though they Kentucky shore, good night," and " Campdown had paid first-class fares; yet they Avere fine, Races," the emigrants always giving us a ready droll, generous, fiery, chivalrous fellows as ever chorus if Ave Avanted such a thing. fired into a buffalo on the plains at the foot of Amos was a short, thick-set, ugly-faced man, the Rocky Mountains, or " drew a bead" on a with cunning and yet honest eyes, a bad tobacco- Comancbee Indian. When I talked to them, I chewmg complexion, and that peculiar sort of cut seemed to be sitting beside Leather-stockings, or beard which is all but national. The Americans listening to a scout of Wolfe's army; yet, pre­ do not Avear tufts, and the sort of beard I am sently, they would be talking to me of the going to describe is fast becoming the special English volunteers, or of the last farce at the type of the Americans. Neither Northerners Strand Theatre. The contrast of their half- nor Southerners wear moustaches; they "have civilisation, with the refinement and luxury I had no use for them," as Amos quaintly said. Their just left behind in England, left a deep im­ beard is the ordinary square English beard, yet not pression in my mind. quite so long, aud always shaved in a hard cres­ We had emigrants on board: a poor draggled cent line from the two sides of the under lipdown- set who, for the first week, remained hidden alto­ AA^ards. This gives it, to me, an artificial and tru­ gether underground, but eventually emerged on culent look; but the real American-born affects it. bright calm afternoons, and lay about the Ichabod Avas a fine fresh-coloured, brown- fok'sal, dabbling in tin cups, dressing lumps eyed young giant of three-and-twenty, strong as of Celtic chUdren, helping now and then at a a grisly bear, and able to whip his weight in rope, or playing with rope quoits. I saw much wild cats. I never saw so generous, frank, open- of them and of their complaints; for I gave hearted a young lion of a fellow in my life. up my first-class cabin below deck, to be Avitli Deceit and fear Avere unknown to him, yet he my Texan friends in a cabin on deck which we was not clever, and totally without education. A hired of George, one of the second stewards, book seemed to act as an instantaneous opiate who Avas ill below. Here, seated on chests, with on him; but he could hunt the buffalo ten hours the door slightly open, if no sea were on, AVC sat running, and track a Camanche Avar-party with half the day, lounging in our bins of berth, read­ Indian tenacity and endurance, as Amos privately ing, smoking, and talking. Sometimes we got told me, and Amos was never tired of praising out a pack of cards and played long games of his brother's shooting, while Ichabod talked for "poker" and "enker," for very small pieces of hours of how Amos could tame wUd horses. sUver. Then nothing w^as said for an hour or so, Amos was a AA^idoAver. His wife, whose photo­ but, "Who's got a Uttle spade?" "Eukerme," graph he was always looking at, died, Avith her or a sullen cautious player repeated his invariable child, of a fever caught after what he called a remark, "I'll pass." Now, Amos and Ichabod " spindle dropsy, that had made her legs as suft'ered much from the restraint of society, and thin as netting-needles." There was no doubt had the utmost horror of the cabin passengers about the reality of Ames's affection, for the generally. When I Avanted, therefore, to talk with look he gave that foggy portrait could never be the latter, I left Amos and Ichabod at euker, and assumed, nor Avas that kiss feigned, either, which returned when I chose. Now and then I found he gave to the vague resemblance of his dead child. them a Uttle too rough and coarse for my taste, And yet I scarcely liked the warmth of description much as I admired their brave frankness and with which Amos dwelt on the grace and beauty hearty praise of the wildborder-life. of a certain Spanish senorita Avho lived at San I delighted to leave the three Swedenborgian Antonio, AA'here he sometimes took mules to old maids discussing with a dogmatic old seU. The antecedents of Amos were not unlike

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206 [May25, 1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by those of many a Texan. He had been a thriving wash one's liver with of a morning after a hard coach-buUder at St. Louis, but getting together sleep on the bare perary, after a race after the some money, and pining for a less dependent and darned Injuns, or a wet night at the camp fire. more daring life, he resolved to settle in Texas— Just a horn-full does, and a Ranger never stirs the land of all American outlaws and runaway without his tickler; it is his meat and drink on bankrupts, as well as of all the fiery spirits that the perary. require more elbow-room, and brook no control. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the ropes He had married well in Texas, and now lived near were casting dark dancing shadows, such as his father-in-law, an old settler, and Avas lord of branches, before the leaves come, cast in the much land and many cattle. Both Amos and spring sunshine. The brass binding of the cap* Ichabod Avere Texan Rangers, aud bound on the stan shone like gold. The sailors were busy first call to "boot, saddle, to horse, and away," with the sails, and cheery voices ran about if the Indians were out on the foray. from cross-tree to deck, and from deck to cross- The visit of the two brothers to England was tree. As for the emigrants, they were all characteristic of the Texan mind. They had crowded round a circle in the forecastle, where started from Hewston two months ago with an old man-of-war's-man was playing at single­ a string of horses for sale. They had then stick with a broken-down South American gam­ pushed on for a few days' pleasuring in New bler, Avho was the great authority among the York, There, one afternoon, seeing a ship start­ poorer passengers. I need not say that pleasant ing for England, they determined suddenly, with­ fiirtations, and gambols of children, and the out writing home, to sell their traps and pack cozy chat of cronies, enlivened the quarter-deck up a chest and go to see " the old country" for as we sat. Amos and I on the wheel-house six weeks. These six weeks had been spent, as looked over the cold, sullen, blue Atlantic, mile far as I could learn, in tavern evenings at Wool­ on mUe, and sat and talked of the equally bound­ wich, at cheap tavern concerts, and in dancing less "perary," Amos had just been telling me revelries at Rosherville Gardens. Their impres­ a story about a rowdy he had met on a Hudson sions of London were confined to the Bank of boat. The fellow had never been on board a England, the Lord Mayor, the two Horse Guards, steam-boat before, and the natural impudence of the Parliament House, Robson, and Madame his curiosity Avas quickened a thousand-fold by Tussaud's. Their purchases consisted of some the novelty of all he saw. Suddenly he observed, dozen knives (thepincers-and-tweezers fat-bodied as the steamer began to snort and blow, the knife), presents for Texan friends, and some small captain seize the handles of a large Avheel and bundles of gay silk handkerchiefs aud merino begin to bring it round, now pulling, now yield­ waistcoats—articles which are A'^ery dear in Ame­ ing. The Rowdy looked for several minutes rica. On fine days it was Ames's delight to take open-mouthed, and said with a knowing, not-to- out these knives, one by one, name the price, be-put-down air, unwrap its folding, and make it glitter in the " Wall, I guess, captain, you are a winding of sun, as he described how Uncle Sam or Cousin her up." Zach would appreciate the " ripping" bit of Eng­ This provoked a story from me of Deaf Jim, lish cutlery. As for our English hats, clothes, the prize-fighter, who, on his first steam-boat and boots, Amos held them in sovereign con­ excursion to Scotland, was holding on very ill, tempt as clumsy, barbarous, and ill-made. with a yeasty sea, not far from the wheel. It One day after luncheon, when the sea-billiards occurred to his sagacious mind that it was the or round disks of wood were sliding over man at the wheel who caused the motion of the the deck, when the emigrants were dozing, vessel and his inconvenience; but he daren't and the passengers reading, or promenading move; so he held on to a rope with one hand, with luxurious persistency, I and Amos got shaking the other at the helmsman, and ciying together in the changes of the promenade, and out, "Oh, if I could only get at him, I'd soon fell a talking about the wars of the Texans with tap his infernal claret for him!" And after this the Comanchee Indians. episode, Amos returned to the Indians by tellmg Amos explained to me that the Rangers were me that he had met several ladies at Hewston on horseback on the slightest rumour of Indians. who had been scalped by the Indians, but who Dress? Blue Fiewjens ! just a red shirt or a had since recovered, and now wore wigs. blue poncho, and leather pants; a pannikin for " If they had only worn them before!" I said] cooking at the saddle, and the lasso or lariat and told Amos the fine old story of the Indian by its side; the five-shooter in the belt, bullets, going to scalp the old officer, and his wig coming patches, and caps in the belt, and the rifie at the oil', and the Indian's astonishment, and the offi­ back; generally, too, a bowie-knife in the waist­ cer's enormous advantage. band, and then " skinned boots," " Lord gracious !" was Ames's constant excla­ " Skinned boots ?" mation to express pleasure and surprise. Yes. Boots with the trousers tucked into As a fine sturdy sailor, in a blue Jersey, th^m. The blanket on the horse served to sleep fitting close as a coat of mail, passes to take his on if they camped out. "trick" at the wheel, we ask him when we "Nothing else?" shall be off the Banks ? And he tells us the fogs Yes. A tickler, will commence in probably about thirty hours, "Atickler?" if the wind holds west-sou'-west. A bottle of rye-whisky in our holsters, to "0 Lord!" says Amos, "how tu:ed I am of CliarlesDickenF,] TWU i^iULNDS FROM TEXAS. [Hay 25,1861.] 207

being cooped up iu this darned ATSSCI ; hoAV I Spaniards for a drink. For, if he lost, his dander long for a gallop on the Brazos perary !" was sure to rise, and then there were awkAvard Now fresh talk about the Indians. Amos times in the house. Sure at corn-shuckings, describes the Comanchees, who are the special musses, and camp meetings, there never Avas such foes of the Texan settlers, as fine stalwart men, a lad—innocent as a mad dog; but when he though often bandy-legged from perpetual did rile, or once got kinder mad, he rose thunder. riding, rather narrow across the back, and Yes, he did that. sometimes slim in form. " They paint their It Avas to me very pleasant to look on the faces vermilion when on a war party, and look great blue moat that still severed me from as ugly as the devil does in a tail-coat," said America, to hear Amos ramble on about a life so Amos, They were skilful throwers of the toma­ wUd and so new to me. Now he broke into a hawk, and could split a man's skull with their scrap of one of the Texan Ranger war-songs: axes, as a boy would crack a hickory-nut. Their " On our mustangs grey we took our way howl was unearthly—it Avas something betAveen With the Rangers' merry band. a bull's roar and a wolfs howl. They were ex­ And our camp-fires shone, when the sun had gone, cellent shots, too, with bow and arrow at On-the banks of the Rio Grande. tAventy or thirty yards. He had seen their Through the Indian pass, on the perary grass, arrows go plump through a horse's neck (for By our fires we cheerful slept, they shot very strong); and they had a way of Ere day began, each Texan man, swinging down under their horse's belly and On his mustang grey had leapt. firing from there, leaving only the top of the Then the trail all night, and at sundown light knee for the stranger to fire at. They would let We halt our Ranger band, the Yankees go, but they never gave a Texan 'Mid the perary vast, or best of all quarter, and hated him Avorse than the devil On the banks of the Rio Grande." hates holy water. They luckily had no revolvers Nor was this song, though the wretched yet among them, except those they had taken doggrel from some penny American song-book, at in war, and kept hung round their necks as all too high-floAvn for Amos, who, like most ornaments, not knowing how to use them. But Texans, Avas rather fond of sentiment, and would what skeared the Texans w^as, the fear that some talk of The Love Star, the anthem of Texas, darned Yankee runaway would get among the for hours. Indians, and just to get buffalo robes out of But what Amos particularly delighted to them go and teU them how to use the revolvers. dwell upon was Ichabod's first fight with the Je-rewsalem! how they would larrup him if Indians, He watched him very close as he rode they did catch such a fellow! When the six among, the Red Shirts, and the Indians came on shooters were first used against the Comanchees Avhooping, tossing their feathered heads, aud they were kinder skeared, yes—siure, they were whistling in their arrows. He saw Ichabod that. They told the Yankee that now when they turn very Avhite, and the next moment he was met a Texan Ranger, and he had used his bowie- in among them. Three Camanches beset him, knife and emptied his rifie, and they thought he but he kiUed two of them, and the third turned was ready for wiping out, he pulled out a pocket- taU. " Lordee, I Avas as proud as Julius knife and fired it off six times; and they sup­ Csesar that day," said Amos, his eyes sparkling. posed, if they had turned their horses, he would And "as for myself," continued Amos, "I was have pulled out a comb or something else—per­ kinder broken in to fighting, for I had been in haps a tobacco-box—and fired off that six times. fusses at San Antonio among the Greasers, where the clicking of the knives opening, sounded Here the first mate passed on his way, to like winding up clocks. Then I had taken put up the card with our days marked on it reglar lessons in the knife-school at St, Louis, in the glass-case outside the door of the grand where I once saw two Frenchmen fight for half saloon. We had run two hundred and fifty- an hour with bowie-knives — cut and parry— four miles since noon yesterday. If we Avent and all the harm done, was, that one of them on like that, we should be off the Banks Sunday lost his Uttle finger by a clean slash, and the at dinner-time. other bit the first man's thumb off, after miss­ Some accidental remark of mine brought, out ing gouging him." Here Amos became reflec­ some fine traits of Anios's character. He Avas tive and regretful at being so many hundred such a generous extoUer of his young, brother. miles from this same St. Louis, and sang, When the Indians sent up their "smokes," ** Beautiful star, in the heaA'ens so bright," no Ranger slipped on his red shirt, and got his pannikin and bullets together smarter than to the saUors' great enjoyment. Ending this, Ichabod, and at a rough-and-tumble fight, where he asked me abruptly if I had money down ou a little gouging was going round, he Avas a re­ the match between the bang-tailed grey and gular snorter, that's true; for if CA^er there was Flora Temple, on Tuesday week, on Long Island. a lad raile grit, it was Ichabod.. As for a Here he gave me a steady look, the result of bar-room fuss, when there were shots round Avhich his crafty smile seemed to imply Avas not (he alluded to a fair general fight), that child complimentary as to my sharpness, and said: was all tliar—yes, siure—and had: no more fear " So, mister, you raly are going to post your- about him of Injuns, than a tree toad has want seK up about the Yankees ? Going, to see the of a side-pocket. In only one thing he had to elephant, and talk to Barnum, Now, blue Flew- stop him, and that Avas playing at monte with jens! if you don't keep your weather eye open. ^^ SSi SJ^ 208 [May 25, 1801.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND, [Conducted by

I'll be darned if they won't draw your eye-teeth, bute the authorship of the following strange and make you pay for putting them in again. I poem. I should mention that the tune to Avouldii't give an old corn-cob for your chance which it is sung is exceedingly good, and very among the Yankees, Come down and have some tender and mournful in its cadence. The cor­ bufi'alo shooting Avitli us in Texas ; Ave'llthen go ruptions of the text (which I took down from out a good party and have rare fun in the peraries. Amos's lips) I have carefully preserved, from I tell you how I and Ichabod mean to fix it: w^e their oddity and curiosity, 1 do not think the shall nuake straight tracks for Memphis, directly song is in print: Ave get to the Empire City; Avail then, at Memphis Ave shall buy two strong horses, send on our chest NAPOIvEON AT THE ISLE OF ST. HELENA. by Avaggou, put the traps we want in saddle­ Bonaparte's returned from the wars of all fighting,. He has gone to a place which he'll never take de­ bags, and make a bee line for Chapel-hiU, Wash­ light in ; ington County, Texas." He may sit there and tell of the scenes that he has Memphis Avas a place I had taken a dis­ seen, 0, like too : a not unreasonable one, I think. The With his heart so full of AVOC, on the Isle of Saiat impression I formed from the Avharf-keeper Helena, in that city, who A\^as Araos's great friend Louisa she mourns for her husband -who's departed. at cards, and who was always eulogising She dreams when she sleeps, and she wakes broken­ the absent Mississippi City. His sole amuse­ hearted ; ment at Memphis Avhen Avharf-keeping, seemed Not a friend to console her, even though he might lo have been shooting at Avater-rats with a be with her, pistol, or watching dead bodies float down the But she mourns when she thinks of the Isle of Saint vast muddy river. Sometimes he had seen as Helena. many as three or four in a day, and, the day No more in Saint Cloud shall he walk in such splen­ before he left, two boys in a "dug-out" had dour, brought ill the body of an Irish sailor—a steamer Or go on in crowds like the great Sir Alexander. deck hand, that some rough captain had knocked The young King of Rome and the Prince of Guiana over and murdered. Some of the bodies Avere Says he'll bring his father home from the Isle of floating bodies from burnt np, or "bust up" Saint Helena. steamers, but more generally they were deck MORIAL. hands, employed to load cotton, who had been All ye who have wealth, pray beware of ambition. stabbed by each other or knocked over in a Or some decree of Fate may soon change your con­ dition. fuss by some angry mate. The fact was, Memphis Be ye steadfast and true, for what's to come ye can was a rowdy place, and the fights in the grocery tell ne'er ; stores Avere "a caution to Crockett." It was a Perhaps ye ma}^ end your days on the Isle of Saint lively place, but not one to be out in after Helena. dark, for the boys were apt to be rough with The rude rushing waves all round the shore are strangers. The best plan, the wharf-keeper as­ Avashing, sured me, in a scramble fight with a Memphis The great billows heave against the wild rocks rowdy, Avas, directly he called you names, to fire dashing. at him out of your coat-pocket, or he was sure He may look to the moon, of the great Mount to be too many for you ; as for fair play it Avas Diana, foolish talking; the great thing in "a fuss," But his eyes are on the Avaves that surround Saint was to get first blow; that was half the battle, Helena, "Lord gracious!" said Amos, "you seem I parted from Amos and Ichabod at a certain kinder skeared about our six-shooters. Why, I'd hotel in New York: a third-rate, free-and-easy, rather be pistoUed than cut, ten times over! slovenly house, frequented chiefly by Californian Lord! I've seen such times at San Antonio as diggers: into which I had the misfortune, for would make your hair curl; and that between two days only, to stumble. I left them with men who were thick as geese before the cards warm shakes of the hands, and I left Amos and the Avhiskycame out," singing, Here Amos broke off by a snatch of song, and " 0 for the ride on the prairie wide, asked me if I saw that tall lean man there, among With the gallant Ranger band ; the emigrants on the poop. Or the camp-fire's light, with its flicker bright, I said, "Yes," On the banks of the Rio Grande I" " Wall, he is a hard stone cutter from Rich­ mond City, and one of the best players at Don WORK FOR MORE VOLUNTEERS. Pedro in all the ship." But before I leave Amos and his Texan expe­ WE may admit that education is as necessary riences, I must give one of his most curious to a child as food, and that if the parent cannot songs; one to Avhich I attach value ; a curious feed the mind of a chUd, the State must in some example of the gradual corruption of ballads way protect it against absolute starvation; must when orally handed down; and also a curious supply it Avith the first necessaries of rational exemplification of the tone of feeling with life. Upon that admission the Avhole theory of Avhich Napoleon, in his later days, must have aid, by the State, to national education must been regarded by the French West Indians, depend. to one of whom we may fairly, I think, attri­ But Avhcn are we to assume the parents' vn- eharles Dickens.] WORK FOR MORE VOLUNTEERS. [May 25, 1861.] 209

abiUty to supply those first necessaries to the together, should be born to a household in suc­ mind? And what are those first necessaries? cessive years and exercise the influence of And in what way is the State to interfere for diversity of age and knowledge, as well as of their supply ? These arc the main questions of character, upon each other: Avheu it might Iiave national education, and each of them, especially been disposed that the children to be born to the last, breaks up into subordinate questions any household should all come into the world •of all kinds. together and grow up of equal age, and with In strict truth, extreme poverty of wit in the exactly equal wit, so that they would all learn parent is quite as disabling as extreme poverty the same things, at the same rate, from the of purse. A labourer, says Mr. Senior, once same book? Is there not more lost than is complained to me that his children turned out gained by the too accurate use of any such UI; "and yet," he said, "there is not a better system of mental drUl ? father than I in the parish, I beats them when­ In discussing questions of popular education, ever T gets sight of them; I beats them as I it is rightly suggested by Mr. Senior, iu his would not beat a dog." He had picked up very book entitled " Suggestions on Popular Educa­ literally and quite conscientiously, the notion tion," that we are not to underrate the cost to that sparing of the rod Avas spoiling of the child. a labourer of educating chUdren, by forgetting One must let these people live and learn, and to add what he foregoes, to what he pays. In die and leave their places in the world to others many manufactures a child can earn money at who have learnt. If AVC admit a right of inter­ six or seven years old. Between nine and eleven, ference on the ground of poverty of wit and stupi­ when it is most desired to have the child at dity of discipline in the parent, we may send school, he may earn from eighteeu-pence to five the children of the nobleman into the national shillings, according as he Avorks in the country school, together Avith the children of the hodman. or in towns. No labourers are better paid Besides, it wdll be said, the wealthy man, than those of the West Riding, but they can­ even when desperately stupid, does send his not aflbrd more than threepence a week iu aid children to be taught and to get knoAvledge of of the teaching of their children. When the a great deal more than the first necessaries of a payment is raised to fourpence, there is dimi­ rational life. We are not absolutely sure of that, nution of the number sent. although we do not doubt that he gives his son Another consideration is, that AVC have fre­ knowledge of a good deal more than reading, quent over-estimate of the number of untaught writing, and arithmetic. Education, we need chUdren in England. The whole number of hardly say, consists not only in the transfer of children in England and Wales, between the certain facts out of one mind into another, but im­ ages of three and fifteen, is about five millions. plies, together with that communication of know­ After deductions, there remain about three mil­ ledge, the communication of a habit and a power lions and a half, children of the poorer classes, ^f self-teaching, and of applying all that is learnt to be educated by their own parents or by the to the sustainment of the mind, and to the pubUc. But only about three-fifths of the fitting of it for healthy work in the performance school-children attend for six years; and there of the real duties of life. remain only the other two-fifths—for the ages So, Avhenwe come to that third question as to before six and after twelve. Therefore the the limit and manner of the State's interference number of uneducated children does not reach for the education of the children who may not half a million, and that for those to be taught, be suffered to depend alone on the endeavours of about two hundred and eighty thousand have their parents, while we admit, obedient to a to be in school at the same time. That, there­ rough necessity, no mark of disabUity except fore, is the Avhole number for which school ac­ absence of money, we need not assume that if commodation has yet to be found. the State teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic, How shall Ave find it, and how bring the un­ it educates. Everything with which a child taught to the schoolmaster? The Privy Coun­ eomes into contact is an influence, and the cil grants to the schools of England and Wales, eharacter of the educational influence is not, Ave or expends on their maintenance, a little more think, considered so much as it ought to be than half a miUion, or about five hundred and when some schemes of public instruction are seventy-two thousand pounds a year; with a eommenced. Por example, it is easier to impart furtlier sum of about fifty-five thousand for the knowledge in a large school than in a small one. machinery of centralisation or inspection. If an Out of a large number of children those most education rate were made to do the same Avork, nearly equal in attainment can be picked off into that money now paid out of the five hundred twenties, and each twenty can be taught as one, miUions of general income, would have to be whUe in a small school containing only tAventy taken out of the eighty miUions of rateable in­ scholars, the diversities of power and knowledge come, and not that money only. The vote are so great that any attempt to teach that would destroy the voluntary subscription now twenty as a class, would result in bewilderment encouraged, and met by the grant, so that two of six for every one AVIIO might chance to be at millions instead of about half a milUon would be the exact level of the manner of instruction the sum required; in other words, an educa­ used. But is it desirable tiiat twenty should be tion rate of sixpence in the pound upon all in­ taught as one ? Is it a mistake, in family life, comes derived from real property. That method that children who Avere to live and be trained would excite an antagonism wliich the present

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210 [May A 1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by

scheme of Privy CouncU grants :in aid of local meeting in Exeter Hall, and report how—Avith effort, has not yet encountered. its subscriptions doubled by a government There are, no doubt, one or two serious objec­ grant—it had trained missionary schoolmasters, tions to the present method. It stimulates local paid with sufficient salaries for planting them­ effort, but there can be no local effort made selves in neglected districts, and devoting without its representative, and the whole AVork all their energies to the creation of a little school of raising and begging for school money is thrown for the poor children, and of an interest in its on the clergy : not of the Church only, but of work and its well-being by the parents ? We almost all denominations. The quantity of work beUeve firmly, that the English plan of govern­ of this kind thrown upon ministers of religion is ment support to voluntary effort, is the right one; very great indeed, and the transformation of them but we beUeve, also, that where voluntary effort into a great body of Christian duns is rather does arise spontaneously, it is by the right earnest too complete. Yet this cannot very well be action of the people upon themselves that true helped. Somebody must be the recognised pro­ and sound progress is to be obtained: not by moter of its schools for the poor in each district. the cold imposition from without of an excep­ It is not the doctor's, the lawyer's, or the but­ tional education rate. Suppose, for example, cher's business. By whom can the place be so a fund caUed the Missionary Teachers' Fund, fitly taken as by the minister of religion ? maintained by private donation and subscrip­ This is very hard on many a clergyman, tion, and subsidised by the committee of Council and arises from too many of the laity neg­ on Education, upon certain conditions, that lecting their plain duty. In a parish of eight would ensure its fair efficiency. Let it have means thousand acres of the best land in Hereford­ proportionate to the vast income raised to shire, yielding a rental of at least twelve satisfy a sentiment, on behalf of savages at the thousand a year, the landowners, two of them far ends of the world; let it have a working com­ peers, and one a very rich peer, by their mittee of the men known to be most active and united subscriptions raise only eighteen pounds earnest in labour for the education of the people; a year for support of the schools. The poor and let it have one thoroughly good school for incumbent pays the rest, partly himself, partly by the training of its missionaries, not only in levies on his private friends. That is but one knowledge, but in tact and discretion. Some­ example of a common case. The burden of the body might endow in it a Professorship of the clergy, nevertheless, becomes smaU wherever the Art of Keeping One's-self Out of Hot Water. nature of it is fuUy and fairly understood by the When the,missionary is fit for his work, let him people. be placed with a modest but sufficient stipend in Some districts that cannot, and there are a cottage in some one of the neglected districts, districts that will not, raise money to be met Avith some little supply in one of its rooms, of by Privy Council grant, and so establish schools. the machinery for teaching, and then leave him, Here, suggests Mr. Senior, you may encourage with a social position, independent of his neigh­ the running together of tliree or four adjacent bours, to pick up scholars, to make friends, to parishes, as at Faversham, into a single district, rub down angles of prejudice, quietly to diffuse Avith a district school; and you may abandon sound notions about education; and if the the requirement of the committee of Privy* parish be one that could and wouldn't do its Council that the school subscriptions which it duty, turn it insensibly into one of those that meets with its grant shall be local. But when can and will; or, if it be one that would and all that is done, all is not done, and nothing, couldn't, secure for it a free gift of what it says Mr. Senior, remains but a local rate, ex­ needs, and has not means to procure. It is a ceptionally imposed from without (not by the great thing to get neighbouring poor or small district on itself) wherever it is reported to be parishestoworktogether, and unitetheir strength necessary; the rate being, not for the whole for the sustainment of a common school. To that "Amount required to establish and maintain the end, where it was attainable, or by whatever way school, but for as much as would suflS.ce when might seem the quietest and nearest to their there has been added to it the grant by which it object, the missionary teachers should know how would be doubled if the money were raised in to work. the Avay of voluntary subscription. Mr. Senior complains that the form of united Everything else failing, better the rate than action Avhich consists in the adoption of large the ignorance and degradation. But we are not district schools for pauper children by adjoining sure that everything else ought to faU. The excite­ parishes, although provided for by government, ment of spontaneous action should be the main has found so little favour that only about half a object of those who would have any work done dozen such schools have been formed, and there heartUy in England, If it be not ridiculous to are twice as many workhouse children taught send missionary preachers to Jerusalem, it may in equaUy good " separate schools" of the guar­ not be ridiculous to send missionary teachers into dians' own contrivmg. Doubtless it is most the land at home, of the men who can't and the true that workhouse chUdren are taught better, men who won't see that their children are made and are better secured against contamination that rational beings. Whatever is done m England is will neutraUse the good effect of any teacliing> best done by stirring men to put their own good when they are at school away from the bad in­ hearts and souls into the doing of it. Why should fluences of the workhouse. '^The children," there not be a society to hold its annual May say the Poor Law Inquiry Commissioners, Gharlea Dickens.] IGNOBLE DUKES. [Mtiy 23,1861.] 211

" who enter a Avorkliouse quit it, if they ever of political economy his more skilled labour quit it, corrupted where they were well disposed, is entitled to the higher pay, that he does not and hardened where they Avere vicious." More receive because discipline is said to require shame to the spirit of the Poor Law! In work­ that he should be in subjection to the master, house experience adult pauperism and vice are whose servant he is not, and who has no power identified, aud the whole system is based on a whatever of removing him. The workhouse gross misconception of the EngUsh character. master, ignorant of the schoolmaster's work, As if no English cottager had ever felt a vital can interfere with it to make it useless. That truth in the Divine reproof to certain murmurers, is the only result got by the pedantic notion "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" it is that the master is to be supreme. The teacher's assumed that to reduce the workhouse system work does not interfere with the details of below the level of the comfort enjoyed by the workhouse management. His duty being de­ poorest of the men who can support themselves, fined, he might be aUowed to do it, and, in aU graces and charities of Ufe, all signs of that doing it, might rank at least as the master's which is really Divine in our religion, as it works equal: being in fact almost always his superior. through the deeds of our lives, are to be banished To the suggestion that the entire charge of from the workhouse. Let health be supported educating children of out-door paupers shall by with the least amount of bodily indulgence—we compulsion, not, as is now the case, by per­ don't complain of the gruel—but most surely mission under Mr. Denison's Act, be entrusted the workhouse is the very last place in which it to the Poor Law guardians, we can give no is Avise to starve the heart and pen the soul of vigorous assent. Failing signs of a heart and the poor; and most surely the English labourer soul in Poor Law action, we would rather see an is the very last man to grudge oil poured into extension of the system of the Ragged Schools, the wounds of him who has fallen by the way. which finds no favour Avith Mr, Senior, but In the workhouse, vice finds itself regarded as which has, we are very sure, caused the esta­ the proper nature of the pauper, while the blishment of many schools that are much better griefs of honest poverty are disregarded, and than their somewhat foolish name. If we can­ Wfe might almost say that there is no peace not have Avhat is the best thing—a national way, except for the wicked. The Poor Law theory with the national heart in it, of dealing with the may be right as regards the gruel. But it is destitute—then let us supplement the short­ wrong, utterly and Avickedly wrong, a denial comings of routine, by enlargement of the appe­ of God's precepts, a libel on the character of tite for earnest, generous, and energetic volun­ men, when it excludes the vital principle of tary work. It is not only in defence against Christianity, the oiUy effective means of raising material invasion that the strength of England the fallen, from the system upon which a nation must lie in her volunteers, proceeds for the feeding of the hungry and the clothing of the naked. Englishmen, the bad as IGNOBLE DUKES. much as the good, love liberty too well to press into the workhouse for the sake of the kind THE German princes — and especially the feeling now denied expression. They must be little ones—are stiU too much attached to the terribly starved in their affections if they Avill despotic principles of their grandfathers of the go virtually into prison for the hope of getting eighteenth century. H they yield, now and theu, a kind AVord there; and if that is what may to the pressure of the moment, it is stiU hard tempt, let us thank God when they can be for them to look on the people otherwise than tempted so ! How many difficulties would be as part of a property that is their own inherit­ overcome, if the tender spirit of humanity once ance. The good old princely way, however, made itself felt in the working of the Poor Law. having to be maintained now with a difference, Then there might be, as now there cannot be, let us consider the good old German sovereign, such classification of the inmates, and such in­ all of the olden time, whUe yet lus memory is fluence exerted on their characters, as would green. convert the very workhouse into national schools, though none of them contained a See him at home, for example, in the smaUest schoolmaster. As it is, to go back to the imme- kingdom in Europe, Wiii'temberg was formerly •diate subject, we have an inspector fairly own­ a large earldom, but was raised at the end of ing that there is "nothing in the functions or the fifteenth century to the rank of dukedom, objects of PoorLaw administration in the slightest and was at last created a kingdom by the grace degree germane to education or to the moral of Napoleon Bonaparte. Eberhard Lewis, who training of children." lived between sixteen 'seventy-seven aud seven­ teen 'thirty-three, succeeded his father when The school Avithin the workhouse, as matters yet in the cradle, and was declared of age at axe now managed, can yield little good result. sixteen. Although his dukedom had been de­ The workhouse schoolmaster is appointed by vastated by the wars against Louis the Four­ the guardians, and paid by the Treasury accord­ teenth of France, his court, which had been ing to a scale fixed by the Poor Law Board, already Frenchified, was arranged Avith the "which is careful to put him in subjection to the greatest splendour. There being a great dearth workhouse master, Avho is usually his inferior in of nobility in Wiirtemberg, noblemen from all attainments; so it is secured for the teacher parts of Germany, but especiaUy from Mecklen­ that he leads a wretched life. By every law burg, flocked round the young duke. Church

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212 [May 25, 1861.]' ALL THE YEAR ROUNT). [Conducted by discipline had then been very strict, but the the materials had to be fetched from afar, and young duke having abolished it, and commanded even every cart-load of sand cost a doUar, The gaiety and masquerades, the officers of the court duke had here his excellent band of music, his and chancery, merchants, and other respectable fine pheasant-garden, and his magnificent stables. eitizens,were compeUed to attend these entertain­ The orange trees of Eudwdgsburg Avere almost ments in regulated costumes. A French theatre unequaUe'd in Europe. When the first stone of was instituted, and all who belonged to the court the palace was laid, the duke amused himself were on the free-Ust. The duke was also a great with having loaves thrown out amongst the huntsman, and as " Master of the Hunt for the people, but so roughly that some persons were Empire," he created, in honour of St. Hubert, dangerously hurt and wounded. the great huntsman's order. All the rooms in The countess persuaded the duke to insti­ his hunting lodges Avere adorned with the antlers tute a secret cabinet which should superin­ of stags killed by himself, and everywhere he was tend the finances, and the law. Of this she followed by his favourite black wolf, Melai, which was herself president, a la Maintenon, whose slept on a tiger-skin at the foot of his bed. example she strove to follow. The other mem­ He A^^as fond also of soldiering, and kept the bers of the council Avere her brother and his first standing army of two thousand house troops, son, with two of her creatures, all bound to horse and foot guards, dressed in a yellow livery each other by a secret undertaking not to pro­ trimmed aU over with silver. pose anything in presence of the duke, which This was extravagant enough for the smaU they had not before agreed on. Everything country, but, moreover, the duke Avas supplied went through the hands of the countess. Who­ by his courtiers with a Maintenon: the sister of ever was found opposing her, was banished, and one of themselves, who was invited from Meck­ his property was confiscated. All, therefore, lenburg, Wilhelmine von Graevnitz was made cringed before her except Ogiandes, who an­ a lady of honour to the duchess. His highness swered her request to be included in the public married Mademoiselle von Graevnitz, not in prayers of the church, by saying, " Madam, with­ the morganatic manner, but in the Avay of out remembrance of you, there is never a Lord's direct aud open bigamy, and bought for her in prayer said. We pray every day, DeUver us Vienna, for twenty thousand florins, a countess's from evU." In Wiii^temberg it was even severely diploma. The clergy reprimanded, and refused prohibited to reason about the relative positions the sacrament. Charles XII. and several other of the duke and the countess. She sent money princes remonstrated, but the duke said, "I am to Vienna, to silence the state councillors, and pope in my country, and, as a Lutheran prince, bribed King Frederic William of Prussia, with 1 am, in cases of conscience, not answerable to some tall recruits. She kept spies everywhere any one on earth." At last, a very resolute in Wiirtemberg, had letters opened at the post- prelate, JohnOgiandes, succeeded in persuading offices, and her poUce was thoroughly despotic. the duke to declare the second marriage void, If the states of the country refused money, she and, after rumours of an attempt to poison the threatened to take it from the members. She sold duchess by diamond powder, the duke took the everything—monopolies and justice; robbed, countess to Geneva, Wiirtemberg having agreed cheated, and laughed at the people openly. She to pay her fifty thousand florins. Then he went confiscated English goods that pleased her; and with her to Bern, where they lived for two even the duke appeared with her in public, years together, and then, to help her return to wearing clothes made of a stolen piece of gold Stuttgard, the countess was married to an old brocade. The countess's strong-box was ahvays count, Wiirben, Avho received for going through Avell filled; that of the duke, always empty. She the marriage service with the lady, twenty thou­ very readily lent money to him, and Avas repaid sand florins and a pension of eight thousand in estates. The court absorbed enormous sums, florins a year, besides being made chief of the and debts increased at a fearful rate, until even court, president of the privy council and the the revenue of the country had to be anticipated. council of war; but with all his dignities and The countess was insolent to the duchess, and duties at the court of Wiirtemberg he was to even maltreated the sickly hereditary prince. reside in Vienna. Now, the countess had two Even the duke often complained that she really husbands, and the duke two wives. But the was too hard with him; but for twenty years countess, keeping her name of Graevnitz, re­ he was her slave. She received company every^ turned to Stuttgard, Avliere she governed duke evening, and exacted the strictest etiquette of and country for twenty years, and was called by dress, although she herself appeared often in the people, Country's Ruin. As the duchess neglige, under pretext of not being well. She would not leave the palace in Stuttgard, the was not even faithful to the duke. countess induced the duke to build for her, At last help came from Prussia. The here­ about four miles away, the new residence of ditary prince married a Prussian princess. King Eudwigsburg, in the middle of a kind of desert. Frederic William I, came on a visit to Stuttgard It was built by the architect, Frigoni, after and found means to persuade the duke to dis­ the pattern of Versailles; and Napoleon, when miss his tyrant. He did so by letters, when he visiting there, found his rooms so magnificent, was himself absent in Berlin. that he said to King Frederick of Wiirtemberg She was to be left in possession of all her that he Avoidd not be able iu Paris to lodge him so plunder, and to receive ten thousand florins a well. Eudwigsburg cost an immense sum, for all year, if she would behave properly. She did Charles Dickens.] IGNOBLE DUKES. [May25, iSfU.] 213

not give up her game, but, wishing to test a a great curse to the country. To fiU the ever recipe in sorcery, offered the duke's valet a large empty purse of the duke, he monopolised the sum of money for a few drops of his master's coffee-houses, the trades in tobacco, grocery, and blood. The frightened servant denounced her, wine, nay, even the chimney-sweeping busi­ and the duke ordered her to be arrested, A ness. These trades he let to the best bidders, colonel at the head of a troop of hussars sur­ mostly to people who lived out of Wiirtemberg. prised her at one of her estates, and brought He imposed a tax on property, on foreigners her to the fortress of Urach. Here, she was Uving in Wiirtemberg, for the protection they compelled to surrender aU her estates but one, enjoyed. for the sum of two hundred thousand florins, The duke cared only for his amusement. All and it was a particular stipulation in this treaty government officials were ordered to attend the that she was to give up the wedding-ring and masquerades with their wives and groAvn-up lock of hair she had had from the duke. The daughters, ou pain of the loss of a quarter's court was closed against her. After the death salary. The care of his soul, Duke Charles of the duke, fearing the anger of his successor, Alexander left to the Jesuits, who proposed to she went to BerUn. make the country CathoUc, and the Jew Suess During the reign of this prince, which lasted had part in their conspiracy. This duke, who more than half a century, the people were driven had increased the army to ten thousand men to despair. They were plundered and oppressed and two thousand horse, died suddenly, when most shamefully; their despot even meddled he Avas prepared to suppress the last forms of with their cultivation of the soil. In the year public liberty. Amongst the people, half a after a famine, he compelled the farmers and century afterwards, ghost stories, little to liis peasants to grow tobacco on a certain portion credit, frightened soldiers on guard near the of their land. Thousands went- to America. ducal tomb. The son of the Duke Eberhard Lewis having The Jew fled to the Avidowed duchess in died before his father without issue, a distant rela­ Stuttgard, but was arrested, and brought to tive became Duke of Wiirtemberg under the his own house, where rich booty Avas found. It name of Charles Alexander. He was governor is said there were not less than three million in of Belgrade in the Austrian service, and a Ca­ gold, jewels, and other articles of virtu. Being tholic. He had been a soldier since his four­ compelled to undress, he pulled off three shirts; teenth year, and was a fierce and angry man. in the shirt next his skin, were found diamonds His government distinguished itself by the mis- worlii ninety thousand florins; in his waistcoat, chievousness of his factotum, a tfeAv, AAdiom he many bUls of exchange. In due time he A\^as permitted to relieve the people of the little hanged. that was left them by his predecessor. This The widow of Duke Charles Alexander, Avas man, Joseph Levi Suess-Oppeuheimes, was one of Maria Augusta: a born princess of Thurmand the most remarkable upstarts of the eighteenth Taxis. Frederic the Great of Prussia sent her century. He w^as born in Heidelberg, and edu­ the order of the Black Eagle as soon as he cated among the Jew^s of Frankfort. Thence he ascended the throne; but his sister, the Mar­ Avent to Amsterdam and Vienna, making money gravine of Baireuth, Avho has Avritten highly iu both places, and then he became agent of the interesting memoirs, does not seem to be de­ commissariat during the Turkish wars under lighted with her, and was probably a Uttle Prince Eugene, and made the acquaintance of jealous. She wrote, when the gay duchess the Dulce of Wiirtemberg. The duke soon was on a visit at her court in Baireuth : " In a made him agent for his court and privy-coun­ fortnight the whole court was altered. They cillor of the finances. He was an invaluable began to romp, to throw the napkins at each man, Avho, if abused and kicked out of the room, other's heads; to run like escaped horses; and presented himself again, smiling, in a quarter at last they kissed each other, singing equivocal of an hour. He Avas, indeed, a very able man songs.' of business, and a very acute fellow. He looked The duchess lived for a time in Berlin, aud Uke a courtier who was not a Jew, Uved in Baron Bielefeld gives an interesting account of splendid style, gave exquisite dinners, and was her. When iie paid her his visit, he found a rake. Acting as agent to the Countess Grae- her lying on her bed in a most splendid night­ veiiitz, Avho was abroad, he procured her for her dress, surrounded by her three sons, some remaining landed property in "Wiirtemberg, one ministers and courtiers, several chaplains and hundred and fifty thousand thalers: in Avhich doctors, and her lady of honour. Near her affair he, of course, cheated her handsomely. head Avas standing a little golden vessel Avith He set up three very profitable business offices. holy-water, and the room was decorated Avith In one of them, all the government places were precious relics and a chaplet of the finest pearls. sold to the highest bidder. In the second, jus­ Her dress and bed were trimmed with most tice was sold. By means of the third, which beautiful lace, and she wore a coquettish night­ Avas a banking and loan-office, he managed to cap of point d'Aleufon, with a green and gold get hold of all the charitable and pious founda­ ribbon. The baron remained alone with her tions. Besides, he lent money on usurious terms, for a whole hour, after whicli she invited him to and kept an extensive shop, from which the dinner, begging his pardon in advance for dining courtiers had to take their dresses and decora­ in her night-dress. The baron tlien had a ge­ tions. He also instituted a lottery, which proved neral invitation to dinner. Often the table was 314 [May 25,1861.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conducted by placed at her bedside. " The good eating and seventeen thousand men, in most expensive drinking," said the baron, "is the body of these uniforms, ordered that everyone should take off reaUy charming evenings, gaiety their soul. The his hat to a sentry, as if he Avere the duke him­ duchess has two beUs close to her: the one self. A counciUor of the chamber, for omittino* gives the order to bring in champagne, the other that homage, received, by order of the Ueutenant Hungarian wine. As soon as the first service of the guard, twenty-five strokes with a stick. is brought in, the pages and footmen leave, and When all these burdens were borne, the are recaUed only to change the plates. Scarcely people of Wiirtemberg, who had to bear them, left alone, all restraint is at an end. Nobody numbered only six hundred thousand! They had thinks of being in the residence of a monarch and to work and to starve, paying their wages to at the table of a princess. One is in a republic, amuse their duke; but not satisfied with where liberty is in the chair, and where one's the produce of their labour, he sold even their bill is to be paid with merry jests. We laugh, very bodies. In one year he sold to France six joke, sing, and, has the conversation been sea­ thousand of his subjects as soldiers, for the sum soned with too caustic attic salt, we put on it a of about one hundred and twenty-five thousand glass of champagne, which sets all right again. pounds sterUng. When the duke commanded the We have bound ourselves to the law never to receivers of the taxes to deliver up to him their remember beyond the threshold of the duchess funds in hand, and they had the courage to refuse, what the merry moment had produced." he used force. One day the House of the States This gay princess, to bring the ducal crown Avas surrounded by soldiers, and the- money to her second favourite son, declared her first­ taken away. John Jacob Moser, one of the born Ulegitimate; but the first-born, Duke most celebrated Avriters upon public law, who Charles, took this in ill part, and kept her a was then " consulent," or counsellor of the; prisoner in Goeppingen. There she died Avhen States, in very respectful terms protested against' forty-nine years old. the act. The duke ordered him to Lud- Duke Charles, her eldest son, had no mind for wigsburg, and maltreated him with his own anything but self-indulgence. During his mi­ hands in the hall of audience, and sent him nority, the government had been directed by one to the fortress of Hohentwiel, where he re­ of the most respectable men, Avho was celebrated mained a prisoner for five years. as a statesman and philosopher. His name was The duke treated his subjects as slaves. Bilflnger. As long as he lived, the young duke If he chose to have a Avinter sledge party in was restrained; but when he died, in the middle Stuttgard, and there was no snow in the streets, of the eighteenth century, the prince began to the peasants had to bring it in from the country. live " at a gallop." The well-known memoir They might well emigrate to America, as num­ Avriter, Cajanova, who knew all the courts, said, bers of them did. that the court at Stuttgard " was the most bril­ Another victim of the tyranny of this duke liant in Europe." Thus it remained for forty- was Colonel Rieger, He was a man of her­ three more years. Theatre, opera, and baUet Avere culean frame and strength, and of inflexible the duke's chief hobbies. The Parisian god of mind. He became a great favourite of the dance, Vestris, was engaged for six months duke's, and Avas envied by many. One of his every year, and received twelve thousand florins. enemies was a Frenchman, Count Montmartin, There were, throughout the whole year, festivi­ Avho became prime minister. This man so ma­ ties in great variety, the direction of which was naged that letters were sent to the duke's eoufided to an Italian, Veronese. Fireworks, brothers, which implied that Rieger intended sometimes of incredible costliness, were fre­ to deliver up Wiirtemberg to the Prussians. quently exhibited. The duke gave the general a thrashing at Of course, all these things required money, parade, and sent him, Avithout even an examina­ and the first minister of the duke. Baron tion, to the castle of Hohenasperg, where he Hardenberg, did his utmost both to provide was kept in a subterranean dungeon for five it, and at the same time to check expendi­ years. Here, a scoffer and free-thinker, he he- ture. The baron sometimes tried to save money came a devotee. When Montmartin was dis­ in petty things, and once refused to honour the missed, the States succeeded in persuading the duke's cheque for a dozen of silk dominoes. The duke to set Rieger free. His highness uivited enraged prince made up his mind to get rid of the him to supper, and said; " Remain my friend, baron, and at a ball, where he had tried to save as you have always been!" He afterwards a few hundreds of wax candles, the duke spoke to made him general and governor of Hohenasperg, him pubUcly and intentionally, in such an offeur the place in which he had been confined. sive manner that the old, baron was compeUed This Count Montmartin was one of the to take his dismissal. The privy counciUor, greatest rascals in the Avorld, He won the Baron Roedes, the same who arrested the Jew duke by his base flattery, and his expedients for Suess, had been dismissed long since. The procuring money. The count required it to be duke thus became free to indulge all his incUna- said no more of a prince that he was born, but tions that he " Increased the Number of the High on Once the duke carried off from- a baUthe this or that day," The count helped the duke daughter of his ^rivy councUlor, Baron von to aboUsh. the States, and iufact governed Avith­ Volgstaedt. The father kUled himself. out them. When Moser was sent to Hohent­ This Duke Charles, who increased his army to wiel,. the minister for some vears declared to •"^^wm

Charles Dickens.] IGNOBLE DUKES. [May 25,1851.] £15 the States: "The duke thought himself much hundred noblemen, "and amongst them tAventy too august to permit such people to dictate princes and counts of the empire. The duke laAVS to him." kept for his personal use eight hundred horses, According to a statement made by Frederic and, when going to one of his country residences, the Second of Prussia, the personal revenue of took with him about a dozen cavaliers, and the duke amounted to not quite sixty thousand betAveen six and seven hundred persons; aU pounds; that of the country to two hun­ only to contribute to his amusement. dred and fifty thousand pounds ; of which the The duke began to buUd the new palace in duke had to receive a part. But these suras Stuttgard, which, however, Avas finished in this were far from sufficient for his wants. It has century, and built the palace of Solitude, situ­ been calculated that, besides the constitutional ated on the rough hills between Stuttgard and taxes, aud the burden of the sorrage and the Leonberg. Lakes were dug there to hunt the quartering of the soldiers, and the proflt which stags into, and the peasants had to line them Avas made by the sale of places, the six hundred with clay and fill them with water. At night thousand inhabitants had to pay in seven years the surrounding Avoods were illuminated, and, the sum of more than flve hundred thousand from artificial grottos, satyrs and nymphs rushed pounds, and the addition from the revenue of out to dance midnight ballets. Another country the country to the private and personal income seat in the Black Forest, Grafeneck, was buUt of the duke rose to one hundred and thirty-five also then. thousand pounds ^ year! The duke intended that the church should To increase the revenue, Montmartin insti­ pay his opera singers and musicians, because tuted a " Wiirtembergian Ducal most Graciously they performed sometimes at service; but the Privileged Great Lottery," and compelled pri­ director of the finances opposed this. He lost vate persons, communities, and even pious in­ his place, and a rascal named Wittleder, Avho had stitutions, to buy tickets. He divided the been formerly a Prussian sergeant, became the people into twelve classes, according to their right-hand man. He and the duke sold the go­ income, and taxed them accordingly; even the vernmental places and shared the profit. Once the beggar had to pay at least fivepence. When duke wrote to his agent, concerning a man Avho a deputation from the town of Tuebingeu re­ Avanted to buy a certain place: " Although he has monstrated with the duke, and entreated him not much talent he is an honest man, and four to consider the miserable state of the fatherland, thousand florins are a nice sum of mouey ;" and he cried in imitation of Louis the Fourteenth, once the agent wrote to another applicant for a "What fatherland? I am the Fatherland!" place: " Give the duke flve hundred florins, and and ordered troops against the rebellious town. one thousand to myself." No Avonder that one The tax was enforced, and several of the most morning Wittleder found a donkey tied at lus respected inhabitants sent to Hohenasperg as house door, with a biU bearing the inscription, prisoners, where they remained for half a year. "I want a place." Yet Wiirtemberg had a constitution which At last Frederic the Great was in a position shared with the EngUsh the repute of being to assist the poor Wiirtembergians, and the three the freest in Europe! powers which had warranted the constitution, In those free days the army was recruited in Prussia, Denmark, and Hanover, interfered a forcible manner. Even only sons of widows energeticaUy. An imperial commission was sent Avere taken away from them, and once the duke from Vienna, and the duke ordered to make up ordered all the farm labourers to be enrolled, his quarrels with his States in two months* time. saying very confidently, "That they certainly The commission is said to have found about one would like better to serve their sovereign than million of pounds of debts. The duke did all he private persons.'*' To prevent desertion, watch­ could to prevent interference. He went to men had to patrol aU night around the villages, Venice, where the NobUi wrote his name in and, if an alarm were given, all the neighbouring the golden book, and at last shut himself up iu communities were bound to place pickets on all solitude, where nobody had admittance except the roads, byways, footpaths, and bridges, and such persons as could show a pass, written by to keep them guarded for at least twenty-four his OAVU hand. At last, after six years* resistance, hours. On account of such an alarm, three he gave in, and the old constitution, witli the old hundred persons, who were not soldiers, might rights of the States, were recognised, again under be kept from their business a Avliole day. A Uttle the guarantee of the above-mentioned powers. place containing only flfty famiUes, furnished The duke found consolation in a new favourite: for this kind of service one thousand four hun­ the wife of a stupid and ugly Baron Lentrum, dred aud eighty-eight men in the course of one whose divorce from her he procured. The lady year. The place in which a deserter might was made Countess Hohenheim, and was raised perhaps have been arrested but was not, had to to the rank of consort of the duke, to whom she provide a man of the same stature; and it was became honestly attached. She was noble and ordered expressly that the sons of the chief in­ simple in her manners, had a kind heart, much habitant should be selected in preference. Who­ knowledge, and a good und'crstanding. "She ever assisted a deserter, or'even omitted to de­ loved and protected the arts, and would have nounce Mm, lost for himself and family aU civil liked to make Stuttgard a modern Athens," says rights, and Avas sent to a house of correction. Baroness Oberkirch, in her memoirs. The duke attended to all her wishes, which Avere, hoAvever^ In this army of the duke, there served tAvo r^^^

216 ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [May 25, 1861.] not extravagant. For example, the Wiirtember- were made in imitation of those of Prince Potem- gian ambassador in Vienna was Baron Bukler, kin, in the Taurier palace in Petersburg. an insignificant son of the minister who suc­ When the Emperor Joseph IL, traveUing in­ ceeded Montmartin. The wife of the Archduke cognito as a Count von Falkenstcin, announced Francis, afterwards emperor, was a Wiirtem­ his visit to the Duke in Stuttgard, the duke bergian princess ; and the ambassador was little wrote and offered him his palace, but the empe­ more than a transmitter of letters; but he ror answered that he preferred to live in an looked as much like a profound statesman as he hotel; therefore the duke ordered all innkeepers could, whenever a courier arrived from his duke. to remove their signboards, and over the en­ A celebrated memoir writer. Chevalier Lang, trance of the palace was placed an immense Avas then his secretary, and one day, Avhen a board, on which the imperial arms Avere painted, special messenger had arrived, and the de­ and under which was written "Hotel of the spatch had been read with portentous solemnity, Roman Emperor." The emperor entered into Lang was by chance left alone in the room of the jest, and the duke received him in the dress the ambassador. He opened the draw-er in Avhich and character of an innkeeper. Next day the Bukler generaUy kept the letters from the cabinet disguise Avas dropped, and the festivities com­ of the duke, and read the following: menced. " My dear Baron vou Bukler,—By the pre­ In this last period of his long career, one of sent special messenger, my privy secretary, Pis- the duke's hobbies Avas to make a collection of torius, I send you a shoe of my princely consort, bibles ; another was his school, the Carlsschule, the Lady Duchess Highness, with the order which gained an European name through Schiller to have made after this pattern, by the most and Cuvier, who were educated there. The duke's celebrated master in Vienna, a dozen pair, but collection of bibles is not equalled in the whole Avitli such speed, that the returning messenger world; it numbers eight thousand different copies, may be able to deliver them in time for the next which are yet to be found in the library of Stutt­ great assembly which Avill take place. This gard. In the school the different classes of society letter, hoAvever, having no other purpose, we Avere carefully distinguished. Only noblemen are, &c," and sons of officers had the right to powder This duke, on his fiftieth birthday, sur­ their hair ; but SeliUler had the right also, be­ prised his subjects and all Germany, by an cause he had red hair, Avhicli the duke could not act as remarkable as it was unexpected. From abide, although he had red hair himself. The all the pulpits there was read a manifesto, under discipline in the school was very strict; all was his hand, by Avhicli he regretted his former done by A\"ord of command; and even when grace errors, and promised to be a good prince thence­ was said, aU hands were folded with a single forth. The duke was not jesting. One year clap. afterwards, he abolished a lottery Avhich had Duke Charles lived into the wild times of the done much mischief to the country. The com­ French revolution, and his notions about the mittee of the States Avere so touched, that they divine right of princes received many corrections. made him a present of five hundred Carolines. Even in the bosom of his beloved Carlsschule, However, " the observation of the most genuine the spirit of the revolution worked. Once, at a duties of a true father of the country"—words masquerade, three masks appeared; one. Time, of his manifesto—permitted the duke afterwards carried an urn to the middle of the ball-room; to restore the lottery, and to sell to the Dutch, two others drew from it little bills, Avhich they one thousand men, of whom but few ever re­ distributed profusely. But, instead of the usual turned to their country. compUmentary verses, these bills contained the After his conversion, the duke tried to govern most striking passages from the Marseillaise, as a philosopher. He instituted schools and Payne's Rights of Man, Speeches of Robes­ manufactories; protected trade, science, and pierre, and the like. In the confusion that art; was interested in country life, and was fre­ ensued, the masks escaped, but there was a quently even seen at the milking of the cows. suspicion against certain pupils of the Carls­ liis army was reduced to five thousand men. schule, and the duke delivered a very severe He spoke in a confidential manner Avitli burghers speech there next day. Instead of being peni­ and peasants, clapped them on the shoulder, and tent, however, the pupils hissed and hooted, and w^as rather popular. He granted to the committee at last fairly drummed his gracious highness out of the States many unexpected prerogatives, and of the room. this committee showed themselves grateful by betraying the interests of the country. By their Now ready, price 5s. 6d., bound in cloth, means the duke got money to build a new palace in honour of his beloved countess, named THE FOURTH YOLUME Hohenheim : an establishment in the manner of OF Schwetzingen, with Romish baths, romantic ALL THE YEAR ROUKD. castles, temples, mosques, and little idyUic Eng­ Containing from Nos. 77 to 100, both inclusive, and Ush hamlets. Ilis winter-gardens Avere cele­ the Extra Double Number for Christmas, brated; they were the first in Germany, and The preceding Volumes are always to be had.

The right of Translating Articles from ALL THE YEAK ROUND is reserved by the Authors,

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